Online shooters - too much stress?

[MiracleOfSound]

Once upon a time, there was a guy who gamed for fun.

Then 6 months ago, he got XBOX Live and everything changed.

Suddenly, gaming was no longer something he did to relax, it became competitive. He spent hours and hours getting destroyed in Halo 3 and COD4 only to keep coming back, learning the games, learning about people's online behaviour and getting slowly but surely better.

There were so many frustrations in online gaming... host advantage, bad connections, lag, cheating, the knowledge that some people would always just have faster reflexes and better aim than him...

He put a lot of work into getting better, then realised he wasn't having fun anymore.

No game of MW2 was satisfying to him unless he got a huge KD ratio and frustration would set in when that was not achieved.

So he reinstalled Fallout 3 and went back to the Capital Wasteland.

As the relaxing, gorgeous vistas and soothing sonics of the Capital Wasteland washed over his eyes and ears, making his heart feel warm and at peace, he remembered the reason he enjoyed gaming in the first place, to escape form the harsh, competitive reality of life.

And so he decided to stop giving a shit about his KD ratio, realised what a twat he had been and repeated the mantra to himself: 'It's only a game'.

My question to you, fellow Escapists, is do any of you share this experience with me?

Have you ever just gone 'fuck it', and decided that competitive gaming was just too annoying to get bothered about anymore?

Or do you relish the grind, the frustration and sense of achievement after finally getting better than other people?

 

[Jaranja]

Absolutely. Every time I play an online shooter for a while, I end up going back to Fallout or Final Fantasy or my latest Baldur's Gate save... or make a bacon sandwich.

 

[x434343]

I never play competitively. In MW2, if we're literally 12 seconds from a loss and I'm last man standing, I'll go "Fuck this" and jump off a cliff.

 

[mindclockwork]

people play to get amusement, atleast they should. ofcourse it's nice to be best, but thinking too much of 'achievement' makes it kill the whole fun factor of the game and it becomes 'job'.

i myself aren't too worried about how i fare compared to other players, however i do have friend who literally wants to be best and he makes the game we play his second job untill he can't get any better. and then he gets bored in it. and i still like to 'casually' play those games he got bored in.

 

[TPiddy]

Gears got to me this way.... when people started developing the melee - shotgun combo or using smoke grenades to knock you down... or planting grenades at the grenade spawn. I have to give these people credit. They know what it takes to win.

I find that sometimes the competition seems unfair or overwhelming, but it's so very satisfying when you beat an opponent with skill that I quickly became addicted to it. However, to support your argument, I prefer trying to figure out the AI and beating it instead... mainly because it's not a douchebag most of the time.

Other games like Fallout 3, Saints Row 2 and such are good to unwind and just have some mindless fun. I think both aspects of it are good and I am liking that more and more shooters have co-op as well, furthering their replay value. Horde mode FTW!

 

[teisjm]

I can enjoy online shooters (or other genres) even if i'm doing badly.
The less you succeed, the bette ris the experience of said succes.

For instance, if you're bad at COD4, getting to call in an air-strike for once is awesome, getting the chopper is huge.

Whetver i'm at teh top or bottom of the score chart at the end of the round (both things happen frequently) i've still had a good game.

Some people thikn it's the games' competitive nature that makes them unfun, but i think it's peopels own competitive nature when playing competitive games.

Balanced gameplay/weapons/teams makes things a lot better as it makes it more exciting.

I'd rather loose a 1 hour long game of DotA (when the game drags on that long, it's really close, and good) than i'd wanna win a game of DotA after 20 min cause the otehr team sucked balls.

 

[ctrl-alt-postal]

I know where your comin from, but the opposite is also true, sometimes I want an enemy who can think and attempt to outwit me. Or have a crew to just fuck around online with.

I see some people get real worked up when shot in inline shooters, I take a more....zen....approach, "how did my doom come to be?"

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Nah, I always tend to get a killstreak.
Not because I'm good at shooters, but because I always play the tricky bastard.
And it's loads of fun.

 

[Kodlak]

Nope, I never play competitively unless its with mates and even then its just for a laugh.

 

[Distorted Stu]

I lose, i lose. I win, i win. The phrase practice makes perfect really is true for that kind of situation. I notcied today while on MW2 that im starting to learnt he maps well (spawn points, ladders, points of veiw, camping spots, predicatble attack locations etc).
As for the stress, i only stress out at cheaters or if some noobs killed me time and time over.

 

[Curtmiester]

Dear god, are you living my exact life or am I living yours?!
Thats pretty much a yes I have those problems. I like to be competitive (deathmatches!) but only if everyone else is having fun with it. I honestly can say I've learned not to give a fuck who wins. I say learned because it took awhile.

 

[CloakedOne]

I'll admit that I get stressed out because I feel like I have to live up to certain standards. I worry over the over-critical players on my team that just might kick me off if I am the weakest link in the chain of command. On the other hand, it's nice to play with human players instead of an AI or alone sometimes, it adds a level of excitement that I wouldn't have otherwise. I guess it depends on the game and the situation. I try to avoid competitive gameplay whenever possible because, well, a lot of people take it too seriously.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

For instance, if you're bad at COD4, getting to call in an air-strike for once is awesome, getting the chopper is huge.

.

This sums up my feelings pretty well.

I used to get really excited when I got a chopper, I felt exhilarated and proud. Coming first on a game had me cheering and texting the missus to tell her.

Yesterday I finshed a game of MW2 26-2 and I ended the game annoyed that a hadn't killed that last guy before he got me.

Obviously not everyone shares these personality traits, but a lot of us do, and I for one, am better off not getting too involved in this kind of competitiveness.

 

[Fraught]

I do play online games, but usually more for the fun of it, not competitiviness. I used to play CoD4 a lot, but I always wanted to win, AND had a lot of fun at the same time.

 

[ravensshade]

actually i hardly play shooters at all (to twitchy for me)
anyway when i do i don't care about kills/deaths and i get exhilerated when i can finally kill someone who's been killing me every single time...

 

[More Fun To Compute]

You should play No More Heroes instead. That game is amazing, simply speaking it is the best game released this generation.