Online Gaming - Ruining Our Fun?

[mrbunny]

I dont really know if its just with me, or the particular games i play. But has "some" communities in online gaming become sour? Take for example - fps games, and much related xbox live .Am i getting paranoid here, or are there more d***heads cropping up then usual. I enjoy a good multiplayer, but i just sat through 2 hours of cursing, sledging, racism and other crap (not entirely directed towards me) and i just had enough of this filth. Like 12 year olds thinking their the king's of the universe, or insecure pricks hiding behind the security of the internet - saying whatever they feel like, constantly. Its seriously degrading my gaming experience and i can understand where some people are coming from, when they say online play is sh*t.

Please share any of your opinions.

 

[the_carrot]

I'm really bothered by some of the racist/xenophobic crap I hear. An Argentine man/boy was being mocked on a TF2 server because English was his second language. People saying crude crap...I asked for people to knock it off, that he sounded funny because English was not his first language. People actually quieted down a bit for a while, but it started back up again after a little while, and he left the server. I like playing online, it's more challenging, people are practiced and skillful, and AI can be terrible sometimes. Just remember that the average intelligence is close to the median intelligence, people aren't exceptionally mature, intelligent or wise, and crudity is a long standing part of human culture, at least western culture.

You've got to expect it when dealing with the world, or just any random person. In life we separate ourselves, and put ourselves into communities that suit us, communities we get along in, share things with, but the world is a big place, and there are lots of behaviors and attitudes out there. I'm not saying I like it, but you can't cringe and you have to fight for better things, especially as an intelligent person. Particularly now with the world coming together at a frightening rate. You need to be mature and to lead if you have a better point of view. That may sound unpleasant, certainly for the sarcastic and bitter, but I stand by it. I hope you at least see my point of view. I really think if people maintain this arrogance and aloof attitude, and one that keeps them from getting involved culture is going to take a dive into a pit it's going to have trouble getting back out of.

 

[soladrin]

carrot, i have no idea what you were saying...

anyhow, i'm not bothered by this it all, i always just end up laughing my ass off at people who think their' ub3r 1337 and start cursing at everything that moves. I laugh purely at their stupidity and i usually beat them in the game too, making it even more fun

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I'm going to repeat my plea that folks report that kind of abuse to system administrators... in Live's case, use the User Rating and Report User blades to let them know who the abusers are.

Jerks appear in every online medium, not just gaming; slashdot, for instance, is raddled with 'em in the comments section as are many other blog sites. The only way to keep jerkitude down is to winnow it out; ban the worst offenders, removing the bad examples that lead others to conclude that jerk behaviour is expected and condoned, and warn the rest while pointing to the Mighty Implement of Bannishment as often as necessary.

I do wish that more communities had incentives for good behaviour, but every time I think I've thought one up I also think of a way it could be badly abused. Will keep pondering.

-- Steve

 

[hickwarrior]

carrot, i have no idea what you were saying...

He was saying that we western people can be very crude at times, and that we don't accept other behaviours or attitudes. Because me is the only thing in the world that's the best. But i know that that doesn't go for me at all. That was digressing, but i think that would be the mind of a 12-year old, or someone whose mind didn't get matured.

I hope you understand now, can't explain it better.

Anyway, onto the topic.

Having a fine time online isn't easy, by 10 times. You might as well go offline multiplayer, since you want friends to get hooked on an online game and that's not easy, i think.

 

[pimpybra]

I signed up for these forums, just to reply to this post. This is one of the main reasons I don't participate in online play. I don't need to be flooded with morons screaming and yelling. (Honestly, the biggest reason is playing with random people, I honestly have no interest in playing a game with people I don't know - I want to play with friends I know)

Like Anton above said, it's in every online medium. I was going to use YouTube as an example. I don't think you can read more than 5 comments without coming across some moron.

 

[p1ne]

The way to avoid this is to play in a community of gamers that you know. When you just jump into a random public server online you're almost guaranteed to have to deal with some kind of jerk. Also it seems like the more popular a game is, the higher the percentage of jackasses. Either they naturally gravitate towards crowds, or people act up more in an environment of total anonymity. Probably a mixture of both. Games with a smaller player base in general tend to have more friendly, supportive community too, as do older games, so if you want to avoid e-thuggery just don't play Counter-Strike or Halo or any super new release.

 

[Cdscottie]

I to have found that online gaming has turned sour. Years back (8 to 10 years ago) you use to be able to go online and actually have a conversation with someone and not get blasted with every swear word under the sun. Now I find myself buying more single player games just because I don't want to suffer the online community. (Halo 3 is a gift for my sister and remains to be opened due to the community) I have though, found that certain games tend to have a higher level of maturity and an overall better community. Homeworld (When it was new) had a great online community and now I have found the community within Eve to be pretty mature. Yes, no matter what game you will run into the people who will call you scum, newb, and everything else but for some reason it doesn't appear is some games that aren't as popular.

PS: WoW is polluted with the utter trash talking idiots and don't tell me different.

 

[Prodigs]

I hate MMORPG's where an entire army awaits to rip to shreds any player who is new, I mean I don't pay a monthly fee to get mouthed off by someone who thinks their incredibly superior to me simply because they've spent more of their life on the game than me.
Counter Strike annoys me with the level of accuracy. Yes I can congradulate the player on how they can kill me with a rubbish gun from miles away with a slight flick of the trigger but ultimately I can't see it is as fun...even if I was the CS God in that situation.
I'm looking forward to getting Call of Duty 4 for it's multiplayer, simply because it's a gritty war game but without the extreme sense of realism CS has and the over-specific class types Team Fortress has.

 

[mrbunny]

The way to avoid this is to play in a community of gamers that you know. When you just jump into a random public server online you're almost guaranteed to have to deal with some kind of jerk.

I've been trying to coerce friends to pick the mouse and keyboard, or gaming for that matter, for this exact reason.

Do you reckon that online gaming has played a part in deterring mainstream gamers or first-time gamers away from games?

I personally can understand where someone comes from when they 'rage quit' from a particular game, or server and i see it happen often. I know this sounds whiney, but is it the responsibility of moderators to control the community of a game that's dependent on multiplayer? Ive seen it to some extent happen on one particular game: runescape (i dont play runescape) where every possible swear or offensive word would be bleated out by ****. But this just made things more frustrating in terms of communication because things that even sounded remotely like a swear would be bleated.
In my opinion, think it's more of a process of 'crapification' of a gaming community that no one can stop. However this excludes the escapist, for some unknown reason.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Much like communism, online play is a good idea that is completely mucked up the instant you introduce human beings into the equation. Look at what it entails... anonymity, a large degree of protection from consequences for anything you do, and the ability to cause grief to numbers of other people at once. Human nature being what it is, it's more of a wonder that there are any decent people to be found on any online gaming servers whatsoever!

Throughout my online-gaming career, I've been fortunate enough to find servers on which could be found an assembly of decent, welcoming people who wanted to build and maintain a community. Even then, once you are lucky to find such a place yourself, your work is not over- it is your responsibility to uphold and support that atmosphere, lest those who are making the effort end up feeling unappreciated and leave to find greener pastures.

I know that this "enclave of decency in a sea of stupidity" thing seems like a bum deal. But until technology advances to the point where we may kick a**hats in the teeth over the Internet, it's the best we can do.

 

[BonsaiK]

I get around this by disabling voice chat in every online game that I play. Text spam I can handle, voice spam is another issue. If the game won't allow me to disable voice chat I won't play it online, ever.

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

I had my fill of online play with anonymous jerks back around the time everyone was on Battlenet, and Counterstrike. The problem has been around as long as there has been gaming on the internet, but with the advent of Xbox Live I'm sure the legions of jerks have swelled. Oh, and they can actually scream at you now instead of just using caps lock.

I only play multiplayer at LAN parties.

 

[richasr]

I think we all know the reasons the foul, crude language, immature people (not just 12 year olds) and just plain idiots get their 'disease' from, of course it's passed on like a germ because they see people they look up to do the same thing etc..

You're quite wrong when you say people who take things personally ruin games, that's a pretty flimsy arguement when you compare it to the amount of people that are being idiots and children; It's not that we're being insulted a lot of the time, it's the fact some idiot kid is screaming along to a really bad McFly song while he's playing Team Sharpshooter on Rainbow Six Vegas, or the fact that one nutcase is dedicating the 15 minutes of the next round to shot-gunning his team-mates to death.

I myself don't really care what I get called or things like that, I just want the person to shut up and play the damn game, and then stop complaining that people are cheating when he gets sniped by my team-mate while hes busy ranting on.

It's just a shame it can't be controlled more with online communities and gaming, banning is the way but it's not used as effectively as it could be.

On Xbox Live I don't think i've ever known anyone to get their account suspended following the 'File Complaint' procedure. I've recently filed a complaint against someone for unnecessary violent language and massively immature behaviour towards myself after a game of FIFA, yet once you complain, that's the last you hear of it, at least in my experience.

The most of my problems have been with American people believe it or not, on the Halo3 and Gears of War Servers, I usually play with a group of mates and the opposite team are incredibly immature, just because a friend of mine is very good with a sniper rifle. They then start referring to historical matters like "how many wars did we bail you out in?" and other such nonsensical issues (even though the UK is the US's ***** at the moment).

It's not needed but it can't really be stopped now can it?

Ah well, I remember when I enjoyed Unreal Tournament online so much, nowadays with new games it is more like a war than a nice game of COD, FIFA and etc.

 

[soladrin]

theres only one thing to do with those jerkwads that ruin other's experiences...

drop the hammer.

 

[beoweasel]

I to have found that online gaming has turned sour. Years back (8 to 10 years ago) you use to be able to go online and actually have a conversation with someone and not get blasted with every swear word under the sun. Now I find myself buying more single player games just because I don't want to suffer the online community. (Halo 3 is a gift for my sister and remains to be opened due to the community) I have though, found that certain games tend to have a higher level of maturity and an overall better community. Homeworld (When it was new) had a great online community and now I have found the community within Eve to be pretty mature. Yes, no matter what game you will run into the people who will call you scum, newb, and everything else but for some reason it doesn't appear is some games that aren't as popular.

PS: WoW is polluted with the utter trash talking idiots and don't tell me different.

WoW does suffer idiots, but some of the most awesome folk I have ever met have come from WoW.

And I have to disagree with Eve, some of the self-absorbed ego-maniacs that I have ever come across, seem to be the ones engrossed in that game. Many of them are of the opinion that they are the paragons of games because they play Eve, and folks like me who enjoy more simple MMOs like WoW, are little more than pond scum shut-ins.