Stereotypes and GW - How does it affect you?

Gareth what I was getting at, and perhaps failing miserably in, is that there is faith and there is religion, and here is how I see them:

Faith is a personal thing that most like to keep close to them. They will talk about it, if asked, in an environment where they don't feel threatened - but it is personal and they don't expect others to believe in the same thing, or the same way they do.

Religion is endoctrinated. It has hard and fast rules that people (in their turn) decide to interpret in any manner which pleases them. The religious cling to the symbols and words of their religion often because they know no other way, and the expect everyone around them to live by the same rules and to the same standards. Religious zealots are another matter altogether - they take their religion to the extreme.

A girl I grew up with was deeply religious. Anti-homosexual, anti-abortion, anti-everything-that-isn't-approved-by-the-bible. Late last year she got married. Perhaps only as a token gesture (having known her for so long) I was invited to the wedding. To my very great surprise I discovered she was no longer religious, she merely had a faith. She didn't understand homosexuality, but no longer believed them to be evil. She believe they could be christian, believed they could do good things. She understood why women would want an abortion, she'd never do it herself but she understood that sometimes for some people, it was the best option available. She had even participated in bedroom romps before marriage - which left me gobsmacked considering last time we'd talked she'd been very critical of my rather liberal lifestyle. What she had was faith. She believed in god, she believed in the edicts of "faith", rather than the edicts of religion.

Anyhow, this is getting off-topic a little. My point is this - religion has no place in guilds of a fairly non-religious bend. Faith is (and should) be allowed but "religion" is a big no in my mind.

Gareth's a prime example of those religious folks I love chatting with :P. Even though your views on things are different, both parties respect each other and learn from each other. It's really interesting to see why people act in such way, believe in something else than you, etc etc. This... international aspect of GW really appeals to me, probably because I come from an "international" place (Montreal, Quebec) and it's my study field (Eastern-Asian Studies) anyways.

As for my own experiences... here's a list.

As most people know by now (we even consider it as a scientific fact in the HiDE alliance), I'm openly gay and I'll die before hiding it >_>. I'm provoking at times and I talk a lot. If you join as a PUG in a mostly alliance group, you'll know it at some point. Now to this, I've had reactions ranging from "OMFG STAY AWAY FROM ME U HOMO!!!!!!" to "I'm about to squee my pants off, a gay guy! ". I've had ragequits because I'm gay. And some people change attitudes really fast, and it does bother me a lot.

Over a year back, I was in ToPK. Started chatting to this other Quebecer (I can't remember my position within the group, but he was complimenting me and such, and I was happy I had found someone in the same area!). I said something about my boyfriend (who's now my husband) outta nowhere and the guy starts raging at me really bad. His attitude changed from "oh wow you're a nice guy!" to "GO **** YOURSELF UR SICK GET TREATED" within maybe 20 seconds. He eventually rage-quit. Such things tend to leave me sour, as I haven't changed between the moment I was doing the action and the moment I came out to you. It's how I got over the realization I was gay - I haven't changed. I'm not more feminine and I didn't develop a lisp in 20 seconds... if I did I'd have been hella worried. O_o.

On religion topic, you can believe in the Easter Bunny if that's what you believe in! GOOD! It brings you comfort and doesn't hurt anyone or yourself? GOOD! Don't shove it down my throat and I'll happily talk about experiences. I may be atheist, but as much as I won't believe it, doesn't mean I won't enjoy learning about it. I seem to have developped this annoyance vs. a lot of Christians because they tell me how to live my life, but I've seen it done by other religions; just that I'm exposed to Christianity more than Buddhism or Islam.

I've also seen a lot of language/country discrimination, especially in European districts. Some people in the English d's barely speak English. Sure sometimes it's frustrating, especially when the only guy who speaks, let's say, Italian and Italian ONLY, doesn't follow instructions because he doesn't understand English. However, there's a lack of tolerance for this. Do I care that much that a Polish guild is recruiting in English d's? A Somalian guild in American d's? Erm... nope. One guy in LA Euro-Eng. 1 was going mad at two guys for spamming in Polish and Potuguese in English d's. I've seen more than one "go back to ur server frenchies" in DoA when some French-speaking group wants to fill a few spots because their server is dead ATM.

Oh and keep in mind not everyone's good at learning languages. My husband's French isn't very good, doesn't mean he's a dumbass. In fact he's very intelligent, he just has a harder time learning languages. But he draws much better than I do .

And this issue really, really pisses me off. A lot of people seem to think that if you don't speak English, you're an idiot. I see this happen very often (and people who play in Euro d's more than I do must see it even more often). Am I the only one who's noticed this or am I just imagining this?

/end wall_of_text

Here's one:

My main is a paragon - pug's automatically assume she is useless, that's a stereotype.

=P

Hehe, just a little monk humor.

Nope, IRL stereotypes have had no affect on me in-game at all.

Krat

Well I suppose I wouldn't mind an atheist in a Christian guild, but if it's one of those ALL Christian guilds I don't see how they would be able to join unless they lied about themselves to join in the first place, in which I can see it being appropriate for them to be kicked/asked to leave.

And for the record, although in Christianity we do indeed believe it to be wrong for someone to be homosexual "do not lay with a man as you would with a woman" or something such as that. The 10 commandments are much more important to uphold, and if I remember, the two most important are to honor your father and your mother, and to not murder. I find it sad that people will go out of their way to be prejudice and judgmental against someone gay/atheist/ or whatever when the Bible tells "Thou shall not judge". But I guess when some people read the Bible they only read the parts that appeal to them, so that they can feel invincible and still go about mocking and hating others for their own differences. But it's not as if I'm any better, none of us are.

Sorry to be so preachy but I just wanted to get my point/s across so that people will not assume that Christianity is about being a judgmental hate monger.

Truly sorry if this post offends anyone, it is not my intention. Also sorry if it goes off-topic.

EDIT: I see what you were getting at now, Lozza. Sorry to misinterpret your post (reading comprehension ftw!). I don't see why religion would be a bad thing in a guild, but to every man his own so whatever. I can't say I agree with your friend, though, but even so everyone is different and if we all can't respect each others beliefs then we are all at fault in that department.

I guess in my opinion in order to be true to something you cannot be too strict or too lenient, it requires balance and some finesse to make things right. That being said it's OK to be firm with your beliefs and follow them to the letter if you see fit, but do so while not pushing them on others and deeming them wrong/evil. After all Christianity and the Bible as a whole try to teach acceptance, love, peace, honor, and many other things that would only make the world better for us all.

Well it really depends.

I have never been the subject of stereotyping.

Part of the reason is because im a white American male... but most of the reason is because I act pretty neutral ingame.

Basickly, players pretty much have to ask what type of person I am. (Cept male, thats a given)

I've never been suspected of any other race, but a lot of people think im like 30... or... a dev.

As for seeing it, I'd have to say PvPers and Marketers are the WORST at stereotyping!
(Hows that for stereotyping stereotypers?)

As soon as America and Europe combined servers, all of LA flooded to the Euro servers spewing nothing but racism.

I decided to drop in and say "Yeah, Hello Europe. I'm an American like these fellas, probably around their age too... but you have my full permission to fly bombers over their houses. If you don't, I will"


Probably the most common stereotype is that Asians have small... uh.. manly features...

People used to be pretty loud about that in HA... I ALWAYS quit, if there are more than 3 saying stuff like that. I will NOT represent those teams.

If there like just 1 or 2 saying that, in team chat I always tell them that EVERY girl ive ever talked to who is NOT a slut doesnt really care about sizes. This atleast starts them arguing while we're fighting, causing them to be a liability to the team and the leader kicks them after we lose. Kind of a fun working method.

I have never been kicked from any Guild/Clan ever for any reason. My current Guild is made up of people from a discussion web site about the Wheel of Time novels. They were not sure at first to let non-Wotters in. I was the first non-Wotter in and they have not regetted that decision. Since then our guild will accept any person that is likeable and likes to help others.
I am against any Guild/Clan that limits who can join based on race,religious beliefs,ethnic background,ect ect.

I'd like to point out that I'm not talking about PvE stance tanking with 10 weapon mastery.

I have not, as yet, experienced any hatred directed at me personally. However I must agree that I am noticing a definite trend in GW to racist, hateful conversations taking place in towns.

Personally I've stopped myself from reporting people several times because I'm not involved with the conversation and might be taking things "out of context" because of that. But the number of rude offensive conversations really needs to be curtailed. Things that I am personally tired of:

• Anything that is gay (the slang, not the sexuality)
• Who you are, or are not, willing to sleep with
• Details of exactly what you're going to do with them when you sleep with them
• What group(s) need to be segregated (at best) or decimated (at worst)
• Why said group(s) should be so treated
• When said group(s) should be so treated
• Why you are at the head of the list to treat said group in said manner

In some cases I am sure that the person initiating these conversations is quite literally a Troll. I've considered reporting these characters, but would my efforts result in something like the Inquisition? Would my efforts cause Anet to react so decisively that we all start censoring our comments to an extreme? We're all human and make mistakes and occasionally need to blow off steam.

I don't want to /rageReport people... but must I be forced to /listenOutraged?

PS: Sellers & Recruiters unwilling to stop spamming the local chat, instead of using trade chat and/or party searchn (as appropriate). Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it right. But this does not fall under the OP's intent for this topic.

I've rejected countless people from my guild because they are not me, or my girlfriend.

i enjoy speaking in sterotypical accents on vent for lulz. on occasions, ill be known to flip out either bored british accents or careful american english jsut to shock ppl. other than that, i dont take offense at any racism because to let it offend you is dumb.

Well luckily I have been with the same guild for about 2.5 years, and no one has shown any prejudice. I'm Christian and have no problem with homosexuals, whether being gay is a sin or not is not for me to decide. And if it is a sin, there is no point in emphasizing it over others (all sins are equal). I am, however, whole heartedly against abortion (I guess it is more of a personal issue, though), not sure if that counts as prejudice.

In my experience, racism seems to be the most prevalent prejudice in GW. I just hope that people can learn to ignore comments about their Race/Religion/Sexuality.

Was kicked out of one guild because I didn't speak French, even though everyone in the guild spoke both English and French, especially since the leader was a really nice guy, and we were good buddies, broke my in game heart.

I never get rejected from anything because I never PuG. End of story.

Some people still have to get used to girls playing a game. Or more like not-that-ugly girls playing a game. I posted a picture of myself in the See Who Ya Play topic in offtopic a couple days ago. Then somebody replied asking me if it was fake, claiming that 'girls like that do not know how a computer works'.

Ingame i had some people think i was a guy pretending to be a girl (for what reason :S?), but i never got kicked out of pugs for it.

Other than that i have quite a few titles, but nobody ever told me i have no life . I did get kicked from a french group once when i asked if they could talk english in teamchat.

Only thing really near to stereotypes is when I help someone in a mission and through chatting they come to the conclusion that I'm female because I'm 'nice'. A fair assumption, I am female afterall, but an odd one; it seems to imply that guys aren't all that nice or polite.

Then again I usually am quite polite, especially around strangers, but I can be wonderfully cruel at times. Heh, no wonder I like Slaanesh so much ^.~

i've been booted from guilds when people figure out i'm a stoner. i don't talk about it in chat, particularly, but my primary chars IGN is "stale bongwater"....

beyond that, i'm more likely to leave a guild/group/etc because of it's member's behaiviour toward other groups than any comment put to me. i'm a white boy, a canuck... working stiff, married. very much the middle-of-the-road sort, so i don't attract most of that crap in the first place.

i refuse to assosciate with folks who engage in bigotry online though - which i suppose is in itself vaguely discriminatory. could say i discriminate aginst discrimination, if it didn't sound so bad that way...

oops, wait. i will discriminate against anyone using "leetspeak" "netspeek" etc. in chat. "Respect the English language, and keep it wholly." was something i learned young. spelling and punctuation is important to me, and when i see people who type things like "i is L337, wat r u talkin abt?" i assume they're incapable of managing the language and drop them. i do apologise, it's just how i am.

The only stereotype I've come across personally, is apprantly I shouldn't be on GW because I'm a girl and girls shouldn't play computer games!

Honestly

When the game was new I had the fortune of getting recruited to a guild of mature players who respect each other's opinions and are only intolerant to intolerance so I can't say that I've met much bigotism in the game, other than that annoying little specieist Gwen in the EotN expansion ...

Seriously though, people who get their panties in a wad over your gender, sexual orientation, religion, native tongue or color of skin are the ones with the real problem, it's best to just /shrug it off and find more enlightened company.

i just cant stand stereotyping. why are people hating on something thats probably going to be bigger than what they are now? if my gw experience wasnt so violent itd be better *tear

I had a conversation along these lines in my guild the other day, on about racism in the game and I came up woth the line

"Everyone is predjudice, just in differnt levels"

This didnt go down to well, ButI stand by my point - The conversation went on to a guy saying how he isnt predjudice:

"I dont think every middle eastern person is a terrorist"

Which lead me to the point of the fact he assumed every terrorist is middl eastern though

I dont know why you needed that little story but this just reminded me of it

But really I think if we want to admit it or not we are all a little racist, or sexist, or ageist or what ever box you want to put it into

EDIT:

on further though I suppose I should stop refering to anyone who feels the need to tell people about there religion as a "zealot" but meh....Nobody's perfect

The people that abuse us younger players, get burned baaad and then block/ignore/DnD us and then they go "U NUB, U NUB, U NUB" for half an hour -.-

*Oh yea. People that are classist.

"UR A WAMMO LULZ! U UZE MENDIN HAHA UR NOT COMIN IN OUR PRO GROUP WITH 5 MONKS AND A ELE HAHA"

Supposedly... as people say from other countries...

I'm a stupid, brat from america that likes men.

3 strikes against me. gotta love it.

Although, I'm one that is actually learning spanish... so I don't see why people from other countries hate me when I'm attempting to learn their language.

They probably have predjudices gathered from years of watching biased news. Just look at any news station and you'll see lots of undertones which lead to irrational fear and dislike for certain groups of people. Middle Classes vs. Chavs, Religion vs. Science (it's the idiots who don't think that create this, not the belief systems themselves!) and the like. It sickens me really.

I hate that people assume all girls are fat/ugly. All of this labeling... it's kind of like... labelism.

theres something called a mic.....monking without a mic ..fail

I remember the photo. You are too good-looking to play computer games, so it's obviously a fake

On topic: no, stereotypes do not affect me at all. Sure I drink vodka everyday and love my bear pet. That's how the things work in Russia

In game and IRL, I don't care who you are (race, sex, religion, whatever) as long as you treat others with respect, I will respect you.

You haven't met me. We could... oh, you know, take a stroll on the Marga Coast... or we could spend some time in the Grand Court of Sebelkeh... What do you say, chap?

I am in the "girls on Guild Wars" group here. There's a lot of rude crap being tossed at girls these days, especially in SJM AD1... then again that place is full of morons, but I get it in PuGs, other outposts, even whispers... basically "if ur really a girl r u hot" or "u must be ugly n butch cuz no pretty girl uses computers"

People think that just because I'm a girl, I'm either ugly and manly, or I play a cute little Elementalist or Monk. That's not me at all. I am a sarcastic tomboy, and the only thing shorter than my attention span is my temper. My main character is a female Warrior. I don't even tank, my job is right up in the front lines tossing around massive damage. My Warrior isn't even what most boys would call "hot" - in fact, her face looks kind of... tormented o_O but that's what I get for creating my character on a pentium 3 laptop without much of any video card... Oh well. People see my female warrior and immediately think "guy" until I correct them. And then comes the harassment. "Hey are you single?" "do u need a bf?" "wanna make out?" "strip for me" WTF????

I'm also subject to a lot of hate because I'm Chinese-American. People always ask me if I know kung fu/karate, or if I'm a communist, or if I like to use chopsticks... coupled up with the fact that I'm a girl, they immediately think "Asian... girl.... MUST BE HOT! Strip for me plzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!"

Thankfully, I never reveal my religion to people I don't know so that's one less thing I can be flamed for...

- I have been flamed for not playing a female Elementalist because "girls shouldnt be warriors"
- I have been told that I should only monk because "monking is the girls job"
- I have been kicked from groups because I was female and wouldn't speak over vent
- I have been called "fat" and "ugly" because I was able to outwit a whole bunch of flamers in AB. (While I'm not sure if I count as "ugly" - that's not my place to choose - I know for one that I'm not fat)
- I have been insulted for not swearing and cussing
- I've been assumed to be good at PvP beacuse I'm Chinese.
- Someone was so convinced that I was male simply because "ur good at GW, ur not a ditz, and u play a girl char"

Right... and I forgot. The good old "FIX ME A SANDWITCH AND GET ME A BEER U RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO" statement.

Wow Taurucis, where the hell do you find these people? The closet I've had was that idiot Warrior in Kamadan telling my Rit she was hot o.O

Then again I avoid PuG's and Local Chat...

Hehe 'stip for me', go on boys, fap over those pixels!

lol Lemming. I wondered why none played it, YOU FOUND THE ANSWER!

Congrats! Since when?

***

I don't want to turn this into one of those giant "gays and Jesus and TLDR, oh my!" threads [snip by me] so I won't.

***

I have to confess: I'm a girl, and I know I'm bad at Warrior.

Please don't turn this into a religious discussion thread. That's going to be the last that I'll allow as this thread will quickly deteriorate with just "well meaning opinions" that eventually turn into flaming.

Sorry. *zips lips*

Hmmm, interesting. So, let's say I'm in a PuG and somebody (as they often, often, often do) starts saying things like "dying like that is so gay", "wow, this is gay", "you're all gay"...I - as a gay woman - am meant to ignore it and not say "hey, that's kind of offensive to me can you knock it off"? Because let me tell you, I WILL tell them to stop, and then they DO start rubbing it in MY face about how wrong/vile/evil/dirty I am.

Gay people don't HAVE to go 'talking about it all the time' to find themselves being discriminated against. You can say ONE thing that gives you away and that's it, somebody will go off at you. It's normally the OTHER person that won't drop it and you're forced to defend yourself.

I get people's heterosexuality 'rubbed in my face' everyday, 24/7...but because I might make an offhand comment about my girlfriend, or about an actress I like, or about a show I watch (that might point to the fact I'm gay) I'm the one who's in the wrong and should stop talking about it if I get flamed or abused? I don't think that sounds very fair, do you?

I don't expect straight people not to make small comments about their life that might make them seem 'straight', so why should I be expected to keep my mouth shut if I'm a talkative person in general? That's like saying..."I don't mind homosexuals, as long as they don't live near me, or ever speak of it." How homophobic is that??

People need to learn to be tolerant (at least, though acceptance is better), and that won't come about if gay people continue to be expected to "keep quiet about it'. Yes, people are always going to be abusive if it's just in their nature...but sometimes, being open about who you are (a basic human right surely) can make others realise you're not the devil or about to eat their babies

It's not me as a gay person that needs to change the way I act...it's people that are abusive and homophobic

People on the whole are too judgemental, and far too homophobic. Personally I'm fine with gay people, but I know a have a few friends IRL who aren't...and who are really the opposite. It really makes me laugh that they can be so OPPOSED to homosexuality, considering that it really doesn't affect them in any way (well, at least not in any important ways). People are people, gay or straight. Everyone just needs to chill and be accepting. Like no one in particular, I promise Inde

Been a year March 3rd. =]

***

Yeah I really want to avoid religious discussions that go too far, as Inde mentionned. And flames. Pl0x.

(In netspeak for those who don't seem to get it: dun turn dis in2 a flamefest kthx).

***

Doubt it's because you're a gal :P. Some people are better at nuking, some in the frontlines, some at monking/support... I suck at support in general, I'm not the worse monk ever but I'm surely not HA/GvG-material, and I'm not much of a warrior player in general. I like it, I try to play my war more often, but I keep going back to my necro. While some females, such as Taurucis, like being in the frontline and hitting things with swords. I can assure you she's a much better warrior than I am.

Oh, and I assume everyone who chats in netspeak (the horrible version) is 13 or younger. I'm sorry, I can't help it. It just sounds rude or like they beg, and I doubt most adults act like that.

I don't talk about it 24/7 either. It's a common thing that my friends will tease me about it in PUGs, and in my groups when someone says that "something" is gay I tend to reply "..." or "hey, keep in mind you're playing with a gay guy and he doesn't appreciate being a synonym of "stupid"".

Every now and then I'll go BRB, and I generally leave the reason why. "BRB Laundry!" "BRB FOOOOOOOOOD!!!" and sometimes, "BRB Husband home." A couple possible replies to the last one:
- "OMFG UR A GIRL PLAYING A MALE CHAR?????" I don't know, but they seem literally amazed that female players DO play male chars. However, I'm not female. I know some gals who play male chars just like how guys play female chars: eye candy is one. Armor choices. Certain animations you don't like for a gender.
- "dude r u gay????"
- ".... /ragequit"
- every sort of possible "okay", "I don't care, lol" and "cool! go have fun!".

To be fair, 6-7 years ago EVERYONE talked like that, regardless of age. It's just that now days, only the younger ones seem to think it's still cool, as they are a few years behind everyone else on internet fads. Like Guru using lolcats. That isn't funny at all, but Guru seems to be slow on trends...so we continually see cats posted.

Personally I presume them to take fun in insulting anyone who knows English either as a primary or secondary language. Need I explain why it's insulting? I think not.

i don't tell people personal crap about me. no need to at all. doesnt do anything for me game-wise. Sterio types dont bother me most of the time because I have a low opinion of people in general (sterio typing all of humanity FTW!)

I enjoy gaming with my normal, reliable, mature group of heroes and henchies who never rage quit, or insult, or go afk or any of the many many other things players do.

I do not care what country you are from, what your sexual choices are or what you call god or even if you believe in god at all. I do not care if you have kids or what kinda car you drive or if you have the newest technology out.

I dont care if you have a PHD or own your own buisness or like to cook baby cats. I dont care if you brag about your twelve stacks of ectos or your ability to run droks in less than 20 minutes or the fact you spend 3+ hours a day dancing while afk.

I dont care if you post information on guildwiki for others to use or that you have every title, minature and quest. I dont care if you have a penis or a vagina, if you can speak 9 languages or wear spandex. I dont care if you are rich or have herpies.

This is a video game, i only care about having fun. leave IRL drama and information for IRL people and stick to the game. Show consideration and respect to me and i shall return it endlessly, otherwise its blocklist and on to henchies.

I use mending as a warrior because no one seems to know how to remove conditions from my character. Monks never heal me when i tank damage and no one knows how to direct their attacks together to bring down monsters fast.

My sterio type is this: Heroes and Henchies are better to play with than players because they get the job done without any suprises or drama, if they fail it is because I failed to prepare them correctly or play them correctly.

Guilds are pretty much pointless, every guild i join never has anything to offer my character in the way of help or fun events, not even organized playing grous. all they do is talk and make fun of other people or try to sell me crap i dont want.

Guildwars is a video game, and online to boot. Most gamers are rude and careless and being online increases the chance of contact with these sterio typical rude gamers. unsupervised children and disfunctional adults make up the vast majority of this group so i tend to avoid them like the plague.

Yes I am a nice person who shows respect and likes to have fun and forget RL bs. but i seem to find the worst of the worst online and it has left me cynical and bitter. I am also proud of it, i would rather be Me than anyone else.

GW is bad, but starcraft was much worse. sc and wc are flamer games, log onto the flame war, play til your head hurt, log off, find a new game.

oh and dont forget the fact that players from other mmo's really do not like or respect gw players as they claim gw is a sucky game with stolen ideas, played only by pimply 12 year olds.

As i said, I do not care.

PS: My book comes out next week.