In many ways I feel that I have missed out on a large portion of the gaming market over the past couple of years. Being an exclusive Nintendo owner has meant that I have missed out on epic first person shooters, great sports simulations but most importantly of all decent on-line experience.

Current 360 owners may scoff at this statement, and pick faults with Microsofts on-line services- but I am a man of simple tastes really and after playing mostly the Wii and DS on-line for the past 24 months or so, XBLA seems positivley futuristic; Voice Chat during game, the ability to create party rooms for groups to chat, text messages, on-line downloads and patches, video's and on-line multiplayer experience- it is actually quite brilliant.

You don't have to piss about with friend codes, there is no paranoia that the guy you are chatting to on FIFA is a paedophile. It is open, honest and really easy to navigate. If I play against someone and I enjoy the experience- I can rate them positive, look them up on a list populated ready for me, and add them as a friend. if that person is a grade 'A' a-hole then I can report them as such. That is what I missed out on with the Wii,

My favourite Wii game on-line was the under-rated Mario Strikers Charged. When I first got the game, and everyone was learning, it was a great experience. I was good at the game and reached the top 50 in Europe with regularity each week and even won 'Striker of the day' a handful of times. Then people started exploiting glitches within the fabric of the game to win unfairly. Long charged chips from their own half that the goalie would ignore, dinks past the keeper that were untouchable and using power ups to score guarenteed goals. Some of these guys I would out score and still win- fairly and then they'd disconnect on you without any real reprocussion other than a 'loss' on their record.

I often commented to my friends and my brother; also a big 'Charged fan that I would love to speak to some of these people and ask them 'why?' Why exploit glitches, but more importantly, why disconnect (the lowest of the low IMO)? Maybe they had a decent excuse...?

Now I have the X-Box 360, I've got the 'luxury' of being able to do this. My current games of choice on-line are FIFA 09 Ultimate Team and Castle Crashers. The latter really doesn't pose any multiplayer problems, but you get some real idiots play FIFA 09. If I have a good game, but lose I am usually gracious enough to text the guy a "Good game!" And if some pisant decides that disconnecting is the best way to avoid an official hammering then I send them a message asking why. Sometimes I get a decent honest reply back and I make another friend, but on most occasions I get a "f*** you" or words to that effect. It is quite funny how these guys can't put together a coherant sentence either.

You guys might take this sort of thing for granted, but for me it it is brilliant. The Wii..? I never look back now!

I just urge anyone who reads this to stand up to the a-hole and make a point of messaging them if they d/c or cheat. Don't do it just because you lost, or through sour grapes- do it when they've been a complete loser and cheated the game you played- then if they insult you in their response just report them. That'll show em...