…is probably the factor of anonymity. The degree to which people feel safe and secure enough to run their mouth can bring down even the most fun of games to an annoying level.
To be fair, I’m all for a little heated taunting so long as it’s kept to a manageable level. These things are allowed in youth baseball, for instance, so why shouldn’t they be around in gaming? It helps fuel the competition a little and makes it all the more satisfying when you finally take out that guy being a dick about his kill-death ratio.
Unfortunately, a lot people take it completely overboard and never shut the fuck up, and on the other side of the field some people take everything anyone says as a personal attack. For many, text or voice chat becomes nothing more than a mechanism to fuel their ego, even if such an ego is not deserved. For those who can’t ignore it, bad experiences with chatty egomaniacs can be a huge turnoff toward participating in online play.
The feeling of anonymity — of being released from responsibility and accountability — is what turns people into assholes online. You’d generally find a link to the relevant Penny Arcade comic here, so I won’t disappoint. Know, however, that UT2004 certainly wasn’t the first to prove that online dickishness has caused troubles, and it definitely won’t be the last. Apparently, the true name of this affliction is the online disinhibition effect.
There are two types of people that I hate to see in the same server with me — braggarts and accusers. In moderation neither poses a real threat to having fun, and I’ll admit to lashing out at times to vent some frustration, but unfortunately this is the Internet we’re talking about, and moderation is the last thing on people’s minds. The online gaming world is one without many boundaries. Unless an admin is present, there’s little anyone can do about those who are sucking the fun out of a game.
Probably the most annoying people you’ll find online are those who insist on saying something damn near every time they’re killed or take someone out. These are the braggarts — those with egos far larger than their skills mandate. Well, usually. Sometimes one of these guys will actually be good and will take much pleasure in putting down lesser players for no reason. Regardless of which you’re going up against, their vocabulary will mainly consist of “gay,” “faggot,” and “gay faggot.” They’ll boast when they get a kill but call “luck” or “hax” when they’re fragged. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them (if they’re better than you) or repeatedly kill them (if they’re worse than you). In the latter case they’ll probably leave after taking their lashings.
The second most annoying players are those that accuse others of hacking without evidence or reasoning. Because their skills are lacking, they don’t understand the depths of talent that others might possess. They clearly don’t comprehend that, yes, someone can be that good at the game without cheating. Or maybe they simply don’t want to comprehend it because that would mean accepting their own inabilities. Generally, these guys can be funny, but having to sit through their tirades about how much you hack can get tiresome, especially when people start spectating you to see if you do.
Being accused repeatedly is what happened to me yesterday and it prompted this post. First, a guy on my own team said “nice wallhax” when the game was done simply because my score was so high (81-15 Bog TDM). Never mind the fact that he, being a teammate, was never on the wrong end of my gun, so he hadn’t seen anything I was doing. The accusations escalated throughout the server, one guy changed his name to say that I was hacking, and pretty soon I had three members of the clan whose server I was on spectating me to check me out for hacks.
When this happens I get worried because, given the nature of CoD4, it’s hard to discern what is and what isn’t illegitimate. If you’re really good at gleaning information from both sound cues and the on-screen radar instantly, it can seem like wall hacks when you repeatedly know exactly where any potential threats are coming from. This is merely a problem with CoD4’s core gameplay, but it makes me worry every time I’m getting watched. There’s always a chance that those with the power to ban but of considerably less gaming skill don’t fully understand what’s possible if you simply pay attention to the clues the game gives you.
I’ve yet to wrongly feel the heat of the banhammer, but worry is always there whenever I get the feeling I’m being watched. What if they pay too much attention to how I’m mowing people down and missing all the mistakes? Given what happened today I feel it’s only a matter of time before I get banned from a server for no reason.
The worst thing about gaming…
…is probably the factor of anonymity. The degree to which people feel safe and secure enough to run their mouth can bring down even the most fun of games to an annoying level.
To be fair, I’m all for a little heated taunting so long as it’s kept to a manageable level. These things are allowed in youth baseball, for instance, so why shouldn’t they be around in gaming? It helps fuel the competition a little and makes it all the more satisfying when you finally take out that guy being a dick about his kill-death ratio.
Unfortunately, a lot people take it completely overboard and never shut the fuck up, and on the other side of the field some people take everything anyone says as a personal attack. For many, text or voice chat becomes nothing more than a mechanism to fuel their ego, even if such an ego is not deserved. For those who can’t ignore it, bad experiences with chatty egomaniacs can be a huge turnoff toward participating in online play.
The feeling of anonymity — of being released from responsibility and accountability — is what turns people into assholes online. You’d generally find a link to the relevant Penny Arcade comic here, so I won’t disappoint. Know, however, that UT2004 certainly wasn’t the first to prove that online dickishness has caused troubles, and it definitely won’t be the last. Apparently, the true name of this affliction is the online disinhibition effect.
There are two types of people that I hate to see in the same server with me — braggarts and accusers. In moderation neither poses a real threat to having fun, and I’ll admit to lashing out at times to vent some frustration, but unfortunately this is the Internet we’re talking about, and moderation is the last thing on people’s minds. The online gaming world is one without many boundaries. Unless an admin is present, there’s little anyone can do about those who are sucking the fun out of a game.
Probably the most annoying people you’ll find online are those who insist on saying something damn near every time they’re killed or take someone out. These are the braggarts — those with egos far larger than their skills mandate. Well, usually. Sometimes one of these guys will actually be good and will take much pleasure in putting down lesser players for no reason. Regardless of which you’re going up against, their vocabulary will mainly consist of “gay,” “faggot,” and “gay faggot.” They’ll boast when they get a kill but call “luck” or “hax” when they’re fragged. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them (if they’re better than you) or repeatedly kill them (if they’re worse than you). In the latter case they’ll probably leave after taking their lashings.
The second most annoying players are those that accuse others of hacking without evidence or reasoning. Because their skills are lacking, they don’t understand the depths of talent that others might possess. They clearly don’t comprehend that, yes, someone can be that good at the game without cheating. Or maybe they simply don’t want to comprehend it because that would mean accepting their own inabilities. Generally, these guys can be funny, but having to sit through their tirades about how much you hack can get tiresome, especially when people start spectating you to see if you do.
Being accused repeatedly is what happened to me yesterday and it prompted this post. First, a guy on my own team said “nice wallhax” when the game was done simply because my score was so high (81-15 Bog TDM). Never mind the fact that he, being a teammate, was never on the wrong end of my gun, so he hadn’t seen anything I was doing. The accusations escalated throughout the server, one guy changed his name to say that I was hacking, and pretty soon I had three members of the clan whose server I was on spectating me to check me out for hacks.
When this happens I get worried because, given the nature of CoD4, it’s hard to discern what is and what isn’t illegitimate. If you’re really good at gleaning information from both sound cues and the on-screen radar instantly, it can seem like wall hacks when you repeatedly know exactly where any potential threats are coming from. This is merely a problem with CoD4’s core gameplay, but it makes me worry every time I’m getting watched. There’s always a chance that those with the power to ban but of considerably less gaming skill don’t fully understand what’s possible if you simply pay attention to the clues the game gives you.
I’ve yet to wrongly feel the heat of the banhammer, but worry is always there whenever I get the feeling I’m being watched. What if they pay too much attention to how I’m mowing people down and missing all the mistakes? Given what happened today I feel it’s only a matter of time before I get banned from a server for no reason.