I miss what few good friends I have had in my lifetime.
I spent years without friends that I regularly talk to (and, I assure you, I very likely am permanently damaged from it) until 2 years ago when I met the son of someone my mom knew. I met him only one day in person and since then I’ve only ever talked online. I ended up buying him Diablo 3 prior to the launch day (it’s just one of many things he talked me into buying him because he never bothers to keep money around for when he needs it, he’s the kind of person to get a paycheck and then blow all his money as fast as he can).
I joined him in playing the game, along with some more of his “friends” (he, and the rest of the people in this group have quite a number of these- the kind of people who mostly just want people to play games with). I have spent quite a bit of time playing multiplayer games with these guys for slightly over two years now.
I have, in the time that I’ve spent with them, rage-quit whatever we’re playing and blocked all of them… Later I had the poor judgment (though perhaps I had few alternatives, since I don’t have other “friends”) to unblock and rejoin them. One thing that stood out to me throughout my experiences with them is that while they occasionally got angry at each other they rarely did anything about it- and they certainly never tried to analyze poor behavior or what could be done about it, not them.
One of them would talk about proper methods of behavior, talking about logic and rationality and how so many people act foolishly in the world- but would he ever attempt to utilize this behavior with anyone he actually knows!? God no! Whenever something came up where someone was clearly acting morally/ethically incorrectly, I would try to be patient and work things out without accusing anyone of anything, but so little came of it. Whenever the time came that I was laying it out for someone who would refuse to admit that they are even capable of wrong-doing, he would close tight, thus causing all their anger to be directed towards me- and with only me pointing out flaws the recipient could easily just ignore me, whereas with two people acting in concert they’d be forced to at least back off.
I’m in the process of moving, so I sincerely hope to use this opportunity to completely break off contact with these individuals and seek new friends, ones who are likeable, reasonable and open-minded.
BW2k 