Reflections of what you ask? Allow me to explain.

I live in an area where most people are not only content driving their personally owned automobiles, but prefer it that way over say, saving money by taking public transportation. There's a stigma though. A negative opinion they have of the bus system, primarily those who utilize it.

Case in point: the behavior of the players in-game. As the rules for this forum point out, a multitude of people from all kinds of backgrounds participate.

"Anything you say or do can be used against you..." It doesn't take much for a lot of players to turn it into an assumption of the worst in which case they usually take it out on you and begin labelling you and even gossipping about you.

In this way, we get a glimpse of how the player base behaves outside the game, in the "real world" we like to call it. In this way, MMOs are becoming a reflection of the state of affairs found in the social scene outside the game.