Leeroy Jenkins

The story of Leeroy Jenkins is one that occurs in the World of Warcraft.  Leeroy, an alias of Ben Schulz, is infamous for screwing up a raid in the game. While a group plans how to best perform the raid, Leeroy surprisingly shouts his own name and charges head first before the party is ready. Leeroy is then blamed for the unsuccessful raid.

This story does show some of the positive attributes of video game anonymity. For example, Leeroy is able to hide behind his character and do something that people in the real world would have got much more upset about, and more harmful backlash could have occured. Since he does this, he is able to do something that he finds enjoyable, as well as at least 25 million viewers online.

At the same time, it does exhibit some of the negativity that comes with online gaming. Other people in Leeroy’s party get pretty upset, and though the online sphere prevents any immediate physical harm, their is verbal abuse that occurs. Alone with the blame the Leeroy receives, he also gets cussed at and generally demeaned. This probably does not affect him, but it could be potentially harmful to gamers of a younger age or games with less self-esteem.

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