Hey all :)
I am an old player who came back just recently, and the one thing I've always hated the most is leveling. I love being end-game, being able to help anybody... However, as I can't exactly skip it (donating is not possible from my country, idk why), I got into it slowly. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice lowbies are to each other, but that being said, I was constantly camped by lvl 80s in every area, from lvl 5 to lvl 79. It really got me thinking...why do people do that? I'm somebody who loves psychology, so I wanted to really get into this.
1. Let's start with something simple. There are probably kids who still live in the "everything red must be dead" mentality, so when they are bored, they go searching for it. And as kids tend to be bullies more than adults, they are more likely to pick on easy targets, lowbies.
2. A guy told me today that being camped every day motivates him to level faster just so he can do the same to the opposing faction. I see this as "be mistreated=grow up to mistreat", which is quite common in real life as well. If you have bad parents, you will either grow up to become just like them, or you will grow up to be what you needed. For example, I'd say "I can't wait to level up so I can help lowbies by killing those who camp them", while he's more focused on the equal punishment.
3. Now, here is the part that campers hate the most - I'd say that those who kill lowbies, for no other reason than existence, have some actual psychological issues. For instance, there was a guy that wouldn't even kill me instantly - he would auto hit me and watch me die slowly, as if he actually enjoyed prolonging the death. Then, of course, there are those who actually camp you, and killing you once is not enough, they have to do it over and over, even though you didn't actually do anything to them. Some could say that those are mild signs of some sort of psychopathy - there are no real-life consequences, but torturing somebody who can't defend themselves...you get where I'm coming from.
It doesn't have to be psychopathy, though. It can also be depression, lack of self-esteem, perhaps being bullied in real life... my point is that they are deeply unhappy and have the need to make others unhappy too. Like 2. - for some reason, they feel like ****, so instead of making others feel the way they wish they felt, they choose to make others feel ****ty too.
4. Another possibility is the need for validation. Maybe they are bad in fair-play, they are bad in pvp in general, and maybe they are too competitive, and they need to show their dominance in any way they can. Unfortunately for them and for lowbies, the only way for them to do that is to kill those that are objectively weaker.
5. Trolls. Although, I'd argue that trolls are also mentally unstable. Their only aim is to annoy, but consciously wanting to annoy somebody, for me, is a sign of mental instability. There is no reason a mentally stable person would want to be annoying in any normal situation. A mentally stable person doesn't see a lowbie and think "let's waste his time by killing him because I'm bored".
What do you think? Any other reasons you'd add? And before all the campers say "so salty, cry more", nah, I actually became quite indifferent to it emotionally. However, I do find it fascinating from a psychological and sociological perspective, and analyzing it like this helps me, well, I wouldn't say "pity" those who kill me, but sort of understand why they feel the need to. And if you're being camped, maybe this can help you too.
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Member
The psychology of camping lowbies
Edited: December 6, 2019
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Member
There are other reasons like obsessive compulsive behavior which is in example my case; I have 3 80's and except the warrior, the warlock and the paladin are fully geared in PvP, in a legit way, which means that I mostly enjoy arenas and not battlegrounds too much, that I enjoy fair world pvp but I don't enjoy killing someone that can't defend himself. However... There is a particular thing that makes me kill lowbies which is either their guild name or their nickname.
Call me old fashioned, call me nerd, call me roleplayer, I don't care. I have my sense of humour too and I will giggle at a rogue named colonoscopy, analconda or funny names like that and avoid killing them. But when I see names that are a random word they picked by opening a random page in the dictionary I just kill them, and if I can kill them twice or thrice I do it.
Like what the ****? This is an rpg, don't try to act like you're some sort of "pro" or whatever your delusion says. You are in a world where back in the day we were marginalized at school for being this way, so don't even try to make it "cool" which in the end it makes it even more stupid to me, seriously is that hard to come up with a fantasy name? even if it's the most generic one, really? Why name your character "Abusively", that's not a name it's a word. What do you mean by naming your character that? That you are indeed abusively in real life? that your rogue is abusively? What's your point? Why do you think a word can be used a name? Do you know anyone in real life named "insurance" or some **** like that? It's just rage fuel, I don't know why, maybe a psychologist would tell me why, but I hate them all, I don't know them but I already dislike them and I feel this urge to ruin a few minutes of their ingame life.
I can understand it in the forums, completely. But in your character? A character that you will use for atleast 100 hours of your life? really a word is the best thing you could come up with?
But hey that's just me, I'm sure others have similar isolated reasons that are valid too, you may agree or disagree but you can't deny that I got a point on why I do this, whether is right or wrong.
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Moderator
That's not old fashioned. The term you're looking for is "double standard."
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Member
Lol Obnoxious, this guy would be killing you over and over if that were your in-game name too xD Personally, I think there are words that sound nice, poetic even. I used to have a champ called "Reminiscence", for example.
Amdus, it sounds like you're trying to force them into your idea of how a fantasy society should look, so you don't want to see any signs of "reality" in it. And since you can't change their name, you want to kill them. Interesting indeed, the first time I hear that reason.
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Member
Reasons:
1) To make the lowbies call for help and bait enemy 80s in the zone for some world pvp.
2) Because it's fun.
3) Because that's how the game works, it is about war and enemy factions.
4) Because of the big rewards, like this kind of threads.
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Member
Nah because a rogue named colonoscopy is literally a pain in the ***, that's what rogues are most of the times, sap, stun, stun, stun, stun, vanish, stealth, re-sap, first aid, stealth and repeat. Or if you make a mage called "Madgician" or a druid tank called Beertank etc... There's the intention to be funny, which I find different. Wasn't directed towards you anyways, it's totally different for the forums, there's no immersion here and after all a lot of people have literally their account names, some with numbers even and I mean overall it's a complete different thing. But that's just my opinion.
No, I'm not trying to force anything on anyone, it was okay when there were 5-10 per realm that had that type of names, but now I find that there are just way too many, thousands; And at this point I just find it cringy, I know we all want to be special, but you demonstrate more creativity and uniqueness when you come up with a name, even if it's a funny wordgame, rather than picking a random word that sounds pedantic or "special". But again that's just my opinion.
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Moderator
Oh I know it wasn't directed at me at all. I generally use actual names for characters. But the point is those names you consider acceptable because they're funny still aren't proper fantasy names, they are just words, and some for things that wouldn't even exist in the game universe, so it isn't all that much about "this is an RPG" but "I like that."
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Member
Yeah I guess you could say I make that particular exception for cases were they take out a smirk from me.
What about you Obnoxious, do you kill lowbies too and why?
On a side note @Callisto93, there's a lot of people that camps lowbies as a revenge for all the times they have been camped. Some of them are religiously dedicated to their task, and you can find them at their usual spot. I recall this is the answer a nelf hunter gave me, when I was leveling a horde character. Maybe you could add this one as one of the most common ones.
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Moderator
I haven't played in a long time, but no, I don't. For one, PvP looks and feels silly to me, but if by any chance I was drunk and hit my head to the point of severe brain damage and wanted to do it, I'd go for Arenas or Battlegrounds, where everyone is in fact after that. It's a game, people are in it for fun just like I am, and I don't create mine by ruining others'.
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Member
I did write it, that's exactly my 2., doing it because somebody did it to you.
Drunkuser also covered 1,3, and 5 again. Only your reason was actually new, annoyance with the name.
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Forum Veteran
although i don't do it as much anymore, back when i did it was to 1. piss people off, 2. laugh at their hate messages. and sometimes 3. just to blow off steam. i do try to not kill the same person more tho in most cases. unless you /spit at me. then i will write your name down and kill you anytime i see you.
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Member
But has that ever happened? I hardly see the same person twice. Too many alts @_@
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Forum Veteran
when i go lowbie killing i go to hellfire, so it's easier to see the same person twice. plus as a hunter i can track humanoids, easier to find my targets lol.
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Banned
There’s only one truthful answer to why they do it:
E m p t y P a n t sEdited: December 12, 2019
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Member
Kinda like the reason behind getting a big car, I agree with that aswell. One thing is to kill a lowbie from time to time, the other is to dedicate 4-5hrs a day camping them :S
What about you Nib, have you been killing lowbies too? Santa will deliver a lot of coal, word!
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