Rogues are such assholes. God, could that paladin be any more elitist?
Even in the world of Azeroth, the class (or specialization in combat) that people choose to play carries more than just armor and a bag full of food and gold. Characters within the game are also subject to judgement or impressions formed by other players around them. These judgements can sometimes be group schemas (i.e., stereotypes) about what these players are like.
Although some people act in ways that hold a stereotype to be true (i.e., a lot of people that play paladins do seem to be elitist and cocky), how much of the stereotype being true is based on the assumption that we expect a person to act in a stereotypical way?
One answer offered by social psychologists is that we are being affected by a self-fulfilling prophecy (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). When we have expectations about a person, our expectations guide us to interpret their behavior in ways that confirm the expectation we hold. In short, if you expect someone to act cocky and foolish, you interpret their behavior to be cocky and foolish. As a result, you think to yourself, "I am so right about that person, they are cocky and foolish". Your expectation (i.e., prophecy) of their behavior becomes fulfilled.
Even a real world concept such as the self-fulfilling prophecy can carry over to virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft but there's been many a time where my stereotype and expectation of a player has shaped the way I interact with them, eventually acting in ways that are exactly how I expected them to be.
The video I posted above plays on some of the most popular stereotypes of each class in World of Warcraft. Some of the most prolific are that: players who play paladins are usually elitist, cocky, and love to show-off, rogues are stealthy, sneaky and will always go for a cheap-shot at someone and people who play hunters are (who are often called hunTARDS) are usually very young (i.e., age-wise) and never know what they are suppose to be doing. Using these stereotypes, I have interacted with many players with these set of assumptions.
For example, because I have the assumption that hunters are usually going to be dumb players if a hunter asks me a question about gameplay or strategy I will usually roll my eyes, sigh and answer the question with an obvious tone of annoyance. I think to myself, "Of course I get the huntard that doesn't know a thing". Thus, even something as common as asking a question is filtered through my prophecy that all hunters are dumb and I conclude that in fact, all hunters are dumb.
n = 453
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the
classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development. New York,
NY US: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
So, I’m not an avid WoW player, but I have had similar experiences as you when gaming online. There’s a game I liked called Journey, in which explore this world and meet other online players along the way. There is no way to verbally communicate with the other players, but almost immediately people will form an impression of each other. The ways in which you act in the game determine whether the other player will “Journey” with you, and often times, if you assume the other player will slow you down, you leave them behind. It is interesting to see if there are any self-fulfilling prophecies coming into play in the game..... perhaps if you thought the player would be helpful to the game, they will actually become so.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I have met several people online through various social networking sites. I have assumed some people to be less intelligent or stubborn as a judgement I made viewing their profile. When I meet them, they often confirm this assumption I had. Or do they really? Perhaps my expectations have formed a schema of how the person is, and my impression of them cannot be easily changed even after I meet them in person. Hmmm.
in which you explore this world*.... agh typos galore!
ReplyDeleteThe expectations do make it especially fun when someone creates a character that deliberately defies those expectations--the evil cleric, the gentle but neurotic rogue, the surprisingly down-to-earth sorcerer (sorry for the D&D classes, I'm not as familiar with WoD ones). I see that out-of-game too with the expectations of what characters people will play; people expect gentle people to want to play bards or clerics, big people to play fighter classes, etc., instead of remembering that RPG's are the way that we get to be exactly what we're NOT in the real world. Great example!
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