I was surprised this morning when I was playing Marvel Strike Force. Instead of being a griefer, someone was emphatic and cool.
The reason I met this person is that he invited me to his alliance. Alliances online are teams where people can get benefits to improve their game and resources. At times you find yourself outgrowing an alliance because you spent more time playing. Then you might look for another alliance. Or your alliance members may stop playing the game and your team needs to grow. For the last three years I have played I have only been on two teams. The initial team died out, and I went to a second team where it has been pretty good. Lately, we had a few players leave so I started to recruit others to join us so that we could win in certain types of battles.
Anyway, what made him cool is that after he invited me I politely declined and he said what kind of people are you recruiting for and I told him the one parameter TCP level that we were looking for. It stands for Total Collection Power and it is a rough guide to what level they are at and what kind of group might benefit from them. It is sort of like your age. You might want to hang out with people your age in the game to progress faster. He might help me recruit for my team with people who don’t fit the two teams he is recruiting for. Isn’t that nice?
I said earlier that he wasn’t a griefer. As you may know, if you play online games, many people like to cause grief to others playing. It is the reason that I stopped playing many other online games. They weren’t enjoyable anymore. On the other hand, when you meet a person like this gentleman, it enhances the game experience. It makes you feel good about what you are doing and that is just a friendly game between two gentlemen.
One of the men’s faults is that we sometimes become hypercompetitive and turn something that is just supposed to be a fun game or anything into a life-or-death struggle. I think this is because we think it will give us a sense of purpose. If we can only be good at something, then we have value. I haven’t staked my ego on being good at a game. I want to be a kind person. That is what I judge myself by. A wise person once told me there is always someone better or worse than you, so you just accept that and enjoy who you are now. You can grow, but you can also feel good that at the core who you are is enough and you can treat others with respect.
It is such a surprise and pleasure to be treated with respect. I just love it.