With age comes wisdom, or atleast so they say. Apparently, however, age also comes with the knowledge of (supposedly) gaining that wisdom and that is something not everybody is able to handle well enough.
During my vacation a few weeks ago I had an epiphany, well I had realized this before, but it was a bit more obvious when I was there. Several of the older residents of the hotel apartments went to the poolside around 10-ish and started 'settling'. They moved around some of the chairs to provide a bit more 'empty space' around the chair they had selected and one of them always took a second chair and put it on the first to elevate her sitting position, they place their books, fly swatter and other regalia around them, and sit there for the rest of the day as the king of their little own castle.
Now this does not necessarily seem rude, but when you realize they are making the sunroof less comfortable for others, but more comfortable for them then it is.
This is just one of the many examples, so why am I putting it up here, in a WoW blog? because we see the exact same thing happening in WoW. 'The grownups' believe that WoW (and any online game for that matter) should not be played by kids, but just by the adult and mature population. We all (me included) are appauled by the 'kiddies' who walk around yelling god knows what to everybody they come across and find it absolutely normal. But who are to be blamed for that? Those kids? their education? or maybe their parents for not raising them right? Or is it the WoW population who made these kids into a self fulfilling prophecy?
As stated earlier, kids are seen as trespassers on the domain of the older players. This means that from the start, kids have been treated as such. They were told they shouldnt even be there, are the n00bs and are boo-ed at for not instantly knowing what to do. Isn't it somewhat obvious then, that at some point, the kids just started to not care anymore, and fulfill the prophecy of the 'problem children'? You can either fight with all your power to prove you are mature enough to play the game, or you can take the easy route and just be the kid they think you are....
A good portion of the 'Older people' believe they have certain rights over the younger. They believe that they earned the respect of said youngsters by just having the age. They hold the wisdom and they should be respected.
Personally I almost always try to do the 'right thing' and help our older fellow man. Be it in a shopping mall, crossing a road, or standing up for them in the bus so they can sit. I have absolutely no problem doing those things as I believe them to be right. However, they have absolutely no right to claim these things. They have no right to wiggle them in front of me in a line for the check out believing it to be ok. They have absolutely no right to kick away my bag because they believe I had to remove it for them in the first place etc etc.
So who are we (as I count myself to the somewhat mature player base of WoW) to tell these kids that they can't play and that they are ruining our experience? Aren't we ourselves just as much responsible for ruining their experience? And If we would have embraced them from the start, wouldnt there have been a lot less hatred?
