Rant: On begging

“Can sum1 gimme meat plz?" is the iconical representation of the ‘Meat Begz0r’ in the Kingdom. The typical on-line begger is a teen, who's just started the game, and finds it incredulous that he'll be able to afford buying hi mein for himself someday. After all, if you've just started, meat returns are often in the low double digits, rather than triple digits at which most items in the mall start. Never mind that "good" stuff quickly goes to about 10k meat.

This is the first sign of their lack of character and imagination. Any gamer worth their salt will realize that you start out in a weak position in the game, and you'll have to put in some time and effort to become in a well-established position. Do a little research, find out what the best place/item is. In fact, in a way, the typical fashion in which RPG’s work is almost a projection of the so-called “American Dream”. If you work hard, you can go from rags to riches. You start out as a weakling and you end up a well-rounded, powerful individual.

Which makes the practice of begging all the more strange. These kids are undoubtedly affluent. They live in an environment with access to Internet, a decent computer. They’ve got spare time to spend on-line pursuing leisure activity. In fact, I expect these kids probably look down on the homeless, or drug-addicted. Wandering down the city park, I doubt they’d even bother to give a panhandler a friendly smile. You know, acknowledge the existence of a man whose fortune in life has been lesser than yours.

But their knee-jerk reaction on-line, is to expect others to provide them with the items and currency that will make their gameplay top of the game. While they wouldn’t even dream of going out into the street with a hand-made sign and a Styrofoam cup asking for alms. In fact, while they are more likely to assault such a person for their pure entertainment, they will resort to this behaviour themselves in an on-line environment. It sickens me. Their hypocrisy is so blatant, they aren’t even worth to hold a candle to the the ‘bums’ and ‘hobos’ they despise so much.

Their mental weakness is even furthermore demonstrated by an oft-heard defense of their scandalously sad behaviour: “I wasn’t begging, I was asking.”.

I’ve got this to say to these punks: Next time a guy with a cardboard sign and a Styrofoam cup asks you something, perhaps you could oblige him?