Gaming Blog

On a warm Sunday evening, Gal, Sendrill, and I were exploring the Borderlands in Guild Wars 2, hunting for bags. During our run, Sendrill and I stumbled upon two dueling players. We watched the duel at south camp while Gal was AFK. It was a clash between two Willbenders, which was going well until a random Ranger from our gaming community showed up to interrupt the duel. The Ranger was swiftly taken down by the enemy Willbender while the three of us looked on. He complained that the location wasn’t suitable for dueling, but we disagreed, stating that it had been the de facto dueling spot for most of the game’s life. Frustrated, the Ranger left and returned to spawn.

The Willbenders healed up and restarted their duel. As the enemy Willbender began to lose, the Ranger returned again and sniped the kill from our friendly Willbender. He then danced over his fallen body and waypointed away, clearly avoiding any confrontation, knowing full well what he had done.

When Gal returned, we shared the entire story of the two Willbenders, the duel, and the nuisance Ranger. We made sure to emphasize the details to highlight the Ranger's poor skills and behavior, clearly indicating that he was new to the game with his inadequate armor and abilities.

After some more exploration around the map, we returned to the dueling location. We saw the Willbender standing there while the pathetic Ranger and his friend rode past on their mounts. Sendrill and I cheered as the Willbender mounted up and threw his spear, knocking the Ranger off his mount. The fight began! It was two vs one, and the Willbender was gaining the upper hand. Gal observed and saw the poorly geared Ranger and his friend being thoroughly defeated. Ignoring our warnings, he rushed past us to engage the Willbender. We cried out, "Stop, Gal! He’s the Ranger that interrupted the duel! He’s the one with bad manners!" The Ranger’s misfortune was clearly a result of his own actions, but in his bloodlust, Gal disregarded our pleas and kept chasing the Willbender. Despite our attempts to reason with him, Gal killed the Willbender instead.

Instead of praise from his guildmates, Gal faced harsh criticism and scolding. Confused, he couldn’t understand what he had done wrong. Sendrill and I interrogated him, asking if he had ignored our story and why he didn’t heed our warnings. Gal insisted that he didn’t hear us and claimed we never told him the story. Shocked by his allegations, we repeated the story without embellishments. Gal then argued that he thought the Willbender was the bad-mannered player, so he attacked him. We confronted him, "Did you hear our story and misunderstand, or did you not hear it at all?" Instead of answering, Gal accused us of gaslighting him.

As the night went on, we continued discussing the whole event, but Gal was entrenched in the delusion that we were gaslighting him. He never clarified whether he misinterpreted the story or simply didn’t hear it. Instead, he maintained that the events never occurred.

To this day, Gal will scream at the top of his lungs, "GASLIGHTING!"