I'll go first:
1. Online Groups -- Ever since The Sierra Network (or ImagiNation Network, whichever you prefer) was around in the very early 1990s, people have formed groups. This was most prevalent in combat-oriented games, such as Red Baron, Air Warrior, Aliens Online, Starsiege and more recently, every MMORPG you can find.
The problem with these online associations is that the members take it far too seriously. They act like what they do is an urgent matter of life or death. Even worse are the groups with a rank-like structure. In those groups, people like to use their imaginary position of authority to boss others around.
I remember a particular Mechwarrior 4 group called the 3rd Devon Highlanders, in which the commanding officer was a man called "Eviscerator" and the second in-command was a woman named "Steel Fire" (Maia knows them as "Jack" and "Kim" from Guild Wars). What annoyed me about 3DH was the strict military structure.
Both Jack and Kim had been in the U.S. Army (as were a number of other members) and so they were used to working that way. Granted, I like the military, but there comes a point where you need to stop and realize that you're there to have fun; not go through boot camp. We had numerous training sessions, all of which were all fairly mundane, except one where my brother (then known as "Mercenary") started the online equivalent of a mech-oriented food fight.
Probably the worst aspect of 3DH was that in order to change your mech's weaponry, you need to gain "permission" from the ordinance officer. If he permitted it, you could change your weapons, but... because we were an "Inner Sphere" group and not a "Clan," we could not use the more powerful Clan weapons.
What I'm getting at here is the utter ridiculousness of the whole thing. We were there to play a game and have fun; not act as if we were really in the military.
2. Morons -- There's no shortage of morons online or off. I think we can all agree on that. In an unusual situation in Guild Wars, I somehow got into an argument with someone else. He was saying losing your GW account to hackers was the worst thing that could happen. I suggested that some accounts, such as the ones involving your bank and credit cards, were more important. He vehemently opposed me on that.
I can only imagine that this individual was quite young, so he didn't care about real life endeavors such as bank and credit card accounts or even credit ratings.
Another example is a personal pet peeve of mine. It's when someone asks a question on a board, obviously looking for assistance and then gets responses such as: "I don't know the answer, sorry."
Okay... so why did you respond?! Unless you have something at least halfway decent to contribute, you're simply wasting that person's time, as well as your own.
3. The Online Definition of "Free" -- Have you ever been looking for something online and then read -- either on Google or the actual website -- that whatever you're looking for is "free?" Since you're now excited, you quickly look it all over only to discover that it's not free and was a trick to get you there.
A good example is p0rn. Those sites will say -- usually in large letters -- that they're free. The truth is that they're not free and you still have to pay for a subscription to the website. Apparently, the online definition of free (and this is hardly limited to p0rn) is that you can "visit the website for free." These sites know that most people won't think of that is free. After all, it's technically free to visit any website.
For clarification... No, I don't spend my time trolling for pornography. I have, however, seen different p0rn sites before and they almost always pull this stunt.
4. Online Cliques -- Remember high school when everyone had a clique? There were the geeks, the so-called cool jocks and cheerleaders and the weird goth people who wandered around like the undead? I'm sure you do.
Well, in the online world of cyberspace, this exists too. Go to any message board and you'll quickly find out who the "cool people" are. These individuals can easily get away with doing and saying practically anything. If someone who isn't deemed "cool" tries that, they'll be burned at the stake.
Why? Because they're just not cool. That's why.
5. Don't Ask Why -- I'm not the sort of person who just does something because he's told or given the line, "You don't need to know." Yes, I do need to know if I'm going to be doing whatever it is you want.
The only time I could see the above as okay, is if you're in the military or involving some sort of national security issue. Neither one of those usually affects us in everyday life.
6. Entitlements -- This may be an issue in which is somewhat foreign to those not from the United States. Way back in America's history, we had slaves. That was just "life as normal" and very few actually gave it much thought.
President Abraham Lincoln stated that he'd keep slavery if it meant war could be avoided. However, the U.S. was divided in slave and non-slave states. Lincoln announced that any new state admitted into the Union would be a non-slave state. Naturally, that didn't sit well with slave states, as they saw the act as a subtle demolition of their livelihood. The southern states -- most of which utilized slavery -- were mainly agricultural. They used slaves to work on land. If the slaves were given their freedom, their entire way of doing business would go down the drain.
Eventually tensions rose to the point where the American Civil War commenced. To sum it up, the United States defeated the Confederacy. Slaves were then given their freedom.
The reason I gave that extremely shortened version of American history is because it's important to know it, since it affects the U.S. today. The Civil War ended in 1865, so it's been about 143 years since slavery, as an institution was considered legal. Unfortunately, the African Americans living in the U.S. still believe, for some reason or another, that they are entitled to not only monetary reparations, but benefits above and beyond what others receive in this country.
I could see doing that to those who were enslaved or even a generation after. However, it's been nearly a century-and-a-half since that time. African Americans have all the same rights and privileges as any other American. Apparently, that's not enough.
7. False History -- In reference to the slavery days of the U.S., it's become a long-believed myth that the southern states counted slaves as 3/5 of a person. That's not true at all.
While slavery states didn't care for slaved or think of them highly at all, the south wanted to count each and every slave as a whole person. Why? So that'd earn those states more seats in the House of Representatives. In the House, the number of seats each state has is directly in relation to that state's population.
The northern states disagreed, since that'd reduce their overall power and wanted slaves to count as nothing. So a compromise was made, in which slaves would count as 3/5 of a person.
Another myth regarding that era is who owned slaves. Using the two most famous personalities of the time (aside from Lincoln), many have the wrong idea about Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The common misconception is that Lee was an evil slave-holding tyrant while Grant believed in the absolute freedom of slaves. The reverse is actually true. Grant owned slaves while Lee had freed his slaves, but continued to employ them.
He had been a decorated officer in the U.S. military and originally frowned upon seceding from the U.S. and fighting against it. Why did Lee fight against the U.S. then? His loyalty was predominantly towards his home state of Virginia and when that state joined the Confederacy and became a battleground, he sided with his state.
Lee actually lost a lot in the Civil War. Among other losses, Lee's home was taken after the war by the U.S. and turned into Arlington Cemetery.
There are many misconceptions about history and other areas, but they'd take too long to recount.
8. The Medical Profession -- This isn't annoyance directed at the doctor and nurses, but instead against those who harbor a huge grudge towards those in the medical profession.
Many erroneously believe that physicians are fabulously wealthy. While it's true doctors make more than the average person, they are far from rich. Considering they spend 10 years or so (sometimes more, depending on the specialty) in medical school and residency before become a doctor and acting responsible for the health and well being over others, I'd say they're entitled to some compensation.
The most often heard complaint is that doctors charge too much. What's misunderstood, however, is that (in the U.S.) health insurance companies dictate how much the doctor actually earns. For instance, say a doctor is supposed to make $1000 off a patient for whatever reason. That patient's health insurance will pay out something like $250 to the doctor. They won't do it immediately either. Getting that money can take upwards of six months, so doctors generally employ office staff who just track down insurance companies to get what they've earned. That person's position, of course, costs the physician money as well.
Doctors are also obligated to see any patient who enters the ER, even if they are uninsured. In that case, the doctor (and the hospital) will make nothing off the patient. The only two real reasons for health insurance is to cover the cost of medication and if you need some large procedure, such as an operation or MRI. Otherwise, it may actually be beneficial to avoid getting it.
I know the response many give and that's: "Being a doctor shouldn't be about money. They should be satisfied with treating patients."
Yes, doctors do derive a sense of satisfaction from helping their patients. However, who said they should work for free? How would anyone else in other professions like being told they should simply "enjoy their job" for little or no pay?
9. Bad Endings in Games -- Why? Why do so many games have extremely poor or nonexistent endings? People who play a game through from start to end would like to have some sense of accomplishment. That could easily be done if more games employed a decent ending.
Looking at Jade Empire (which merely uses a text-based ending sequence) or worse, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, in which a ton of story was cut out and the ending reduced to a shadow of the original concept.
Maia has complained about the bad ending to Neverwinter Nights 2, which interestingly enough, was made by Obsidian. They also developed KotOR 2. Perhaps that game developer has a real issue with endings.
10. People Who Make Extremely Long-Winded Posts -- I am a great example of this.
