I'll admit this up front -- I like to play video games, even though I may not always be terribly good at them. Video games, at least at the consumer level are about entertainment, and not competition. Sure, it's always nice to be get a decent score during a Call of Duty 4 match, but even more important is, are you having fun?

And as we all know there are things that other people can do that make the game less fun for the rest of us. Spawn camping, for example. We like to call people who do this sort of thing "douchebags."

Now with a game like Guitar Hero 3, I really didn't think there was much that someone could do to sap my enjoyment from the game. It's a music game. You hold on to the guitar, you hit the notes, you do the best you can do, and if you're by yourself and really into the song, maybe you'll flail your head around and rock out a little bit. Or a lot. Your call.

But I was wrong, of course. You just can never underestimate the will of the douchebags.

I like to play Guitar Hero 3 on hard. I'm not fantastic at it, for sure, but I can mostly hold my own. I'm passable on expert, but on hard I feel like I can hold my own. And who doesn't like to feel that way when they're playing a game online?

So I'll hop into an online match, and I'll select hard, and the guy I'm playing against will select medium, and I'll think, "Okay, that's fair, he wants to feel like he can hold his own. Nothing wrong with that."

Then it'll come to the song selection stage, and I'll try to scroll down to pick a song, but I can't because, I realize, this is best of 1. And the host picks the song.

And then he does. And it's "Through the Fire and Flames."

And I weep.

I used to actually *try* to play this song, but unless you've practiced it to death there's simply no way to keep up to a competent player who's tackling the song on medium. There's no way to win. And they *know* that. That's what makes it so frustrating. It's like being shot in the back of the head the moment you've respawned in the middle of a deathmatch. You can not win.

This is the spawn camping of Guitar Hero 3.

Now I'll usually just quit the match. They'll get the victory they so clearly want, and I'll save my fingers the torture of playing along without any hope at all.

I know there are some solutions to this problem, but they're half-assed at best. Sure, I could restrict my searches for only best of 3 or best of 5 games, but it's a lot harder to find those. I suspect because everyone who's hosting is busy spawn-camping, waiting to fling that horrible song at anyone who crosses their path.

And, sure, I could host my own games, and hope someone stumbles in. And I've done that. And more often than not I get some decent matches that way.

But inevitably, someone comes along with that song. That fucking song.

You know, I'm probably the last person to ever try to tell someone how to play a video game. We all find different things fun. And as long as we're having a good time, that's all that matters.

But there's a fine, fine line between doing your own thing for the sake of good time and being a douchebag.

Don't be a douchebag.