Oh, Grow Up!

Throughout my gaming life, I've heard many people say this very thing to many, many different people. Yet, I've often wondered if it were possible for someone to magically grow up, just because someone tells them to. After a bit of research, I think not :P It does, however point out one interesting aspect of MMOs--Not everyone is in the same age range, or maturity range.

At 38, I'm probably one of the older gamers you'll find around. As many folks will tell you, I often act more like I'm a teenager :P "Act your age" is a common phrase I hear directed at me, but I don't wanna, so there :P

I have noticed, however, that the age differences among gamers can be a sore spot for many. The younger folks want the older ones to loosen up, and the older ones want the younger ones to grow up. It makes for a unique situation, doesn't it?

Maybe not as unique as you may be thinking. Every day in our lives, we are forced to interact with a variety of people of all ages, races, and creeds. From our jobs to where we shop, we meet people. We may not always interact with them, but we do meet them, and we judge them.

It's human nature to judge, and it's a bad part of our nature. We see someone, and our minds are already hard at work, trying to classify them. We walk down the street at night and see a man in a tattered suit staggering down the opposite side of the street, and our minds immediately think "bum." However, that may not be the case. It could be that he was mugged and beaten. It does happen even if we don't want to think about it.

In the MMO world, we do much the same thing. For many of us older gamers, we see leet-speak, also known as l33t, and we're quick to write that person off as someone we don't want to bother with. Many people get hung up on abbreviations such as "u" instead of "you". They're biases that we all have, and they're not restricted to the older gamers.

The younger gamers have their own biases as well. Many will see someone taking the game "too seriously" and decide they don't want to deal with them. Oddly, some of them don't like it when people type out "you" instead of using "u". This complete reversal between the mature gamer's and the teenager's views on how to type properly in an MMO is perhaps the greatest indicator of the problems between them.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. I know many people in a variety of age ranges who actually *gasp* get along! How do they do it, you ask? It's not as hard as you think.

Start by thinking about your own behaviors. Why does it piss you off every time someone says "u"? Are you taking things too seriously?

I know I sometimes take things far more seriously that I should, and I think a lot of us do. Perhaps this is a good lesson for us older gamers to take from the younger generation, and lighten up a bit. Likewise, the younger generation can stand to learn a lot from the older generation, such as how to become a solid team player.

Many mature gamers seem to have a natural affinity for working in teams. Instead of just throwing a bunch of random people together and running off, we're more likely to take a few minutes to get organized and define everyone's roles clearly before setting out. So, we have the group that grabs whoever it can find, and the one that chooses people to increase the strengths of those already in it, and cover for their weaknesses. Care to guess which one is more likely to survive the quest?

In the end, perhaps the best thing we can do is the same thing we should do in our every day life. We should just accept the way the person is, and go from there. If you don't want to deal with them, then don't. However, I think many of us could do without calling each other names. That behavior only serves to damage the community, so think before you speak.