Transcription... TROLLING

Transcription WoW Audio Clip

(note: loud and background noise, not 100% SFW)

Playing WoW and other MMOs can make you feel like a kid again, in more ways than one, and I'd like to point out one of the less positive ways.

So... my personal story is, part of my personal story anyway, I'll try not to bore you, is that I have played World of Warcraft for... off and on, let's see, 5 years? No... Maybe... 5 and a half? Wow, that's a long time. See, right there I just totally overlooked how much of my life and how many hours I spent playing a video game. Well, it's not just any video game. If you know anything about WoW you know that, right? But here's the thing: I think it set me back emotionally and mentally, just because I paid attention to chat. What's up with that?

So... there's this whole troll underground society, both on the internet in general and, more specifically within MMOs. So you get to create this fantastic-looking character, um, you know, you get to look like exactly what you want to look like, and you get to do all these cool things like slay dragons and wear super shiny armor, right? BUT, you also have to interact with other people, and while this is generally speaking a good thing, those other people are also all hyped up about their newfound anonymity and they get to hide behind these fantastic characters they've created, right?

So even to the most casual gamer, the world channels of chat in MMOs become a free-for-all playground of childish taunts, name-calling, accusations, um... wanton ranting about political and scientific matters of which you have no actual basis in the real world... you don't have a degree, you don't have a job, but you're an expect at everything... and this mindset, this activity, of trolling online, is catching, it's contagious: it can suck in even the most rational of creatures...

Now I am not saying I am the most rational of creatures, I am not at all implying that, I am implying that part of what led me to lose control over logic is losing myself in the chat channels in an MMO. And WoW is particularly infamous for this. It's a “Rated Everyone” game so you have... ::ahem::... no comment... children who are, let's say five years old, playing the game, with teenagers who are going through their rebellious phases playing the game, with older people playing the game, and all these people, at every age, see this as an opportunity to hide.

And it's like hiding behind a giant tree and throwing rocks at someone from behind it, it's petty and it's stupid and it's a waste of time, a waste of energy... It's not fun either; I mean a little bit of bantering, light witty sarcasm... remarks thrown back and forth between two willing players is “fun”, but reading trade chat for three hours at a time and just shaking your head and wanting to smash your head against a brick wall because you can see just how stupid people really are... do people really think that way? I mean some of them do! And it's sad and it's sick but... once you're sucked into that community, that lifestyle, that mindset, you're not stuck there... and I'm not saying you have to quit playing WoW or any other MMO, I'm not saying that at all, I'm just saying... maybe we should all wake up, do a little bit of growing up, and uh... leave behind the mental throw-up, the regurgitation of these semi-truths and half-facts and uh just play the damn game and have fun, you're there to fight dragons, FFS... sorry, but seriously, LET GO of the troll mentality. It's not healthy, it's not fun, it doesn't get you or me anywhere and it certainly doesn't accomplish anything.

So uh yeah, that's it for now... thanks for listening.

(c) Copyright 2012 Veronica Elizabeth Raj