The worst people on-line

[Kaebora]

Ok, there's a lot of terminology in there I don't understand, and most I can guess pritty well at dispite the fact. I don't play Halo 3 or have a 360.

What is HLG?

Anyways, I have a simple solution. Mute the player. Let him talk to himself.

[Shadow Wulf]

HLG= Hidden League Gamer. I goggled it because I had no idea who they were either.

[Morkulv]

Children, definately. People who play Counter-Strike should know this. There is nothing more annoying then kids who shout through the microphone, can't type one word correctly, and call you a cheater whenever you get a skilled or sometimes lucky kill. It makes me want to grab 'm through the screen and put them behind a Wii or something. I remember one time where some kid who was actually admin of the server (which is even more sad), called me a cheater just because I killed him with a pistol a couple of times. He was actually about to ban me for it.

A good second place of annoyance for me are campers. A good example is again Counter-Strike. A lot of campers in general just buy a AWP, crouch somewhere in a corner and wait for people to walk by. One shot kill. Even worse is when those same people say that AWP takes skill... If I had a server I would not hesitate to ban campers like that.

[RedEye]

So? Find out where said camper resides, and toss a grenade around the corner at them.

One shot splatter!

[Whisperwind]

so far one of the most effective ways ive seen to deal with idiot kids is to go with them - it boggles their minds. example: the other night some friends from college/hs and i were in a chat where one of them was on a webcam. no biggie. but apparently on this website random people can just hop in and watch the show/read the chat... and this person hops in and starts making comments, trying to get us grossed out. descriptive sexual acts, and generally frowned on lewd topics. but this person didn't know me and my friends. and once i started going along with it, they started getting freaked out, and my friends follwed my lead. and then the "im in a gang and im going to come beat your a**" comments started, which made us all crack up because 75% of the people in the chat were the most hardcore violent lesbians i've ever had the chance to meet, so they started in with descriptive details on what exactly they're going to do to this person if they showed up. this kid tried to hold up but i just think it was all above their head and they gave up and left. granted, it was a bunch of people vs the one idiot.. but ive done it by myself, and, based on the people i talk to, they don't expect you to go beyond their level in both lewdness/violence and intelligence and run scared when you do. now, if you're in a game this might get you banned. but if you're just dealing with general jackassery and are bored enough, it can be quite entertaining!

[Morkulv]

So? Find out where said camper resides, and toss a grenade around the corner at them.

One shot splatter!

I always knife campers. But still, its just annoying and ruining the game for other people. Taking cover for a moment? Sure, but don't sit there in a corner for entire rounds (which I have seen happening a lot).

[Wingman]

Well, in some cases camping is a perfectly legitimate strategy, such as in a Seige type game or whatnot where they're defending a particular spot. Though yeah, most of the shooters people are playing have very, very static levels, even if they do happen to be large. After a while it's simple efficiency.
Though, in part it's why I'm really, really, liking Left 4 Dead, since it has all the classical shooter action we love, but constructed in such a way that any campsite loses its appeal very quickly, since the others can run past and make the battle mobile.

L4D is a perfect shakeup of the shooter genre, and built in such a way that camping is replaced by ambushing, which is as it should be. Especially since campers are going to get swarmed if they stay in the same area too long.

Since I feel obliged to add something to this thread.
Irrational Foreigners: Chances are you know what I'm talking about. The person who pops in, babbles in some language other than the primary one for that server, and then does something like opening fire at the team, wasting items, or ruining the defenses.
There was a guy who joined the game, grabbed an autoshotty, and then incapacitated the other three survivors, used all the pipebombs, and then left. Sure, the AI patched us up a bit (thus using up all the medkits), but we couldn't hold down a stable team for long enough to finish the map.

This isn't to say anyone who doesn't speak English needs to gtfo, I played some of the best rounds of my life with a guy who spoke Italian, a girl whose primary weapon was a red gas can (Red Can Of Doom!), and a stoic Bill who would casually walk into a fustercluck of zombies with less than 20% health left. It was amazing, I miss those guys. We probably killed a good 6k zombies together.

[Morkulv]

I'm talking about Counter-Strike in this case. In the case of more 'open world' shooters like BattleField, camping is and should be more tolerated. However, the levels in Counter-Strike are far too linear to be camping (with the exception of bomb-protecting). If you want to snipe, thats fine, but be a man and at least be somewhat on the move. I know a lot of talented snipers online who always keep a desert eagle handgun (no, a desert eagle is NOT a pistol) as a second arm. In that way you are always prepared for unexpected close combat.

[Terastas]

This isn't to say anyone who doesn't speak English needs to gtfo

I don't think it's every human being's responsibility to learn English; I've tried to learn a second language and didn't have much success, so I try to be lenient with others.

However, if you travel to an English-speaking country, visit an English-speaking website, or connect to an English-speaking game server, you should be prepared to have to deal with the language barrier (especially if you're at a foreign language website with the assistance of a translation program -- that might make the language easier to read, but it won't help you avoid those awkward "all your base are belong to us" moments).

Usually I just try to deal with them, or if not, tune them out and look the other way. The ones that truly get on my nerves, however, are the ones that get pissy because we are not all speaking their language. Sometimes it can be funny listening to them go bucknutty in their native tongue, but more often than not they're just completely annoying. Especially in games that are text-only and they keep posting the same shout over and over again. "No! No hablo Espanol! Vamanos Pendejo!"

[Morkulv]

Why is everyone bitching against the Brits by the way? If any people from a country have to be blamed for being annoying its French people. No matter what game, French people (just like in real-life) refuse to speak any language other then their own (they CAN speak English, they just don't even when they know that a other person cannot make him/herself understandable in French). Usually when you say something to them in English, they reply in French, which indicates that they DO understand it, but they are too arrogant to speak it. That pisses me off more then anything else about people. A good second place for this type of arrogance in games goes to German people. With Brits I've never had any problems with since they at least speak English.

[Kaebora]

That might be unfair to French people (or any nationality) to generalize in such a way. Like many southwetsern americans, we vaguely understand basic spanish, but can't reply very well in the spanish language. This can be frustrating to people that are spanish speaking only. It's hard to learn a second language, so we can't expect it of anyone.

I know this is a silly example, but it falls under the same situation. During the last convention I went to, I was often out in the main hall late into the night chatting with the people that would wander by while I was in a video conference on my laptop. One of the people that came up to say hi to the people who could see us on cam was a french-speaking furry that at the time was in his canine costume. Needless to say this was amusing, as he did speak english reasonably well, but he was also quite drunk and sleepy. Now, after sitting next to me for a few minutes talking on my webcam he started to fall limp over onto my lap, and communicating with him was limited (try translating a second language in your brain when you're toasted, not easy). I knew some french and roughly said 'bad dog, up up'. His french mumblings were simple enough to understand, but I finally understood his situation. A room party he was at had ended and kicked everyone out.

Now, if you spoke no french at all, this situation would have bugged the hell out of you. A drunken french ideot with a dog custume on plopping his head right into your lap when you're trying to type. If I hadn't understood his situation I'd probobly be pissed. Rather, by understanding his basic french words, I understood that he was drunk, tired, and needed help finding his room. Hardly an ideot, just his own bad timing. I let him lean against me until one of his friends came by to get him. Since he couldn't remember his room number at the time, what else was I to do?

[Terastas]

That might be unfair to French people (or any nationality) to generalize in such a way. Like many southwetsern americans, we vaguely understand basic spanish, but can't reply very well in the spanish language. This can be frustrating to people that are spanish speaking only. It's hard to learn a second language, so we can't expect it of anyone.

*nods* Like I said above, I don't automatically expect everyone to learn how to speak English. I would just consider it courteous to at least brush up a little on the language if you plan on entering an English-speaking forum. I tend to stay clear of any Japanese websites I may stumble across because I don't want to look like as much of an a** to them as ranting Hispanics and/or Frenchmen look to me.

That whole anal-retentive attitude Morkulv was talking about is not unique unto the French, however. Just about every European country has its fair share of flag-waving douche bags among them. Brits tend to appear the most numerous only because we share the same native language and thus run afoul of them online more often than those from mainland Europe, but even the most obscure of European countries has at least a few of them.

The only thing I'd have to strongly disagree with is that Germans are not the second most arrogant, neither when it comes to their language, nor overall. Don't get me wrong: they have just as many douches as every other European country. British, French, and the occasional Italian douches will knock America because it's not British, French and/or Italian enough. German douches, in my experience, are not much different from the home grown variety; couch commandos and/or teamkillers (like the infamous Angry German Kid).

The only other people I've ever run into online that ever had a sort of aura of smug superiority in them were the Japanese. Usually they're pretty decent since practically their whole culture is neon/digital in this age, but as the virtual home of the video game industry, some of them do still have that same undeserved sense of supremacy that the British and French are sometimes cursed with.

Not that I'm trying to imply that Americans never do any flag-waving. On the contrary, Americans can be just as smug as the rest of the world. They just tend not to be as vocal about it online because we generally assume the people we're talking to and/or playing with are American too. American douches will knock other countries once they know somebody is from there, but it's only the really young and stupid ones that ever sing the praises of America on teamspeak and such.

[Midnight]

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[Kaebora]

*Scratches his head.*

Fortnight?

[Morkulv]

That might be unfair to French people (or any nationality) to generalize in such a way. Like many southwetsern americans, we vaguely understand basic spanish, but can't reply very well in the spanish language. This can be frustrating to people that are spanish speaking only. It's hard to learn a second language, so we can't expect it of anyone.

This is not the case, like I explained in my post. Read my post a little better. I said that most French people I ran into in online games CAN understand English since they nearly always reply, but they don't want to speak it, which proves my point that they can understand English. Why else make a effort to reply to someone if you can't understand the language? I'm not a racist though, I'm just posting my observations.

[Kaebora]

You missed my point. I was basically saying that most english speaking French people speak only a little english. Though it may seem they are fluent, they only know the basics, and can't hold a detailed conversation. That is based on my experiance both in games and in RL. The fluent French people are the ones with college educations.

[Morkulv]

You missed my point. I was basically saying that most english speaking French people speak only a little english.

Source? I don't mean to have the last word on this, but I've been to France at least 8 times already and even though I can't speak a word French they could nearly always understand my English. So saying that French people on speak English a little bit is bullshit if you ask me. You can count on it that nearly every west-european country has English being teached on school, so there is no excuse.

[Midnight]

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[Nightmane]

Just to add a bit from my point of view. I was an avid wow player on an austrailian server. I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!!! Austrailians and new zealenders(Forgive my spelling) are some of the coolest people Ive met in my entire life. The words they use are also damn cool too. SO even I, in my current military boarding school life will occasinally yell "OI" and mess up and say "Mate". But eh, thats just me.

[Terastas]

It's probably more accurate to say you don't notice it as much because you're American anyway. Whether by accident or by design, it seems to be assumed that all native English speakers on the Internet are American. That leaves out anything between a third and a quarter of English speakers (from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, even Canada).

That's the whole population of English speakers, not the population of English speakers that own gaming consoles.

There is, however, one thing that I failed to take into consideration that may play into the American majority misconception: time zones. Assuming most online gaming takes place between 5:00 p.m. and midnight, most Americans will only run into Aussie early birds and British insomniacs.

That leaves only the weekend for Americans to get up early and connect with the afternoon Euro-gamers, and that's assuming they too didn't get up and start playing early either.

So while there isn't actually an American majority, it's easy to get in the habit of thinking there is one.