Whatever Happened To Courtesy In Gaming?
Written by RanduM
If you have been playing online games for more than a few years, you have probably noticed a decline in courtesy within a lot of gaming communities. I’m not very old myself (I’m 19), but I started gaming when I was 12 years old. My first online gaming experience was in TFC (Team Fortress Classic). since this was my first experience, I didn’t know what to expect, so I wasn’t really involved in the community and I didn’t say too much. I played this game purely for fun and never got into the competitive scene.
It wasn’t until I heard about CS (Counter-Strike) that I really started getting excited for online games. I got the game when version 1.5 was just released. I hadn’t been playing the game very long when I started talking to people and enjoying myself more, which lead to joining up with a clan. Our tag was LAG, which stood for Local Area Gaming. The name didn’t really make sense because we all lived in different parts of the world. The reason it was called this is because the people who created were friends and lived very close to each other. It wasn’t until later that they decided to start recruiting anyone, and they didn’t want to change the name. After I joined them, I really started getting into the community. The majority of the people I met in public servers demonstrated good sportsmanship. For example, whenever there was a kill, especially if it showed a high degree of skill, the person who was killed told their killer “nice shot”, “ns”, or something along those lines. If someone was the last man standing against a team of three or more, and he came close to succeeding, both teams would tell him something like “nice try”. If he succeeded, then it’d be “Good Job”. At the end of every game most people would say “gg” (good game). Little things like that made playing the game more fun. I’m not sure what happened, but it used to be that people came to expect good sportsmanship and were disappointed when it wasn’t demonstrated. Now, if you are pubbing it seems like you are relieved to see good sportsmanship.
In a lot of games, or at least in the FPS’ I’ve played, there are more and more ‘assholes’ and ‘douche-bags’. If you are wondering what the difference is, I believe that assholes are naturally jerks, while douche-bags actively strive to become worse and worse. The current state of courtesy is passable at best and you can still enjoy yourself in a game, but I’m worried that the state of online gaming will continue going in a downward spiral to the point where good sportsmanship is completely gone. Even within the competitive realm of gaming there are still assholes present, but to a lesser extent. The higher the level of competition, the less douche-baggery there is. At least this is what I’ve seen from my own experiences. I think if the community as a whole just says something simple like ‘gg’, ‘ns’, or ‘nt’ at the appropriate points, this would be a step in the right direction. If you don’t have anything good to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all; it may be a cliché’ line, but it’s true. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t joke around while playing, and that gaming should be this magical land of pixies and unicorns. There is always room for sarcasm, and jokingly making fun of friends, but not to the extent where there are fights over the chat or even worse, over voice comm. It’s things like this that really take the fun out of online gaming. I’m not sure how many people agree with me but I hope it’s the majority, because if we want to survive as a community, we have to at least be civil with each other.
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May 15th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I’ve noticed this trend too throughout my time spent gaming online, theres less corporation, sportsmanship and players who are fun to game with, even if their on the other team.
Though sometimes, you find these wonderful golden servers where everyone is talking to each other, teammates actually listen to your advice and work together.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Oh, sorry, hit submit by accident, let me continue…
… its these servers that worth hopping around for and make online gaming a truly pleasurable experience, no people cursing their keyboards when they die or blaming lag every time they do something wrong.
Strive to find the golden servers, don’t languish in the lame ones.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Nicely written, well said all around. Couldn’t agree more. I’m sure lots of players feel this way but it’s the 10-20% of the gamers who are the douche bags that ruin it for everyone.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:31 am
I agree completely! Whenever I play a multiplayer game i always start the game off with a GL (good luck) and congratulate people on leveling up, good kills (even on me), etc. I havent met many of those you mentioned earlier who are completely immature, but I think people should start respecting one another. After all, they’re just games.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:40 am
So true! Got in to online gaming a few years ago, and got bored of public,lonely play a few weeks after I started playing. Everything got much better when I helped found the “public” clan that I’m in right now.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I totally agree. I’ve been playing online FPS’s for a long time and this seems to be the case. PC games aren’t as bad as playing on XBox live. I guess its just the age level of the players on XBox live. Most kids these days have no respect..
May 16th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sorry for anyone who posted and didn’t see your post. They are working now.
May 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The issue with Xbox Live is that *everyone* has a headset at the ready. Just like in any other aspect of life, there are some people who want attention.
Some little kid singing into the mic is no different than someone in a PC game server spamming “DICKS DICKS DICKS” into the chat channel. The same issues exists, just via mediums of various annoyance.
That being said, this is a very well thought out article. I’ve always stuck to the same servers and played in friendly clans while online, so I can have a pleasant social experience alongside my gaming experience. With online play, these elements must go hand in hand.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Chiz, you’re spot on about Xbox Live, and while some little kid just singing is on par with a guy spamming a chat channel, a little kid screaming profanity is far worse than anything I’ve ever encountered elsewhere. On Halo 3 at least, I just try and stick to the more serious playlists, where a much higher percentage of the population consists of skilled, friendly players.
There will always be assholes, but for them such things as the mute function and player feedback exist.
On another note, I’ve found that free online games like Kingdom of Loathing and Skyrates tend to have amazing communities, friendly and active, willing to help out new players and cooperate with their peers.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Heck, for anyone who has a Playstation, pick up SOCOM: Confrontation that’s coming out in like, 3 months or so. I’ve been playing SOCOM for quite a while now, and even though I have had stints in other online games, I always go back to SOCOM because of the general community. Of course you always have the occasional jackass, but even that is pretty rare.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Oddly enough, i’ve also been playing SOCOM for quite a while as well. I have all 4 of them and I plan on getting Confrontation when it comes out. I’ve only played competitively in SOCOM 2.