Stereotypes and GW - How does it affect you?

First off, I want to say two things:

1. No flames. Please. >_>. I know it might be hard but IMHO it's possible. kk?
2. If this needs to be moved or closed, mods, go ahead. (Hopefully not the second, lol).

On-topic:

Since this thread popped up, I've been wondering one thing:

How does IRL stereotypes affect you in-game? I see it coming, people are gonna say "this is the net, nothing should matter, it's a game only". But wherever there are people, there are gonna be feelings (and broken ones sometimes) - whether people like it or not.

Have you ever been rejected from a guild or a group because of your IRL situation? Ethnicity, sexual orientation, language spoken and such... I want to know people's experiences with that stuff. Might be a touchy subject though, but I'm really curious... especially since I see a lot of discrimination based on language and nationality these days. Or have you seen such thing happens? (someone being kicked because of some random IRL reasons, things that most likely happen in guilds though).

And beyond that. Koreans and Asians in general associated with PvP? That kinda stuff... I'm afraid I've been too vague, hehe.

So once again, please, keep the flames to a minimum. I'll eventually reply, but I'm about to be busy in-game. x];;;

I have been kicked from a guild for being Christian because they just assume I'm some evangelical fanatic that's going to condemn every person that has a different belief. I don't know how it came about but I mentioned that I was Christian and a few seconds later I got a nasty PM from the guild leader and was out on my rear.

I also left a guild because everyone thought I was a girl and when I mentioned I was actually a guy (after being hit on) they started to flip out on me.

I don't get people sometimes...

RedNova88, people are quite simple. Think of a sheep. Then think of a sheep that's just had it's brains blown out by a 12 gauge shotgun. The intelligence of that sheep is about the equivalent of the intelligence of the average person.

It's sad, but by assuming everyone is as thick as 2 planks, you're only very rarely wrong.

On Topic, I find that very little affects me, but then that's true of RL as well. I largely don't care about other peoples private things and I think diversity is a strength, if all members are willing to contribute and adapt. The adaption part is where many people, cultures and especially religions fail.

People do tend to underestimate me because I am quite outspoken and conservative, which usually means stupid. One of life's little joys is outmaneuvering people who so richly deserve to be made to look like the fools they actually are.

yes... i get this all the time. i wear my r5 KoaBD title and people actually go out of their way to pm me and say "wow... grats on your title. it must suck to have no life" ...i mean... WTF!? people always jump all over others when they have something they will NEVER have. so... imo.. don't judge a book by it's cover (ESPECIALLY on a GAME where you have NO idea who the other person is).

titles have been out for how long now? 1 year+ ?? i mean...c'mon!! seriously!! think about it!! when i got legendary vanq, i did 2 zones a day (which took roughly 2 hours - 2 1/2 hours tops) and 4-6 on my off day from work. so... how does me having such reputable titles = me no life?? if i spread my titles out over the course of a month+ how is that "no life" ??

let's take another title i have as an example: savior of the kurzicks. i did roughly 50k a day on my work days and ~100k on my off day (every 10k would take ROUGHLY 33 minutes for 50k, and rougly 6 1/2 hours for 100k) and got it over the course of THREE AND A HALF MONTHS. so... how is 3 1/3 hours a day of hFF over the course of 3 1/2 long months = me having "no life"??

i would quite LOVE to see if anyone could ever answer these questions for me.

When I mention I'm a chemist, I often get the "OMG! You can make bombs!"

Nevermind that I'm in theoretical chem. and don't really work with chemicals....

Thankfully I don't get that anymore.

The sad part is, people don't go far enough to consider that. They see that you have a better title than they'll ever have, and assume you have no life. They want to convince themselves that the reason they don't have such a title is not because they suck at the game or have no patience, but because they "have a life".

Lol on a side note, my friend started a character, got level 20 in a day in Nightfall, reached Legendary Survivor in 12 days, then by 19 days, he had Kind of a Big Deal. I have seen screen shots and everything, it is real. He openly admits to having no life, but still, I though that was quite amazing. Whether he has a life or not, KOBD in 19 days from level 1 is quite an accomplishment, no matter who you are.

Now to be on topic, yes, I have experienced said events. I've been rejected from guilds for many reasons including being a Christian like the guy above. It's not right, but it happens.

In GW I've found that a good chunk of the community is not as open-minded as other game communities I've been a part of. About everything. If you can be picked on over something there seems to be a lineup of people waiting and willing to do so.

When I was playing EQ2, one of the guilds I was in had a number of people who were homosexual or lesbian. Didn't bother anyone and everyone on the server knew about the guild. In GW such a thing existing without it constantly being brought up would shock me.

I've had a couple where I go into a PUG and the first thing they ask when they see my paragons name, Nala, is "Hey are you a girl?!?" My response is "No, I'm not..." and I promptly get kiked from the PUG.

I assume that all girls are bad at warrior.

I've yet to be disproven.

KycooGhost, too many horny players out there, who think being on the same party as a girl is like being in bed with her.

Personally no bad experiences for me because I hardly ever PUG and my guild/alliance consist of very amiable members

Age discrimination. It's justified, though, considering the idiocy of most of my age group. I generally let people make their own guess as to my age (and it's usually a couple decades older than I actually am), then I tell them.

Also, the assumption that Koreans are good at PvP games. Good at running hacks, maybe, but seldom at a solid honest hack-free game. Somehow Koreans don't seem to do very well at games with PunkBuster (for those of you who don't know, it monitors third-party programs to detect cheating) especially compared to games that are easily exploited, like StarCraft or at MMOs like Guild Wars that are more time>skill. Wonder why, huh? Yes, I'm biased here as well.

Am not.

ass.

I've been in rough situations before too Xander and all others.

I've been kicked from a guild because of my young age.
I've been 'banned' from a certain guild from the guild leader's wife accussing me of calling her a ****, when I really didn't, so I got kicked even though I told the truth.
I've been kicked in a HA guild because of my intelligence level. {let me explain this one}... I was accepted into a [GANK] guild group into HA, when we failed mission, we went back to HA and they kicked me. When I asked why they said this: Because you used the letter 'u' instead of the actually word you. Some people are really messed up.. Like come on! I was in the middle of monking and you want me to say something with ALL punctuation. I want to say a quick command and continue monking, not use proper grammer, and watch as the 'Your team failed this mission' message pop-up

Yes I am an Assassin by nature I am always last to get any real acceptance. When I do get work it's usually a short term oppertunity anyways "one mission at a time" I tell myself. I never get the appreciation I deserve for getting rid of the problems people face on a day to day basis with surgical precision. Yeah I could stand in a town for hours with a sign saying "I work for fun and profit" but no body would take me seriously anyways.

What are you smoking? Pass me some of that please.

I definitely know of at least 2 LGBT guilds in GW. Not that they make themselves public, but they used to recruit in Kamadan sometimes. They probably had too much crap said to them there though....
Anyway, I amazes everyday that the average age of a GW player is like late 20's even 30's. I feel young...and I'm 18 (actually it's my birthday today ). It's just different then when I turn on my 360 and hear at least one 12-year-old in every Halo 3 game I play...
Luckily, even though I've played a lot of GW, I don't have a lot of maxed titles so I don't get the "your life sux" bit. I get a lot of that from playing GW from people IRL tho.

change the outspoken part to, i avoid all human beings as much as possible. and thats me

I've seen a glut of nasty comments and such in towns and outposts about race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc...and I have to say that it does effect me. I'm not an 'emo' type of person that gets offended and feels the need to get gloomy and sad, but it's just not nice to see that kind of thing. It's totally unnecessary in a game (or anywhere for that matter). It's very hard not to engage in pointless arguments with those kinds of people, but sometimes it just can't be avoided -_-

I'm under the impression - due to noticing how some of these people talk - that the majority of the idiots that like doing nothing but spending their time putting others down, are young adults or children. Or, in some cases I'm very willing to believe some of them are mentally dysfunctional. That's still no excuse for the way some people speak, however. We shouldn't have to tolerate it. We shouldn't have to be forced to turn off local chat, etc. They shouldn't be allowed to spout their hatred without reproach.

Luckily I'm in a great guild, and some of the members know that I'm in a relationship with another member (we've been together for a few years - prior to GW - and are both female). Now, we don't flaunt the fact we're together and actually keep it quite private, but over the course of time people obviously noticed how close we are, or the fact we'd always be on together...lol Not once has any guild member that knows made either one of us feel uncomfortable. They're supportive and understanding, which is much more than I can say for most of the GW community.

If at any point any guild member was to make me, or my girlfriend, feel bad or upset I'd speak with our guild leader and know he wouldn't stand for it. It's a nice situation to be in, and also nice that we're both officers so could rid ourselves of any new members that were insulting.

I wish people could just step outside of their own insular little worlds sometimes and realise that not everything is black and white, or that their way is not always right and others wrong. Life is diverse and lets be thankful it is, otherwise it would be hella boring. Those people that spend their time being hurtful, ignorant, nasty and stupid are missing out on everything that life has to offer. None of us should ever have to listen to hate and feel like there's nothing that can be done, or that we have no right to object.

Freedom of speech doesn't give you the right to abuse anybody or anything that doesn't fit into you ideal little world of self-involved idiocy.

Pandora, Rednova - this is not meant as a dig, but I really have to ask what is your stance on non-christians getting kicked from a christian guild?

I will not surmise under what misapprehensions people were under when you got kicked. I will not debate bad behaviour of anyone else towards you because of your faith. However the debate regarding guilds of "religious" bent has come up before and many people have debated the right to be in a guild with "like-minded" individuals. To suggest then that a guild non-religious in nature should accept those of a/any faith into their midst is a slight double standard.

Take the OP. He is openly homosexual. He'd be like a fish-out-of-water in a conservative guild. He'd possibly feel uncomfortable, and they'd definately feel uncomfortable. And while I think they need to get over it, freedom of religion (above all else) gives them the right to be as discriminatory as they wish (without descending into abuse) because their religion states that he is "evil" and no one can prevent them from following the edicts of their religion - provided it does not include illegal activities.

I suppose what I'm saying is that it is hard to balance religion (not faith) and freedom of expression. And many people simply believe that faith and religion are the same thing. It has little to do with education. People are not (always) stupid or dumb for fearing that a "christain" is likely to be a problem in a more liberal guild. What is has to do with is perception. People of sense will accept those who don't show adversion to their own principles - birds of a feather flock together.

Of your particular circumstances, I certainly cannot comment. But perhaps this is some food for thought.

The stero-type that gets me is the "ghay" one because everyone knows that "ghay is like... like bad".

My guild is both racist (Aus/NZ only) and Agist (30+) - we find that subscribing to these prejudices eliminates every other social problem commonly found in online communities.