Originally by: Dark Shikari

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Originally by: Nev Clavain

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I find this topic interesting and would like a discusion on it. I post it here mainly to avoid hurting personal feelings and starting a flamewar in someone else's topic.

I would like to discuss the implications and relations between a person's online character and their real-life. First of all I want to make it clear that I am not qualified to make psychiatric assessments of any kind so what follows is purely the opinion of a layman.

Many people will use a game such as this to behave in a way that is generally arrogant, aloof, condescending and derogatory to others. Often a response to this kind of behaviour is that the person must have a sad 'real-life.' However these people will respond by saying you don't know about my real life I am succesful and happy, I am just role-playing, it's a game blahblahblah etc.

Personally I do not believe a distinction can be made in this case. If you must use the medium of a game to beat your own chest or behave like an ass, I believe it very much reflects upon your 'real life'. Playing a game after all is part of your life, and the character you project is part of you operating in a different set of social rules and circumstances.

I believe that if you feel the need to be rude and disrespectful to someone in a game, it is your life outside the game that is the prime mover in this type of behaviour. People will always deny this, but to be frank, I do not believe them. The chest-beating type is never going to turn around and admit he lives a sad existence, from which the only escape they can find is to be some kind of online tough guy.

This doesnt mean a person who plays a pirate has a bad life, it means someone who plays a pirate and then, unprovoked, is derogatory to his victims, has a bad life at least in their own minds.

If you want people to think you are happy, you should behave as if you are happy. People that are secure in themselves, do not need to knock down other people, even in the context of a game.

So what do people think? Delusional ramblings, or making sense?

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From what I've found, the people who have problems in real life are those who complain about "griefers" and whine constantly about how the griefers have problems in real life.

The so-called "griefers" are perfectly normal.

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