Let me preface this by stating, I'm pleased to still encounter a lot of courteous people in the game. However...

I used to play the game almost nonstop. Moria was released way back when and I took a break, then a few months ago I picked it back up and have been going nonstop again. I'm astonished at the number of discourteous players I'm encountering these days. Is this a F2P created situation (before I took my break F2P hadn't been implemented and I never saw such a problem then)? Is it simply the way the game has progressed anyway? I find that I encounter this a lot in Bree but also in high end areas, so my gut tells me it can't be blamed entirely on that.


Some examples:

My scholar was literally two steps from a node in Moria when a champion sprinted to the node and stole it out from under me. I tried to shrug it off, but after a few minutes I sent a tell letting the person know that what he did was in bad form. He wrote back, "CBS cares, I don't." I'm sure he thought it was clever, when in fact it made him seem like a child.

I was in Aughaire where I had engaged a character which would speak to me before I needed to "best him in battle." I was speed reading the content--which I hadn't read for years so wanted to read again--and about to click continue when two people (or one person dual boxing) ran up and triggered him, starting the combat, rather than waiting a minute for me to finish. These people knew what was happening, having just seen me fight the previous champion in Aughaire, and they knew I would take less than a minute to complete the fight, if that, but they couldn't be bothered to wait.

I was in Chetwood waiting to kill a brigand once he respawned. I was waiting in the exact position of his respawn, and as soon as he respawned a minstrel tagged him before my melee character could strike. I sent a tell informing him he had played it badly and he responded simply, "so." Then a hunter did the same thing on the very next respawn.

In Bree I was visiting the vault to swap inventory between characters. I received a tell from someone saying, "Can you help me?" I asked what he needed, to which he answered that he needed silver and weapons. I told him that sending tells begging for silver and gear was in very, very bad form, and in fact begging at all was in very bad form. But I told him I would help him out anyway and I led him to the AH were I bought him 300 silver worth of gear for his low level character and gave him an extra 200 silver to help get him started. I then changed characters and went to the jail to train skills, where I bumped into the very same person. He sent my other character a tell: "Can you help me?" That's right. Not realizing who I was, he asked me for silver and equipment.

And the worst case of all, I was in Bree running down the street. I stopped for something mundane, like checking my deed log, and this little dwarf (nothing against dwarfs, mind you) ran up to me and initiated a trade window. I clicked accept, wondering what he was doing. After a minute, he sent a tell, "I need silver." He actually had the gall to start a trade then beg for money.


These are the cases that come to mind while I type this. There have been others. Is this the new norm? Obviously the begging was being done by relatively new characters of low level, but I'm seeing rudeness by longtime players. What happened to the quality of character I remember from the days of old?

This may come across as just a gripe, especially since I cited a number of specific examples, but I really am curious.

[As for me, when I play I still try to lend a hand. If I'm playing my captain I buff anyone and everyone I pass whenever I can. If I'm playing my minstrel, I stop beside combat as I'm adventuring and prepare to heal when it's done. If I'm playing ANY character I stand ready to lend a hand if battle turns ugly for a stranger I encounter in the land. Game play like this seems to be the exception to the norm these days.]