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.

That's not racism, that's xenophobia I'm sure there are plenty of different types of races in both Oz an New Zealand

To be quite truthful, for some reason, I tend to see the dregs of society manifest in online games on a much larger basis than in real life.

You find young kids, lots of angry people, lots of racists, bigots.

I was in one alliance where people used to compare who had the lowest GPA. It was all a riot to them. It's one thing if you can't do well despite you working at it. It's quite another to simply blow it off, get D's, and then spend the rest of your day spamming a/c with stuff like "Yeah man, these nubs are so RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing gay"

Racial insults, sexual insults, misogyny, general bigotry, it all abounds here. You have people, with reasons for better or for worse, with lots of time on their hands, as well as absolute anonymity. It's just a bad combination

Maybe it's because people who get along with other people tend to be out with other people rather than playing games.
I'm not saying everyone playing the game can't get along with other people in real life, but the people who can't get along with other people in real life...where could they spend their time without getting lonely? In a game! XD

I still try my best to explain to people that since I have Protector of Tyria and Cantha on 5 different characters (4 if imply to Protector of Elona too) that I know what to do for every mission.

I always tell people I'm a noob... and if you do worse than me, then sadly, you're worse than a noob.

I tend to keep my RL safely behind my firewall. My guildies and allies know little about me except for a few that i got to know over time. Most know a bit about me in general, but my beliefs and conviction i mostly keep to myself.

That keeps the problems away.

Well.. "discriminating" by region almost makes sense. You want to make sure the people in your guild are in the same general time zone so you can group up for stuff.

No, I havent. Nor have I seen anything of that sort in the two guilds I have been in - my current or my former.

In my former guild I was an officer and part of the circle that reviewed applications to the guild. We never voted anyone down for any reason like that. Typically someone might fail to have gotten in on counts of immaturity, incomplete application, issues of attitude during interview. These kinds of things. We had to have an application and interview process, as during our heyday we had far more applicants than we knew what to do with.

As for my view generally, I spent all my time in a couple games previous to GW earning the friendship of Japanese gamers and playing with them, being taught some Japanese, picking up what I could, being patient with those that were uncomfortable with English but willing to give it a try as it was better than my Japanese. The friends I made and the fun I had. Played off times as most of my contacts in games were all in Japan. So anyway, I love the ability to meet and play with gamers from all over. We have a common bond, and one that can overcome a language barrier if two or more people are willing to be patient. It was so rewarding, and made it seem like so much more than a game.

I did it in Guild Wars too, now that I recall my AB days when I was adopted by a French faction guild as their monk on call. I received many compliments and simply always got messaged to come and play, despite my knowing little French and they little English. As before with Japan, loved it. That went on for months until I retired from AB. More gaming experiences like this, please.

I can understand the language barrier thing seeming too hard a hurdle to bother with for many people. There was a great translator in the previous game so you could say a number of basic game-related and social things in any language. That helped, but to really make any progress you had to honestly try the language cold turkey. My experience was if you at least tried, you made a friend.

Any form of discrimination is in my view prehistoric and reprehensible. Like I say, I can understand people maybe not wanting to try and work through language issues if there isnt a common language involved (I do recommend trying), but ethnic, sex or any of the others? Come on. No excuse for that.

Edit: I can understand discrimination by region or even age, but my previous guild with all the applicants didnt support it at all. We had at one time people from the US, EU, AU, Russia, the Phillipines. Apologies if I forgot any of you. Youngest was 13 if I recall, and a very mature 13 I might add.

Stereotypes affect me in GW by making me abhor strangers. My guild is large, but new members must jump through numerous hoops in order to be allowed to stay, and this filters out troglodytes pretty successfully. The end result is I always have people to group with, and if I'm doing easy stuff with H/H I have people to talk to in chat.

The last time I read or said anything in local chat was when I was running CoF on the double rep weekend, and that was the first time in weeks if not months. I have no interest in the GW community at large.

There's such a thing as a "good" warrior?

*Gasp* Where!? ;p

I've seen far too many stereotyping in online games. It's at a point now where I just shake my head and wonder why people can't just have fun, other than using the excuse "Making fun of others IS fun".



I've only been a victim of such a few times over the years. That includes being guild booted, but it's Nothing significant that bothers me, or causes me to hold on to that memory for very long. The one thing that I get the most attention from is the fact that, with my characters, I do "role play" them in their diction, their dialogue, and mannerisms. I do it because it adds a different element to playing the game.

When I'm asked "Why?", my usual reply is "Why not?". I'm told it's dumb, retarded, childish, lame, etc. However, to mimic the majority of a gaming playerbase that uses net slang in every sentence, or can't take a breath without yelling "noob", why would I want to be like everyone else? If I wanted to be "Me", I'd just sign into a Yahoo Chat Room and start posting "A/S/L???".

If there is one trait about myself, RL, that I do bring with me in game, is that in real life I hold myself to high standards in conduct.


I don't whine and moan if my lunch order got screwed up. I was young once too and I worked on that "other side" of the counter. I know what it's like to get yelled at over a silly item like a food order. Nowadays, in my adulthood, I just say "It's quite Ok, it's no big deal", which is true...it isn't. It's just food. It's not like "Whoops, we took out your kidney instead of your appendix!". So if Anet makes a screwup, or someone in a team makes a mistake, I'll be at the back of the "complaint" line. It's not the end of the world. There are things in life that have greater meaning.

I don't randomly yell at people in real life, or make fun of others. Why would I? So I can add to the already large ball of hate in the world? No thanks. Bombings, kidnappings, school shootings, murders, wars; all products of intolerence. That's not something I really feel like adding to.

When I'm in another persons house, I respect their house & their rules. I follow that logic when I'm in Guild Wars.

But everything else, when I'm in game, is a creation of fiction for my character. That's how I started it, that's how it will always be.


Other reasons why I keep my RL out of games is because it avoids people who bring RL conflicts into the game and try to use my real life to start a conflict with me. Sure, my real life friends who I game with know who I am outside the game, but to others; I will never discuss my work, or where I'm from. If I'm asked where I'm from, I'll say Ascalon, which is true. Guild Wars is a world of magic and fiction; to become someone I'm not, create a character that's written by me. Guild Wars isn't a world where I enter to pay bills, answer the phone, run errands, meet deadlines, worry about dinner, and be "Me".

Do I get a lot of mouthy responses for playing this way? Absolutely. I'm sure I may get some of the usual replies, I've gotten in game, right here in this thread. In the end though I don't let it bother me.

So have I been involved in the stereotypes of online gaming? Yes, but not for my real age, or who I am behind this computer in regards to nationality, gender, etc. My source is because of who I create in the game world and the character that is written.

Haha. Untrue my friend. Wish I could "prove" it for you, but alas she is no longer playing.

very much you have to learn little one. There are MANY different races in AUS... (in some cases I wish there wasnt)

But in any circumstance... I was in a guild that only allowed Aussies... and sometimes the occasional british or Kiwi (maori).

Now i'm in a guild that has many different origins and both sex's. We have girls and blokes who can play hardcore.

Oh yea the biggest discrimination act that has blackened Gw's...is not anything to do with race,colour or religion... it is one skill, one blessing.

We all know what it is...and that's the only good reason to complain.

Nuff sed,

I'm in Xander(OP)'s guild and I'm Christian and I have no problem with him. Just a brief statement on that whole entire thing. Christians should know that while being homosexual is evil in our religion so are we in nearly everything we do. That's the way I view it at least.

As for my own experiences, I've been told I have no life and that I can't have the body (not that it's great) that I do cause I play this game all the time (not all the time!).

HEY! i find that offensive



oh god xD let's not make this about ursan

That was my point hehe

Though wishing for less racial diversity is not something I'm personally partial to.

Normally I would call that a silly but ignorant stereotype, but this made me LOL.

My roomate's girlfriend plays Warrior and fails at it horribly ( cant even use t3h 1337 mending right. Half the time she will cast it on some rangers pet. ) . She is also beyond suicidal.... I feel sorry for any monk who is foolish enough to get her as a PUG.

But Im sure there has to be at least one good female IRL warrior out there....somewhere....

You don't like the multiculturism here?

You know, I remember a little while back there was this one poster on Guru. Every other thread he responded in or started was talking about how he got into these big epic flame wars on All Chat or getting nasty pms or was constantly being discriminated against and kicked from groups. His reason was because he was gay. The question I have to ask and others did at the time, was how does that one topic come up and come up so very often for that poster? I know that sometimes, things can't exactly be hidden(like English not being their primary language), but do some players really have to go around shouting their private life in other people's faces all the time?

I think the majority of the GW community is tolerable of a lot of things but just not necessarily comfortable discussing them. If a player starts rubbing it in their faces and refuses to drop that subject, they are going to get some hostile reactions. If we are seeing such hostile reactions often, its just because the vocal minority such as that above mention poster and just so, well vocal. I'm in no way saying people should hide things about themselves like its something to be ashamed of. I'm just saying these are not things that come up in normal conversation or in gameplay, so there shouldn't ever be a need to bring them up. Do so after you've all decided to guild up and become friends, not to total random strangers you've grouped with for all of two seconds.

I for one, don't care what their race, age, religion, gender, orientation, titles, etc is/are. My only criteria for grouping with someone is that they play well and act mature. But if they start bringing something up over and over again, guess what? They're ruining my game experience and I don't need that.

*Edit Hmm, wonders if the poster(whom I've forgotten by now) mentioned above is in this thread now. Anyway, its not meant as a flame so don't take it that way. I'm just ordering my thoughts and using that as a segue way.

I never talk about my real life with people in game i don't know. My guild are all very friendly, and although we've never met irl we talk about how our weeks have been etc. Why the hell would I tell a PUG anything about my personal life which is none of their business. I can tell them what i've done IG becasue that's the only thing that affects them. People online are immature, we all know that. Solution: don't talk about your real life with people you don't know. Online safety 101.

I notice I treat online just like real life---I dont go out of my way to do harm, I usually just go about my own business; however sometime I need help of others so I ask (in game pug)...

Most of the rest of the time I try to ignore the world (and have chat and trade etc turned off)....

I treat people as I wished to be treated---if you are rude to me, then you wish me to be rude back????? My momma taught me better than that. Unless words get a bit too rude or insulting I let it roll---if it gets really bad then /report.

I have no guild problems per se since I have been in the same guild since I started playing (uhm, no choice---its my spouses)...though I DO get a lot of people totally amazed that a WOMAN can play, e gads people....I can mulitask at work, hitting c+space bar inst going to be much harder .