I've been on Warmane for 1 month now - my take on it

[Melektausx]

The racism, xenophobis, mysogyny is what makes this server great. True free speech and open playstyle. If it bothers you there is an ignore function.

[Kovachut]

Man, some of you guys are trying so hard to make it seem like some people aren't behaving horribly on here.

I played WoTLK when it was live. I did all of this stuff 12-13 years ago. Assuming that I'm new to WoW is the wrong assumption. I've played across a boat load of servers, different private servers, and different MMORPGs.

Warmane has a toxicity problem. Ironically some of these replies are showing signs of exactly what I'm talking about.

If I may, I'd like to say that I've seen exactly these type of comments in the past - some individuals having a prejudice against warmane or private servers in general for one reason or another. Be it for the coin shop, the "community", or the bad scripting - there was an issue someone was bothered with, so they wanted to express their opinion on various forums or on youtube videos and make said things sound like the worst out there.

It's free content. That's what it is, and it's accessible by everyone. It's not perfect, it's not inhabited by perfect individuals, and the posters here didn't defend, nor dismiss the presence of malevolent behaviour. VVe just told you to look past the bad examples and to look for people, who would make your gaming experience enjoyable. That's why I stressed on the importance of good guilds, where only certain individuals are permitted to stay. There isn't an ingame filter, that can remove the litter and purge the community of the toxicity. It's exactly like in real life - you meet people on the street, some of those are disciplined, others act as pricks. Both of these groups have the legal right to walk freely in the city. You aren't forced to stick with them all, you have the freedom to decide who would be in your circle of friends. If a certain neighbourhood consists of too many people you don't like, you can always change it - just like you can change guilds and meet new people there (changing guilds isn't tied to any financial expenses unlike the aforementioned allegory, so there's really nothing stopping you from doing that).

If you don't see it that way, then no post can convince you of the opposite. Everything we write would only "show signs of exactly what you are talking about". If that's really the case, and if the majority of players here make your game time miserable, then I wish you everything good with the other communities. My final wish isn't sarcastic btw, I am honest with it.

[Start2]

The racism, xenophobis, mysogyny is what makes this server great.

:/

I mean yeah, great for people like you, obviously.

[worstbutbestlol]

thing is on blizzard servers people actually get suspended/banned for being toxic unlike in warmane where you are told to just /ignore them
so people are more likely to show their true nature in warmane then they are on official servers
it's as simple as that tbh

[angrylol]

Define "toxic"

[Kovachut]

in warmane you are told to just /ignore them
so people are more likely to show their true nature in warmane then they are on official servers
it's as simple as that tbh

Tbh, I agree with this statement. I'm going to confess something - in the past I tried to be a white knight and reported some players when they used offensive words in chat. Honestly, I wasn't offended at all, but I wanted the rules to be followed:

http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=65037
(the paragraph regarding social mistreatment)

and to discourage toxic behaviour. I submited a report, and I was also told about the /ignore feature. This led to a small dispute with a GM, but it took me some time to realise something - the GM staff isn't the same as on the official servers. It's much smaller, and people here are puting work in this project during their free time. They can't be bothered with meaningless replies every so often.

I don't know whether warmane's homepage depicts the actual number of active players online, but I'm going to accept it in this post. So, we have more than 12k players on Icecrown alone. How many of those would file a report? How often? If some players have alts, can they also write tickets on their other characters? I can't make a clear prediction, but I can safely assume that the amount is huge. It doesn't help the fact that some people don't go to the forums, in order to inform themselves about how to send tickets properly and find resolution of some common issues. Instead, they submit such, which are 1) written in a language other than English, 2) reports of something or someone without providing the necessary proof, 3) complaints about the ingame Character Unstuck option not working properly and God knows what else. As you can see, those meaningless reports only burden the GMs and create unnecessary work, which wastes time. Here's another question - in your opinion, how many GMs are assigned to read and respond to those tickets? I'd say a few, and they don't fulfil that task 24/7, just so the playerbase would be satisfied. They are human after all. Now imagine if toxic behaviour were a genuine bannable offence (there's still "harassment", but that covers severe cases). The amount of reports would increase immensely, which would further burden the GMs and delay their ticket responses.

[Shred92]

thing is on blizzard servers people actually get suspended/banned for being toxic

That is false.

[vvarrior94]

The part starting especially at 3:13~ says it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIu...l=distortion09


Vocal minority being butthurt.

Also, been playing here for 6-7 years now, have yet to actually meet legit toxic people, have met alot of dumb people tho.

[TheRealBief]

Man, some of you guys are trying so hard to make it seem like some people aren't behaving horribly on here.

I played WoTLK when it was live. I did all of this stuff 12-13 years ago. Assuming that I'm new to WoW is the wrong assumption. I've played across a boat load of servers, different private servers, and different MMORPGs.

Warmane has a toxicity problem. Ironically some of these replies are showing signs of exactly what I'm talking about.

I've also noticed a great deal of toxicity, but at the same time, I've found a great many players who hate that toxicity, and in fact my friends list is full and spans multiple toons across my 8 or 9 accounts.

Unfortunately, they're not all in my guild, and ofc they will raid with their own guild, not pugging with friends. This is just how it goes.
Without trying to sound bigoted in any way, I suspect the toxicity problem originates from a few places:

1) Young people from the western countries, where (as is the case here in the USA) toxicity has become a social norm.

2) Foreign countries which may be experiencing major social or political problems leading to a general bad attitude. Imagine some poor soul trying to play here from Israel or Gaza... "Hurry, get to the bomb shelter!" "But mommmmm...we're fighting Saurfang!"
Or imagine someone from a poor country with a bad connection or old crappy computer, trying to compete with people who can afford better. Toxicity seed planted.

3) People who play FPS games (such as Counter-strike, which is 90%+ toxic turdhats), and who come to this game not caring for the "social" aspect, but rather for the "anti-social" aspect. This includes those types who spend days on end camping the starting zones. I admit, I've ganked in every city in the game, and Blizzard removed dishonorable "civilian kills" from the game after I camped Astranaar for a couple of months, and ended up with negative honor. These days, however, I try to be more civil. I will help a lowbie who's about to be killed by a mob, regardless of which faction they're on. People are always grateful when you save their life, you may be surprised how effective a little kindness can be.

4) Unhappy people who are toxic IRL, and like to use games like this to humiliate and debase others.

Sorry to rant, I type very fast and don't know when to stop. Essentially, the majority of the toxicity I've noticed is caused by griefers, and the inability to defend against them. For example...my moonkin was camped by 5 alliance one day. I went afk and watched a half-hour TV show. When I came back, they were still there, with a thumbs-down flag firmly planted between my cheeks. I can't recall how long they camped me, but I do remember what me and the others attempting to defend Gadgetzan witnessed. Alliance brought in 60 people to wipe us out. We counted them on an ally spy alt.
Did that make me toxic? It made me WANT to be toxic, but not to lowbies, just to those griefers. Lacking the gs and manpower to accomplish that, I gave up and accepted it like a middle school kid bullied by a group can do nothing but go away as fast as possible at the first opportunity. That's what it feels like. Bullying. It's one thing to kill someone in a video game, but to stand there and camp them for an hour or 3 hours (as has happened to me when levelling) borders on sociopathy or psychopathy. Such people need their heads examined by a qualified professional.

HOW TO FIX IT:
Here's a suggestion. If someone camps / griefs you, make a toon on the other faction (or better yet, have one ready at level 10+ so you can chat) and just talk to them. Don't be a jerk, don't blow up on them. They already know you're mad, and probably expect insults and anger, which will only make them more happy to have camped you, and will encourage them to do it more often. Instead, be kind to them, tell them the things they did that were funny, maybe you died in a funny position or slipped off a cliff on accident, whatever it may be. Maybe they did some slick move that looked pro. Give them the compliment they rightly earned. Treat them like they're your friend IRL, because chances are they may not have any IRL, and maybe they even assume everyone is toxic and that they were just eradicating alts of jerks who once grieved them. That being said, some of them are truly just toxic turdhats, and don't deserve a minute of your time. However, most are cool when you talk to them, and you may find a friend on the opposite faction whom you previously considered a nemesis. Have you played First Person Shooters? They're all Red vs Blue, this is the paradigm they use to brainwash you into accepting the false enmity the game demands. "Those dirty alliance scum!" "Stupid noob horde!" are bad generalizations people make based on this paradigm. I hate getting shot in counter-strike by those dirty T's, but if the game auto-switches me, I hate getting shot by those dirty CT's. What does it matter? The goal is to play a game. Enjoy it. If you find you don't because of the players, find other players, or get off your high-horse. Everyone is evil, and toxicity manifests itself in everyone from time to time. Don't let it ruin your experience.
Damn, I cheered myself up somehow. This isn't the rant I originally wanted to rant about...but it'll do for now. :D

[Shred92]

I saw you the other day in a bg and you play on Lordaeron. My experience with Lordaeron players (from the NEW Lordaeron I mean, what an idea it was to reuse a realm's name!) in battlegrounds (which is the only moment I have to be with them) has been absolutely subpar, especially during hours where large numbers of South Americans play. Obviously I can't verify but I wouldn't be surprised to see players in Icecrown are simply older in average.

[Vilya]

Tl;dr;
People act like animals in the internet.

Yep.

So find an guild with people that suits You (or create one).

I dont know what You except from thousands of random people playing MMO game, when they are from different country, different age, different status etc.

And learn not to be offended by everything, life's not a fairytale.

[Black2ck]

Sexism and homophobie are quite common in the gamer scene.
Probably like 80% of our playerbase consist of sexual frustrated males.
So it's no surprise that many players here have a low self estseem and thus feel the urge to bash minorities.

[rubyridge]

I'm not sure how old you are, nor am I implying that you sound naive or immature --but this is how unregulated communities are.
It's like this in OSRS (Oldschool runescape)
it's like this on private servers especially.
It may be a shock to younger guys, but without speech police, banter gets wild and the social contract amidst this anarchy is that
everyone knows it's all a joke.
2 of these kids might actually be 'racists'. They mean nothing and effect nothing.