Am I Bad?

So - here's what happened.

I play Runescape on occasion (hey, I like the price).

So I am happily going about my Runescape business, and some other player comes along and starts calling me a noob.

Now, this happens all the time, of course.  But I have always wondered (a) why people are so rude online, and (b) what the fascination is with that word - "noob".

So I asked him.

More "noob"-ing followed, and some various bad language, but I stuck with it, and asked him some personal questions, trying to understand, all the while suggesting that courtesy is the better way.  It appears, however, that some of my statements/questions may been pretty close to the mark.

Anyway - I'll skip to the end.  At the end of the conversation the kid (12, apparently) is clearly very upset/angry/hurt, and after screaming at me some more, logs off.

So I made a 12-year-old boy cry.

And I'm not sure if I should be embarassed or proud.

Neither , you don't control his thought process. And as you know ,most people have pretty big e-nads, I'm with you though , rudeness runs rampant on the net.

"noob" I think it takes on this attitude "I'm ok , your not ok" (from the book)

I play about 1 time a month, Its always fun to annoy the 12 year olds

good work on the crying btw

No voice chat - just regular public typing chat.  No log, unfortunately.

All I did was speculate why he would feel the need to call random people noobs, since he wasn't answering me.

My theory has always been to cover up your own insecurities, which is a common enough problem for kids.  Of course, this type of e-bullying (like all bullying) is usually the result of being recipient of some bullying oneself, frequently at home.

So I asked him about his parents.  He didn't like that.

I suggested that maybe his parents weren't doing such a good job of teaching him proper manners, and that maybe they were the actual source of the rudeness.  He really didn't like that.  I'm definitely guessing family problems.

By the time I had concluded that he was the product of a broken home, potentially with drinking and/or beatings involved, and concluded that he got beat up at school, he was definitely not liking it.

I just told him something about himself.  I'm evil that way.

*sigh*

Now I feel like a bully...

Styro Folme wrote: i really don't mind the 12 year olds on runescape though...  it's the ones on halo 2 xbl that get to me sometimes...  they never shut up...

You still play?