sportsmanship
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The Guild Counsel: Why is it so hard to say congratulations?
When was the last time you said congratulations to someone in game? And no, I don't mean the spammy "congrats" when someone in guild gains a level, an AA, a skill up, a crafting combine, or any of the dozen other milestones that pop up every day in chat. Those are the easy congratulations because the accomplishment has no direct effect on you. I'm talking about the congratulations when someone beats you in game. You might be in a duel or battleground, and the other guy ends up taking you out. You might be racing for a named mob, and the other guy gets there first. Or you might be in that guild that always seems to fall just a bit short and winds up the bridesmaid when it comes to guild progression. There is plenty of competition in MMOs, but you rarely see much sportsmanship from players. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at why it's so hard to say "congrats" and why that has an effect on guilds as well as on the communities overall.
Anti-Aliased: Keep crying, sportsmanship is dead
One harsh world PvP battle later, your corpse lies on the ground as your opponent stands triumphant over you. Both of you put up one good battle, as even your opponent is down to barely any hit points -- the kind of battle where a few randomly generated misses turned the tide of the engagement. Yet, what do you get for your efforts against this opponent? Do you get a /salute, or a /kneel? Maybe even the honor of a /bow? No, of course not, you get the /spit and an orcish teabag in your face just so the 12-year-old on the other side of the keyboard can get his daily jollies.Of course, that's not counting the 7 more times he's going to camp your corpse just so you can't progress for the next 3 hours. And it's also not counting the ninja looters, the belligerent kids in battlegrounds who take orders from no one, and the lying little brats who spew language fit for a factory worker but cry to their parents the second you try to enforce some authority.We have many ways of quantifying these behaviors; things like "If you can't stand PvP then go to a carebear (normal) server," "If you don't like it being done to you then do it to someone else," or "Get better gear, n00b." We all know what's going on here, and it's none of the above. Let's just say it aloud and come clean about it: Sportsmanship is dead, and it's been dead for a long time.
Forum post of the Day: E-Sportsmanship
I played softball when I was just a little mandy. I was in right field, and I wasn't particularly good, but I had a blast playing. Some how I came out of it with a few championship trophies and a lot of great memories. At the conclusion of each of our games we would line up as a team and slap hands with the opposition. "Good game. Good Game. Good Game. Good Game. Good Game." I'm sure that a number of you have had similar experiences. We were taught to be good sports when we won and when we lost. The fascinating part of an esport is that we are not face to face. Rather than bringing out our magnanimous natures, we tend to get cranky in the wake of a loss, and sometimes even after a victory. Karelle of Hydraxis admitted in the general forums the he is a poor loser. He felt he was unjustly beaten by a team that overgeared him and was insulted when the team leader whispered "good game." Rather than repeating the greeting, the original poster /spit on the victor.
"It's only a game"
I still remember my first run in Hellfire Ramparts for exactly this reason. It was a new instance for all of us, the healer and mage were new to the game and hadn't instanced much (having just hit 59 when the expansion came out in the case of the priest) and the rogue kept berating everyone for not being up to his standard of play. As you might expect, he also didn't seem very good, but it was late and I just wanted to get the quests done.It was endurable, although not terribly fun. We finally got to the first boss, Watchkeeper Gargolmar, and thanks to some really nice work on the part of the priest and hunter, got him down our first try. He did not drop the Bracers of Finesse, however, and the rogue went ballistic. Note that neither I nor anyone else in the party can control what the bosses drop. While we were discussing if anyone in the party was an enchanter, as no one needed the Light-Touched Breastplate, our rogue went off stealthed, deliberately pulled several groups of mobs onto us, vanished and hearthed out while I tried desperately to keep aggro long enough and not die with enough time for the rest of the party to escape. They didn't make it, and between that wipe and the loss of a DPS, we were effectively done for the evening.Since I knew his guild reasonably well (I'd been in it) I sent the GM a tell expressing my dissatisfaction with what had happened. I mean, who exactly was he angry at? How was it anyone's fault that the bracers didn't drop? The answer I got back was one of my first exposures to the "It's only a game" mentality, as this is the tell our rogue sent to me after his GM got done ripping him a new one. It was 'uncool' of me to have brought it to his GM, it seems, as it's just a game after all. Apparently it's not just a game when you don't get your drop, but it is when you wipe an entire group over it.
