Monday, January 07, 2008

Criticisms vs Useful Tips

In the online gaming world, there are always those who start out new and unfamiliar with the controls, the mechanics, and equipments. I'm sure that many have come to accept that there will always be newcomers who'll jump into the game to see how it is like. What's often disturbing is how these newcomers are treated when they start out. Often they'll be ignored. Other times they'll be criticized. And rarely will they get useful tips on how to play the game.

During the playing run I had on Guild Wars, I ran out of patience on helping out newcomers. I became the type of people who ignore the new players. Once a while, there is a player that I will lend a hand to, just for no reason at all. And there are times when I felt generous enough to give away things, my recent give-away is a Miniature Destroyer access key I had laying around. Granted, there are plenty of opportunities to exploit this and make some money off of it, real or not. Still, I just... gave it away. There was no catch... except for being told that the key worked in the end. I just had the item laying around. Does that make me a saint? Not really. But any reader should realize by now that I'm just simply a nice guy.

As I play World in Conflict more and more, I encounter the different types of people. But any of these people who start out with a low rank can potentially be a smurf, a player who uses a different profile to hide their true identity. This isn't new, as it has been around since the days of online multi-player. But the ones who play with their first profile, they vary in many ways. Their ranks often indicate just how much effort was put in to getting to that point. Yet one has to wonder...

I'm the type who plays for enjoyment. There are times when the rounds get ugly, either for my team or for their team. I don't question it. I don't criticize the players for it. I just play. After all, I am not one to tell these players how they should play. And if there are players that needed to be guided, I'll take the time to speak up, and tell them calmly on what is needed at the moment. Some listen to that, some don't. But who knows how well these people react to my suggestions.

Eventually I will encounter people who take the game much too seriously. Unfortunately, I have crossed paths with one particular individual twice already... At first I did not bother to say anything. But it was the 2nd encounter when I heard the person criticized a player for their choice of units. Criticisms aren't usually needed, especially coming from a person whose tone and attitude is that of a lesser human being. Yet when I spoke to confront the individual, he took it personally and with such hostility that it's mind boggling. Not that I would strain my mind for trying to argue against him, it's just upsetting to know that despite the person's time and effort that went into making that glorified profile of his, that he'd know better than to be criticizing people for how they play.

If a Player A has a problem with Player B, all that is needed is to simply point out what the problem and make some calm suggestion. What good will spewing vulgar nonsense do?

If that person is so set on winning games that the person has to criticize everything, why is that person even playing in public games anyway? Needless to say, several people didn't like the guy's tone.

2 comments:

zzzzzzz said...

Hello! I am a WiC player out of Oregon and I always see your server full of players with a great ping... At least I assume it is your server because it is called "Sixshot's Laptop WiC Server." Any chance you'd share the PW with me? :-)

Hak|Sixshot said...

The server I have up and running is a private server and only appears nearly full due to the bots taking up player slots. Password is handed out to clanmates and close buddies so I don't freely hand it out. If it weren't for the limited upload bandwidth, I probably would have made it public. Sorry. But since you're also a player, perhaps someday you'll find me on one of the ranked servers one night.