Blizzard raped my future

[Zarcath]

*Warning - This thread contains non-graphic sociology*

Was talking about this with a sociology major, the dicussion was based on this.

Blizzard is ignoring their obligation to society. They have so much influence over their target demographic of teenagers, impressionable minds, and are shaping these future gamers into dysfunctional people.

The Community Managers that Blizzard employs really aren't Community Managers. They're more like Business Managers. They don't take any proactive steps to improving the quality of the community, and really, why should they? Responsibilities to society don't make the bottom line of business.

It's my arguement that this approach is like having a school with deans but no teachers. These teenagers are spending an excessive amount of time playing WoW and really aren't learning anything. There's no organized activities, it's purely based on the few leaders that reside on each server. Some servers are completely lawless and are playgrounds, cess pools where b.net kiddies spawn. Other servers, more stable ones, most likely have guilds with strong community and leadership capabilities, probably dating back to their experiences in Everquest.

These people are most likely in their mid-20's, as most of the people on these boards are, we aren't really mentally enslaved to the game world, we think for ourselves.

But for the rest of them, and there are a lot (4.5 million), I think that is a reflection of the degredation society is going towards. Like that saying about how you can tell how great a civilization is by looking at their jails. The number of people playing games will only continue to increase.

Now when these teenage b.net generation reaches the "adult" world, they'll be ill-prepared, perhaps to the point where they're so inept that can't even serve your fries right. They're spending all this time in-game, with no real goals or objectives, they're not learning good work habits.

And thats why I say Blizzard raped my future. Not me personally, but for all those kids that aren't thinking for themselves. In two or three generations I think we'll really be screwed, because there will be millions of kids who are not fit for society.

In conclusion, I think Blizzard should examine each server and find stable guilds/leaders and turn them into a community leader that players can gravitate towards and learn from.

[Metranon]

yeah i'm sure if kids just had a good guild leader in WoW growing up, they would grow up to be responsible, caring individuals!

IBTR

[Iannis]

qtf ibtr etc
I also feel LucasArts and Sony are raping my future. They're just letting everyone become a jedi willy nilly, without any regards for the duties or purpose of jedi. I'd hate to live in a world where the primary police force are just a bunch of brutes who just stumbled across a policeman's badge and put it on without even knowing the law!
ps bnet kiddies, much like Myspace whores, come from an inferior gene pool. We're just lucky they don't throw their feces at us when we walk by.

[Neppy]

I don't see how WOW could possibly be worse for kids than high school.

[Zarcath]

Not saying WoW is the main reason to teenagers being idiots but it is contributing factor.

and I really thought you guys would be intrested in discussing it but it seems like you just want to call me an idiot.

[Iannis]

i was serious. I think George Lucas only depicts jedi to be assholes who found a lightsaber, yet this is a huge part of popular culture nowadays. Gaming is getting more and more about handing you alpha classes and letting you run around pwnzing, rather than giving you challenges (not that EQ's cheal chains were exactly challenging). WoW is another manifestation of that growing laziness.

get me my lightsaber. it's the one that says bad motherfucker on it!

[Metranon]

Now when these teenage b.net generation reaches the "adult" world, they'll be ill-prepared, perhaps to the point where they're so inept that can't even serve your fries right. They're spending all this time in-game, with no real goals or objectives, they're not learning good work habits.

i hate to break this to you but there are already a lot of adults out there on the market with no good work habits, no real goals or objectives, so inept that they can't even serve my fries right. (NO SALT MF'ers, i like to add it to the ketchup instead and then mix it around, that way you don't get chapped lips from eating them)

[Rune]

what the fuck, seriously this is the most retarded thing I have read in years.

and I had to take a psychology class once.

If you're going to muse idly about forces of retardation in society, try not to be one yourself.

[DisgruntledOrangatang]

It's somewhat off-base. You could say the same thing about any hobby. How is playing football (casually of course), reading books, watching television going to help land you a job or help 'prepare' you for the real world....it isn't. People spend just as much on these hobbies as WoW, so why aren't we complaining about them? Really it's based on the individual. I can raid 5 days a week and keep up on my 21 credits and still find time to party and hang with friends. I don't feel stressed at all. So how is playing WoW a lot impending me? There are too many other factors that are based on the individuals environment and psychological behavior to say it is just WoW. What about the reasons why they are playing WoW so excessively...are they neglecting their school work? Why? Etc.

And damn I will tell ya that leading a guild is A LOT like managing a project or company. My major is IST so I have some knowledge in this area and when I am in class I see so many similiarities. Also helps business majors and those related with PR.

And yes there are ALREADY plenty of inept adults out there from the previous generations. My boss for my summer job is a prime example of this. Unorganized, poor planning, and not very effecient, but they run the company...I guess pong is to blame?

[Neppy]

Not saying WoW is the main reason to teenagers being idiots but it is contributing factor.

If anything WOW makes teenagers smarter. I mean think of what your comparing it to. I would much rather have my kid play WOW than join a gang, or doing drugs with his super stupid friends after school, or wandering the street. High schools in many communties are cesspools, anything that keeps kids away from them is good in my view.

Teenagers are stupid by default - teenagers playing WOW are still stupid, but its not the worst thing they could be doing.

[Iannis]

reading books (well, real books. not Dan Brown Da Vinci Code crap) develop critical thinking, grammatical and analytical skills. Plus it means you actually know how to communicate in written medium. Something b.net kiddies need a lesson in. "u r grl? a/s/l show me ur (.Y.) plz

[Sinshiu]

Originally Posted by Rune

what the fuck, seriously this is the most retarded thing I have read in years.

and I had to take a psychology class once.

If you're going to muse idly about forces of retardation in society, try not to be one yourself.

Holy shit it's happening in this forum too. Everywhere you go on the internet these days you get people slapping their words down like law, giving no argument what so ever. Back your words up with intelligent argument or shut the fuck up.

[Sinshiu]

Now, I gotta disagree a little bit. I think a major reason you see so many bnet kiddies, is because there are more... bnet kiddies than EQ kiddies. With EQ you had very few people under 16 playing for a long time. With WoW, that's just not the case. I wouldn't know the exact numbers but the percentage of kids, ie, 10-15 years old playing WoW are a lot higher than former games.

On the flipside, I know for me EQ never did shit for me socially and WoW won't either for today's younger crowd. Especially disturbing is how big of an emphasis PVP has. Will our next business owners be more inclined to extremely hostile to competition? This is assuming they learn how to form complete sentences with whole words.

Either way I think just look really bad because there's just more young people playing.

[Metranon]

This is assuming they learn how to form complete sentences with whole words.

Will our next business owners be more inclined to extremely hostile to competition?

Either way I think just look really bad because there's just more young people playing.

Maybe you should work on that one a bit yourself.

[Sinshiu]

fare enuf kthxbye