You’ve seen it before in trade chat and elsewhere… the same tired old guild recruitment message:

(Nonsensical/Clichéd Guild Name) is now recruiting for its core raiding group. We have six tabs and an awesome freaking tabard. Must be mature and have vent, PST for more information.

…UGH. This was a forgettable and inoffensive guild spam until I hit the “mature” part.

While is not unique to WoW, it has done PLENTY to run the word “mature” into the ground, spit upon it, and then drop a giant nuclear missile from orbit on it. The world is flung around so much that it has lost all meaning. Quite often, it is invoked in the context of “Hi, I’m a decent human being who has weathered life’s experiences and learned from them” but is really “Hi, I want an excuse to swear and make sexual double-entendres without being called out for my dumbassery.”

Dear WoW players, Draenor server and elsewhere, please… stop! I would much rather you say “Don’t be a jerk” since that better expresses your intent, than to fall back on the penultimate weasel word in MMORPGs.

It’s not that I don’t empathize with guilds who don’t want to have children around (presumably said guilds are populated by parents or other adults who don’t want to worry about holding back in front of a child, or otherwise don’t want to deal with the inanity that children are so infamous for). I totally get that. But can we please find some other way of indicating that we are capable of being SOMEWHAT civil to one another?

…oh, this is a losing battle anyway. Before anyone comes in waving the flag of the Greater Internet Fuckwad and tell me to drop trade chat like a hot potato, please indulge me a bit while I question my minimal good faith in my fellow player. I am the sort of person who, when possible, gives even the worst person their two minutes before I decide if I still want to bother. What is it that compels people to spew such ridiculous amounts of hate, aside from mere lulz? (Really, it CAN’T be just for the lulz, it’s too easy.) Maybe it’s because I’m a girl and also desensitized due to life drawing classes, but what’s with the ridiculous fixation on a dude’s junk? Really? They’re not that interesting. And why, of all things, do we constantly attack each other’s mothers and make the blanket insult that said mothers are morbidly obese and promiscuous? What a twisted play upon the Oedipus complex…

Also, my inner American politics nerd feels like nails are being dragged across chalkboard when people issue damning declarations against (politician I support) without having any basic understanding of how the government works. People, did you sleep through civics/history class? One person alone cannot change policy! Influence, yes, but not change. (Yes, there’s the Executive Order but even that has its limitations and is certainly not immune to scrutiny.) Before you blame that person, consider that his ability is regulated by Congress, and the things he is accused of not being able to accomplished likely unfolded that way because the opposition dug in their heels and held up the system. But… our culture puts such a premium on stupidity and fear as opposed to education— after all, stupid people are easier to control (allegedly).

…my. If stupid people were that easy to control, I would think that raids would go MUCH easier, right? Seriously, by that logic, I could have had Kingslayer MONTHS ago. (I will have that damned achievement this week, so I can point and laugh at my brother… even if to say that he is a special snowflake no more!)

And yet, despite all of the above, I am still here. It would, of course, take much much more to get me to consider ditching my brother and our guild… and those rare guilds that permit me into their alt runs. They’re pretty awesome people, and I’m just now beginning to edge my way into their invite lists for future raids.

Just… drop that awful “mature” word from your vocabulary, please? That’s all I ask.

(BTW, if “mature” is the penultimate weasel word, what is in fact the worst offender? l33t. The first, the most abused, and thus it has no meaning anymore.)