I still have no idea what the joke is about. Maybe I’m too old for that tomfoolery?
This is what I want the most, too. Over the past few expansions, it feels less and less like a “game made for gamers” like when I/we first started playing all those years ago, and more of a huge time-sink.
I am usually one of those people, but lately it just seems like the pessimism is running rampant. I mostly just lurk the forums and try to avoid posting because it’s difficult to make meaningful conversation when all we’re doing is communicating through pixels, without inflection or body language, etc. So it’s tough to know if someone is angry, happy, trolling, etc. I also avoid social media like the plague, I deactivate Facebook after high school and haven’t been on Instagram or Snapchat in years. I loathe social media actually!
Nah this wasn’t on the forums, it was in-game while doing my Korthia dailies.
I dropped Trade chat on literally all of my characters starting in WoD. The things that you see being discussed/argued in trade chat… */shudder * But no, this interaction occurred in Korthia, when somebody called out a rare had spawned. It was in Warmode nonetheless so I was shocked that people were actually caring enough to call out rares/PVE content in Warmode. But then this one player, one of many I’ve seen as of lately, felt the need to just flat out be negative about… nothing? It was very peculiar.
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Gawd, I hope not. Don’t want them. Though you can tell a WoW refugee that is like that when they click through the story bubbles and run off.
I can’t speak for others but I’ve been trapped in this kind of attitude before, much to my own shame and regret here I suppose. I can explain why I felt that way, if you are genuinely curious and not just looking for a rhetorical answer or something…
I should warn you in advance that this is a sensitive topic for me in some ways, and I simply can’t consolidate my thoughts on a topic like this to a couple sentences and it mean anything at all. This is going to be a long, drawn out response. I hope you will forgive that.
But my old server was Wyrmrest Accord on Alliance side, a server I had really fond memories of, a community I loved (and all of these things are still true, even if it’s no longer my home as Alliance). Unfortunately, it has been dying a slow death since WotLK first added faction transfers.
Now, while faction transfers aren’t the cause of how I feel in any way, shape or form, I mention this only because it is related to the downfall of the server for me. As the server became more and more dominated by Horde, as Cataclysm came along and changed the city to go from being one of the hardest cities to attack to the easiest to grief, Wyrmrest Accord has been targetted and harassed by Horde for years now, constantly bullied.
Sometimes by constant petty rogue attacks intended to disrupt roleplay or kill important npcs (like auctioneers) or even just to constantly trigger anonymous alarms. Huge raids to purposely sit in areas where Alliance can’t push them back until they get bored and leave were very common place. We basically existed to be harassed by the Horde.
I mention all of this in hopes of it painting a vague picture of the setting for my server in many ways, although there is of course far more to things than simply our interaction with the Horde.
… and yet this is only one facet. The story itself has gone downhill to be sure, some expansions are worse than others. There is a ton of things to feel negative about and it’s easy to fall into. I can tell you for sure that people who still play yet feel severely negative about the game want to be able to play. They want to have fun. The miss the golden days but feel like the game can still be excellent, even if they say otherwise.
It’s something to be pitied, and for people like this you’ll have an easier time encouraging them positively than arguing with them and putting them down (making them feel even worse, and even more pessimistic).
And I should elaborate that I am normally a very optimistic person–something I push very strongly, even to the point of offending some people who are a bit stuck up about things ^^; For me to feel pessimistic requires me to be overwhelmed by just how bad things are, because I don’t just gravitate that way naturally.
And so I get to my point here. I loved World of Warcraft and had very fond memories of the game, but my friends were largely gone, the community was depressing, and the future rightfully felt bleak. Being overwhelmed by negativity will naturally require you to vent. The best solution to this problem is sympathy or just positive reinforcement… and a bit of patience. However, when was the last time you’ve run into that in World of Warcraft’s community? Have you ever? Instead, people attack them and it makes things worse. So it really shouldn’t be all that surprising that people react the way they do.
Now you might ask, “If you are so unhappy why not just quit?” Well, I did explain that I had hope of this game improving (and it did, for refrence! Actually, whenever this game gets me down I tend to take a break now rather than let it get to me), so quitting isn’t quite the solution. I wanted to play the game and enjoy it with a community of friendly players, but that really wasn’t possible in my current situation, so I just was trapped, helpless, and frustrated with my situation until it finally got to me and made me negative and cynical.
Frankly, I recently finally gave up on World of Warcraft because of this. Shadowlands felt like the final straw for me since even the gameplay itself was anti-fun for me and the community just made me depressed. I felt like it would never change. It probably wouldn’t have.
I quit, and I had no plan of returning, because I was trapped on a server I knew was dying and brought out all of this cynicism in myself that I hated, and I didn’t want to give up the decade of progress in my characters or spend $300 to transfer out.
While I’ve explained why or how negativity used to get to me to the point where I spread negativity (instead of positivity, which is why I really want to do and try to do, even if people are resistant to it ^^), you might wonder why I am here now?
Certainly, it seems strange? Maybe even hypocritical if you felt like judging me harshly ^^; I came to a simple truth, that all the work I’ve put into my characters over a decade of gameplay… didn’t really matter that much.
Between the fact that WoW had a character service sale, and 9.1 had promising features that took the things I hated in Shadowlands’ launch and made it much less miserable, I came up with a crazy idea. That I would start over and simply move one or two characters instead since I had enough gold to buy tokens to afford to do so without paying money directly.
Given how much of an altoholic I am, this wasn’t an easy decision for me to leave my old server behind, let alone the fact that I still love Wyrmrest Accord and miss it, but I did. I’m on the “active” Alliance roleplaying server now, and the future is bright. Even more than that, people are cheerful and friendly here, instead of gloomy. Maybe I’m just too sensitive to these things, but it’s had a very positive effect on me!
So now I am playing WoW again and enjoying it, and I am able to be the type of person I want to be again. One that can try to spread positivity instead of negativity. I know my situation and especially my motivation aren’t necessarily things everyone will share of course, but I think a lot of people who are constantly negative but can’t bring themselves to quit the game can relate to in some way or another.
They want to enjoy the game. They know they could… but perhaps feel trapped, or helpless, like the game can’t get better, or can’t get better without losing everything you liked about it (or paying obscene amounts of money in a vague hope things will improve ^^;).
If there’s any kind of TLDR to get out of this, it is this:
The next time you find someone who is bitter and negative, try showing a little sympathy and a little patience. Maybe try to help them figure out a way to improve their situation, if they are willing. You might find that in the end they just want to be able to enjoy the game, after all, and a little help could go a really long way!
Just my two copper though. I have no idea if you wanted this kind of reply, nor do I have any idea how people will react to this. But I’ll share it anyways!
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They need validation. They have sad empty lives and WoW once filled that void. They feel betrayed and the only emotion they know how to express is anger from their lack of emotional control.
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t. the armchair therapist.
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I haven’t either - I’m pretty sure it’s a reference to a drug w/o using the actual word. Dumb. I choose to think of it has the chunk incense/resin Copal that is mentally uplifting
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Yes, absolutely agree with everything you had to say.
I am a very sociable person by nature, I will frequently chit-chat with people in real life, as well as converse with my fellow Hyjal players in General chat.
The forums literally state “Discuss World of Warcraft,” so the concept in itself is enticing, but the actually substance of the forums is… interesting, to say the least.
Right now, with everything going on, it is absolutely something that needs to be brought to attention and discussed, there has never been anything of this magnitude that has been tied to Blizzard so genuine narratives are fully welcomed, now more than ever.
I’ve been seeing a lot of those posts, as well!
But I do think that eventually things will calm down. If they can re-structure the company properly and make it a safe, happy, inclusive AND sustainable workplace, then maybe it will recover, and then WoW will be back to just an MMORPG. But I don’t think the allegations that have tarnished the company will ever be wiped clean.
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Some, yes. Other’s just like to throw out chum for entertainment.
Lol well how it was explained to me is, you take the words “cope”, like to be able to deal with something. And then “0pium” or “0piate,” aka a medication. So it’s like taking a medication to disillusion yourself that something (can be anything, but can also be specific) is actually better than it really is.
I personally had to use Urban Dictionary to figure it out fully 
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It’s not me. It’s the undercurrent of sadness and regret that pervades through my every fiber 
.
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Ok thanks. I wish I had stayed ignorant of its meaning. 
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Well aside from explaining what led to my personal situation, I can at least be concise in saying that I relate to the feeling that a lot of what people are describing.
I tend to be overly sensitive and can easily get depressed, something I’ve personally battled with most of my life. (Successfully though!) So it’s not hard for me to feel overwhelmed by negativity, and WoW’s community tends to tear you down rather than try to build you up, because most people don’t care. And it’s not their job to care, but still.
If you really want to combat this negativity, the best thing you can do is to build people up. Help them realize there are solutions and friendly people out there. A tiny amount of empathy can go an extremely long way, sometimes!
Just food for thought. ^^
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Honestly, agreeing with you on everything else, I hope you are wrong on this and it will be wiped from the slate. Unfortunately every time something new comes out the masses get refired up, and trials last forever - let alone settlements.
I miss Azeroth and it’s denizens! 
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I absolutely loved what you had to say! Thank you for sharing your experiences, I read every single word that you typed out. I’m not one of “TLDR, Let me nitpick one single sentence you wrote” types of players. It is unfortunate how your time invested in this wonderful game has had so many up’s and down’s, but I am glad to hear that you are in a place where you can enjoy the game now! That is really great to hear and actually brings a smile to my face. Please know, that you are not the only one alone in this either! I myself started the game as Alliance, with friends who played Alliance as well. I’ve been on Hyjal since ~2007 and it used to be an Alliance dominated server, with Alliance getting all of the Scarab Lord titles, realm firsts kills achieves, etc. Then slowly, over time, specifically in Cataclysm, I came back from a break of some amount of months and log in to Stormwind and it was a ghost town. Apparently, everyone had either transferred off of Hyjal to a more prominent Alliance realm, or had faction transferred to play Horde. It was revolting to say the least, I couldn’t believe my eyes when there was nobody around to play the game with! It was a difficult adjustment to make and started the ball rolling downhill. I continued to try to enjoy my time on Alliance, but over time, I eventually made Horde toons to continue to play with friends because that is when the game is most enjoyable IMO, is with friends and a good, fun support system; not alone in a city, wondering where everyone went. So I do fully understand where you are coming from, minus the PVP aspect. But speaking of, I had a great friend in high school who played WrA Horde side and he was a phenomenal DK player and I would often play arena with him on my Disc Priest. I lost contact with him years ago but I still wonder if he is still playing.
Back to the original posting though, I also do want to mention that, when this player interjected with their negativity, I did respond with these exact words: “Happy to have you here, (player) <3” However, they did not respond so I can only assume they just simply stopped talking, went to another zone, or were just taken aback by someone being kind to them rather than being negative along with them?
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I understand that, but at the same time it’s not been that long. It seems long because of how many threads have been created on that topic and because of how much new info has come out all the time but it has not been long since the allegations went public. Like… About two weeks?
I think it’s understandable people don’t forget about things as sad as this within just two weeks. It would be sad if they did tbh.
I hope they do the right thing and restructure their company in a way that makes me not feel bad when I’m in game because of what happened and because I think it’s just happening again while I’m playing. That’s the only way they’d fully recover from this in my opinion. And I hope they do.
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I feel you homie. Sadge. 
@Voidthulhu BO BURNHAM. Amazing. 
Yeah, you and me both! I thought it was some kinda hype word people made up because of the Final Fantasy threads, but apparently it had a meaning well before that. Unfortunately lol
This is everything! When people are raging at others about Consumption, for example, I will say “We must educate others,” rather than joining in with dropping insults and calling people the r-word, dumb, stupid, etc. A lot of people don’t know how it operates, so rather than just raging on them, instead maybe explain to them how it works so that they know what to do and makes their life easier? Like you said. A tiny amount of empathy can go along way, indeed.
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Who knows! I ain’t no future teller 
Maybe it will not remain as something that is ingrained in the companies history. If they could cultivate a better atmosphere than the whirlwind happening right now, then that could easily overshadow what once was.
Seconded! 
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First of all, thank you so much! That truly, genuinely means a lot to me that you read my post and appreciated what I was saying! ^^
Actually I have been playing since vanilla, so this is my second time starting over from scratch. My original server died much faster and much more directly, so I’ve already started over once in this way. But my progress there wasn’t quite as extreme, only 2-3 years on alts that had barely started WotLK for the most part. I was really happy when I moved to Wyrmrest Accord at the time, as it was thriving and had a great community!
I actually did make Horde alts on Wyrmrest Accord, and while I spent years building up the idea that the WrA Horde was a bunch of really spiteful and rude people, the reality is that they are really nice people. I do not know if I will play Horde actively anymore, but if I do, it will be on WrA at least!
As for people being taken aback and being in literal shock at someone being friendly… well yes, they probably were! Don’t take silence as being unhappy though, sometimes being struck by something like that might leave them at a loss of words. It’s a good thing! You may have noticed that negative people are very vocal but many positive people are quiet. It could be the case there, too.
One way or another, I adore that you made an attempt to help someone and build them up instead of tearing them down! I hope you will continue to do that, too! I will give it my best shot as well. I am not sure how much I can do to make WoW a friendlier place but I’d like to try if I can, just my small, insignificant part!
Honesty I didn’t know what to expect from this. A lot of posts like this are trying to attack people (or even trick them on occasion) but sometimes, there are genuinely amazing or interesting people here too. Like you! I am glad I posted here and met you, it’s certainly been a great experience today! Thank you again! ^^
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