Behavior Experiment in Guild Wars

The past few days I have been handing out holiday and candy cane weapons/offhands to people for FREE. The only condition I put was Limit one per person.

I decided to do this for two reasons, one to get rid of the stuff, and two to see how the community would react.

Out of the 120+ items I gave away only about 10 people actually said thanks. That is about 1/10 of the people I gave items to. Even the person I actidentally gave 22 tonics to did not say thank you or try to return the items. A few people even tried to change characters to get more stuff. I think they did this based on similar character names and guild tags.

This really does not show the community being as respectful as it once was. I just thought I would share the results of my little experiment and see what the rest of you here thought about it.

That's interesting, I think I'm going to try that out too (not taking away from your experiment, I just want to see what happens this time around)

It's sad that people don't even say thank you anymore. It takes a few hands movements (if your typing it) which is nothing. I could've said thank you 10+ times in the time it took me to type this (which isn't very long)

I've been very fortunate and have had a lot of luck finding good people in the GW community. This is unfortunate, however. Being an online community where everyone hides behind their computer screens and sits lazily on a chair, being kind to others who are kind to you doesn't seem necessary to them.

In my count of thank yous I even counted just 'ty' as acceptable. And even doing that the numbers increased by 1 or 2.

I give free stuff out all the time (well less and less often because so many people just suck) in low level areas and RARELY receive even a "ty". A few weeks ago, when the pigs were given out, I went to Ascalon and gave 10 or so away for free and I got 3 or 4 thanks, most people just accept the trade and run away. One person not only didn’t say thanks but instead he actually had the audacity to ask me to buy him armor. Very often when I offer to give stuff to level(X) and lower I get level 20s with Obsidian armor asking me if I'll give then the 2 dollar items I'm giving out.

i did the same, but with Zehluns longbow..as you get it all the time from farming the spiders..its not even worth selling, and i noticed the i gave 2 to the same guy, and after he carried on trading with me..
i got 2 thanks out of 6 bows..

Well, you will find out that more and more people playing GW are rude than they are kind, it has to do with GW being free and becoming popular which then attracts more kids (anywhere from 8-12 years old) because they don't have to pay for a monthly fee. And the more immature people playing GW shows the results of your test. I personally tried handing out free stuff, I handed out a bunch of mini pigs that I had, and I can't believe how many rude and ungrateful people play GW. It is quite sad, and when Gaile Gray lost her Lion Mask during the Canthan New Year and the guy that picked it up wouldn't give it back and tried selling it, it just shows how bad some people are. GW went from a somewhat enjoyable game to being a game full of rude people. Every day on GW there is always some one being a jerk and trying to scam you and I think Gaile got a taste of it when someone took her mask.

I'm glad that you took time to do a little experiment and I can only hope Gaile or some other Anet employee will read this thread and take action on these rude people and maybe change something about the game so it will have a more mature rating.

Wow, that's sad and very disrespectful. Did the guy try to sell it right in front of her? I would've probably banned the guy if I were Gaile. That or find out his home address and go to house and smack him.

No he tried selling it on a GW fansite a day or 2 after she lost it.

If I remember correctly, he tried to sell it on a forum.

There is nothing ANet can do about a lack of manners. That's why the EULA doesn't mention them.

I often give away things free. I'll see someone looking for a few armor materials and I'll give them to that player at no charge. I'll give away better but still low req weapons in Ascalon. I gave away mini-pigs. I've given away gold in special cases. The list goes on.

I would estimate that I get thanked about 90% of the time. Some are extravagent (bows), some are just "ty", but the majority thank me. When I get one who doesn't (usually the free weapons), I just shrug and move on. They are not worth getting upset.

I've had the same experiences with people. Of a 100 who play, only really 1/10 of those people will have a conversation, be nice, or even response if you PM them. Its really, really werid.

Of course its odd to us, we're all on forums all day talking, but you forget about people who aren't NEARLY as social as people who use forums, like us.

So while I'm sure the people you tested were mostly not thankful, I bet if you got 100 Guru's we would be alot better, and be the ones saying thanks!

The other day I was playing my baby ranger in Yak's Bend and somebody asked if any low level rangers wanted a green bow. I said yes, he opened trade and he gave me two really awesome green bows and 15k. Honestly, I have no idea how awesome on the scale of awesome they are - I never buy or sell weapons and I've gotten, I think, one green drop since I started playing GW. So, they are awesome on my scale of awesome.

I was so shocked I almost didn't accept it. But...er...I did, and I said thank you twice, and actually, I wanted to say thank you a few more times but I thought it might get awkward. So I went out to look at my bows. I did tell him that I'd try to pass on the good karma - and I will, I will give away at least one of the bows after I've played with it a while.

I almost wrote a post about this at time time because there's that thread about nice things that have happened to you, but I didn't want to dig it up from wherever it's been buried. But now there's this thread about people who are unappreciative, so...I'm posting it as a counter example, I am not only appreciative but delighted.

Whenever making the rounds through the Realm of Torment, I always save up my Margonite Masks and Demonic Relics. I'll get a few dozen and trade that in for a dozen max 15^50 spears and scythes. Whenever I hand those out, I find I get a solid 80% of folks will send back a "thanks". Maybe 5% get crazily estatic about it, like it's their birthday.

i neva got anythin free ... and neva gave anythin free cept to my guildies as im the treasurer and stuff ... and ur right no. of thank yous is goin down.

people think its our job 2 be helpfull n its their duty to make use of us or sumthin .. even guildies dont say thanks. On the other hand i always say ty even if its a purcahse ... forget abt free items ... even when i have 2 pay or when im sellin sumthin a ty is a must.

Anet shuld c if it can incorporate all this feedback into its GW2 coming out maybe few changes in EUL policy or sumthin i donno

but hats off 2 the kind ppl tht give out free stuff

ty ^_^

I remember once giving away some mildly useful hammer in LA a long time ago. I just spammed that I'd give it to the first character lower than such-and-such level. I waited for a while, and ended up giving it to some Necromancer. Who immediately turned around and told me how much money he was going to get by selling it.

Prick.

Heh, that's why I never give away stuff to random players.XD Most of them don't care about you, just happy they got something free that they can sell to other players later.=P

I'm not surprised at the results at all. People don't say thanks because they feel like they were entitled to things in the first place. I used to help people out a lot in MMO's until I started playing GW. No gratitude for answering questions or helping them out.

And you see a lot of that here on the forums. Always demands for stuff. Rude childish demands. And then when those demands are fulfilled (The recent storage update for instance) there's always a few that will still complain about it. And if you notice, the gratitude for the extra storageis far far less than the complaints about the lack of storage.

You cannot immediately think that the younger members of the Guild Wars community are always the source of the problem. Yes I agree I have encountered some extremely childish members who are very rude, but I am one of those younger members ( 11 years old) and I am always very grateful for what i get. For example people helping me with missions, selling me items, etc.

Great story to keep up the spirit of generosity for you guys.

I use to hang in ascalon and search out low level whatevers with nice stuff from my fissure trips,mind you I would always talk to them first and try to detect some sort of decent traits before giving things to them.
Around x-mas was a good time to find "real" new players and not just some low level 7th character someone needed a nice bow for.
Many were snotty but I found most to have alot of game questions and actually appreciate the advise and tools they received.

Well there I was in July {mind you I hadn't been to Ascalon doing this for months} setting up a GvG and get a PM from someone who I had no idea who it was, telling me he had just killed Shiro and wanted to give me his Amulet of the mist that he had just received for helping him out and giving him the great bow which he still uses.

I politely declined the amulet and thanked him for making ALL of the time I spent helping out players and giving stuff away worthwhile.

The moral here is keep on doing nice things, even if 99.9% of the people don't appreciate it that .1 might just make your day.
The fact that I still remember this shows how nice it was to get that PM!!!

actually made me smile just from remembering it while I posted.

i agree i gets of pm's like that from ppl ive helped lol. usually takes a few mins to remember who it is though lool.