Picture this, you turn up to a party with the latest Guitar Hero, it's barely been touched, and you've been behind the curve from your inadequacy to gaming, as shown through you only owning the Wii. You turn up to your also inexperienced but open-minded friends, with your arms full of Mattel-plastic, and describe the dreams these undersized instruments have given you, the dream of being a rock star, the next Jimmy Hendrix.

Your friends sit gobsmacked at the thought, then they zealously grab an instrument each, staring at it with utter confusion, with the rainbow of buttons seeming to be a puzzle waiting to be solved. Then, laboriously, a guy snatches the guitar of one of them with such force that the tiny guitar strap pings off of the plastic monstrosity. A quick smirk and a overconfident wink, he tells told everyone to 'follow his lead'...

The night continues with the screeching and flailing of wrong button presses, and the constant evils thrown your way from this unknown stranger, that does a victory dance whenever he gets 97% on Satch Boogie on Expert. There is an... unanimous vote to change to a different game, which is SSBB. Again, controller snapping guy... control snaps a Wiimote, then spends the next hour making gaming insufferable, with your button mashing nothing compared to his time alone, spending hours playing this one game.

A final push for equality happens, this time for a dance mat competition on the dating and dusty PS2 should serve him up straight. But yet again, half an hour of 'Perfects!' mean that he has put a wooden stake through your evening of entertainment. Everyone slinks home to their lives, while stranger guy goes back to practice combo's in Street Fighter 4...

*

This was a similar encounter to what I had a few months back. Now I don't want to bash the Wii, its a good console for people who have friends round all the time, personal favorite being Mario Kart, cause it's way of keeping racing nice and even keeps the experienced people from ruining it. But even I, a lover of gaming, games, the gaming media, have to concede that 'those guys' ruin the fun for everyone.

I made it a rule of mine to to never go past medium on Guitar Hero, so when I get friends round who don't own the game, they won't have to suffer my smugness as I beat them all, and we can all laugh at each others misfortune to play the songs right the way through to the end. However, when 'that guy' gets involved, the evening turns sour as he denigrates you for not being a pro at a game.

I have to ask, is gaming really this competitive? I can understand online gaming, but games you take to your friends house, who may not even own a 7th gen console, you would not start a competition where you have a major advantage. It just ruins the fun, not just for 'that guy' but for everyone. Then 'that guy' complains that he isn't getting his fill of success, and thus goes out and finds someone of an equal skill.

Therefore, why not save games for parties? Keep Halo and COD for your own spare time, keep party games for you know, parties?

I don't see the point of overdoing something which is totally better doing with someone else. Otherwise you need to go out and seek for a decent challenge, and if its Wii party games, it'll be against 9 year olds who spend all day playing Mario Kart.

And in turn for your self satisfaction of gaming glee, as you defeat your friends, you alienate them. Future parties will be held without your knowledge, so that your friends can enjoy gaming by themselves.

Now your lost. Alone. And it's all your fault.

Loser.

But if you are one of 'those guys' then I really urge you to stop. Maybe put down the controller, go outside, socialize, come back to those games once in a while. Fine, satisfy your need to kill something in COD4, but the only people who play that at parties know what LAN stands for.

As for games you play with friends, save them for when friends are actually around. Practicing to have an advantage, like you have something to prove is not going to end well. And will lead to an alienation from people who do enjoy games in company.

You have been warned.

*

Since I have nothing better to do, I'm going to start doing one of these Monthly Musings... Fortnightly... Like a Fortnightly Thought... All the best!

Just A Thought is a fortnightly ranting/musing article by Jawshey. Comments would be nice, you amazing Destructoid community!