The Best And Worst Thing About The Internet

People.

I'm going to start off from that very special quote in the linked article.

"The best thing about MMOs is that you can play with other people.

The worst thing about MMOs is that you have to play with other people."

This is true. I've played online since 2004 and this is a good summation of the MMO spectrum. Let's see if I can explain.

I was once a officer in a WoW raiding guild. I wound up raiding the entry level dungeon for about a year or so before my group actually cleared it. For those new to an MMO, that's a horrible clear time. Why did I do it? The people. The first generation of WoW players came from EQ. If you left a guild for progression you would get dirty looks like nobody's business. For some silly reason I had the moral of loyalty ingrained into me.

So then, I'm stuck in a guild. Why did I stay as a regular raider in a dead end guild that was clearly going nowhere fast instead of just pulling my power cable out? The people. For some silly reason it was genuinely entertaining to simply hang out with online people I could crack jokes to. That's why you play games right? To have fun? Silly concept. That's the main reason I play in forums too. Go figure.

So I've attempted to cover the good of people. Let's try the bad.

I want you, dear reader, to find a MMO's website and then look at their forums. You will find a compilation of people spewing vitriolic barbs of text at each other like you've never before seen. That's only the forums. The people in the game itself are far worse, it's real-time. Hell, I could probably watch a typical political debate over live television or a episode of Springer and just go "Meh, that's not a heated argument.". It's a veritable Murphy's Law of MMO players, "If you ever meet a random player during your gameplay, odds are they'll make you weep for humanity.".

So here we are. You play a MMO to swim through the muck and mire of awful people just to find the gems that give you hope. Sometimes you'll luck out on the first shot, sometimes you won't. That's really just one of the genre's features.

Personally I find the best kicker of the whole thing to be the fact that you're paying every month to enjoy this wonderful experience. So long as you get your new magical sword with glitter effects you can put up with anything.