Video Game Rants: Of Noobs and Rage Quits

[EgonSpengler]

Yeah, but why? What do you get out of making a game completely unfun for the person you are playing against? Because that's what you are doing when you act ultra-competitive. The reason the ultra-competitive attitude doesn't sit well with a lot of gamers is because unless you are MLG, games aren't really supposed to be that way. Multiplayer is there for you to get together with some people and just have some fun playing a game and maybe make some new friends in the process. The one guy in the group that absolutely has to win, talks trash to his opponents and criticizes his teammates when they don't play up to his standards is the guy everyone else in the group secretly makes fun of for acting like a d-bag and doesn't get invited back for another round. There is absolutely no excuse to act that way in multiplayer gaming.

I agree with you. I also think there's a minimum standard, though. There are people who play online games who think it's okay to just do whatever they want, who don't think they owe their opponents or teammates a good experience. Imagine someone joining a "pickup" game of soccer/football in the park, running into 3 defenders and losing the ball instead of passing it, and then saying "I just play for fun" when his teammates give him grief. That guy is a tool. When we play a game with other people, even (or especially) strangers, we owe them some amount of meaningful participation. The people who make no effort are being just as disrespectful as the loudmouthed armchair-general, imo.

 

[sophie]

Different people have different conceptions of fun.

 

[Synobun]

I don't understand guys like you. I never play for fun unless it is vs AI. If it is humans, I want to win. It is in genes, in my competitive spirit. I have been doing sports since age of 5. of course I want to be the best or at least among elite. I can go easy on someone only after I have crushed them completely.

If I wanted to be the very best like no one ever was, I'd probably spend my time doing things IRL instead of pouring that extreme ambition into a video game.

 

[dusters]

If I wanted to be the very best like no one ever was, I'd probably spend my time doing things IRL instead of pouring that extreme ambition into a video game.

Yea, but some people who are e-sports professionals earn million+ $ per year and they live a life of a professional player. Your attitude sounds as if playing video games professionaly isn't as valid choice as playing football, for example.

In my case - I have put my ambition into chess, bridge and achieved decent results on a national level. As for video games, I know I don't have the talent to be a pro, but I can always try. To always improve, to always better myself, that is my goal. Oh, and of course I sound cocky when I say that I want to be among the elite.

 

[Truronian]

Yea, but some people who are e-sports professionals earn million+ $ per year and they live a life of a professional player. Your attitude sounds as if playing video games professionaly isn't as valid choice as playing football, for example.

I definitely think it's going to be harder to get into professional e-sports compared to professional physical sports. There's just not as much sponsorship around in e-sports, and I suspect a lot more competition. Professional gamer ranks right up there with professional youtuber when it comes to unrealistic career choices in schools nowadays. That said, if you have a background in chess I suspect you have a much better chance at succeeding than the average aspiring e-sportsperson.

 

[Synobun]

Yea, but some people who are e-sports professionals earn million+ $ per year and they live a life of a professional player. Your attitude sounds as if playing video games professionaly isn't as valid choice as playing football, for example.

Nobody reaches the goal of being a professional e-sports player by being a knob to their friends. Or, well, maybe they can, they just won't have any friends once they do reach it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

"Man, I really got in some good practice at the holiday Turkey Bowl game! You should have seen uncle Bob fold when I stiff armed him!" Number seventeen on the list of things you will never hear Adrian Peterson say.

 

[dusters]

I never claimed I get off jerking into my friends faces over CSGO or LoL, but as I said earlier, it is about competitive spirit. Playing sports for fun is something I don't get.

Edit - I don't have any friends who can stand me tryharding in video games, you are right, folks.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I don't understand guys like you. I never play for fun unless it is vs AI. If it is humans, I want to win. It is in genes, in my competitive spirit. I have been doing sports since age of 5. of course I want to be the best or at least among elite. I can go easy on someone only after I have crushed them completely.

Playing sports for fun is something I don't get.

Yeah, but why? What do you get out of making a game completely unfun for the person you are playing against? Because that's what you are doing when you act ultra-competitive. The reason the ultra-competitive attitude doesn't sit well with a lot of gamers is because unless you are MLG, games aren't really supposed to be that way. Multiplayer is there for you to get together with some people and just have some fun playing a game and maybe make some new friends in the process. The one guy in the group that absolutely has to win, talks trash to his opponents and criticizes his teammates when they don't play up to his standards is the guy everyone else in the group secretly makes fun of for acting like a d-bag and doesn't get invited back for another round. There is absolutely no excuse to act that way in multiplayer gaming.

No offense but aren't both those attitudes pretty stupid in and of themselves? I can kind of understand Commodore: Sometimes, for example when playing against my little cousin, or playing a game where I'm very experienced against someone with no clue, then I'll just eff around. The same when I play with real life friends instead on on an online ladder.

But dusters attitude just seems really sad and superficial to me. Achievement for the sake of achievement gives you.. Nothing but hollow pride. I'm sure if you look at any "great person" in their respective field, their sole drive was not just to be in a history book, they had a genuine passion for whatever they were doing. Which brings me to my main point:

To me, online gaming, especially the specific kind we were talking about, the one involving a rating system, a ladder, ELO or something similiar of that nature, should for me always be competitive. Even in games like Civ I always strive to improve. But what is this worth without the fun? Competitiveness and fun go together, they are not diametrically opposed. Trash talking is only fun when your opponent is semi-competent. If fun isn't your primary goal, then I think you are doing something wrong. Especially with video games, since they don't really translate into anything at all. At least if you're a pro footballer you're probably in top shape. If you spend years slaving away in LoL without even enjoying it all that much, you get really fast at clicking I guess? Great..

A healthy dose of competitiveness is fun; An unhealthy dose of competitiveness is like an unhealthy dose of heroin.. Overkill.

 

[dusters]

I agree with what you said. I really enjoy playing support role in league of legends. I have played that one champion, Morgana, probably over 500 times this year.

I never claim to get an ego fix dumpstering some noobs - I try not to smurf at all. Versus even competition, even then there are people who say "Ok, we are like top 0.3%, but let's relax for a game." I don't get them, because for me top 0.3% isn't enough. For me PC games is to improve my reflexes, my critical thinking in super dynamic situations, to adapt to enemy decisions.

I work out and run for fun.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

See, for me it's the other way around. I work out and do cardio in order not to get fat from all the delicious food I eat. Yeah, sometimes lifting weights can be a little fun but.. It's a pretty monotonous exercise and not very challenging or stimulating, at least mentally. Video games are fun, but I honestly never think about improving my reflexes, critical thinking and adaptability. I'm pretty sure those improvements are minor at best and can be better replicated playing actual sports.

However, I did vanish a blind once. Not like anyone is gonna get the reference and for most it's probably meaningless anyway, but for me that was the most MLG moment in my entire gaming career.

 

[Commodore]

However, I did vanish a blind once. Not like anyone is gonna get the reference and for most it's probably meaningless anyway, but for me that was the most MLG moment in my entire gaming career.

Did a quick Google search on it, and apparently this is quite the achievement. If what I saw was correct, "vanishing a blind" is something done in WoW, right? If so, my quick Google search turned up forum posts of people saying this move requires Jedi-like reactions.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

You are 100% correct! Essentially, what you have to do is vanish at the exact second your opponent presses blind. I think doing it just by reaction time in itself is impossible, the spell has no travelling time, there is no projectile coming towards your or anything.. It's just instant. So you somehow have to instinctively know the exact moment when that spell is used and just klick it out of a gut feeling. Good indicators are character models turning and opponents walking towards you (if you know the minimum distance of the spell) and so on. If it doesn't work out you gain literally nothing, you wasted your most important defensive and offensive cooldown and you look like a completely tool. This mechanic wasn't even intended by the game creators by the way. Vanish gives you a .2 second immunity to spells apparently, some people noticed that and tried to abuse it. I think the best thing about it is that if you vanish a split second too early then you actually get vanished out of the blind, which isn't supposed to work due to mechanics, another malfunction.

Sounds complicated maybe, after some searching I finally found a good video where it's shown done to perfection at point blank range. Luckily you can pull this up to HD to see very clearly what's going on. If you pause at about 7 seconds, where it happens, you can see the hands of the other character "glowing", that is the cast animation. So the instant the other character model started turning around, this YouTuber clicked vanish in anticipation of blind, it worked out. You can see him entering vanish when it says "Exit Combat" on the screen. It's of course most fun if done in a duel, because it's the best way of establishing: "I know exactly what you're thinking at any second".

This second video shows it even better I think. Clearly that guy is a million times better than me and has god-like reflexes, but even he needs a clue to vanish the blind. Not for the second operation though.

It's one of those ultimate "style on you" scenarios where if you do it wrong (99% of time and players) you look like a complete fool and it'll also make you lose, but when it does work out you'll turn heads for sure.

As you can probably tell I wasted my youth on this piece of junk, but I can't stay I don't still love it. Never felt like it was in vain, this was probably the most fun I've had with videogames in my life and I'll likely never replicate it. From what I can tell WoW is hot garbage right now, but I won't touch MMORPGs anymore anyway