What is this thing that happens with age?What is this thing that happens with age?
When I was younger in EQ I found a lot of higher level players would blow me off, or be snappy in answering. There are always examples on both sides, but it seems the general view of higher levels by lowers is contempt. Why is this?
Now that I'm 50 th, and people sometimes say 'what happened to you' or someone young point's out that I'm being that way, I have questioned what happened.
For me I'm most often snappy when people just don't understand, when I don't have time to explain. A lot figure, 'hey this guy is level x, he can just poof and it's done', but don't realize just how much time and effort that would take.
Most recently in Permafrost I had just resurrected someone and said for someone who pulled a fight to the zone to 'move it or I will remove them. I just resurrected someone'. Sure it may have sounded snappy, and probably was. I've had people who were resurrected die by fights at the zone and did not want to see that happen here.
But was it really his fault? No not really. Was it my fault for being snappy? No not really. The spell costs 700 mana, 2 bubbles at my current wisdom, not counting the potential exp loss to the person resurrected, and both his and my time and stress. The player who I had resurrected would not have been happy to be just resurrected then instantly killed. But did the lower level player know this? Highly unlikely. Did I have time to explain my lifes history and his future (as he was cleric also), no not really.
I think one factor, which is really a result of the second factor, corrupts at the souls of a lot of higher level players.
Time.
Time invested and required to gain becomes enormous at higher levels. It's gotten to the point now that I've hit 50 th I don't even really consider going in to play unless I have at least a 4 hour chunk of time. If I do go in for less I know I'm not going to gain anything, as there's not enough time.
To go from 1st to 2nd level probably takes 4 hours. After 30 th 4 hours becomes maybe 0 to a 1 bubble gain. During that leveling from 1st to 2nd you can maybe acquire the plat to gain a new piece of armor, which will drastically increase your survivability. After 30 th the plat you gain in 4 hours won't buy you squat.
I think it's this geometry and stress caused by the fact that you know you must spend 8+ hours to gain some experience or item x, that makes people shift their views.
Think of it like this: Each time you gain a level you get a corruption point. Experience gain or no, every 4 hours invested, you get a corruption point. Each time you camp for x item you get a corruption point, and if you don't get it you get double the corruption points. Each time you die you get a corruption point, die by someone elses mistake, double the corruption points.
Thus the higher level you get, the more geometric this corruption becomes per time you've played.
I think it's with these corruptions people become hardened to the younger players. They won't take the time out to help someone for an hour, because they don't have the time, as they need every minute possible to try and even vaguely gain something.
Summary / Solution / Truth
I've noticed a general trend as I've gotten higher and higher level. As the items increase in rarity and value, as your levels gain and more and more time is required to gain, a lot of us forget where we came from. It seems that the greed caused by rarity and amount of effort corrupts almost everyone. This corruption seems to often travel to the core, eating away at all aspects of life.
We forget that life is about living and enjoying, and become obsessed with regaining what we lost, gaining item x that takes an average of 50+ hours to camp, that we just can't be bothered, because if we blink at the wrong time our last 12 hours of gaming gets blasted off in a second.
How can we solve it? Well sadly we can't for the most part.
I think this is why most don't make it past their 30s, why they start over.
Remember the game is yours. It's what you make of it. Be as kind and have as much fun with it at 50 th as you did at 1 st.
Try not to dwell on how hard life is, and that the young just don't understand your position.
As always, it's not a race. The winning is not in the achieving, but in the trying. Revel in the trying, don't expect success, and you will be pleasantly surprised when it occurs.