Originally posted by Delirium
Personally, I blame the vets for the change... why teach noobs when you can 'pwn' them instead? Why do noobs want to go through the constant belittling trying to get training when they can just fly in a pack and do something easy like base capture?
I agree with the premiss, but I don't think that is the cause. At least not the main cause. I see a number of people who quietly help newer players learn the same way I did before becomming a trainer.
I think Pyro nailed it when he explained the arena split. It's growth. With a small community, etiquette for good game play can be peer pressured into effect. Most people don't want to be an 'outsider', in the minority, and disliked. AH has grown, and slowly what had once been frowned upon, and those playing that way, are now the norm. The crowd that has a different, and some might say, lower standard of gameplay have the majority. And it's not about playing the game 'my way' or 'your way', it's about a style of gameplay that lowers the enjoyment of everyone, friend or foe without a second thought.
They've succeded in breaking the large hordes into less frequent smaller hordes with the arena splits, but I think the part about having smaller neighborhoods has been ineffective. The arena choices now are: 2 arenas with the full plane set, and 3 with progressively limited planesets. The setup does not have a 'hook' to give enough people a reason to call an arena their home. Until they find a setup where each arena gets it's own personallity and sub-community beyond consisting of just a handful of people, they won't get their smaller 'neighborhoods'. Without that, there's no real effective arena ettiquette because it's mob rule.
Still I choose to call out gameplay stupidity when I see it. I don't expect it do anything, but maybe a few spectators might be swayed. Hence the differing opinion than you in another active thread.
