I hate you all

As you know, I play a lot of online games, ranging from MMO’s to simple point-and-click browser games.  I have done for many years, and I’ve noticed a strange phenomenom during this time.

Most of these games provide a ’social’ element: you can normally chat with other players, and there is usually some form of ‘club’ available.  In Everquest it was a guild, in WoW it’s a clan, in The West it’s a town – whatever the name, it serves the same function: it allows players to create a family of like-minded players.

I’ve had a lot of pleasure from guilds/clans/supergroups (I’ll call them all guilds from now on) in my years of playing.  At one time or another I’ve held every post available, from prospect to leader, and I’ve made some very good friends.

A good guild provides help, support, and a sense of community.  It’s a great feeling to log into a game and have a dozen or more players immediately say Hi to you.  In some instances, it’s been as long as half an hour before I’ve been able to do anything for myself, because of the sheer volume of public and private conversations dropped in my lap.

If you need a particular item, a call to the guild normally gets a result: either a member has one you can have, or a group will form to go and get it for you.  I’ve known times when a dozen or more level 60 players have taken over an area and equipped every level 10 player with a great piece of gear.  Not just every player in our guild – every player online at the time.

If you have a difficult task to complete, a call to your guild usually results in more help than you can handle.  Again, I remember an instance when I asked for help and had to turn players away – seven different guilds were there to help me.  I never did quite work out why I was so popular…

So, that’s the good side of guilds.  You have a family of players who share your values, who share your humour – who will be there to help you, as you are there to help them.

Then there’s the other type of guild. 

The type of guild made up of players who want things from the guild, but don’t want to give.  These are actually the biggest guilds, normally.

Why are they the biggest?  Because they will invite anybody to join. 

Players in these guilds never join because they agree with their policies.  They never care about policies.  They want to know that the guild is big enough that the player can hide in a crowd while doing their own thing.  They want to know that the guild has a ‘bank’ where members can help theirselves to good items of gear.

Joining these guilds is really easy: all you have to do is stand still for five minutes.  Every game I’ve played where it is possible, I have had a guild invitation pop up on my screen without warning.  And when I say without warning, I mean it’s an invite from somebody you’ve never seen, met, or spoken to.  Usually, if you look around, you can’t even find them – they may be miles away from you.

How they do it is beyond me: the only thing I can come up with is that they just look at the list of players and invite everybody on it.  Sort of like picking up the telephone directory and calling everybody in it.

It really confuses me, though. 

How do their minds work?  Anybody who would accept an invitation like that is exactly who I would not want to be in a guild with.  A guild of players like that very quickly becomes infamous – if you see that guild name, you know the player is to be avoided.

I’ve known guilds that I refuse to associate with: meet somebody from the guild and refuse to have anything to do with them beyond informing them that their guild is the reason.  ‘Sorry, but as long as you’re in XXXX you are not welcome in my group.’  ‘I don’t help XXXX guild, ever.’  ‘Ah, when I said you could have that, I didn’t realise you were in XXXX’

You do get a lot of hassle, taking this kind of stance – because they are the largest guilds in any game – but it’s worth it.  I’d rather play alone than be associated with that kind of guild.  Strange, isn’t it, that being in a minority is the right thing to do?

I believe in democracy, in essence – but when the majority want to do something that is clearly wrong, I believe it’s our duty to stand up and be counted.  Since when was a lynchmob ever right?

Sorry, I’m rambling again.

I just got tired of all the random invitations I keep getting.  But I guess that’s the way society is going: join facebook, myspace, etc, and total strangers will ask you to be their friends.  Any facebook user with less than 10,000 friends is a failure.

Me, I’d rather have one real friend than a million facebook ‘friends’ – and I’d rather play alone than join a guild that uses random invites.

But that’s me.