The Problem with the Philippine Gaming Society

About three years ago, Level Up Games franchised the two-dimensional side-scrolling game entitled Grand Chase. A few months later, this game became my entrance to the Philippine Gaming community... Back then, I had an astounding lack of gaming skills, but the players were friendly and very inviting so it boosted my hunger for games a little bit more. I only decided to quit when Grand Chase was on its second season, right before a new character [Amy] was released.

Fast forward to three years later, I returned to the GC community [now on it's chaos...season?], using a new account. Sad to say, the scene before me was an eyesore. The number of rude players had increased dramatically and the park (a place which used to be my haven) became a headquarter for trash-talkers. Malicious comments were pointed towards Game Masters and newbie players alike. It wasn't surprising though... This scene isn't uncommon in the Philippine Gaming Community nowadays.

I'm exceptionally worried that the Filipino Gamers' habit of resorting to vulgarity online is giving everyone in the Philippines a bad reputation. And if cursing online isn't enough, they also do it offline in cyber cafes where tons of users flood to every hour. It's a relief to think that I have a computer at home -- away from those morons and their tongue-lashes.

Now, back to the topic of "online vulgarity".

Dragon Nest's South-East Asian server is probably the most recent in the franchise. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. The game is flooding with Filipinos. And even though the Indonesian players are the occasional spammers, the Filipinos are the "swearers". They curse when they feel like it (which means they curse almost every time, using the language of their choice -- English, Filipino, Japanese, Swahili, you name it). It might probably be due to the fact that some foreign players don't understand what's being posted in the chat box and the Filipinos are using this incomprehension to their advantage. Kind of like an underestimation, and it's wrong in many ways.

In a random forum, some refined Filipino gamers are debating on whether a gaming company would franchise Elsword Online -- a game which topped the charts a year ago. I experienced playing this game myself, using a proxy! The game was awesome. And if the NA server was good enough (to state the obvious, some of the players curse a lot but they're willing to help out the "noobs"), the Korean server is even better. If the game were to be brought to the Philippines, it would be flooded with trash talkers and cheaters with lowly acclaimed "pro" reputations. Bringing the game to the Philippines would ruin everything -- especially the gaming experience.

Consider these: the Korean Gaming Community puts our own to shame because of their polite players and their strict rules. If a Filipino gamer acts like an uneducated brat while playing International games, he/she is actually giving the Philippines a bad reputation. A game is a game, there's nothing to boast about even if you have godlike gaming skills. If the Filipino Gamers continue to act like drunkards online, it might not be worth it for gaming companies to continue franchising newer, better games.

This post might not even change a thing in the Philippine Gaming Community. Somewhere out there, a Filipino gamer is doing something stupid, and there's no one ready to stop him.