In my last article, I debunked the myths and lies surrounding the upcoming forced Battle.Net merge. I wrote those rebuttals off the cuff, in much the same way as I’d respond to someone in-game or on a forum.
Today, I’d like to talk about how to deal with the nerdrage that you may be on the receiving end of from guild members, and how best to deal with it.
So What Is Nerdrage, Anyway?
What we saw on the WoW forums in response to the forced Battle.Net merge was a specific kind of nerdrage, at least if you go by the Urban Dictionary definitions of the term. A little bit of #2 (“extreme anger, offense indignation”) mixed in with some #9 (“an RPG nerd who is extremely angry about a gaming issue a normal person would consider trivial.”).
There’s something about the WoW forums that brings out this extreme type of post. Perhaps it’s the anonymity of posting on a level 1 alt, perhaps it’s the fact that you don’t have to justify yourself to your guildmates later that week on ventrilo. Whatever it is, you probably won’t see quite the same level of outrage when dealing with guild members.
What you will see is irrational hyperbole: someone blowing an issue out of proportion without justification. This may be over a change in guild policy, a perceived slight against them with regards to loot or raid spot selection, or concerns over the direction or progression of the guild.
Much of this advice is not specific to online gaming. If the working world, you will eventually find yourself in a position of defending something you have said against another person, possibly more senior or with more authority. Learning how to respond to irrational people in WoW will pay off outside of the game.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’ve announced a change to guild loot policy, and someone who feels that they are worse off for the change has posted an angry irrational screed on your guild forums.
What to Remember
When you encounter irrational people, either in game or on forums, the important thing to remember is that the issue is important to them. It may not be phrased properly, the justifications may be flimsy or non-existent, but to them it’s important. Depending on the issue and the person, it may be the most important thing going through their head at the time. Whether this is a good thing or not is irrelevant for you in composing a response – diminishing the importance of the issue is not going to win you any arguments. If the issue has been blown out of proportion, you need to convince them that the impact is not as large as they think – not that the issue isn’t important enough to be dealt with.
I’m assuming that you have already determined that the person being irrational is not a troll. I would hope that trolling is not something any of us have to encounter on our guild forums. It happens all the time on the official forums and to a lesser extent on some of the community forums – if that is the arena you find yourself in, make sure you’re not dealing with a troll before you follow any of this advice. Trolls feed on winding people up, and I am proposing a candid and honest approach to addressing complaints that will pay off with someone who is sincere, but backfire with a troll.
