Something I wrote a few years ago, but is sadly just as, if not even more relevant these days.

I've been noticing a disturbing trend among gamers these days: the trend of acting like complete and total jackasses. I'll grant that for the most part this is simply human behavior. People seem to create new and better ways of being assholes to each other every day. However, I'm noticing it a lot more these days among the gaming community, especially the younger gamers. I'm not saying that the problem is just confined to younger gamers, it's not. Gamers of all ages are unfortunately just as prone to this. My point is that it's making all of us look extremely bad, and we should try to knock it off.

A perfect example of what I'm talking about can be found when I was at the game store today. I was browsing around, and someone that was obviously not that experienced came in with a couple of questions. The questions aren't important. The thing that's important is the conduct of the employees. While they were answering the guy's questions - albeit somewhat brusquely - I glanced at them a couple of times and there was a definite expression of contempt on a couple of the employees' faces. As if the questions this guy was asking were a waste of their time. Now, don't get me wrong, most of the time, my tolerance for stupidity can fit into a match box without removing the matches first, but the problem is that the questions that the guy was asking weren't stupid. They were simply the questions of a guy that knew he didn't know the answer and went to the people that he thought could answer them. People that are, oh me, oh my, paid to answer those questions. That's why they call them customer service reps at GameStop. Not L33ts Whose Time We're Totally Wasting, But Who We Have to Make Do Something to Justify a Paycheck. Plus, Customer Service Rep fits better on a name tag. Anyway, the point that I'm making here is that we were ALL noobs once. No one was born with the innate knowledge of how to PWNZ. If you were, then you're obviously some science experiment gone horribly awry. You probably started out life as an attempt to create the perfect soldier, and then one night, one of the lab assistants hacked their XBox into the mainframe to be able to play Halo on the really big screen, and that was all she wrote.

Every single employee in that store was pretty much your stereotypical gamer, I probably don't have to describe them. We all have picture of that guy who's WAY too into his gaming; and that's another problem right there. Yes, stereotypes suck hardcore, but unfortunately that's the way of the world my friends. Yeah, it's fun being a geek and a gamer - hell, I enjoy it on a daily basis - but I do try to rein it in a bit at the appropriate times. Not many of them, but such times do exist, shocking as it may seem. Just think about that concept for a couple of seconds. Go ahead, I'll wait. Imagine that, roll it around in your head a little bit, and really get used to the taste of that bad boy. Okay, you done? Good, I'll continue.

Another big problem I've noticed is the way that people act when they're playing online. I saw the same kind of scenario the other night when I was playing Enemy Territory; someone logged on who'd obviously never played the game before, and he had some questions. I tried to answer what I could, but was hoping that someone else in the game would answer the questions I couldn't. In some respects, this did happen. In other respects, the guy was subjected to profanity that, in real life, would quickly earn you a broken jaw or nose. Also, since he'd now been IDed as a n00b, it was open season. Even some of his supposed teammates started hunting him, killing him no less than seven times before he logged off in frustration, probably never to play the game again. Or maybe he will, only he'll act just like that once he actually gets some skill at the game. I tell you folks, we're screwing ourselves with behavior like this, and it will only end up hurting us in the long run.

As gamers, we've got enough problems with other people without acting like complete jackasses to each other. As bad as stereotypes are, they are sadly rooted in the truth. The point I'm trying to make here is that with most people in general turning up their collective noses in contempt at gamers as a whole, why in the hell are we making it worse by screwing with each other? What's the matter, did the football player in your homeroom make fun of your Linux t-shirt, so now you're taking it out by continually TK-ing the newbie that doesn't know an RPG from a shotgun? If we continue to act this way, we're just going to lend validity to the claims that we're all socially maladjusted freaks who couldn't hold a conversation with a "real" person if our lives depended on it. Yes, not all of us are like that, but it only takes a few cases to prop up the stereotype. If we continue to TK, and treat newbies as second-class citizens then in the end there may not be any more newbies. No, that's not a good thing. Follow the chain of logic here. If there are no more newbies, then eventually, less people will be buying games, what with that pesky aging and death thing. If less people are buying games, software developers will stop making profits. If software developers stop making profits, then they'll start by producing lower-budget, low-quality games, and when those stop selling, they'll stop making games all together and focus their efforts on making some new form of web-browser or spreadsheet program. Yes, I know that I'm exaggerating a bit here, but I'm doing it to try and get you to think a little bit. Even the greenest newbie has something in common with an uber-gamer: he loves to game. However, if he gets insulted, ridiculed and messed with constantly, then he's either going to stop loving it and find a new hobby, or he's going to turn into an asshole himself out of revenge.

So my suggestion is this. The next time that you're playing, and someone that's never played before shows up and asks for help, don't follow the herd and be an asshole. Help him out. Take a few minutes and answer his questions, and maybe even hang out with him and try to keep him from getting killed every 3 seconds. It may be a little frustrating, and it won't get your name up at the top of the kill board, but by doing this, you'll be cool to at least one person, and you may help someone else enjoy himself a little bit more.

Remember folks, we're all gamers, and we all need to stick together. Tearing each other down doesn't do anyone a single speck of good.

Carry on Smartly