Can’t we all just get along?
That seems to be the question I ask myself every time I fire up a multiplayer game. Verbally assaulting someone over the internet has never been appealing to me. Despite how little I understand it, there are plenty of people on the internet that will say anything just to get others worked up.
My experiences with these types of people almost always go like this. Some total ‘bro’ will usually make a comment about how my handle (cornlord) must mean that I like to “take it in the cornhole”, “shove corn cobs in random orifices”, or do something else involving corn, my ass, and sodomy.
Thank you very much, 1337H34D5H00T3R 69420. Your insight into the origin of my name is much appreciated.
Unfortunately for us quiet types, most people take the low road when dealing with internet morons like Mr. 69420. For example, whenever I get into a Halo lobby with a few friends and one of these bros starts talking about my cornhole, my buddies’ reactions are to start yelling something about his mother, sister, or girlfriend. Once the game begins they talk about how they “showed that idiot.”
Wow, guys. Thanks for getting my back on that one!
That’s like trying to stop a monkey from throwing feces by taking a dump on him and then high fiving each other for a job well done. They think the monkey is put in his place, but all they’ve done is give him more ammo. He may have stopped flinging if you would have let him get it out of his system.
I do not understand how repeating the “f” word (the homophobic one) 500 times without breathing after entering a lobby can be fun for people. I do not understand what someone gets out of typing racial slurs to the other team after getting killed in League of Legends. I do not understand why a person flying around in World of Warcraft on their level 85 character would want to swoop down out of their way to kill a level 30 player who was just trying to have fun playing a game.
And I will never be able to wrap my mind around the concept of tea bagging, which is the term used to describe the act of placing one’s testicles on a person’s forehead. Seriously dudes…. that’s messed up.
I know there are a ton of people out there just like me. People who want to just sit and play Halo without having someone verbally assault them the entire match. People who want to play World of Warcraft on a PvP server without having their corpse camped for 45 minutes. People who would like to get in a single match of League of Legends without having two people from either team comment about the sexual preferences of the opposing players.
To those of you out there who feel the way I do – keep on keep’n on. It sucks sometimes when even your friends are starting to become the assholes that you hate so much. But, if you stick to it and focus on just playing the game, you’ll have a good time. And, if you’re like me, you probably get serious satisfaction out of shutting up some foul mouthed Bieber fan by going 15-0 and wiping the floor with his face.
So there’s always that.
I never participate in the verbal back and forth. I have, however, started to get a little amusement out of it.
One of the RL friends-of-friends-of-friends on my friends list on Live that I’ve gotten to know is one of these people. Generally seems like a decent guy, but give him an audience that will respond to him and he’ll lose it.
I’m 90% sure that he, and the people responding to him, are “doing it for the lulz.” No harm, no foul in that case! Perhaps the equivalent is trash talk during some street b-ball?
Unfortunately, these people need to call dozens of people like Bakers and I before their troll bait lands someone to shout at.
LoL Tribunal to the rescue!
I am really excited about the Tribunal system. Definitely going to help with the extreme cases. I think it is going to be interesting to see what percentage of the internet is made of total bros.
I hate the bastards who put their crappy staticy headsets next to a stereo and try to be a dj while we are playing… You be MUTED
You just don’t get it, Dude. Staticy headset DJ’ing a total new underground music scene for people who really “get it”.
I’m one of these people. Wanna fight about it? HA
In all seriousness though, sometimes I do get out of control. Especially if there’s a person who clearly is better than me, mostly due to them playing a lot more
OR there’s someone being a complete dousche. For example in Red Dead multi-player, I was working on completing a bounty of $7500, I was at $6,900. Some B decided to ride up on me, I ran away and he and the rest of the people in the game decided to chase me down and murder me. To be fair I should have created my own private game, but seriously?! When I see someone killing innocent people in a town I don’t just kill them (this does not carry over into RL) I figure they’re trying to get one of those challenges. I tend not to shoot them.
Joel said it best in describing me via xbox live: “Aaron you are a very animated person…”
Guess that’s just the competitiveness in my gaming.
I must say that instead of trash talking, I’ve chosen to go down the road of leaving feedback (mostly negative) or report someone. Reporting only happens if you’re blatantly cheating. Screw you.
Keep up the good work guys,
P.S. Snarting is a really problem
Haas
[...] center at MIT about hate speech in multiplayer gaming. It ties in nicely with an article Nick posted here a few weeks ago. Steve finishes things off by kick’n in the back seat with his Zombie Tip of [...]
Hey, I have never sworn at dudes or made fun of their female family members to get your back. I just sing the pokemon theme song for misdirection and you know it.