Pug Rage and Neuroscience

Many other bloggers have been complaining lately about the quality of people you find in pugs. As a major pugger, I feel qualified to comment. I even kept a pug diary over the weekend to record my experiences, for posterity or science or whatever, 4 pugs on my priest and 4 on my mage. But then I ran a few with my guildies and screwed up the experiment.

Anyway, most of the pugs were benign. Some had geared and skilled players, and a couple had players learning the ropes – there was a bear tanking for the first time who had a rough time with the 3rd boss in Stonecore, and we patiently wiped and encouraged until we got it on the fifth try. For the most part, we achieved our goals, wished each other well and went on our way.

And there were two memorable ones. On my mage, I zoned in after a wipe to meet a control freak tank that insisted I fight using some bizarre counter-intuitive strategy that he thought was “proper.” He told me about this while typing it during the fight (causing a wipe). He then gave me a choice between (1) doing the fight in the “proper” way or (2) being votekicked. I chose option (3), insulted him soundly and dropped group.

And also on my mage, I got stuck in Grim Batol with this drunk tank who wanted to talk about sordid details from his sex life. Since it pains me to take away potential revenue from desperate sex workers who actually get paid to listen to that sort of crap, and since I’m not about to provide that service for assholes too cheap to engage professional services, I left.

You have to know where your line is. And, once it’s crossed, to end the encounter swiftly. Back in the olden days, that might mean decapitating someone with a battleaxe, but these days you can accomplish much the same thing – never encountering that person ever again – by hitting alt-F4. People who remain in a situation after their line has been breached are responsible for their own resulting rage. And there are a great many people who run instances for the sole purpose of pissing other people off.

Now, speaking of pissing other people off, I was reading about this guy Loughner. The media is busy trying to figure out whether drugs, video games or violent political rhetoric caused him to nut out and murder a bunch of people. Note the video game references.

Frankly, he doesn’t seem all that different from a lot of people I encounter in pugs or in trade chat, except for the “actually shooting people” part. The same kind of incoherent postmodern rage, rebelling against women, language, politicians, good taste, common sense and genocidal community colleges. In fact, there’s much to be said for the fact that all those people are inside the house playing video games rather than running around outdoors.

I’m too lazy to go back and find all those neuroscience articles about how rage basically reinforces itself, like focusing on working out a particular group of muscles. I’ll go a step further and note that some people are born with a greater propensity for it, the way other people are born with a dislike for broccoli or perfect pitch. And I’ll take that a step further and note that there are very few of us alive today who don’t have bloodthirsty warriors cleaving their way into the family tree if you go back enough generations. Many people can rage. Some can’t contain it. Sort of like alcohol – many people drink, for some it becomes a problem.

Now meanwhile, Wired had a cool neuroscience article about oxytocin, which was publicized a few years back as the “cuddle chemical” that helped people bond and fall in love and et cetera. Turns out that it also plays a role in bigotry. Oops.

One of the many unique things about our modern world is the fact that lots of us have become accustomed to rage-bonding. Go into a public space and start ranting about how you hate conservatives, or liberals, or Justin Bieber, or Twilight (things that teenage girls like are especially popular targets), or whatever, and you’ll get attention. Maybe even followers, or buddies, or people who think you’re an amazingly hilarious comedian. Put up a “I hate XX” Facebook group, or make a viral video of you expressing your dislike in a unique and interesting way.

Stands to reason that some people might get used to getting their social strokes – their reassuring bursts of oxytocin telling them that yes, they are part of the in-group, just like all their friends, despising the out-group with all their might – from raging. Especially people with pronounced rage propensities to begin with. And in turn, all the ragers who have just been identified as belonging in the out-group counter rage, making rage-bonding communities of their own.

Meanwhile, the folks behind WoW have put together this swell, colorful game, with challenges. In order to meet those challenges, you have to work with other people, and a lot of those other people are high on rage.

I think eventually MMOs will evolve into a caste system, once they get out of the feudal stage. There will be a top tier of extremely polite people to whom a good reputation is everything. There will be a middle class that draws the line at racist humor but appreciates a boob joke now and then. And there will be an underbelly full of angry young men, who will probably pride themselves in being the real genuine secret ruling class while exchanging foul sayings amongst each other.