It's been a long week for the Game Nerds. This writer has been working hard at my normal job in addition to lots of personal things going on outside the office. In one of my spare moments I was talking with a friend via email about gaming, and recent online gaming experiences. My prior post about adventures in wireless has left me feeling good about my gaming situation, but I can't say the same for my associate.
He described to me a recent poor bout of online gaming, mainly first person shooters (FPS) such as CounterStrike (pictured) and Team Fortress (CS and TF, respectively). While wireless wasn't his problem, other users were. This is a component of online gaming I often neglect. I forget that when you play online you face a world of either highly skilled players, or newbies who tend to be VERY vocal about their gaming misfortunes. My associate spoke of players who complained over voice chat incessantly during the entire course of a one hour hosted game. I can absolutely see this as a reason for "mute" being an option. But this is sad, because being able to communicate with teammates is highly critical in games like CS and TF.
I can recall playing Halo 3 online with some friends and being ABSOLUTELY annoyed by younger gamers who whine, swear or even sing during a game. This is horribly distracting, in addition to being annoying. It's times like those that I am glad developers created "team only" chat. The issues of maturity level between gamers makes me wonder why an age filter hasn't been added to certain games. This would both reduce annoyance and all same aged gamers to interact. Just an idea...
My first foray into online gaming was with CS. I was AWFUL. While I didn't openly complain, the steep difference in gamer experience turned me off to it. Luckily since then (2000) developers have tried to create better filter systems to pair gamers of like skill. But even if that isn't the case, shouldn't fellow gamers be able to get along online with becoming irate, or horrible obnoxious during the course of play? I would like to think so. But then again I like to give the benefit of the doubt. And if you've ever looked at The People of Wal-Mart, benefit of the doubt isn't something that everyone deserves...
I often wonder about the maturity level of those who play games online. The amount of hostility is astronomical, as is the patience for "noobs".
ReplyDeleteI think if people really sit back and think about the fact that they're pwning you at a VIDEO GAME and not anything tangible, it might add a bit of perspective.
On another note, it's interesting when I try to play games online and I suck so bad because everybody is already so good. For example, when I played Call of Duty 3 online a while back, I would get headshotted 6 times before I was even able to get a shot off.
ReplyDeleteI understand I'm a noob, but I wish more developers would implement some sort of system in which you are playing with people of the same skill level as you. It would at least help a bit.
I hear that one, Jonathan. I'd love to see a more staggered pairing system, or an age filter or something. The prob with online gaming is anyone can set their age to 99 and avoid a filter. I guess all we can do is play online with people we know, and use experiences like you described to feel better about ourselves. After all, we're not so nerdy that we have to destroy people in a game to feel better about ourselves, right?
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