The FPS Community

[Hikari_Jin]

For years I've heard stories of how the twelve year olds with high pitched voices come to blurt out obscenities on the online multiplayer mode of most FPS's. Originally, this did not affect me, a person who had until recently only been a Sony/Microsoft "Virgin." However, this Christmas I recieved a PS3 along with three games. Call of Duty: Black Ops, 007: Blood Stone, and MAG. While online, playing the last of this list with others, I will admit that I suck beyond all human belief.

One individual in particular noticed this and decided to send me a message.

"Who in their right mind would message me, I got zero kills and died eight times this round."

So I exit the game and open up the message, and wouldn't you know it:

"You should go get your money back, you suck at this game."

Now, the real question here:

Is this the norm? Do people who do bad in FPS's online get mail similar to this all the time?* Am I wasting my time in trying to pick up the concept of playing an FPS? Should I really go return the game?

*Use of Profanity varying, obviously.

 

[Canid117]

People online are dicks. It is worse on consoles than PC but it is there in almost all communities. Wow seemed pretty good before I stopped playing a year ago but that was the exception and not the rule.

 

[Mittens The Kitten]

the only visible ones are the dicks, the vast majority of people silent and just there for a good time, and those are the ones that are in the background, unnoticed.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

People online are dicks. It is worse on consoles than PC but it is there in almost all communities.

Really now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike]

Yeah, it's unfortunately the norm. However, you should note that the people who actively seek out annoying and offending people are a minority, just a very vocal one who you can't help noticing.

Block communications, move on, enjoy the game.

 

[Anarchemitis]

It really depends on the game.
Team Fortress 2 is very much unlike that, for example. Also, in order to educate, please make the proper distinction.

 

[Hikari_Jin]

It really depends on the game.
Team Fortress 2 is very much unlike that, for example. Also, in order to educate, please make the proper distinction.
quote]

That's informative, AND entertaining. Good work. I wish I could forget I already knew that so I could learn it again through this little comic.

On Topic: Well, I'm getting a little better. Though, that may be my sniping ability. I prefer to be a sniper, actually. Better than I am at CQC in this game, anyways.

 

[SturmDolch]

Really now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike]

One game vs every game? Oh, yeah. That's really fair.

I used to game on the 360, and the community sucked on ever game I played online. I only played with friends.

Now I game on PC and the community is a lot better.

But I think that the cause of this is the ease of access to voice chat. Most PC games have crappy voice support, so most people will use other programs like Teamspeak, Vent, or recently, Skype. One game that stands out is Counterstrike: Source which, as JourneyThroughHell mentioned, has a bad community.

Plus, the Xbox 360 usually comes with a headset. It's a lot easier to call someone a cock by just saying it rather than typing it, and it comes off as a lot bigger.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

There are good people online, but like myself, they tend to keep to themselves and get on with the game. So we just blend in with the game.

The people who stand out are the ones like him, who go out of their way to make sure you know, that they dont like you. These are the people that get noticed, these are the people we get judged by.

 

[baddude1337]

Unfortunately for every great gamer who is friendly and helpful to you online, there are 100,000 bellends who just shout profanity and put people down. That's what happens when someone gets an anonymous voice.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I don't mean to sound elitist but this kinda stuff is a bit worse on consoles. FPS also get the worst of this kinda thing. RTS can be bad and have quite cold communities to an extent while MMOs have elitist communities. FPS communities have just down right dicks. Not 100% on Fighting games and well that about covers everything online.

 

[Woodsey]

People online are dicks. It is worse on consoles than PC but it is there in almost all communities.

Really now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike]

One game versus the entirety of PSN and XBL, nice.

OT: I've recently started Bad Company 2 (PC), and even though no one seems to use microphones the text-chat is always friendly, although I've only hit and stuck to a few servers so far.

Likewise, I've rarely encountered any dicks on CSS, TF2 or L4D2 - that really is an advantage in the case of the first two and server lists though, in that you can go through a few servers initially until you find one you're really comfortable with.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

The only online FPS I played was TF2 for PC/Mac, and the people on the servers there are just hilarious in my opinion. A teenager singing a drunken rant on how much he loves beer? Classic. Another guy just played Dr. Steve Brule clips into his microphone. Sure, there are dicks, but I find them to be a point of humor rather than rage.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Really now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike]

One game vs every game? Oh, yeah. That's really fair.

People online are dicks. It is worse on consoles than PC but it is there in almost all communities.

Really now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike]

One game versus the entirety of PSN and XBL, nice.

It's the one PC game the community I'm personally familiar with. I don't think it would be fair if I brought up games I had no personal knowledge of.

Okay, you know, that's not entirely true. I've played Modern Warfare 2 on PC for quite a long time. The community on there is just as bad as on consoles, except they do more cheating than trash-talking.

 

[Danceofmasks]

As bad as FPS communities can be at times, you haven't a clue what bad is until you've tried Heroes of Newearth.

Edit: Oops, I musn't respect them enough to even spell Newerth correctly.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

I only message people if they were talking shit and lost, or were a high rank and being a noob. Usually you can coorelate rank to skill, or take lag into account for doing poorly. If someone says something like that its probably some.kid who did good.for once.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Since it's practically required for a topic like this, allow me to post the following:

Spoiler

Can't say that I've ever been singled out like that in a message. I've weathered verbal insults and teabags, but taking the extra time and effort to send a message is kind of creepy.

Dealing with gaming trolls can be aggravating at times. The best you can do is try to ignore them. It's not worth getting upset over what some random stranger that you'll probably never meet might say.

Fortunately many FPS games nowadays have a mute feature so you can filter out the crap. Moreover, there are many friendly, well-behaved players as well. Try adding these players to your friends list and invite them to play the next time they're online. Before you know it you'll have a good group to choose from who want to have fun with you. As a bonus, they'll have your back the next time a troll rears his ugly head.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

ehh its fucking everywhere. whoever said its worse on consoles...please. check out HoN,unreal,quake,css,mw2 and you will see what elitist trash really is. but hey, you are playing in your own comfortable servers. which is good. happy for you. HOWEVER, there are some huge tools out there, entire communities of them, on the 360/ps3/pc.

In short, they are everywhere, they come in different brands/annoyances/trollings, but they are there and you just gotta either boot, change servers/rooms, or play with friends. unfortunately xbox 360 gives everyone a headset and its ridiculously user friendly so its easiest to have voice trash talking on there, but with ps3 it tends to be texting, and on the pc there are alot of 3rd party software for voice support so that can differ depending on server/game. unfortunately most people, who are just there to play, tend to go unnoticed while the super minority tends to be the most vocal/provocative.