*Growl* - Rudeness. Anger. Fellow gamers.

      Reading a few threads on Wizard 101 Central has reminded me of something about online gaming that really makes me... well... less than happy. And that is rude people.


      Of course encountering rude people is gonna happen. Happens in real life, so of course it's going to leak into online life, especially because the anonymity eliminates a lot of the consequences associated with being a jerk. Doesn't make it any less annoying.

      One bit of rudeness I've experienced a few times is when someone will jump into my battle uninvited, which brings in another enemy, and upon realizing the high amount of health the enemy has, the person will flee. Leaving me to get beat up. This usually happens when a novice thinks it will be cool to see if they can take on enemies in Dragonspyre, 40 levels too soon. That's already happened to me twice in DS. There are other variations of the "runner": there's the "voyeur", the person who stands and watches while you're getting beat up and if you ask for help, they don't respond. There's the "usurper", the person who stands and watches as you battle enemies, then at the last second they jump in and steal your experience/drops. And of course you have the "vegetable", the person who joins a battle and then... does nothing. Except stand there letting the timer between each round run out, making the battle take forever. (And to add insult to injury, they get all power pips.)

      Worse than those people are the ones who spam. By Bartleby, I hate spammers. I'm not talking about the people who are like, "PARTY IN THE ICE TOWER BRING YOUR PETS LOL!" (Although those are extremely annoying to read as well.) I'm talking about beggars, solicitors, and theives. People who offer "codes for treasure cards", or asking for a free account with a high level wizard on it, or, most recently, people asking for a free mount. *rolls eyes* I'm a really nice person who helps out other as much as possible, and still I don't know anyone who would give me any of those things for free. Except for treasure cards, but I was just in the right place at the right time in those instances. I had an experience with someone like that on a few occasions. The funniest case was when I went around the commons trying to find a Master of Nature to help me see Oakheart (I hadn't found my way around that glitch at the time). What I got was a level 25 Sorcerer saying they would help in return for a Tempest treasure card. I reiterated that I needed a Master of Nature to help me. And he reiterated that he would help if I bought him that treasure card (read: idiot). Needless to say I blocked him. Good riddance to people like that.

      I also can't stand when random strangers add me (I call them "addicts"). I know some people do it because they like making new friends or really need help from someone. But is it so hard to try talking to me first? Maybe asking if it's alright to add me as a friend? I always ask first because I realize how annoying it is to be added by strangers constantly. In fact, I learned that lesson a long time ago. I actually used to allow random people on my friend list, until I noticed that they would constantly demand help from me, but would never return the favor. This pattern repeated for a while until finally I locked incoming friend requests. Now I only let people I've talked to for at least a few minutes add me.

      Last but not least is the major jerk. You know, the kind that will demand your help and never say please or thank you. The kind that will make personal (rude) comments about you. The kind that will use you just so they can get to the worlds that are locked to them. The kind that expects your whole gaming experience to revolve around them because obviously their quests are so much more important than yours. I actually had a "friend" like that (I won't name names). I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I kept him on my list in spite of how mean he was to me all the time. And then he would play mind games and turn it around on me like I was the one being mean. Then finally enough was enough, and I took him off my list. Come to think of it, that reminds me a lot of my ex boyfriend. Creepy.

      In retrospect, Wizard 101 is actually pretty good about these things compared to other games. I mean, there are some MMORPGs that have way worse people on there. But it's players like this that really ruin the game for others. A word of advice: don't be like that!