The online multiplayer aspect is just one of the many things that makes gaming a thoroughly accessible and enjoyable medium for me. It's a real enhancement to the single player campaign of the game and certainly makes you feel as if you’ve got your money’s worth out of it! I’ve only just finished my exams so I didn’t have time to expand my multiplayer experience beyond Black Ops and the odd round of Halo Reach with my brother. I’m pretty good at the former and rage quittingly bad at the latter (Not that I’d ever rage quit, of course!) Being able to play with friends is a really great way to catch up and have a lot of fun at the same time, unless you’re like me and can’t properly multitask. If a string a sentence together it is to the detriment of my score.
However, no online aspect can be talked about without mentioning the almost mind boggling array of total and utter douche bags who seem to exist on a planet all of their own. To be honest, it’s these people that make my experience even more fun. Some of the classics my friend (who happens to be Scottish; the American 14 year olds just love that!) and I have been party to are things such as, “Fuck you, you British fags, I fucked your queen and Kate Middleton!” It’s good to know that he was interested in our current affairs.
I don’t mind this; tragic Xbox live flirting isn’t going to hurt anyone and these guys are harmless. Desperate, yet harmless. But my only thought is what exactly did they think they were going to achieve? I mean really…what exactly was I going to do? Did they expect me to consider their words to be deep, meaningful and heartfelt? Was I supposed to fall madly in love with one of them there and then? I’m not quite sure but good on him for trying I suppose…
My only concern is that it may put off some shyer female gamers out there. But my message to you would be.... fuck 'em! The guys who try and bother you and ask your age and where you live or add you as a friend...fuck 'em! They are harmless but I can understand that people don't want to be bothered while they're just trying to enjoy themselves. Remember that you're under no obligation to add them or reply to any of their messages. In fact, it's better if you don't. That way they'll start to realise that they're not going to win themselves any favours by just bothering anyone who sounds female. Don't ever let the potential for this kind of attention put you off; you should be able to enjoy the benefits of online gaming regardless. Also, you may never actually experience it; I think it was probably just my luck to happen upon a massive clan of female starved, girl botherers.
Although it doesn’t bother me, I do find all the defamatory and explicit insults that fly around to be outrageous. Just because there is anonymity doesn’t mean that common decency should fly out the window. But hey, what the heck, at least it’s a chance for us decent folk to unabashedly feel much better than the pond scum on the other end of the microphone. That, however, is almost an insult to pond scum.
Everyone knows that the best way to make friends anywhere, including on Xbox live, is to just get into a random conversation. It’s happened many times to me and I can categorically say that not a single one of them started off their conversation with ‘u sound cute’. Compliment though it is, you’ll find that it doesn’t enamour any girl to you. Remember, we're gamers first and girls second.
I've found Xbox Live to be worse than PSN when it comes to random, hateful messages. I'm not a girl so I know the volume I've received pales in comparison. But I've never gotten any on PSN where I play CoD, but I've gotten quite a few on XBL where I play Reach with a friend.
ReplyDeleteBest way to respond to one (outside of just ignoring it) "u mad bro?"
@R.S. Hunter
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, a shame, but interesting. And the stuff I recieve as a girl isn't hateful, that's the harmless stuff. Any stuff that is just rude and obscene is directed at me as a player, which is actually quite comforting. At least he's decided to hate me, not for being a girl, but just for existing as a person!
I've only ever been shouted at when I'm with a friend so we usually just end up just laughing a lot and pissing them off more :P
@Minnie
ReplyDeleteMe and my friends do that also, we tend to mess with anyone who is annoying or just trying to make us angry, it's almost a game in itself! XD
If we want to actually play a game seriously nowadays though we resort to just using party chat as then we get no outside interference which is nice.
@Z3r0n Exactly! Messing with angry people is part of the experience, heck of a lot of fun! But yeah, party chat is really how to proceed, also as courtesy to everyone else, they don't ened to be ear mashed by our inane conversations :D
ReplyDeleteI dislike online gaming in general. To me, gaming is defined as single player and it should be done alone, in private, while contemplating on what you're playing, not rushing through it, and enjoying every bit.
ReplyDelete@Ali Nazifpour
ReplyDeleteReally? That's an interesting view. I do find gaming a great personal experience but much of the appeal of some games is that it can be a lot of fun to play with other people. Interesting...I feel an article brewing...
I haven't ever really had any problems with other gamers online. It may be that I don't play Halo or CoD and that cuts down on a lot of the annoying kids. I mainly play Counter Strike: Source, TF2, BF:BC2, some RTS games and a bunch of indie games if I'm playing online (all PC). Most of the time I can have a fairly decent conversation with whoever I am up against/in a team with. I don't want to sound elitist/fanboyish but I do think that because the age of pc gamers is generally much older than that of console gamers there is a greater level of maturity with whoever you are up against.
ReplyDelete@The_Hess Not elitist at all, infact you're probably completely right. It's a very good point and I hadn't thought about it in quite those terms before.
ReplyDelete