There is something I want to talk about in the world of gaming. I covered this more-so in the anime world but it happens in gaming as well, bullying. I know this is going to sound like whining to hardcore gamers but what I have to say I feel is important for those who enjoy gaming but cannot waste their entire time leveling all of their jobs and classes to max level and for those who really want to play RPGs for the story.
There are a few examples I have that I 
want to tell you about before I get started.
One night some of my friends and I decided to run a dungeon needed to proceed in the story quests in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Now, most dungeons up to this point were 4 people so it was very easy for some of us to get together and knock those ones out, however, this particular dungeon called for 8 people and due to real life situations like jobs and school as well as time zones, we could not get a total of 8 of us online at one time so to progress in the story we were required to run the dungeon with a few people we didn’t know.
When you run a dungeon and at least one person has never run that dungeon before, it alerts the entire party that there are people in the group that have not run the dungeon, which means that they have cutscenes to watch to be able to follow the story. If I remember correctly, we had also informed some of the players of that and stated politely that we would like to watch them. We were told to skip the cutscenes and watch them later as they rushed on without us. They went so far ahead of us that when we finally finished the cutscenes they were already battling the dungeon bosses and we were no longer able to enter the area in which the fight was happening. We were still credited with completion of the dungeon, but it seemed extremely hurtful and rude that these people couldn’t take a few minutes to wait for us to complete the cutscenes. When the last fight was over, we were greeted with messages like, “Eww, 20 min run,” indicating that they were disgusted with the fact that it took us a whole 20 minutes to complete the dungeon when we were given, I can’t remember if it’s 60, 80, or 90 minutes to complete it. Also, this happened not once, but twice in the same dungeon and we also informed the players the second time around that we would like to watch the cutscenes. However, the second time around, we only had 2 people that were strangers to us and when they rushed into the boss fight, they were not strong enough to complete it so we were forced to exit the dungeon and some of our group were penalized with not being able to re-enter the dungeon to try again for 30 minutes or so. This person decided to defend themselves by saying if we had asked to watch the cutscenes, they wouldn’t have done that. The problem is, we had asked.
The next instance was when I decided to try doing trials, or basically just boss fights, without going through an entire dungeon, while my friends couldn’t be online. I died several times and was mocked because my health was lower than other players. I do not spend my time earning digital in game money so I can have the best of the best armor. I play for the fun of it and my armor has never caused me any issues before, even in higher level dungeons. The next issue in this trial was that one player told me to pull the monster off of him by luring it to myself. I tried to do this several times, but then he would attack it again, causing it to go after him before he could be healed. He then found it appropriate to start screaming at me in the chat about it and shortly after, I was just kicked from the party.
The problem is, some people don’t know all of the right combinations, or how others prefer to play. It doesn’t take very long to speak in the chat and work everything out before heading right into battle.
I have had very good experiences as well so not all players are like this. However, to the ones that are, do you realize that you are bullying those of us who can’t spend all of our time in game? Those of us who don’t have a huge memory and cannot memorize all of the moves for every class? Those of us who may have a child sitting in our lap? A gamer can be anyone. I’ve seen very young gamers, I’ve seen very old gamers, I’ve seen single gamers, dating gamers, married gamers. I’m married and have a 3 year old at home and I enjoy playing games. But when I am treated like that it makes me so sad to think that someone out there has to bully me because they don’t know how to take a moment to communicate.
All I am asking is that the next time you game with random players, take the time, say hello, ask how they are, and discuss your battle plan. The person you are playing with may be coming back from a hiatus and may have forgotten some of the controls or moves, they may not know them all, they may have a baby running around or may need to step away for a moment to take care of that child. Just because they have a life doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get to sit down and enjoy themselves as well. So please be kind when gaming. It may seem competitive, but it will not affect your life to have your character die and need to be resurrected, only your pride.
Thanks for reading and happy gaming!
Doki-Doki Otaku 