So I just had a disappointing experience playing a skirmish. Up until this point, I've only encountered two types of DG players; polite, mature people, and the silent ones. Now, I know I was bound to come across a hater eventually, but I was really hoping...
The mentality of the players on bnet is one I really found to make me uncomfortable. The disconnect between acceptable behavior in real life and behavior on the internet gives people carte blanche to insult and degrade their opponents (and teammates, for that matter). For some reason I had a hope that the type of people attracted to bnet games would somehow not be interested in DG, though I don't know what I was on to think that.
The game I just had went pretty much as your average bnet dota game goes... Insults after every kill, implications of homosexuality, grow some balls, go cry to your guidance counselor, etc, etc. Now in my irrational hope that there might still be a chance for a pleasurable social experience, I asked if their mission in the game was to eliminate all fun for the opponents, to which they both replied immediately with "YES" (all of their text was caps, of course), followed by more insults. Do people not understand that there are real people on the other end? If I was a stranger gaming against you in a LAN setting, sitting a seat away, would you verbalize the insults that you so freely type knowing that there are no consequences?
With bnet, one way to deal with bad players was banlist, which, while not perfect by any means, created an initial filter for online games. Since the network structure of DG is so different than that of bnet games, and since it's not really mod-friendly at this point, I don't see a good way to filter the players that you've (or other people) had bad experiences with. I'm wondering if any of you have some ideas on how to deal with this issue (that and I wanted to vent). Maybe I'm oversensitive, but I'm sure you all know the feeling of losing to what's seemingly a 13 year old with anger issues and a broken keyboard.
Now in my irrational hope that there might still be a chance for a pleasurable social experience, I asked if their mission in the game was to eliminate all fun for the opponents, to which they both replied immediately with "YES" (all of their text was caps, of course), followed by more insults. Don't feed the trolls.
Now in my irrational hope that there might still be a chance for a pleasurable social experience, I asked if their mission in the game was to eliminate all fun for the opponents, to which they both replied immediately with "YES" (all of their text was caps, of course), followed by more insults.
Don't feed the trolls.
Since (as far as I know) the "playername" is also their impulse account name, I should think it fairly easy to maintain at least a mental list of the worst offenders and not play with said individuals?
....at least until we are giving a better option.
Feel the same way...and is a reason I have stayed far away from most competitive multiplayer games lately. Actually...Demigod is the first game like this that I have purchased in a long time. So far I haven't encountered anything like you describe, but I am sure it's just a matter of time.
As far as how to deal with them...not much you can do unfortunately. You can create all the filters you want, but at some point you will run into them.
You know honestly I don't remember online games and their communities being this bad years ago, but over time they have gotten progressively worse. I really hope this is just an online phenomenon and not some indicator of society in general...
That's my issue though, is this an issue that Stardock would be willing to address? It's kind of a touchy issue for the publisher to ban certain players based on what's sort of a subjective offense. Maybe if they built in a personal banlist to tie into the netcode of connecting players. So I have person x on my list, and if that player is an option for a skirmish, it would disregard that game for the banner, not the ban-ee, which would result in a voluntary delay of connection, leaving the ban-ee's experience unaffected. This on top of all the other issues Stardock is dealing with...
Or you could ignore their trashtalk, don't play with them again and save everybody a lot of time.
We are planning for an option where players can block problem users so that they won't be automatched with them.
I haven't seen a single game company really address this...even MMO's that have in game GM's and such aren't able to really effectively deal with verbal griefers.
The only real option (aside from creating block lists, which still do not garuntee you will not see these people) is to grow thicker skin and ignore those kinds of players.
The social distance that the internet creates makes it easier to disregard the human players that they are interacting with. That kind of effect can be seen in how people drive. The personal distance afforded by the passenger space in an automobile insulates dirvers from each other. The result is people do things in a car that they would not do in a pedestrian situation.
I would not attribute the majority of what you have observed to that. I suspect it has more to do with those people entangling their sense of self up with the outcome of the match. Trash talk is generally intended to upset the opponent(s) to a degree that they do not perform at their best. Some people have very thick skin and consider trading insults with total strangers enjoayble. Some people appear to have no other motivation than to inflict mental distress on others (sadists). A lot of it could simply be lack of maturity.
In any case, dwelling on the cause(s) of this kind of behavior really won't solve anything, unless you think you can psychoanalyze and treat someone with only text during a match. If you are that good at psychology, then you should do it professionally if you are not doing it already. The best advice I can give is develop thicker skin and ignore it.
I quit playing Dota specifically because of this. The lack of a mute/mute all option really made it ridiculous to deal with. I dont want to have to quit a game because some jerk is flooding the screen with hateful messages, I want to just mute them( and NOT have to type in there stupid misspelled name to do it ) and play the game. I'm not sure if there is any kind of chat mute(and a blacklist of players i never want to play with would be nice too) capabilty yet in demigod(in linux right now), but if one doesnt get added I'll just quit playing this game too probably.
XBOX LIve has done a good job for me in avoiding people I mark as ignore. Also since it's all voice chat I can just mute the idiots.
It is a shame that people just spill out crap from their mouths and make games unfun, but it is going to happen :/. Just some teenagers who need to show everyone who is boss. With age comes maturity, well it did for me . I wasn't the most polite when I played CS. Hell, I look at some of the things I posted on a specific message board I thought back to myself, "was i really like that?"
For the most part, the Stardock community has been a pleasurable one. Little hate here and there, but mostly its in fun. We just let the horrific people talk to themselves in their own thread .
Of course most of the forums I have been reading were turn based strategy games. Maybe its these faster games that get the testostarone going in the little ones. Just takes time till they start acting like this in real life and get a good beat down. Again, it happens to the best of us. Think we can all use a good beat down once in a while. We seem to fall out of our place too often.
I think you're missing my point. I don't WANT to play with them again, but I don't want to be a leaver or have to consult my written list of every player I prefer not to play with. I'm looking for a system for that to happen without becoming what I dislike. I'm with you on one point, I won't play with them again.
I fully understand that I'm not going to change the troll I'm playing with. That part of my post was the venting portion. I know there's no realistic solution to the problem of rude players. I know that I can ignore it, but it'd be nice to not have to in the first place. Afterall, I purchased the game for a pleasurable experience, and having to filter out the important teamwork chat from the troll speak doesn't contribute to that goal.
"( and NOT have to type in there stupid misspelled name to do it )"
there = their
The irony is delicious.
Yeah, I totally see what you're saying, I had a match like that at first. But see, what I do now, is make a game called "XvsX xxx (no assholes)" and usually that keeps em away, honestly.
Now listen, this is important.
You will encounter a lot of these people both in life and in games. You have to learn to deal with that kind of people in calm and somewhat refined manner.
In esence it means: Don't let them get to you. They spout insults, so what? Grow some skin for a change. If its a game, simply be better than them and beat them calmly. If its life, well, there are legal means if it gets ecxessive. However, you are required to be able to weather some verbal punishment because if you come running everytime someone throws harsch words at you, wou will run into a brick wall very soon.
For example: coming here, whining about it is one major step in the wrong direction. You cannot remove people like that and trying is a colossal waste of time, not to mention it makes you look stupid. Don chichote way of stupid. You can however ignore them. (ignore is the way to go, aka i want an ignore function so you can filter them out of chat, see. done. no need for filters or a technical solution that will just fck things up.
So. Grow some thickskin. Ignore insults, then beat the people.
When you ask a stupid question like that, you will of course get an equaly stupid answer.
I came across a lot of this type of behaviour during my time in competitive Quake 3, Counter-Strike and Starcraft. Most of these players are young, immature children, playing games well above their age bracket, who think calling someone 'Gay' is the funniest thing in the world. These are children who have access to an unmonitered internet connection and usually able to play for extended periods of time. The freedom of anonmity is something they abuse because at their age all they have is rules and people to answer to. I call them the 'Halo Kids', for reasons that should be obvious.
However, when playing in strickly competitive ladder matches, I found some of this behaviour comes from mature gamers. It's actually part of a mental strategy to put off your competition, as there are no rules against slandering your enemies - especially in Quake 3. I came across one player in Q3 with "LAWL FAG" bound to a particular key, every time he'd get a kill he'd press the key and flood the screen with it. It became extremely off-putting and made me play worse as I got angrier and angrier each time he'd post it. Annoying, yes, but effective.
Levelheaded - I understand your overall message, but I don't appreciate being called stupid. I've already said that I understand that ignoring is one possible solution. I have been nothing but calm and "somewhat refined". My post isn't about whining and insisting that these players be banned. My post is about a solution that would help cater to your preferences for the type of people you play with. Yes, ignoring is an option. Yes, I could sit there and filter through the chat for the useful data. Additionally, I could play with people who haven't proven themselves to be everything that has been mentioned, if there was a system in place. As kryo said, they're putting one together, so obviously my sentiment isn't as stupid as you imply. Thanks for your input and life advice.
Tell them to stop and that you won't play if they can't behave.
Then really do quit and join another game if they keep acting like morons.
They deserve that "rage quit", hopefully they will learn to to behave if they want people to stay.
Oh but it is, when you realy think about it.
What, short of a mute function and the already avaiable friendslist do you need?
You already have half the tools. You also do not remember the fact that only a fraction of the players online are even trolling just to spite you. Some gamers simply get agravated easily and react childish. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, where incompetence on your teams side is more enraging than on other days. Then there are the days when you seemingly only meet insult spouting brats.
Asking for the banhammer has never worked in any game or situation and thats a fact.
The mute button however... so incredibly imbalanced
"Dodgelist"?
Seriously block chat and maybe don't let those users be on your team (in skirmish) but completely blocking them from being automatched will create so much abuse. In the beginning GPGnet showed the name of your opponent a few seconds before the match started. Guess What happened? People dodged a lot. Even the #1 player at this time did it... There is no need to repeat mistakes already made.
OP why don't you grow up. You ARE on the internet. Expect the unexpected, you're mom is not here sheltering you.
Personally, I love when my opponents are trash talking and whining. I feed off of the tears of my victims.
The more they cry the better I feel, the better I feel the more I rape!
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