I entered a group yesterday with my mates Lale and Biondi, to help do a low level instance run Biondi needed for an alt. Lale invited a low level hunter friend who also needed the instance. Things were going along well, although the hunter wasn’t using his pet, which seemed a little odd. Then I asked if people could get on voice for easier communication. Lale and I got on, and then we heard a very depressing sound over the channel. It was the high pitched, pre-pubecent hello from the hunter in our group.
One of the amazing parts of playing a MMORPG is the ability to play with people of different nationality, sex and age, people you would never interact with in your normal life. The interactions with people from different cultures and social backgrounds are great learning experiences, and broaden my personal horizons. My experiences with people who are much younger on the other hand, tend to only test my patience.
Age is one of the largest dividing forces in normal social interactions. When my huge extended family gets together, we all eat dinner together and then everyone seems to split up by age groups and do things in those smaller groups. I’m sure there is a theory about why this occurs, but all I know is that it is a fact of life. I think it occurs for a good reason, allowing people to interact with others in the same stage of life and who will understand each other better. MMORPGs manage to break the boundaries of this normal social division by hiding the age of players from each other completely. The advent of voice communications is changing this, but it is still possible for a 12 year old to play along side a 65 year old with neither party knowing the other’s age.
While this can be a positive thing, allowing younger people to learn that their elders are approachable and fun, the trend I have seen while playing is one of frustrating and fruitless interactions. The immaturity of these players interferes with the enjoyment of the game by the older players. Granted not all young players are immature, but age is a fairly reliable indication. This means that if I find out a player is under 17, I instantly trust them less. Experience has taught me that they may be fine and useful as anyone else, but at that time when I have to depend on them most they will break down or blow up, causing drama that is completely unnecessary.
As a guild leader and party leader, if I need to ask them to change their behavior to allow the group to succeed, or request assistance of them for the guild to progress, they are less likely to step up, and more likely to cause an issue then an older player. The level of maturity needed to take criticism and improve isn’t even attained by most adults, so expecting it from a teenager is asking too much.
Due to this experience my guild has a rule that people we recruit have to be older then 20. This rule allows us to have adult interactions, without making unfair expectations on a teen, who doesn’t have the maturity level to handle them. It is better on both parties to have less drama, and this is the easiest solution to lower the chances of it occurring. We have made one exception to this rule so far, and due to issues unrelated to age the player was asked to resign from the guild. Up until that point he had interacted fairly maturely, baring the odd “My mom says I have to get off” situation, but when we communicated our issue to him and asked him to move on, his reaction really showed his age. He argued, then begged and then didn’t respond at all. He eventually left as asked, but it reminded us again why we don’t allow younger people into the guild.
Is it fair to expect adults and teens to interact as equals in a game world where they have equal opportunity to succeed? The goal is to maximize fun for all parties in the game, so do adult and teen interactions lead to fun or drama? I think that the answers depend on the people, what do you think?
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4 comments:
Excellent post, welcome to the Round Table!
I tend to disagree with using age as a straight equivalent to maturity. For about a year I was in a guild that had players aged from 14 to 60+. Both when the guild split and the guild died, it was players who were well over 40 who were the primary drama causers.
The teenagers were more immature in little ways but they were generally willing straighten up when inappropriate behavior was pointed out to them. When the older players started acting out, they refused to back down. They were unwilling to either admit they were wrong or to simply quietly change their ways.
BTW, I'm 32 if that matters.
It's interesting... with other online (non-gaming) hobbies I've had, if I didn't know another person's age, I subconsciously assumed it was pretty close to my own. I didn't realize I was doing this until folks started posting photos of group meet-ups. There were some folks my age, but also very young teenagers and some self-described "blue-haired old ladies." What a funny surprise.
With WoW, however, I assume the vast majority of players I'll encounter are 10-15 years younger than I am. (I'm 33.) I don't use voice chat, so my assumptions are instead based on how players speak and behave. When someone types their thoughts in complete sentences, I assume they're an adult, though I'm sure that's not always the case. When someone is littering my screen with things like "im a rouge" and "U want 2 do rapor horns," I assume they are 12. (Again, I'm sure it's not always the case.) The voice chat would certainly be more telling.
(Along this topic, you might enjoy this article, too.)
@joel
I definitely agree that the maturity to age correlation depends hugely on the person and their experiences. I do agree that sometimes older folks who are set in their ways are sometimes less willing to bend to us young whippersnappers. But, I think age is the easiest question to ask to get a general idea of a person's maturity. We have the 20 year old rule, but we also have rejected plenty of immature players who were older then that, including an older gentleman with the tendency to drink too much and mouth off.
@ess
I know exactly what you mean about assuming age when dealing with people on the internet. We most easily connect with people like us, so its easier to assume they are like us until we are shown otherwise.
I agree communication style is a huge indicator of maturity, but I think it is slipping a bit. My generation has spent huge quantities of time communicating through electronic mediums like texting and IM, which have emphasis on efficiency and speed. It is easier to send three two word messages then type out a whole sentence on a phone, so even if you have to clarify your message a few times it's still more effective. My friend, Lale has a blog, Seal of Rogueshness, linked off the right hand side of this blog. I have talked to him a few times about the grammar and punctuation he uses (or doesn't) when writing the blog posts. He types like that in WoW, and that is how he communicated via text and IM all day long. He thinks it is clear and understandable. The content is more important that the way it is conveyed in his mind. I spent a couple years in journalism school, and had grammar and proper communication beat into me. I can't stand reading something that has not been written properly, if they can't put the time in to write well, why should I put time in reading it. But I cannot convince Lale of this, and his page hits are no worse then mine. I think that language is changing yet again, but I am not sure I like where it is headed. Opps... sidetracked.
I read that article, it's definitely the change that will burst this age anonymity right open. I have already experienced it and it is a very odd feeling to know that someone you have connected with is not at all how you pictured. It's a bit like watching the movie made from a book you love. The characters in the movie maybe great, but they are never the way you imagined them.
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