I'm going to break my carnal rule on this post: Never openly mix WoW and Religion. I do so, because there's a lesson here that I learned from the bible that I want to pass on.
This week, someone our guild trusted, screwed us. A member took liberties with the guild bank settings & fleeced us. He then transferred servers and changed his name.
It was wrong. It was painful.
Several of our members are openly hurting and angry from it. His class rep worked hard to help him get a raider status, improve his skills and work on gear. The rep and a few other folks have worked at tracking him down and letting other guilds know of his transgressions. This is a nice thing to do, but their reasons are generally not altruistic. They are reasons of vengeance. It made me think of Romans 12. "Vengeance is mine."
There's a reason why this verse wants us out of the vengeance game.
Vengeance and righteous anger feels so good when it's achieved, but it rarely ever actually solves any problems. We talk about closure, but it doesn't really come from the vengeance part. The guilty party will never feel remorse because of successful revenge. Instead, revenge and anger usually become part of an emotionally damaging cycle. Blame goes back and forth. The guilty must have a change of heart and we aren't going to be the ones that cause it.
So, what the hell do we do with all this rage? I don't have any easy fixes for that. I do know, both from that same chapter and from personal experience that the best solution is to repay your enemy with kindness. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (12:21)
I know, I know, I never liked that whole turn the other cheek stuff either. I mean, we're playing a violent game! But it works. Certainly, it serves the general good to report this person to others, but not at the cost of one's own emotional well-being. So what do we do? With the exception of maybe closing some of our guild bank loopholes, I say we should do nothing but kick butt, take names and be the same fun guild we always were.
I am not advocating forgiveness. That is a hard road and not a fair request. No one can be forced to forgive. But the fact remains that this theft, like any violation, will linger. Learning to move on and learning to release anger sure works a lot better than carrying a grudge with someone you will hopefully never see again.
The individual in question will not go without justice. He will not change his spots. I fully believe he will screw up elsewhere. I hope for him and his potential guildmates that he does learn his lesson. But, that's not our problem. Our problem is picking up the pieces and not letting his stink taint us.
It's time to acknowledge, move on and down another boss...
Or as our main tank says, "Hunters, get em up!"
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5 comments:
While I agree that obsessively pursuing the thief with a heart full of vengeance is neither healthy nor helpful, I do feel that there is a certain level of obligation to warn the rest of society about this person's predatory habits. To sit by and do nothing to warn other groups about this wolf's penchant for fleecing is tantamount to condoning it. My literary reference is somewhat less exalted, but here we go: in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice the main characters choose not to expose the unsavory past of their town's favored son, and in return he skips town with a stack of unpaid bills and somebody's (unmarried) teenage sister.
You don't fire someone for stealing office supplies and then give them a good job reference; the guild should not give this thief a good reference via their silence.
Your caution against the empty reward of revenge is good, though. In the immortal words of Yoda "..anger...leads to the Dark Side."
There's a difference between warning the general public, and more specifically his new server (assuming his new name and identity are discovered) and hounding him for the rest of his days. The first serves to warn people, including those he's most likely to screw next. The second wastes too much time and energy from what people play WoW for. If warning his new server causes him to lose the guild invitation that he transferred and changed his name for, fine. If it also prevents him from joining another guild there, fine too. He now has 3 months to wait out because of his actions. If during that time someone takes him on, they do so at their own risk. If not, then I would say justice is served, and if he wants to transfer again (along with another name change), then he's earned his shot at starting over. At that point he would have been out of raiding and doing anything useful with the toon for 3 months, and have paid $70 in real-world money for it. Fair enough for the theft of essentially bits on a server that are easily replaceable.
Both of you have a "healthy" and responsible view of things.
Thanks for the comments
Is not "Vengeance" what any society is extracting when it punishes a criminal for his crime? (Among other things..... it also serves as a deterrent.)
It the specific case of WoW, Blizzard has all but condoned bank theft - allowing players to get away with whatever they can, and essentially blaming the victims for being too trusting. Thus, it is up to the "society" of WoW to extract justice. I think, with a single exception, QSS has done that it a responsible manner.
You got it at the end Karthis. Not Vengeance, but Justice. To seek justice is good. And, I'm not going to get into the problems with our current criminal "vengeance" system which too often seeks to extract vengeance instead of justice & to reform.
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