Forum post of the day: Get thee behind me, Satanic raiding guilds!
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
May 28th 2007 at 8:58PM
I have long awaited the day when Saristinae, the Guild Relations forum troll that gets me angry beyond comprehension, would venture out to the General forums and get flamed into a crisp. And forsooth, that day has arrived.
For those of you unfamiliar with the WOW Forums, casuals vs. raiders is one of the big arguments that always crops up on the forums. And if casuals vs. raiders could be compared to, say, Republicans vs. Democrats, Saristinae would be Fred Phelps, doggedly protesting everything without making any sense at all.
Now, I'm not a hardcore raider -- I'd wager I fall somewhere on the line between casual and raider -- but Saristinae's arguments make me incandescent with rage. Basically, he believes everyone who ever considers themself superior to another person, in any way, shape or form, is evil. Not just bad, EVIL. And SATANIC. And raiding guilds, by the process of being proud about their progression and not accepting every single recruit, are the forefront of EVIL in WOW. WOW is apparently a moral battlefield between the forces of good equality and evil exclusivity. Oh, and to see any of the content you apparently have to be a "sexist European."
Some wonderful quotes:
- "So, your sense of self worth depends on other people being below you? By people losing? That, my friend, is what we call a superiority complex. And it is wrong and evil."
- "Unfortunately, I don't think that 25 people in this game exist who aren't either megalomaniacs, loot !*#%#s, or just plain evil."
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
melo May 28th 2007 9:47PM
Has anyone noticed all the hidden satanic messages in this game? for once, that I oddly often hit for 666 or when I was leveling, I often got 666 xp. And not to mention the pentagram in blood furnance. I believe there is more of this stuff, that I prob havent seen yet. But yeah.. I rly don't know what to think.
Rich May 28th 2007 10:14PM
I avoided the forums like a plague, so I've never had the chance to experience Saristinae. I have to admit that was the best post I've ever read. Saristinae is my hero...
Why?
Cause they all fell for it!!!! LMAO
Matt Rossi May 28th 2007 10:14PM
I think we can all agree that Satan would be a major accomplishment for Nihilum.
Rich May 28th 2007 10:15PM
I think the last thing this guy needs is publicity from your blog.
MyNameIsSuperior May 28th 2007 10:49PM
Would you say that this Saristinae's hatred for raiding is only surpassed by the depth of his/her own inferiority complex?
I mean, anyone who fears/hates anyone else who might be "better" has some serious self-esteem issues -- maybe he was abused as a child? Or maybe he's fat and/or ugly -- come on, everyone knows that anyone who plays WoW is either fat, ugly, or both! If you weren't, you would have a social life and won't have time for WoW! WoW players are "interesting" in
that way, I think...
I, for one, am someone who considers myself far superior to everyone (especially Wow Players, come on!) in every way. Perhaps, he/she is a "worthy" (*raspberries*) trollee for my brand of
superiority complex.
Update:
Bah, I guess I can't comment in the forums without a WoW account...
robot rock May 30th 2007 3:24AM
You actually wasted a wowinsider blog entry on this? Put it on your personal blog....
Savok May 28th 2007 11:20PM
"Very few people enjoy being called evil fascist dictators"
Not true, any self respecting RWDB (Right-Wing Death Beast) wears the term as a badge of honor when spewed from the gullet of some lefty that thinks the West should be destroyed.
And lets face it, Saristinae is likely watching Loose Change and nodding his head as we speak.
theRaptor May 29th 2007 12:05AM
Why publicise a troll? The only thing trolls want is publicity.
And why even be angry with this (slightly) intellectual troll? By his own words he violates his (supposed) morals. You can not advocate a moral code and not consider yourself better than those who don't follow it (catch-22), and calling people satanic also makes the name caller claim superiority. And no raider is claiming that casuals(me)/non-raiders are sub-human just because the raider thinks they are better (straw man arguments).
Why get angry at a troll who has two such obvious and massive logical fallacies in his argument?
theRaptor May 29th 2007 12:12AM
Why publicise a troll? That is all they want?
And why get upset over a (slightly) intellectual troll? He has major flaws in his argument. Firstly, to advocate a moral system is to set yourself up as superior to those who don't follow it. And to call people satanic/fascist is to claim superiority. Thus this troll violates his own supposed morality. Secondly claiming that raiders think casuals(me)/non-raiders are sub-human is not true. Thinking you are better than someone is not saying they are sub-human. This is a straw man.
People need to think before they get upset over trolls.
Frogs May 29th 2007 12:28AM
I don't know about any one else, but forum trolls provide what is sometimes much-needed entertainment on the forums. If you're getting angry reading that kind of stuff... you're taking them way too seriously. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture, which is that they (and I) think it can be funny to get a rise out of people who read their posts too quickly.
Nyx May 29th 2007 12:55AM
I think it's awesome to have a widely read blog to openly mock this guy on, when most people have to just mock him on the forums.
Qstrike May 29th 2007 1:17AM
i just love how he says people who play wow are "evil"
apparently he hasn't turned on the TV lately and watched the news
maybe he's just mad about the exclusivism, because he excludes himSELF from everything around him, it all makes sense now!
daniel May 29th 2007 2:37AM
i stopped reading after "morally right" - what the hell does casuals vs. raiding have to do with morals!?
Elo May 29th 2007 2:47AM
I'm not sure the lowliest forms of discussions from the WOW forums are worth blogging about.
Merus May 29th 2007 3:15AM
Oh, that post. I noticed that one last night but couldn't be bothered reading it because, well, the signal to noise ratio of the WoW forums approaches 1.
I honestly think the troll's main point that raiding content excludes people from awesome things like participating in the battle of Hyjal is sound, but neither do I think it's a huge problem - there's much more non-raid content in end-game than there was in vanilla WoW, and I think that it's possible to casual raid. Sure, you won't see the end of the game, but if you're still playing something that's still a challenge, isn't that okay? The problem's when you have to run the same thing over and over because you can't progress to something new, but is anyone actually running into that problem yet? (And besides, there's plenty of now easier raid content for people to revisit, as these days you don't need to be a hardcore raider to go to AQ40 or Naxx thanks to the BC gear.)
In any case, there's really only three end-game activities in WoW, which is the core problem. You can PvP, you can rep grind or you can raid. And it's unlikely that there'll be any fix to that because that's not the sort of game WoW is.
Fadenor May 29th 2007 3:27AM
He is level 63.
That could indicate one of two things.
It's either an alt, which would indicate a troll that shouldn't be taken seriously enough to be posted about on a blog, or...
he is level 63, in which case he shouldn't be taken seriously enough to be posted about on a blog.
khaosworks May 29th 2007 3:36AM
My views about the whole casual/hardcore raider/non-raider thing fall somewhere in the middle, for the most part. On one hand, I can see where obviously if you put in more time, you should get more rewards. On the other hand, it's still frustrating (and I can't pretend it's not) to think that I can't get to the good bits because I can't invest that much time. No one side should ever demonize the other. It's not evil to take either position... at least, moderately. We need to recognize the validity of each others' concerns is what I'm saying, first of all.
But of course, extreme positions on both sides seem to be the insanity du jour on the forums, and the real issue gets lost in the signal/noise ration: namely, what can one do to address the problem of end game content between two very different groups of people? It's not an easy fix, and nobody should pretend that it is. I've got some ideas myself, but this space is too small to go on a treatise and in any case, my ideas aren't perfect either.
It may well be that there needs to be a division between one kind of end-game content for raiders and another kind for non-raiders.
Grunt May 29th 2007 3:50AM
There was a wise saying...
"Don't discuss with an idiot. First they draw you to their level. then they beat you with experience."
Now all you do is give him publicity. And besides, who reads these topics in the open forums.. well his/her own fault. Don't get me wrong, but the quality of content in the official wow forums is not very well. I am sure all of you get their information from other sources, not primaryly from there.
Skip Trolls, skip such topics, go to the forums only if you want to know something and want a broader answer, not to discuss something.
Ugkul May 29th 2007 4:21AM
Yeah probably a troll. To whom I dedicated the story, Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut (1961). http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
Sylvina May 29th 2007 9:15AM
....you got paid to complain about a player? Geez...