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Ever since cooperative gaming hit the Internet in the visage of first-person shooters (FPSs), real-time strategy (RTS), and the ever-popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), there’s been a call for like-minded gamers to band together. These “gangs”, be they referred to as Clans, Guilds, or otherwise, serve as competitive outlets for many angst-ridden teens and older gamers alike. Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious from the get-go that the nice character you’ve decided to ally with is actually less mature than your mother-in-law, and is only going to draw up drama like a sponge draws up water.

I’ve spent my fair share of time gaming online, having participated in world-ranked Counterstrike clans as well as having participated in casual roleplaying guilds. One thing for sure, however, is that there’s always someone out there more “hardcore” than you are, resulting in something that I can only describe as a bad taste in the mouth of all that is real and not made of pixels.

While it may be worth pointing out that when it comes to online bands, there’s one jackass to fill every role (from the kid who wants attention, to the guy who pretends to be a girl, to the suck-up who wants to be treated better than everyone else), the most annoying thing about online guilds is the vapid indifference that swells across them like killer bees across an imaginary map of the United States. That is to say, the indifference is significant.

But I correct myself - the issue is not that people don’t care what happens in a guild, it’s that they don’t care about helping if things aren’t going as they want them to. The online gaming landscape is particularly few in leaders, and rather highly populated by followers who would sooner ditch their friends than communicate with them to try to better a situation. And, even if a word or two of disagreement is muttered, should that mutter not develop into immediate positive change, the player will likely say nothing more, and disappear without a further word. Or, perhaps the receiving party lacks the thick skin (because online gamers are notoriously thin-skinned, apparently), and will use such disagreement as a reason to tuck tail and run.

The turnover rate of online guilds is insane, and it’s an interesting notation in the book of gaming history that spells this observation out: online gamers, regardless of actual age, regress to children when issues pertaining to their little cliques emerge; gamers will not work out their problems, they will not seek counsel, and they will never use proper etiquette when leaving friends behind. In fact, the very behavior of online gamers in such organizations is exactly the opposite of what would be tolerated in the real world, and it’s the anonymity of their situation that gives them the false sense of security that all their actions will be ignored in the long run.

Sadly, they haven’t.

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