Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Nerd Raging

So I thought I kind of nerd raged too much at my last raid this week (muted of course) but apparently a few moments of yelling at the screen is nothing compared to the guy who tried to strangle his mother. That’s nerd raging to a whole new level.


I hesitated on posting this or even commenting on this because it obviously has nothing to do with WoW in particular except he happened to be playing the game while the incident occurred. The guy was drunk and obviously has some issues. The whole incident was beyond absurd.


I just HATE news like this because this is where people get really really misleading impressions about the gaming culture. There’s rarely a news article about how WoW united a family or helped a group of friends stay in touch. The media has to report what happens but I’m afraid that’s all non-gamers tend to see and it severely mars the image of those whose lifestyles revolve around gaming.


Full Article on Tomshardware.com here--->

6 comments:

ObiWanAdobe said...

As I read your post and the source article I just shook my head.

The only reason this was picked up by any news media was because they could use the "nerd" angle. Because he happens to play World of Warcraft, which 11 million other people play, it is still somehow strange to those that are pushing this out.

The horrible truth is that this kind of thing happens everyday. Not someone who plays WoW goes ape-shit but just some random violence by sad people that don't know how to live life. Their inability to function isn't sprayed on the internet because that would too much or dare I say boring because it's everyday.

But hey, this cat was playing World of Warcraft, we have an angle. We can paint all this like a scarlet letter on these odd folks that we just don't get or understand. Great, get it posted.

Ugly people do ugly things. They may have been just watching American Idol, a sports game, playing a sports game, coming home from a hard day working, signing paychecks, passing legislation, coming home from church, etc.

It happens all the time and if we were to get reports on every case of dumb-ass out there we'd have no bandwidth to do anything else. Instead we'll just show case this one situation because the crazy cat is playing a... Game. A game we don't get or understand but it makes the story... Funny. "Oh, look at this sad gamer, I bet they are all like this."

I find this all just annoying for two reasons. One, in a city of some 11 million people, ugly people will do ugly things all the time, everyday. Two, World of Warcraft is a game I play, where I get to be a hero among my friends and others occasionally, and to force me to realize that some of my fellow gamers are just like the rest of the world rather than like me is just disturbing. Where I am nice and helpful and go out of my way for people, we're not covering that. We're just covering the ass that can't hold his drink and his lack of life. Instead they paint with the broadest stroke that all who enjoy WoW must be like this douche.

I just wish the media would grow up and stop marking stories like this as something new. Go spend a few days in your own community and see how much of this kind of stuff happens with no attachment to WoW is out there. I'm not even talking about going to the poor neighborhoods or broken homes. It is everywhere and covers everyone from 27 year olds still living at home to high salary business types. The world is an ugly place, all the time. Don't paint in broad strokes.

kthxbai

Unknown said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM

Unknown said...

opps sorry, um hey! cant find your email, but i thought you might find this interesting. its called
"Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better" nothing like a little positive media to sooth the soul. =p

anyways, here is the summary.

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM

Alachia said...

@Aon- alachia.me@gmail.com is the best way to email me. And yes, that TED video is great... a little too optimistic about how she views gamers but still great potential.

玉鳳 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Design by Dzelque Blogger Templates 2008

WOWCAST BLOG