I agree that newer players shouldn't be treated disrespectfully or in a way that is condescending toward them. We've all started from the bottom, and it's important to put yourself in other peoples' shoes every now and then. I believe this goes beyond the game itself, as well, and I've noticed that many parts of life in general have a stigma toward younger/newer members of any society, group, or even when standing alone. In most cases, I don't believe that the people who are acting not very kindly toward the new players have harmful intentions- some do, but I think many of them either don't want to associate themselves with newer players/people because they feel like it makes them look "less adequate" or a less respected person to hang out with these people. Some think that their time is not worth spending on someone who isn't like-minded. Of course, there are a few out there who probably don't have the best intentions, either.
I think there will always come a point when people are judged- truthfully, I believe you cannot completely avoid it. Every moment that is spent doing something you love or enjoy, even if it involves something as small as playing an online game, avoiding judgement is inevitable. First impressions can be considered judgement, and it can be nearly impossible to avoid having a first impression of someone- even if it's a good judgement. All in all, I don't find it so much that the issue is judging someone, rather acting upon that judgement in a harmful way before you know more to the person than what meets the eye. It's a bit like a book- everyone retains a judgement or impression from the cover of the book or from reading the first page, yet you cannot accurately judge the entire story without having read it first.
I think the sort of "change" that would be possible in terms of how newer players may be treated is really quite up to the individual, himself. I think it's not so simple as affecting users within the game, it's also something that you can find in your everyday life, and it's not something that can necessarily be "fixed" by changing one specific part about interacting with newer players. I think it can be improved, though- it's really up to the person interacting with that player, and sometimes even the player himself, to decide how he wants to act toward him. If the newer player is roleplaying a specific way, it may have nothing to do with the fact that they are new. I've seen this quite a few times where players who use a specific chatspeak or roleplaying style are automatically considered "new," when in fact, they may simply like roleplaying that way, and I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. There are no set limits for how you "should" or "should not" be roleplaying, and you really do have quite the creative freedom to roleplay however you desire. For those users who do roleplay in a short-roleplay style, it may be that it's the only type of roleplay they see being used, they are intimidated by using long descriptive roleplay, they may be wanting to fit in with the style that their friends are using, etc. Truthfully, I don't see this as something that people need to teach them how to do better. Roleplaying can really be done however the heart desires, and as much as it's a wonderful thing to help teach people how to do things in a more thorough manner, I feel like users shouldn't feel pressured into roleplaying a certain way. If they want to learn how to roleplay in different ways, I think it's a wonderful idea to offer a helping paw to these users to help show them how they can use their roleplaying skills to their full potential. Sometimes all they need is a little push, and they're off writing novels (so to speak.)
Very interesting topic, AuraSky. I enjoyed reading about some of the comments here. c:
