In a turn of events that can only makes you lose faith in humanity or at the very least the humanity of World of Warcraft players, a gamer has been kicked from his guild of 4 years after an accident left him permanently deaf and unable to use Ventrilo.
Unwelcome had struggled after the accident to come to terms with this massive change in his lifestyle, talking to people became exhausting and the loss of simple things we take for granted such as listening to music had disheartened him. To make matters even worse, his friends in the real world had turned their back on him because of his loss of hearing, leaving him to feel like an inconvenience to them.
Feeling isolated he returned to WoW and to his guild, a place where his guild mates had became close friends and even had real life parties together. He explained what had happened to the guild and he seemed to get the support you would expect from another human being, but then his guild leader sent him a question. Can you still use vent?
After replying that he couldn’t but that it wouldn’t get in the way of guild raids, the guild leader dismissed this, replying that without Vent he wouldn’t be allowed to take part in guild raids. It’s part of the guild rules. This led to understandable anger from Unwelcome and the two argued resulting in him being kicked from the guild then placed on ignore. Unwelcome then admits that he broke down into tears, feeling even more alone and isolated now that everyone around him was seemingly unable to cope with his loss of hearing. A loss that he was still struggling to get to grips with. He then tried to join a few other guilds but their attitudes towards his inability to use Vent were the same in each of them.
Luckily the decency of gamers and human beings eventually shone through after Unwelcome turned to the WoW Battle Net forums. The topic he posted (which he felt would be ignored by the community) explained what had happened to him with his friends and his guild but also tried to find deaf players like himself or a guild for deaf people. Instead of being buried or ignored the post quickly reached over 30 pages of posts offering help and support to Unwelcome. After the incredible actions of his guild mates and friends he finally found people who didn’t see his loss of hearing as a problem or a hindrance. He also found himself a new guild, That Canadian Guild is now home to Unwelcome and hopefully things will begin to look up for the Warcraft player.
The fact that anyone could turn away from a friend because they were left permanently deaf from an accident, be it in real life or in a Warcraft guild, is shocking but thankfully even though it doesn’t seem like it sometimes the internet isn’t such a horrible place after all.
We wish him the best of luck in his real life and in his virtual one.