And It Took A Video Game To Teach Me...

Believe it or not, this post has very little to do with World of Warcraft, gaming, or geekdom.

I was playing WoW this weekend (Shocking, I know). I was on my PvP server, on the Alliance side. I had a revelation that blew my mind.

*For the eight people in the world that do not play, there are two factions in WoW, Alliance and Horde. PvP means that anyone on the opposing faction can simply walk up and hand your ass to you, regardless of level. So you could be wandering around, running quests, and a player 30 levels higher could just smack you once upside the head and you die. You spend a lot of times running away, screaming like a little schoolgirl.

On this realm the Horde outnumber the Alliance by at least four to one. This makes us a large minority. Anyway, I was getting extremely frustrated this weekend because I couldn't get anything accomplished. I would be trying to get stuff done, and next thing I know I'm lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, a pool of blood oozing around me. Do they get anything from killing me? Nope. Yet they stand over my corpse laughing.

This is a common scenario: I'm wandering around questing. I see a horde player having trouble with some mobs (monsters). He's around the same level, and I help him out. I help him out of what would be a difficult situation. After he's out of danger, I wave and go on my merry way as he's healing himself. Next thing I know, he's attacking me. I've become a fairly decent player, so most of the time I successfully defend myself. THEN, before I know it, I'm lying dead, killed by a MUCH higher level character, that's been called in. I then spend the next thirty minutes running back to my corpse, only to be killed again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Some might say, oh, he's just a dick. And you'd be right. But in all my encounters with Horde characters, only two or three of them didn't involve me having to die. They attack regardless. For the record, I only attack in self defense. Most of the Alliance players I know are the same way.

So should I say that the opposing faction are one collective herd of assmonkeys? Sure.

But then I asked why. The answer I gave myself shocked me. It's because THEY CAN.

Let's move to real life now. I'm a thirty-something white male American. I'm probably a member of the most advantaged demographic in the world. I used to joke that there should be a government program for those of us that haven't made it yet. [rimshot] We hold such a vast majority of the power in society, the world's wealth, every advantage the world has to offer. VASTLY disproportionate to the segments in our society. Look at our positions of power (don't worry, no pie charts).

According to the US Census, in 2005 the US was 74.7% white, 12.1% black, 14.5% hispanic (Hispanic overlaps other races); 49.2% male, 50.8% female. (and yes, I called them to verify these numbers)

Congress (including Senate) is currently 85.6% white, 7.7% black, 4.9% hispanic; also 83.9% male, 16.1% female.

Out of the top job positions (Management, business, and financial operations occupations), 86.2% are white, 7.3% black, 6.9% Hispanic, and 41.9% are women. (2006 Bureau of Labor and Statistics)

See the disproportion of power? Does this mean that minorities aren't able to succeed? Actually, it kind of does. A guy I work with put it best. "Keepin a brother down." This is sort of what's going on in WoW as well as society. So many that are in positions of authority by force or design, They do whatever they can to maintain that power. That means maintaining control, frustrating those trying to get ahead, and essentially making life more difficult for others. At the same time, on that "side of the wall" they can gain power quite easily and unfettered. Why? Because those in power encourage it, help it, push it along, while suppressing the plight of others to gain power.

Is it intentional? Most likely not. Perhaps those in power don't even realize it. I sure the hell didn't, and I have very little influence on a global scale. This was my mile in their moccasins (or Black Mageweave Boots, for that matter).

It's a form of control. They retain the influence by domination.

Taking a look at the other side, the Alliance "minority" of which I belong, it's interesting to see the sense of community. People willing to help one another, sharing in frustrations, loyal and friendly. I belong to a PvE (no risk at being ganged up on) server as well, and even though there is a more even division and much more people there, there's not as much of a sense of community. It's more like high school with warring cliques, annoying people and drama. You don't really see that on the other one.

It seems that through adversity, we have come together.

Wow. Write that down.

Speaking earlier of loyalty, it got me thinking. Nobody really leaves my server. Instead, we try to recruit people to come over. We are attempting to find our place in this world, regardless of the fact that it's virtual. We want to be left with the opportunity to succeed. Most aren't radicals, just nice people. When I typed that in chat the other night, I realized at that point what it was like to be a minority, to struggle against "The Man." This put all the things I learned in sociology and psychology in perspective.

And all it took for me to understand was to be a geek.