Highlight Reality : Online society

Online communities, that is the topic of this post. Online communities are becoming more and more popular everyday with websites similar to face book, Plurk, MSN Live, ect attracting more users on daily basis. On another front you have the MMO games in the gaming industry also attracting a solid "Online" community. Of course with any community comes social circles, cliques, drama. However before I continue more on this topic, lets take a quick tour on who and what portion of our society makes up the majority of this "Online Community".


Before looking over the Online Community it is important to have a look at the original "gaming" community as it was the gamers who gave birth to the majority of today's online gaming communities. Originally, back in the late 80s, early 90s your typical gamer was the stereotyping "nerd" that really couldn't fit into the other social communities. However as the popularity of video games expanded, people from other social groups and communities started to give games a second thought. As more and more people from different social groups in our society starting to become "gamers" , the more the typical and original members of this community started to feel threatened and upset.

Video games, and the online society had become a sanctuary to the people who were unable to find any other social circle or community in the real world, be it for their physical appearance, lack of proper social skills or lack of a desirable personality. This community started to feel bitter and angry at the fact that people that denied them from other social circles were now entering their sanctuary. I have a story to share from a few years ago, that would be a perfect example to share :

In one of the online gaming communities that I was involved with, there were 2 best friends, both female players who were very open with their real life. They would share pictures with the community on daily basis and were basically the center of attention for a long while. These women were pretty, compared to the majority of the gamers, however far from being anything note worthy on the global scale. One day a new player, decided to share a picture of herself, this girl happened to be an extremely beautiful blond girl in her mid 20s. The 2 women along with their cult started to instantly target this new comer, for absolutely no reason other than her sharing a single photo of herself on a site that was created just for that purpose. The poor girl posted a second picture in a pose she was requested to prove the picture wasn't a fake and never ever went anywhere near that website again.

Above is a very sad example, but truthful example of the bitter and angry portion of the online community. Now this wouldn't be a Sands blog without naming names or linking links. So lets get to the point. Several time I have been the victim of the same type of behaviour. Allow me to show you where all the heat between me and Kota and her crew started. Have a look here : http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=777 Up to this point, I did not have the slightest clue who these people were. I had just made a post on SCD and here they were attacking me for absolutely no reason. You can see how I originally tried to handle the issue, and had a mutual friend of mine talk to them to let them know that i had no idea who they were and if at any point i had accidentally offended them that I am sorry for it. I even got in touch with Kota in world to maybe i could just deal with whatever issue they had. My friend came back to me with the response "they have made you their target, they aren't giving me a clear answer why and aren't going to change their mind about it either."

I let it be really, and ignored their public bashing of me. However when my break up with Meara went public, that group saw it as a perfect chance to jump on the band wagon and harass me even more. Well enough was enough at this point. This wasn't the first time nor was it going to be the last time for me to become the target of the typical angry and bitter online community members. I have to wonder, would my blog post upset this group of people had I not had posted a real life picture of myself ? Ironically that same week on SL secrets there was someone complaining about people who posted rl pictures of themselves on their blog.

Now I was targeted because I didn't fit the ideal image of a SL blogger demonstrated and created by this group of people. Perhaps I raised the standards of level of what is considered to be attractive in this world ? Perhaps Kota and her crew felt that their online sanctuary was threatened ? Even to this day I'm baffled as in why exactly I was targeted and when asked why I wasn't even given a reason. With so much pre-determined and unreasonable bitterness and hate, of course the moment I made the slightest form of retaliation to their catty and bitter behaviour I was suddenly painted as a major asshole. It is easy to hate someone who you are extremely bitter towards.

Well I could do just what the girl from my example did, just walk away and step out of the world these angry nerds are protecting with their lives who will do whatever it takes to push out anyone who might be remotely attractive, or remotely more desired than they themselves are. Well guess what ? I didn't and I am not going to. With the advancement of technology, and popularity of online communication tools and online gaming you should expect a lot more people outside of the typical "gamer society" (as mentioned earlier) to enter this world. Learn to live with it and get over your bitterness.