This
Got this from an comment in an arstechnica article. Sooooo fucking true.
I played EQ and I played WoW (along with a handful of other acronyms) and except for rare circumstances, they all have toxic communities about a year after launch. I was on WoW before they did cross server, and it was horrible then as well.
Here is the issue, you have three kinds of players: players new to the genre, players new to the game but familiar with MMOs, and players that have been playing the current game for a while. New MMOs do not have any of the latter players yet. As an MMO ages, you get more of the last category and fewer of the first two. The trouble is that it is usually the second category that is patient with the first.
After an MMO ages, people in the second category move into the third. They've been playing the game for a while, most people know what they are doing and proceed with various levels of success. But the term "infinite patience" is often an exaggeration. How many times can a group get wiped by the actions of a newbie before someone tells themselves, "It isn't worth it, I'm just going to try and play with people who know what they are doing for now on. There are enough of them around now, I shouldn't have to be the one that always takes the bullet and has to teach people how to play. I've done it over and over and somehow I'm always the one getting killed when they overpull (or whatever)."
And that works for a while, but then a newbie slips into their group under their radar. Perhaps it's the friend of someone they grouped with before, or someone who has a name very close to someone they grouped with before. And this person is hot crap in the lower level solo zones, but when it comes to "Playing well with others" they didn't pass.
BOOM
That is where you get the epic blow ups, the I'm-sick-of-this-crap, the noob hate. And this isn't a rare circumstance. It happens over and over and over until it has happened to almost everyone. Most WoW veterans will tell you they don't play with PUGs (Pick-Up-Groups, groups that have formed from random people). That isn't to say that you won't find good samaritans, just that they are few and far between in a mature MMO.
And then we get to grievers (or griefers if you prefer). The same type of person who bought Skyrim on the PC, found you can add skills, levels, perks and items through the console, gave themselves everything, then got tired of the game in one week... those people buy MMOs as well. When someone is tired of playing the game, the begin to play the players. This also take a while from launch before this type of person gets tired. But you know they are coming. Like a small (ugly) boy making faces through the glass at a zoo, they are usually in it to get a reaction. Someone who has little impulse control, and an overwhelming feeling of lack of control of their surroundings, usually likes the idea that they can reach out and upset someone else with no repercussions. It often doesn't even matter who they make feel worse, as long as they've ruined someones day, they feel better that they aren't the lowest on the totem pole for a few minutes. But it doesn't last and they have to go in and upset someone else. And the cycle continues.
-Kellic
I played EQ and I played WoW (along with a handful of other acronyms) and except for rare circumstances, they all have toxic communities about a year after launch. I was on WoW before they did cross server, and it was horrible then as well.
Here is the issue, you have three kinds of players: players new to the genre, players new to the game but familiar with MMOs, and players that have been playing the current game for a while. New MMOs do not have any of the latter players yet. As an MMO ages, you get more of the last category and fewer of the first two. The trouble is that it is usually the second category that is patient with the first.
After an MMO ages, people in the second category move into the third. They've been playing the game for a while, most people know what they are doing and proceed with various levels of success. But the term "infinite patience" is often an exaggeration. How many times can a group get wiped by the actions of a newbie before someone tells themselves, "It isn't worth it, I'm just going to try and play with people who know what they are doing for now on. There are enough of them around now, I shouldn't have to be the one that always takes the bullet and has to teach people how to play. I've done it over and over and somehow I'm always the one getting killed when they overpull (or whatever)."
And that works for a while, but then a newbie slips into their group under their radar. Perhaps it's the friend of someone they grouped with before, or someone who has a name very close to someone they grouped with before. And this person is hot crap in the lower level solo zones, but when it comes to "Playing well with others" they didn't pass.
BOOM
That is where you get the epic blow ups, the I'm-sick-of-this-crap, the noob hate. And this isn't a rare circumstance. It happens over and over and over until it has happened to almost everyone. Most WoW veterans will tell you they don't play with PUGs (Pick-Up-Groups, groups that have formed from random people). That isn't to say that you won't find good samaritans, just that they are few and far between in a mature MMO.
And then we get to grievers (or griefers if you prefer). The same type of person who bought Skyrim on the PC, found you can add skills, levels, perks and items through the console, gave themselves everything, then got tired of the game in one week... those people buy MMOs as well. When someone is tired of playing the game, the begin to play the players. This also take a while from launch before this type of person gets tired. But you know they are coming. Like a small (ugly) boy making faces through the glass at a zoo, they are usually in it to get a reaction. Someone who has little impulse control, and an overwhelming feeling of lack of control of their surroundings, usually likes the idea that they can reach out and upset someone else with no repercussions. It often doesn't even matter who they make feel worse, as long as they've ruined someones day, they feel better that they aren't the lowest on the totem pole for a few minutes. But it doesn't last and they have to go in and upset someone else. And the cycle continues.
-Kellic