Sucker for a happy ending

· by · in MMO. ·

I talk a lot about being an introvert, a hermit, a soloer for most of the time I spend in games — and while lately I’ve actually been more of a duoer, the basic principle still holds: when I’m mucking about in game, I prefer very little company. It has to be just the right company or I become crabby, overwhelmed, prone to profanity and just generally turn into a bitchy pain in the ass.

What only other introverts seem to understand, however, is that this doesn’t make me unsociable or anti-social — quite the contrary. I’m extremely sociable, it’s just that my terms for it aren’t the same as those of your average extrovert (who, making up statistics as I go along, seem to make up the bulk of the MMO population). I have a huge personal space requirement, both in real life and in virtual life. Some people get that, and others just stand on my character, or sit in front of me staring at my (virtual! FFS!) boobs and drive me to frothing annoyance.

There’s more than one way to be sociable, and one of the ways I’m sociable is by socialising in chat. And specifically guild chat. WoW wouldn’t have held me 2 weeks when I came back if I hadn’t been able to hook back up with my forever tribe, the Knights Who Say Ni — and with a subset of friends I hadn’t “seen” (you know what I mean) in years and had missed a great deal more than I’m usually willing to admit. Hell, I’ve known some of these people for over a decade now, whether I’ve met them in person or not — and one day I swear I’ll make it to an RL guild meet; I’m tired of missing out on those Las Vegas high jinx!

So when I caught Larísa’s post just now over at the Pink Pigtail Inn, I was only half surprised to find myself sniffling a bit as I reached the end of the post. It’s well worth a read, as the Pink One’s stuff always is.

We’re nothing without our friends, and I’m a little tired of explaining that how I spend my time killing shit has zero bearing on my social abilities.

It’s not what you’re playing, it’s who you’re playing it with.

PS – If you’re the one who stole my ability and desire to do walls of text, gimme it back! These short posts are just… weird.

8 responses to “Sucker for a happy ending”

  2. Pingback: /AFK: Success is in the Definition Edition « Bio Break·

  3. It will probably not come as a surprise that I also know exactly what you’re talking about. Introverts unite (and yes, extroverts, we *can* unite…being introverted doesn’t mean we can’t cooperate).

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  5. Going back to the Myer-Briggs Type Indicators, I’m pretty strong INTJ. Especially strong in the introvert-part that is.

    Coincidentally, the same MBTI type is dominant in the top performing guilds like Paragon, who actually use MBTI partly in their recruiting (at least according to the chit-chat in the net, if not their website).

    I fully understand you. I live the same reality. My socializing in games relies heavily on the feeling of being recognized and being able to trust the people over at the receiving side. But over the voip while playing I can be as social as the extrovert one: I just lack the need to put myself in front of others, take the bragging rights for something done in group or claim to know best.

    Then again, I’m very much ‘everything for the group’ kind of person. I have even written a blog post or two about how I easily ‘sacrifice’ my playing time to help someone in the guild I’m in, and most probably get more out of that than doing what I planned on doing. guild/community comes first and thus it pains me to see how the ‘leaders’ in the current (WoW) guilds/communities are misusing them for their own benefit.

    Causing the Larísa type incidents, for the progression of the guild (and boost on their own esteem).

    C out

    PS. I stole your wall of text it seems. You can have it back, if you promise not to leave it on my doorstep again.

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  7. Totally get (and remember) the need for personal space! And trying to find you has taken me into the realms of things long forgotten, but I was prompted to by the discovery of my dice at the back of a cupboard! Don’t like to do this publically (my own introverted hangups) but if you would like to catch up on real life drop me an email.

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