Honour and Respect-dead and buried.

[Vindekarr]

I post this now because I have today canceled my online accounts and formaly left the local online gaming league, why? I simply cant find anyone worthy to polish my boots, let alone fight by my side.

 

The problems started a long time ago, as a slow tide of obcene behavior began to over run the once civilised local gaming circuit. But now I've just had enough and decided to leave. A wise man once said that it wasnt cowardice to turn your back and leave in disgust, my only regret is how often I have to do that these dark days.

 

What finaly snapped my temper beyond any recourse was when an early teen boy, thirteen at the most, got up at a lan, called me something not even the most foul mouthed child would utter, and poured a coke on the computer I was using, He then swung a chair at my head, missed, and stormed out of the LAN, knocking over furniture and hollaring obcenities. He claimed it was because I had cheated. He revealed inadvertantly that had he no knowledge of where my "unfair" ability to kill him in one shot was coming from, and concluded that, since he had no idea that Snipers in Ghillie suits have been a common COD tactic since day one, that it was cheating to be better than him.

 

That left me deeply offended, but what finaly snapped my patience was that it wasnt the first time an incident like this has happened. In my recent experience adult gamers act like babies. Screaming, crying and whailing in anguish when they are vanquished, and running and hiding behind moderators, accusing their bane of cheating, no matter how innocent that man was, and completely ignoring the fact that they were cheating in the first place. And the rest ARE children. Children too are monsters now. I walked past a school on the way home from quiting my job recently, and had rocks, mud, and obcene language thrown at me by demented toddlers.

 

They act like wild, crazed animals, their parents hugging and kissing them despite the horrors their misbegotten brood commit. A dear friend of mine was wire-whipped for no reason some years ago, the boy who did it's mother claimed her son was "only doing what was right" claiming that :turkish bitches like that deserve it for entering our great neighbourhood". Well, today I had finaly had enough, and when for the millionth time I was accused of cheating, I snapped and, and simply walked out of the room.

 

Since, I've canceled my five online accoutns and not bothered returning online. I leave with an unblemished record. Never banned. Never reported for anything other than "unsporting conduct" or "cheating/spamming", and with numerous top-five in the world ranking across several games. I have no plans to return either, gaming used to be a good hobby and an honourable sport. No longer. After two years of constant *manure* from virtualy everyone else, its time I left these scum to their own.

[Surenas]

There never ever was somethin' like honour and respect in an MMORPG.

The only difference to a MORPG is the massive appearance of barracudas and their omnipresent muahahaha warcry - the missing M.

In so far your experiences aren't that new, the scene is known since 2001, and the final results for those who had a good will as well.

 

People merely randomly communicate on their negative experiences, and when they do the others don't listen for they know better, but only to share these experiences later...

You might try out Lan versions to play online with known folks and a responsible host that has a name!

 

Take your protein pills, boys

http://www.abload.de/img/anne9hol.gif

[Povuholo]

Thanks for reminding me why I play single player games almost exclusively.

[ub3rman123]

There's always the brutal difficulty of AI...

 

But jesus, the computer? Why would the scum lash out against your computer? That's the worst. Computers are kind benevolent creatures that can't be biased in any way. Hope the guy paid for it.

[JimboUK]

This is why I rarely play online these days, what used to be a fun social experience has become a deeply unpleasant one in a lot of cases.

[SilverDNA]

I understand what you feel. It is exactly what brought me to games like Morrowind and Oblivion, playing alone, but sharing my experiences with others. I don't have to be insulted by immature people who don't know how to behave. My  last share of that I got from Runes of Magic which I played last year not very long, but until I got bored by those kiddos behavior and had an opinion.(Not one I'd like to share openly)

 

@ Vindekarr, want to dive in deeper in social studies, why this may happen, why children are today such aggressive,and where this maybe come from?  I think you might want get to the root of the problem on a scientific base. I wanna know, if someone comes up to the same conclusion, as I, from the other side of the problem. Thats why I ask you, who is bothered by this behavior, to research the matter scientifically. Try I'm interested, I want to read of what you might come up.  I'm mentioning this to you because you'd stop researching at a point in the official rant topic where i have gone beyond. There is one point of questioning line were you accepted a truth of something without questioning the historic/social matters behind it. If you open this door I'll be waiting on the other side. If you don't want to bother your self with the things behind those shallow statements, that are widely accepted, because it is easier, than to look into the real matter, then I'll take no offense in that.

[ub3rman123]

It's like the electronic Lord of the Flies. Without their parents watching their moves, little children turn to bloodthirsty savages pretty quickly.

[SilverDNA]

It's like the electronic Lord of the Flies. Without their parents watching their moves, little children turn to bloodthirsty savages pretty quickly.

ub3rman123, there is more to this what I underlined. it has more to do about force and control and the opposite of both in my opinion.

[Surenas]

Guess we don't need new social studies on infantile brutality, cos that's a natural feature of childhood as such.

"Children in power" is the last thing one could really love. Ever heard of child soldiers, the Khmer Rouge or the armed kids of Africa? The Lord of the Flies? Forget it! All we need is a restauration of parental abilities to teach the own children a better, a more social life than the own which too often follows the doctrine of social darwinism - the survival of the fittest, the loudest and the most brutal.

[AlienSlof]

Vindekarr, you have hit on a subject dear to my heart, and I feel your pain and frustration. Hell, yes, so I do, only too well.

 

I used to play Quake 3, starting back in the days of modems, ISDN, pay per minute online and high pings. Back then, broadband was wishful thinking. Because the players were also the phone bill payers, we had a wonderful atmosphere of honour and cameraderie. Players got good by having to play as though they were running through treacle - we coped and made do. I learned to master the railgun, considered by many to be the most difficult weapon to use - hard-hitting, but needed pinpoint accuracy and cooling down time between shots. I was my clan's railgun specialist - on a ping of 400+.

 

We played in international leagues at quite high level on Barrysworld, now long gone. (RIP BW) I became one of the best female players in the game. On such a terrible connection, I learned to judge where my shot and the target would meet. I was well known by the BW admins for my marksmanship with the railgun.

 

Along came broadband and I welcomed it, knowing that I would finally have low pings and no pay-per-min to crank the bill up. Sadly, it was not the holy grail I thought it was. With set monthly BB fees, along came all the kids. Unable to really play much before, they swarmed onto the servers in droves. Any form of honour or cameraderie was absent. They just wanted to come on, cause havok, and win in whatever way possible. They screamed, ranted, cheated, etc. The great unwashed horde.

 

I, and many of my fellow old-schoolers, were accused of cheating at every turn because we were good. That we had played and practised for hours on end mattered not. We were clearly cheating. The rather poor system of server voting got us kicked off servers because they couldn't win against us any other way.

 

I have never cheated in a game. Ever. Not even a single-player game. I like to think i have the skills to rise above that.

 

Needless to say, it killed the Quake 3 community for the older, better players. Barrysworld cosed their servers down. No more well-run international leagues. I left in disgust. I still look back with a smile on the old days, but I will never play an online game again because of the kids. They have ruined it all for me.

 

So yes, I really do know EXACTLY where you're coming from.