comic from www.penny-arcade.com
As any gamer can tell you, wading through the mess of online gaming can leave you feeling dirty and slimy at the end of the day. This problem is far more prevalent in FPS games where theres very little personal investment in the identity of your avatar. World of Warcraft differs in this regard since each avatar at max level represents a fairly large time investment as well as personal customization. This meant that when players had to interact with each other there was at least some type of etiquette since it was possible that enough bad press about a character could ensure they never receive a group invite again.
Recently the release of Patch 3.3 for World of Warcraft has enabled instances to be cross realm. This no longer limits players to only partying with people from their own gaming universe. This patch deepens the anonymity between players. After partying with people not from your server, the odds of you seeing that person again are slim to none. There was a good deal of fear in the World of Warcraft community that this would destabilize the group dynamic. Without any personal accountability players would behave like assholes.
So far, this doesn't seem to be the case. The vast majority of experiences I've read about it regarding the new cross server instances have been nothing but positive. It seems that BECAUSE its cross server people are being just as polite as ever. I theorize that players see themselves as representatives of their realm or gaming universe. Players try to make a good impression for their own community. It's interesting how this goes against everything that I understand about internet gaming and anonymity.
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