Behavior in raids – bullying and verbal abuse

Bullying seems to be all too common among gamers today as well as all sorts of verbal abuse. Anonymity is like a motivator to release all kinds of venom in gaming chat channels and it feels like it has gotten steadily worse and worse. Luckily the majority of gamers prefer to avoid this kind of behavior, and I often experience that players will also speak up against this kind of abuse.

Now I can see many reasons for why people have all kinds of emotional outbursts while playing, but what I do not get is what they hope to achieve by verbally attacking someone for one reason or the other. It makes no sense to me to call someone a ‘retard’ in the hopes that they will perform better or act in a way more suitable for my personal game play experience. Considering my post regarding ‘raid rules’ this behavior just adds up and I have yet to see it be constructive or productive. In short it seems like complaining about the stupidity and ‘retardity’ of others is in itself just as stupid.

On the opposite side when looking at the more focused groups that have a high level of progress you will find these rules change somewhat. It is a commonly used management style to run a strict team with a very present level of verbal abuse in the form on direct micro-management not unlike what one might see/experience as part of military training. Making use of such a management style is no guarantee for success as it also holds a fine balance for when its productive and when it is absolutely not. But when it works it seems fair to say that it does so quite brilliantly.

In a different context this kind of behavior might be a part of the humorous tone of social interactions in a raid group, and in this case it is important to be aware of unwritten rules of how these joke and puns are thrown around. Knowing with whom you can joke, what jokes are ok and have a positive effect on the mood of the raid is something that is part of the initiation rites of most groups. This social interaction in between the focused boss fights is an important part of a raid experience and helps keep the game entertaining, fun and social.