Elitism in MMOs – Does It Have Its Place?

“OMG Azrall you f**king n00b! Just leave or something.”

A statement once delivered to me by what was clearly a disgruntled teammate during an online session of Dota 2. Now I won’t lie to you, I’m by far no expert Dota 2 player, but I’m certainly not complete garbage either. I’m human, I make mistakes. But on this occasion I was having a bad match and happened to make the odd miss-click and landed a skill in the wrong place, causing a team death…. or three, and the torrent of abuse continued to flood my screen.

“You’re so sh*t, you must be disabled or something. I’m so much better than you and I’m only 12 lolbantz.”

Suffice to say after that game had finished, I quit Dota2 and I haven’t played in six months. I’m in my thirties now and I haven’t got time to deal with abuse and attitudes like that. You could argue that it was a one off occurrence, but I’ve seen it happen very frequently, not just to me, but others that have clearly made a mistake. Why is human error in games so furiously frowned upon by certain individuals?

When I say “elitism” I mean the term loosely thrown around in MMO communities and other such online games where someone is very vocal about their skillset, abilities, and unnecessary put downs.

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Another recent example for you: I’m part of a big Free Company (Guild) in Final Fantasy XIV and an active raider. I mainly raid tank, but I fill in here and there on other classes such as a White Mage, which is one of the game’s healer jobs. Now I’m a very good healer but there are times when I make mistakes.

About a week ago I joined a PUG (pick up group) party in a random dungeon roulette as a White Mage. Things were going well until I mistimed a big heal on the tank, and subsequently the tank died. The tank exploded into a bout of furious anger.

“OMG WHM, what are you doing? Sleeping at your keyboard – learn to play!”
“With that gear you have I shouldn’t even have to look at my HP you f**king idiot.”

Is there any need for this attitude in a game? Why do they feel the need to say it? What could they possibly gain from insulting someone they are playing a game with? Why not just let it go or actually use something constructive like offering advice rather than resorting to petty insults just to justify their actions?

One could argue that it’s because they want to play with people like themselves, those who succeed without making mistakes; a standard casual players can't deliver.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way, no two human skill sets are the same, everyone has their own unique way of playing, just like everyone else. So to force someone to change how they play to suit your or anyone else is ludicrous. The answer to why these people do it could be anything: do they hide behind their own insecurities or do they get a kick out of being a jackass? Whatever the answer it’s a form of bullying, and one that I think is as low as it can be. Bullying in itself is cowardly, pathetic, and low. But to do it from behind a computer where no one can see you or even interact is even lower.

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But how do you you remove it? It’s practically impossible. I’ve been an officer/moderator in a few guilds in my time. I look after several hundreds of people in a community where people try to escape reality for a few hours’ peace. Keeping that peace is a nightmare in itself. I obviously can’t go into detail but during my time in Aion Online, I had to deal with a case of serious sexual harassment and bullying. Weeks, yes weeks, of investigation took place, and once myself and the guild management team had collected the evidence we decided to remove the person from the guild. The victim had actually reported the individual to the GM team and that person was subsequently banned following a triad of verbal abuse between them and the GM.

It was a surreal experience and one I wish to never have to deal with again. But the problem wasn’t over. Within two weeks the banned individual returned with a new account, not only to harass the same person but he also set his sights on me.

Suffice to say I had a torrent of abuse thrown at me via tells and via world chat about my ability as a player and an officer. It was insane how someone went to great lengths to try and make out that they were a far better player than me based on a decision made by a group because they were abusing someone else.

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I’d like to see developers and publishers do more to try and prevent this sort of behaviour, there are some good community managers/GMs out there and they do a sterling job, but part of me feels that they could do with more support, either by allowing them to roam around the player base more frequently, or to at least have a way of monitoring public chat channels.

My stance on this sort of behaviour is pretty obvious. I dislike it and I wish to see it banished to the sixth circle of hell. But I feel that maybe the community overall is divided on this, some probably feel their actions are justified. If you do, don’t expect to see me on your friends list.

I open this one up to the floor: does elitism have its place and do the skills and abuse go hand in hand or are they separate?