OK, so apparently, World of Warcraft is supposed to be angling to be more warlike, pitting the Alliance and the Horde against each other as in days of yore. Actions have been taken by both sides that are somewhat less than tolerant and neighborly, leading to something resembling hate. Faction pride rests largely on putting the other guys down, and as Raph Koster notes (among other things in this interesting presentation), the service business model (live games, whether subscription or microtransaction) relies heavily on emotional attachment.
On the other hand, there’s this Corpsegrinder fellow, no doubt his moniker of choice indicating his civility and kindness, caught in a recording embodying an attitude we might see as somewhat less than tolerant and neighborly, fracturing the WoW community. The reaction has predictably been… hostile.
I don’t really intend to speak to the political or social concerns with Corpsegrindergate, other than to note that I think the guy isn’t someone I’d invite to my home. No, what interests me at the moment is the juxtaposition between the efforts to foster war and division within the game, and the bitter divides that arise out of the game. How curious it is that hate might be said to drive both (and there’s plenty of hate and anger to go around… Mr. Ranty McGrumpypants Corpsegrinder isn’t the only fellow who needed a nap), yet the former is somehow desirable while the latter isn’t, as if hating someone because they were part of the Alliance or the Horde is somehow less prejudiced than real world bigotry. (And if we’re going to run the “it’s just a game” excuse, that cuts both ways.) It’s so easy to demonize the Other… but it’s not paying attention to what’s really there.
I tend to think that driving faction pride and rage-fueled PvP isn’t wise for the community at large. BBB and his commenters note occasions where die hard Horde players are civil around Alliance players (and why are Hordies assumed to be ruder in general?), so I’m not asserting a full correlation (thankfully)… but I do think that the faction split should be framed more as competition than contention. There are plenty of threats to Azeroth and its denizens that we don’t need to manufacture internecine warfare. It’s no longer us as a single player pitting our RTS armies against a computer, those Hordies or Alliance grunts are piloted by real people who have a tendency to take offense, whether intended or not.
Some players will always take things personally, and some jerks are simply jerks. Some people are incurably ignorant. Few will conflate real life with the game… but hatred leaves its prints on attitudes and learned behavior, no matter the venue. It’s a burden on the soul that weighs in at the most inopportune moments. Yes, drama and games tend to be based on conflict of some sort, someone winning while someone else loses, but the attitudes behind that drive can vary. It’s always interesting to me to see how devs try to mold player actions and attitudes.
Hate is a powerful, driving force. It’s also a potentially hazardous thing to use to fuel your game. Competition and contention aren’t the same thing. Much like it’s silly to piddle around with various poop harvesting quests while Deathwing is in the wings, Azerothians have better things to do than engage in a deadly version of “he said, she said”. If we’re supposed to be heroes in Azeroth, petty squabbling isn’t going to help.
I am afraid that competition leads to at least as much hate as contention, with no real way to let off the steam that has built up. At least when you are fighting with that character from the other side who is doing rude emotes at you, you can take him out.
I recall a few years back my pal Gaff sending me a WoW forum thread from a horde player. This player had run into somebody at a coffee shop and found out that they played WoW as well. A conversation ensued, but came up short when the horde player found out that the guy he just met was not only an alliance player, but he played a paladin.
At which point the horde guy, if his story is to be believed, punched the alliance guy in the face.
And he went on to post this all in the forums because he was especially proud of punching an unsuspecting paladin player in the face because, as he explained, he hated the alliance in general, and paladins especially, so he apparently felt that all his fellow horde players would appreciate how he stuck it to the alliance… by punching some guy who was happy to meet a fellow WoW player in the face when he wasn’t expecting it.
I had a point when I started the anecdote, but now I’ve lost it. I blame old age and having a cold. But it seems to fit in with what you were saying.
[...] an enthusiasm for sharing in MMO design, here we go:Tesh has a damn good point as he interrelates the Corpsegrinder fiasco and MoP’s War focus – “Some players will always take things personally, and some jerks are simply jerks. Some [...]
Deathwing flambe’d Kinnavieve’s face, turned Palintera’s lover inta a vegetable, and drove a fluggernuggin’ volcano through me home. We hates him with the heat of a thousand suns. Ya’d think with all the destruction he done did, all Azeroth’d be clammerin’ fer his head. Yet, except fer Alex takin’ her shot at him in Twilight Highlands, is been total radio silence (other than the occasional So-and-so has [Stood in the Fire] woohoo ten points! silliness). This Horde v Alliance sideshow, howevers, be everywheres.
Is a pathetic failure of storytellin’ on Blizz’ part, among other things.
Hatred seems excessive if they want war. We don’t really need big ideas like honor or little ideas like hatred to kill people. Opportunity and the slightest bit of incentive are sufficient. Put players in the same place and they will kill each other. In my own experience, Twilight Highlands did this brilliantly, at least until the dailies died down. But until then, we were all put in the same place. Of course it helps if you’re on a PvP server.
2 sided faction splits = fail.
3 or more factions = possible.
With only two sides, you always hate the other guy, all the time.
With 3 factions, it shifts and moves around, preventing super deep seated, permanent hate.