City of Heroes Comment

When I started reading Myers’ article I was really shocked. My brother is always playing those online role playing games with other people. How can someone be so mean? I sympathize with Myers. He was only playing the game how it is supposed to be played. There in the rules for the game the good heroes are supposed to defeat the villains. To me, that concept sounds simple. I do not understand why everyone does not like him for playing the game. If the players decide that they do not want their characters killing the opposing side then why even play? Plus, if they are so moral to not kill other characters on the game, then why are some threatening to kill Myers or wish bad things on his family? To me that sounds a little hypocritical. I found myself getting mad at the other characters or players in the game. Why would someone think that is ok to say to someone?
Another thing that I thought while I was reading this article was, the characters, because they were being so mean and crude, had to be teenage boys, who sit at home all evening and play this game and have nothing better to do, that were mad because there was someone out there that was better then they are. When I read that the average gamer age was 24 I was shocked. The statistics kept going which made me more shocked. Many of these people had jobs and only 2% is unemployed. That is a pretty good ratio, considering the economy we are in. But it still shocked me. Why are these adults saying these things?
My question took me back to my past with chats. When I was in junior high, the cool thing to do was chat to people online. My mother did not like it very much and she always said to me, “you never know who is on the other end.” I stopped after that comment form her. I figured out that she was right and I did not want to get into more trouble. I then got into chatting with my friends on an instant messenger. I can remember getting into arguments about little things, and my mother again had words of wisdom for that also. She never liked that I would instant message my friends because we would always end up in a fight. She would say, “Why do you think this is fun, you do not know if the person on the other end means it, and most of the things you say when you are arguing, you would never say to their face so don’t say it online.”
This got me thinking about this article. Most of these people are probably saying these things but they would never do these things in real life. There might be some online that would, but in general, I do not think that most people would really “wish your mother gets cancer,” or even, “find you and kill you.” Still these comments would scare me quite a bit.