[Editor's note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]
I love single-player games. Just me and the creation. I also love multiplayer games ... until recently. Keep in mind this is not about me whining about racist, sexist, prejudiced, or any other unwanted speech in multiplayer game chat. That's a price you pay with free speech. This is also not about enforcing any kind of new code or conduct.
I'm simply imploring a change of heart in the multiplayer gaming world, because lots of people suck really hard when playing with others and it [usually] has nothing to do with their gaming skill. It has to do with the missing piece in most Veteran Gamer's arsenals: Positive reinforcement.
Put your guns down.
Noob is a pointless word. It's like going up to a newborn and shouting "YOU CAN'T PLAY BASEBALL!" in order to cement your status as baseball pro amongst all the other baseball pros. Especially when they're gonna be on your team.
What does this accomplish?
Nothing besides create a group of baseball players that yell at babies to make themselves feel better. Not to mention discouraging new blood and future potential for the sport.
But I'm not here to rag on people and their choice of words. Instead, I just wanted to use my experience of failing considerably at multiplayer games to hopefully enlighten some folks. Not everyone fails at these games because they choose to; some take a lot of time and patience to learn the ropes. Just ask Dtoider Knives. I'm trying!
But, because of way that some advanced players wield the Veteran Staff of Eliteness, they end up hitting themselves in the balls in the process. Confusing new players and causing them to lose games for everyone, whilst the veterans complain they are only losing because of "that noob on our team."
Yo. He's on your team. Who are you really playing against?
Let's look at an example that's rarely seen (sadly) in a multiplayer game these days: (from a dog's perspective):
I (the dog) did something completely amateur. The hand (the veteran player) corrects me, and shows me where to do it. I read up all over the place where to pee, but man, sometimes there's so many intricacies and rules (game strategies) I miss some. Sorry.
Diagram 2:
I pee in the grass, saving the hand from having to waste his time cleaning up the mess, allowing him to go about his business without babysitting me. Notice he disciplines me with a high five -- a gesture of acceptance and "coming down to my level."
Now we have Diagram 3, which is what I see mostly in my experiences with multiplayer games:
What the crap did he just say? If he'd taken the time to drop the secret code of the High Officials, I'd have known exactly what to do next. I completely understand the point of shorthand (to save typing time), but I've heard it used with
voice chat. Come on guys. Amongst your buds I can understand, but when you see your teammate eating his poo, alter your speech methods.
Diagram 4:
This is what happens -- I pee on your pizza, and everyone loses. I didn't CHOOSE to do this, but as I go along confused long enough while I'm spit at incessantly (and for no reason ... it's a game), I hate to admit I kinda enjoy ruining the pizza for everyone.
So there you go. Not only does forgetting to empathize and be clear with the newcomers not help anyone, but it has the tendency to create griefers. I don't WANT to grief, I want to get better at the game. But if you wave around that Veteran Staff of Ball Cracking long enough, very shortly you'll create a high blood pressure community of angry old snobs who yell at babies and speak in morse code.
It can be WAY more fun, guys.
Contest:
7:00 PM on 08.23.2009
| 
That's why you should play more games with me (and bloodylip)!!
PS: I see your mind still has pizza in there :P.
I was playing Third/Turd Strike on 2df a while back and some guy got mad at my playing style and called me a nigger, then dropped. He deserved such a pissy pizza.
Also, I love your drawings :D
But I'm too nice to ever pee on the pizza, as much as I want to. I just leave and, sadly, almost always give up on playing the game in question.
I am totally getting some pizza and playing single player games tonight now. I think I may even pee a little.
I agree though, people who take the online times (or any gaming for that matter) all super serious, deserve a little grief.
But just to clear things up it's usually an accident that I pee on the pizza.. not on purpose. That's what happens when they let an untrained noobvillian wander around without a chaperone :P
@squirrel
Hay!
But Rockvillian what a fantastic read! I was in a party chat with a friend of mine and some of the guys he plays with entered the conversation and they started talking about kicking another player out of there clan. Now it wasn't that the person getting kicked was a sore player, he was getting kicked for not being at there level of play and he only had the game for maybe a few weeks! While I don't belong to a online clan (nor do I wish to be in one), I do play with one (more of a affiliate but doesn't participate in clan matches) that showed me the ropes and taught me the strategies and while being generally really cool people that don't talk shit to the other time unless provoked first.
But once agian, awesome read man!
Then you're the best at the game no one plays. Then you die.
See, I'd LOVE to make online friends and play with them regularly... or at least, know that I can count on them as support for having fun, rather than outright winning. I don't really care that much about winning a game so long as I am having fun whilst playing. But since I lack online friends, I'm usually the type of guy that goes to the "quickmatch" option first, since I really can't invite friends or join a party and whatnot. Whenever I join one of these games, I am usually placed within a team of people that has a lot of those "elitist" types that are so untouchable that they don't even speak to people anymore. They just insult them, ALWAYS.
This is not helped by the fact that given my location, my lag is always... substantial. Even with a supposed 3mb connection, which is ok (I guess), I still get a lot of latency, along the 180ms mark. This means that I'm usually the first guy to get killed and the one that makes the team lag. So it's understandable that not many people wish to play with me... despite my best intentions.
So that's basically why I stick to single player... but it grows stale after a while... and it'd be FUN to have a good time with people... but strangely, most people seem to forget or ignore the fact that playing games is supposed to be about having FUN O_o
1 - Started playing battlefield heroes, i'm with the nazi-like guys, with red uniforms, i see a guy with a name in blue, i shoot.
people started to say that i should be banned, but once i asked what i was doing wrong, they corrected me and said i should only shoot at red guys
2 - my first 2v2 on company of heroes, i start sucking really bad. Mt teammate said he tought i was a smurf, which i still don't know what it is. Suddenly he starts giving me tips about what to do etc. The game ends but neither disconnects, he starts telling me what i did wrong, how to get better and even recommends me a site with loads of strategies and etc. really cool guy
I have tons of friends who I regularly play COD4 with. Most are awesome and reliable, but a few suck really bad. And I mean REALLY bad. I would play with them a few times, and while I don't directly lash out at them, you would definitely be able to pick up on my frustrations through the tone of my voice during a game. When you go from playing with one group of players and winning 20 games in a row, to playing with another group and losing 10 in a row, something is clearly wrong. Don't even get me started on the random players I'd get as teammates online.
It's not the fact that these amateurs are new that's frustrating. It's the fact that they don't learn anything. You would think after multiple games that they would develop SOME kind of strategy. But it never happens. I can't tell you the number of times I've played Domination on COD, heard the game say "losing Bravo!" and see that 4 other teammates surrounding Point B are doing jack squat. No matter how many times I have to point out that we are losing a control point, the next game everybody forgets what the game is telling them because everyone just wants to "run around and shoot".
Yeah, I understand people play for "fun" and I really don't mind about losing in a video game. However if you're not going to play a multiplayer game to at least try and win, then don't continue to play and ruin the experience for others who actually understand the game. I don't see how losing time and time again is considered "fun".
I try to be the guy who guides noobs (ask Kyle about Left 4 Dead), but a lot of the time, the people who ruin games due to their ultimate suckage have no mic, and probably aren't listening to a word I have to say. So while I can totally sympathize with your position, I can say that I have been in the frustrated "we are only losing because of this noob on our team" position, and I feel justified in it.
"fuck you noob don't tell me how to play" ... This is one example, but for some reason I am hated for being helpful. What I'm getting at is, there are assholes at all skill levels unfortunately.
Diapers. n00b.
(srsly, great post, I agree with so much of it it makes me want to piss a pizza. But only in a group of non-friends. :-) )
And yeah, Legend452 missed the point. Its not about being angry with noobish behavior (few decent players can say they've never felt that way), its about being constructive about informing the players about their actions.
Allow wikipedia to explain:
"Negative reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior when the consequence is the removal of an aversive stimulus. Turning off (or removing) an annoying song when a child asks their parent is an example of negative reinforcement (if this results in an increase in asking behavior of the child in the future). Another example is if a mouse presses a button to avoid shock. Do not confuse this concept with punishment."
So no matter what people say to you when you play online, even if it's offensive and mean-spirited, it's still positive reinforcement.
"Positive reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior due to the addition of a stimulus immediately following a response. Giving (or adding) food to a dog contingent on its sitting is an example of positive reinforcement (if this results in an increase in the future behavior of the dog sitting)."
Never applied it, thogh...
(I vote this become the official term for screwing stuff up for everyone)
I got the point completely. Don't get angry at noobs, instead help them. Yeah I got it and I've tried, both with random players and with the ones on my friends list. I wrote that during COD4 both the game and I would mention in Domination that our control points were being taken, only to be met with absolute silence and teammates doing absolutely nothing. I get that some players really do have the best of intentions going into a MP game, but the lack of simple common sense in some games is absolutely astounding that it does get frustrating.
Not every dog is going to learn how to do things right the first time. It may not even learn how to do things right the fifth, tenth, or hundredth time, no matter how long you spend trying to play nice with it. Everyone's patience has a limit, and mine runs out after 2-3 hours of 10 consecutive losses in a FPS.
The problem with the "noobs" on my friends list is that they simply don't play as much as I do (which when I point out usually results in the whole "because I have a life" response, so noobs can be smart asses too). I usually play for a few hours maybe 4-5 times a week at night, while the noobs on my friends list jump online maybe once a month. You think they're going to remember the advice I gave them, or even care for that matter? It's probably the same with a lot of other noobs who just don't play that often. It's sad to say, but if you wanna get better at the game you have to become familiar with it. Even though there are elitist players out there, nothing is stopping you from muting them, spending more time playing the game, and getting familiar with the controls, weapons, maps, etc. on your own.
Why I wondered.
so I took note of his PSN name, survived the vote, and team killed the fucker next round. I mean, How dare he?
Then I receive a message on my PSN something along the lines of "What the fuck noob?!" to which i replied "Why the kick?" and his actual reply was something like this...
"To let you know someone was behind you noob. Get rid of that fucking M4 dickhead and use a 544! You fucking noob"
What the fuck? So I have too much going on in my real life to play enough of this specific game to know your personal signals and that makes me a noob? Then you tell me what fucking gun to use? Go fuck yourself dickhead!
Which was a little something like my response.
I was the last T left and was frankly nowhere near the bomb, and there were three CTs left. There must have been around 3 kick votes which I survived and, having noted that I was the only poor bastard left on my team, I just shot at anything that moved.
I managed to drop the first CT in a tunnel, catch the second guy coming down the stairs, then had an intense firefight with the last CT in a courtyard, I managed to hide behind a pillar, load in my last SMG clip, and spray the guy to the floor. I was frankly beside myself as I was absolutely awful at the game and it was only through playing similar games as a kid that I was any good at all.
The moral is to cut noobs slack, because you don't know when they may come good.
We need more people like these.
Constantly I hear "why didn't you kill them?", "why didn't you try and capture the pint?" etc. etc.
I'm great at COD4 and love being the last one, because there isn't any text chat. I love TF2 too, but the community is pretty much summed up with this article.
Fortunately I'm the type of guy who advises new players as well and today I offered a fellow Spy some great advice as well as the medic.
If anything, the "Veterans" shouting noob are the noobs themselves sometimes.
@groboh and sicknasty
Thanks for applying what you read and correcting me :P. I wasn't really going for the scientific term of positive and negative reinforcement though, but in retrospect I'm thinking I should have stated my purposeful redefining of the term just for this instance. The quality of the reinforcement is what I was after.