Online Gaming Etiquette: A Brief Rant - Article
by Brandon J. Wysocki , posted on 07 October 2015 / 8,035 Views
Over the past week or so, I've been testing the waters in the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege beta. During my time with the game I was subjected to interacting with the online community quite a bit more than I've had to in some time. A lot of what I play involves competitive multiplayer, but often I do so with an emphasis on non-verbal communication. However, due to the benefit of communication and teamwork in Rainbow Six Siege, combined with erratic matchmaking and a somewhat clunky muting mechanic, I was effectively forced to get a fresh taste of online gaming etiquette. For the most part, I found it as detestable as ever.
I’ll quickly address some of the positives I witnessed. About midway through my playtime, I started to get into games with seemingly more mature gamers. In those (rare) instances, it was a pleasure to witness effective communication, genuinely helpful suggestions and tips being given to self-professed newcomers to the game or players clearly struggling, and the utilization of different character perks and strategy in general. The near instant comradery was wonderful in those matches. There were even plenty of moments where we discussed what the game did well, didn’t do well, and whether we might purchase the full copy when it was released.
But outside of those fleeting moments, I was reminded why I so often play online games that involve verbal minimal interaction with my fellow gamers. Some of it might be that I’m just a cranky jerk, but so much of it is the obnoxious manner in which seemingly far too many gamers conduct themselves online. Even as videogames become increasingly accepted as art, and even educationally or scientifically beneficial in some instances, it seems that “we”, for our part, are not doing much to present it as something inviting, potentially beneficial, artistic, or as something that should be “taken seriously”.
While I feel that videogames could and should be better appreciated, that is taken more seriously, I say that with regards to outsiders and skeptics. Videogames are intense. But we need to keep them in perspective, and not take them too seriously as participants. I’m guilty of this one, as I’m sure I’ve broken a controller or two, or said some asinine things in the heat of the moment. But that is absurd. As a child, I had a friend that when he failed a part in a game, or died, would slap his leg so hard that I have to believe it left marks. I'm sure most of us have had “real life” threats made to us online because of a perceived slight in a game. It’s ridiculous. We do ourselves and gaming a disservice by getting too wrapped up in them. Most people, including many gamers, don’t picture gamers as socially - perhaps even mentally (or physically) - healthy individuals. Much of what we do simply reinforces those opinions.
Most of what kills interaction online for me is not the overt stuff like that, which can easily be laughed off, but the subtler things. Quitting mid-match is almost always unacceptable, and often costs the offender in one way or another. Obviously there are times where you have to, and that’s fine, but all too often people just leave as though it will help ease the whooping they're taking, or as though the loss won’t be as real in doing so. It’s crass and unsportsmanlike; just take the L honorably, learn from it, and move on. You might disagree, but quitting, especially in that context, has to be about the worst kind of defeat.
“Teabagging” and other deranged expressions of superiority, including offensive text messages sent to brag about a win, or criticize a performance, are also pretty bizarre. I get that videogames allow us to act out roles and scenarios we likely (and many times hopefully) will never act out in real life. But to that end, why does anyone want to desecrate or disrespect a corpse, even if only in a virtual setting? I might be overthinking it, but I feel like we should use our wins and losses to build character, rather than as fuel to feed petulant behavior. Some may disagree, but the lack of sportsmanship within the community is pretty sad.
Hands down, the bad habit that stood out to me the most recently is the abuse of voice chat online. It should be considered a privilege, not a right. I don’t need to hear the game audio on a slight delay through my headset courtesy of other players, especially when those same people tend to not contribute much if anything with their actual voices.
Similarly, as happy as I am to know that you’re alive in real life as we play together, I don’t need to hear your every respiration. I also don’t need to hear your every throat clear, or you arguing with your parent or significant other about chores or things that you need to do outside of the game. It happens to all of us, but that doesn’t mean we all want to hear it. I’m glad your dog is keeping you safe, but hearing it bark at something outside, then you barking at it to stop, is both annoying and distracting. I don’t care about what you ate, or plan to eat, nor do I want to hear you eating. Sometimes you need to just turn your mic off.
I have no inherent issue with playing with kids online either; many are as good or better than me, but you might especially want to dial it back if you’re younger. Show how good you are before you start popping off at the mouth about your own ability or telling everyone else what they need to do (this, of course, applies just as much to everyone). You likely don’t often take as much liberty with elders in the real world, so why do it online? And everyone, especially younger people, needs to remember that you do not need to project loud enough so that we can hear you without the mic. The mic is in fact there to help relay your voice to us over vast distances. It’s truly a wonderful piece of technology, so use it correctly.
Lastly, I truly don’t care what your racial or sexual disposition is. The use of the epithets, especially rooted in the hatred of certain groups of the aforementioned categories, is unbecoming and unacceptable. Have some respect and dignity. I know it might seem strange, but I don’t often feel the need to shield my children from much in the way of videogames. But the language used in online games, especially the frequent use of racial, sexual, and homosexual slurs, prove to be the greatest exception.
So that’s what bothers me the most when playing online with others. I’d love to hear what you agree and disagree with, and why. Better yet, I’d love more examples of online habits that bother you. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list - it doesn’t even cover everything that bothers me - these are just issues that came to mind over this past week of play. I absolutely love gaming, and gaming online is no exception, but far too often it seems that we as gamers are intent to soil the greatness of gaming, rather than demonstrate and help expand its greatness.
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Brandon J. Wysocki is a contributing writer for VGChartz. You're invited to contact Brandon (username SpaceLegends) in the comments below or through private messages on VGChartz, or even at his barely ever used and effectively dormant Twitter account @BrandonJWysocki.
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I disagree, i'd rather have a freedom to choose to communicate with others onlinely and get insulted instead of having nothing at all. Inshort, i prefer Options :P.
Competition + anonymity = ear cancer
I think the worst, oddly enough, is in SSB4. In other games you can mute other playes, but in Sm4sh you have the chance to change your name tag. And boy, do people like using that to insult.
I normally don't use it too much to communicate with others except for funny or impressive kills; sometimes you find others that say "GG" or "your good" after a few matches. But damn, most of the time you see people claiming they are the best or that you are the worst, and might even get personal. I laugh it off most of the time (it's just too dumb to take it seriously), but it does get me sometimes.
A writer who should maybe go to a kid's football or baseball game to see non gamer behaviour over a 'game'.
The environments at kids' competitions can be just as, if not more, toxic. As a father, I'm well aware of that. I suppose that might be a contributing factor to how we sometimes behave as gamers. In my rambling, I have to try to stay gaming related, and I'm verbose enough without going into other environments that are similarly disturbing.
I think this article is on point and online communication is a vastly underrated sect of videogames that is begging for more attention. Online gaming is one of my favorite hobbies, and the only consistent issue I've had with a multitude of different titles is the lack of moderation, lack of re-inforcement for good behavior, and lack of punishment for rude jerks. And by 'rude jerks,' I don't just mean the next guy that rages because of a loss, I mean the people that deliberately, voluntarily put others down through threatening, degrading, and harassing forms of verbal abuse. I'm not trying to sugar coat 'nerd rage' or 'little pre-middle school online arguments,' I'm talking about the cases that get way out of hand and lines are crossed that shouldn't, there IS a distinction. Why can't people get it through their heads that it's more beneficial to quickly(if not thoroughly) explain what they could be doing instead of their current strat getting them or the team killed?
I don't consider myself uptight, I can let loose and have a good time as much as the next girl or guy, but if I was in charge of a game and expected people to download DLC or keep the game alive in some way, I'd want part of the team to aggressively warn, block, ban, or whatever it takes to keep people like this out of the community.
To make it worse, it seems LoL and Xbox's way to deal with people like this is to rely on an automated system that will simply place rude people with other rude people or quitters with quitters- yet this doesn't always work, does it? Priority is usually set on distance from the player in matchmaking, or quality of connection, or(rarely) skill difference. It's not ever been explained in any online medium(Sony's, MIcrosoft's, Bungie's, Blizzard's, etc) how exactly these online matchmakers take into account each players' communication habits, and even worse, is if it strictly goes off player reports or confirmed cases of verbal abuse/threats.
Awesome insight, IceHedge. It is a shame, as it is often the only downfall on an otherwise awesome experience online. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
And this is why I've never cared for FPS games. More than any other game, they seem to attract a certain "type." :/
Only part i don't agree with is the homosexual slurs. call a stick a stick and a faggot a faggot.
"KFC! I gouts to haev my KFC! Colonel's ORIGINAL!"
I think that a healthy mix of maturity and immaturity in online gaming is essential. It's easy not to take things personally, especially a healthy teabagging.
- why dont you use TS3 like normal people(or skype if you just want some times with friends and nice people you met at the internet)?
- get good and you dont see so much assheads
- french people arent a race, its a group of people who likes to troll all other people.
