So, I've picked up a web browser game called WarFlow a couple months ago... It's not the most amusing thing in the world and is basically built up of casual gamers who just like to click at things once in a while.. which is basically the reason I play it. While I wait for LoL to load or my videos to process I like to just click at it. The game takes no skill and is basically a little time occupier. Anyways let's move on to the real topic here.
So, one of the guiding quests is to join a Legion (a guild)... so I open up the legion window and look through the list of legions. There's nations and Legions are nation limited so my choices were narrowed down to legions in Volpugny (my nation). The two top legions of V nation AND the server were Demonz and Oblivion. Demonz was ranked number 1 and had more members. Oblivion had less members than Demonz (but still a fair lot) but a higher legion level (Demonz 49 vs Oblivion 57). Then I looked at the names... some how, to me, Demonz sounded really immature and the type that people with big egos would go while as Oblivion sounded more mature. Besides, Oblivion had a higher legion level. This is how I chose to join Oblivion. Mind that I had NO knowledge of either legions other than name, legion level, number of members. I chose at whim.
(Back story time, skip to next paragraph if you're not interested.) I think I can say that I'm a fairly average person and that most people pick with equal nonchalance in this game. Let me add that as the top two legions, Demonz and Oblivion are fierce fierce rivals. And although Demonz was ranked number 1 it was only because someone (Glintek) spent a lot of real money to level up its "prestige" level. When it came to legion wars between D and O, Oblivion always won. A little drama sprouted a month or so ago when the leader of Demonz had his legion forcefully taken from him by a member who had more "contribution points" than him and so by the game rules had the power to take the legion. People got pissed. Tons of people left Demonz for Oblivion. The Demonz leader came to Oblivion too. Glintek, the guy who took it, wasn't president for long. I don't really know why he left Demonz but he did. He said Demonz people were widely bullies (the other prominent Demonz member is GTR who really IS an asshole) and didn't want to be associated with that anymore and left it... for Oblivion. People got VERY pissed. They started cussing him out in Nation chat, having huge arguments. They'd basically internet bully him 24/7. Then he kinda snapped. He started cussing back and said ridiculous things like how he was going to find that guy who insulted him and go slit his throat. His crazy out bursts got him kicked from Oblivion. Not too long later, a new server came out and the players of this game just make a hobby or habit out of starting anew with each server. Tons of the strong players of Oblivion left for the new server but I didn't follow. I just stayed. Oblivion is still rank 2 but we were now missing a lot of strong, active players. Two of our very few remaining strong players, Staci and Zaan, decided to leave for Demonz.
(Back to the real topic now.) Now what is my point in telling you all this? It's to look at the people's reactions to the whole legion loyalty thing. Very few people join a legion in this game knowing the people in it or anything else about it and yet they very fast develop a sense of loyalty to it. Upon hearing that Glintek went to Oblivion, the rival guild, Demonz people were so damn pissed! How COULD he be such a traitor? How COULD he go to the ENEMY? Funny thing is that if you had moved your mouse down a centimeter and clicked the button there instead, you would have been in Oblivion, not Demonz. There's absolutely no difference between D people and O people. Just that they clicked different buttons. Yet there was so much hate going on between the two. I at first found it ridiculous. How could they harass a guy so much just because he switched up legion on a stupid browser game? Those people should totally chill the fuck out. But then when Staci and Zaan left for Demonz guess what I felt? Betrayal. How could they leave us? How could they go to Demonz of all places?! I was never close to either of them. Never spoke to them much or anything but I was still rather unhappy with their decision.
Why? I didn't look shit up or anything like that but it's just probably natural human social instincts kicking in. Humans are social animals. We automatically like to group up and then become very hostile to others who are not in our group. This made sense way back when: when a wrong move could get you killed with people you didn't know. But I guess even nowadays this instinct has come with us which gives fuel to discrimination of all kinds (racism being way up there). But it sure can lead to some very silly fights on a very silly place called the internet.
We are so very quick to stereotype, judge, and categorize. In all wars the soldiers were taught to see the opposition as evil. What kind of army would tell you, "that guy on the other side, he's just like you. He has a family, friends, a whole life story to tell, just like you. He has hopes and goals, likes and dislikes, hobbies and skills, just like you." ? Most soldiers probably didn't even have to be brain washed much (until it was you know, the time to actually pull the trigger). Just the fact that they're on opposite "teams" is enough. Moving away from the serious stuff... what about high schools? You guys have that rival high school when you were in HS? Mine certainly did. Kids from each school liked to go to the other one and scrawl their own HS name on the walls and doors of the other school.
Even knowing all this though, I find it very hard to get myself away from that group-mindset. I still see a lot of Demonz as assholes because a couple of them really are assholes. So not only are we quick to develop loyalty, we're are quick to develop hostility to others... regardless of how much (or little) we know about them. Funny isn't it?
This game seems pretty mild compared to most MMOs. Yet for some reason, the players seem more competitive and bloodthirsty. Is there anything in this game that makes players to act this way?
ReplyDeleteNot sure lol. Might have to do with the fact that pvp is everywhere. You not only fight between nations (attacking and Legion wars), you fight amongst yourselves (Legion wars), you conquer one another (conquer and you get 10% of their levy silver), you have the option of stealing someone's farm (farms are always within your own nation), also have the option of stealing mines (also within your own nation). So there's a lot of ways that people can brew hate I guess lol. But constantly conquering your each time you move or always taking your farms and mines... etc.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me a lot of things about another browser game I still play, Ogame. Also reminds me alot of Lineage 2. The thing is in Lineage 2 conflicts were started by the asswholes of each clan mainly. Sometimes the interests of both clans crushed s fights began. And sometimes wars began because the leaders of both clans were bored heheheh. But in Ogame, which is a game that requires you to attack other players to improve, wars begin because you attacked someone, and in order to stop being attacked you get into an alliance. The idea is that the Alliance name near yours will keep people looking for easy preys out, because they know that attacking you will have big consequences. But again wars sometimes begin because of boredom. Remember I began a war in L2 just because the server was lacking some action hehehe, the other alliance didnt want to fight so I gathered some of my mates and friends and started hunting them down, till they reacted (it took a week, we were about to just give up and start focusing on other alliance :P, I remember I alone killed like 60 of them eheheh, If you ever played L2 clans dont have many members,depending on the server between 20 and 40 members, and alliances normally have between 3 and 5 clans, 60 is a nice number :P)
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