Can We All Just Get Along?

Please read if you have seen the hate posts which have recently been trending on our forums. Read especially if you have or thought of participating in the ongoing hate.

I know that I have made posts like this before, but I feel like this cannot be stressed enough.

Life is hard.

That statement is true for every single person living on this planet. The difficultly varies from person to person but trust me, every person is living with demons in their shadows and pain in their hearts. 

Many of the more privileged of us are able to turn to things such as the internet and online video games, because they can connect to a person or even to a community of those with similar problems. Or, simply, they can connect you with a friend.

Internet friendships are real, regardless of what some of the older generation would like to claim. The sense of camaraderie and closeness exists, and the added sense of anonymity can help those who otherwise are terrified to talk to anyone else, for fear of being judged.

Unfortunately, there is a dark flip-side to this kind community and even more unfortunate, this dark, hate-filled cesspool seems to be much larger and more willing to rear its ugly head versus its kind brethren.

Especially in this game.

Never, in all of my years of internet browsing, have I found such a group of openly angry and spiteful people who publicly harass and relentlessly tease to the point where it seems the community has meshed into this huge nightmare creature hellbent that targets a different person everyday. They choose to spread their hate behind avatars and pseudonyms, thinking that will justify their need to hatemonger. 

It doesn't but they don't care. 

Just like they did recently.

The GMs were quick to close that topic and even they seemed disheartened by the sheer amount of hate posted in that short amount of time. Many of us thought that would be the end of it and that we could go on our merry way, once more reminded that our happy community is not at all what it seems.

Then someone had the audacity to open another post about it. After the GMs basically said "Come on, guys, this is stupid. Don't hate on players and especially don't single out a specific character."

I don't understand why they needed to voice their hate. They could have kept it to themselves or if they really needed to spew it where others could see it, post it on a blog. Not cut open old wounds just so they can get their two cents in. 

Yes, you may not like a certain person or not agree with them, but come on, people. Must you sit there and belittle someone over a game? They do not directly affect your gameplay in anyway unless you let them. You do not have to follow their guides nor do you actually have to read anything that they post. The game has a "Reject Community" feature for a reason.

But instead, you have people who sit there and allow themselves to be riled up over it and then justify their cyber bullying with frankly idiotic reasons.

Have any of you sat down and had a real conversation with the people you are bashing? Not confronting them about their ideas or their posts but just spoke with them, one on one? 

Please don't make assumptions about people before you encounter them yourselves.

The entire community is not a horrible cesspool of hate, and I'd like to believe that it is actually just a tiny fraction of our already tiny community that likes to spread this malice but the few people who do try to take a stand are squashed almost instantly and their comments are disregarded.

Or the opposite happens, and you have people turn their rabid hatred on the person defending and suddenly, that person's life is a living hell merely because they choose to voice their opinion on a public forum.

I bet that if I were to post something similar to this post to the forums, I would get lit up with angry comments and told how "wrong" I am. But I would like to believe that I am not, that I am sadly very right on this issue.

To put bluntly, I am fed up with this part of the community. As individuals, I have found many of you wonderful and kind and I enjoy speaking with you, but as a group, as one entity, it is toxic and makes me ill to my stomach.