Racists In International Gaming Communities
It’s only a matter of time before i write about this, so i might as well get this over with so i can go back to playing. I have been playing MMOG’s for years now. I play on local servers.. international servers… commercial servers… even private servers. I noticed something that didn’t me bother as much but is rly puzzling me in some way that i don’t understand.
I know that everyone is a little racist… that everyone suffers a little superiority complex when it comes to groups and subgroups. Country, race, region.. hell.. even school… Everyone who belongs to a group almost always thinks that their group is somewhat a little superior than the next one.
Living in an archipelago(multi-island country), it doesn’t rly surprise me that every person who belongs to a certain province /city/ municipality(take your pick it doesn’t rly matter which), thinks that they are somewhat different from the person who comes from a different place. Different in a way that they get treated differently than when interacting with someone who is from the same place. I don’t get it. Why do we have to be so judgmental about it. Why do we judge people based on where they are from instead of getting to know them first? Saves us time? Blargh.. I just don’t like it.
I hate being labeled. Even if the label is a good thing. I just don’t think people can be categorized. Sure it helps to understand a little about a person’s cultural background to be able to understand them better. But it just rly is plain insulting to be treated like every other person who share the same group as you do. Like for example, Filipinos have a bad reputation when it comes to international gaming communities. Most of them, especially those who live in the Philippines, are prone to grouping together and shunning everyone else out of their group. I’m not even talking about just Filipinos. Even the French do that. Sure they can make up excuses like language barriers.. but.. hell its an INTERNATIONAL community, what do they expect? Carry their own flags like other people aren’t welcome into their stupid little group. Treat same race ppl better than ppl who dnt share their race. It’s just not right.
But all hope is not lost. Which is why i still kept playing despite these little annoyances. There are still some people who keep an open mind when inside communities like these. People who are not afraid to interact with more people, with people different from them. While it is true that mmogs are the place to be if you’re looking for assholes, I also found real nice kids there.
I’m no hardcore gamer. I do not believe in playing the game just to beat other people at it. I believe in playing because of the bonds it creates among players. Someone told me that if i don’t push the game to its fullest potential i’m doing great INJUSTICE to the game developers. I don’t believe that a game was created to keep people hooked to it for the mere purpose of beating other people. We have sports for competition. Video games are becoming sport for some people, careers for others. Which suck, because i believe that we’re doing the game developers GREAT INJUSTICE by playing like assholes. Games are supposed to open our minds to different possibilities of life. Games are supposed to take us away from the monotony of everyday living. Its supposed to make us smile. Not break a sweat and make us nervous.
