So there’s some douchebag in your game of Counterstrike, or Left 4 Dead, or Call of Duty 4, or TF2, and he’s being an asshole. Calling people fags, threatening physical harm, you know, the usual Xbox Live stuff.
What do you do? What’s an effective way to deal with that person?
Do you bait them back, troll them, lead them into ever-increasing spirals of idiocy and one-upsmanship? Do you disengage, maybe talk shit to everyone else in the server?
What’s a good way to shut that person down, maybe get everyone in the server to say, ‘hey, that guy IS an asshole, and should shut up’? Or IS there a good way to do that?
I personally just bail out and report, as BlueJackalope points out. Why waste time plotting the perfect revenge, when the ‘living well’ option would be to just forget about them and find better people to play with?
A guy on another forum tracked the IP of some of the worst cases he experienced (don’t ask me how, I don’t know shit about computers), got their number and phoned them. He calmly explained his concern over their threats of violence and clearly racist and homophobic outbursts, and asked if it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring his concerns to the attention of their parents/employer/professor. As I recall, he actually made some of them cry.
Mute, report, vote-kick if possible. [Even if the vote fails, it might make the point to the offender that he needs to grow the hell up. Thanks, L4D!] Worst-case scenario is switch servers, though I don’t bother anymore with online games that don’t give you some recourse for dealing with assholes.
Our group just used to mute and report, but admittedly, like Tromik, since party chat was introduced, we haven’t heard anyone outside our own group. Which does make me wonder: do the people who end up on our team in CoD:WaW find us extremely annoying for being in a group so that we can’t hear them and they can’t hear us? Or are they fine with it?
I mostly agree with the “mute and report” people. But sometimes that just isn’t satisfying enough. If you understand that there is almost no way to get a person to realize they are an asshole on Xbox live, you can occasionally have some fun with people who are jerks, and sometimes that is what I, at least, need. I used to get very annoyed at people de-leveling in Halo 2 (intentionally losing to lower their rank so they could play with sucky people and kick their asses), so I’d pretend I thought they were really bad, and helpfully explain how to play, and give them constructive criticism, in a really cheery voice. Sometimes it made them mad enough that they’d start really playing (hopefully too late to win because they were usually better than me), but mostly it just cheered me and my friends up. Sometimes I would accuse people of forms of cheating that don’t exist (spawn-lagging, for example). And a well timed “That’s ok, I f*cked your mother” never fails to make me happy. These don’t really make a difference, they are more raging against the dying of the light. But I think that’s important sometimes.
Bwahahaha, this thread took a interesting turn. Our previous dog, Hudson, used to lay out on the roof of his dog house on the hottest days, baking his brain.
Having been on the other side of this recently the answer is that it depends. If you’re happy enough to get on with the game in silence then that’s cool. But it can be really really frustrating as has happened me a few times in L4D recently if somehow I don’t telepathically know what the team is doing and end up in the wrong spot, like in the line of fire or trailing too far behind. Or, heaven forbid, if one of the group gets pinned by a hunter and I’m nearby but haven’t noticed and can’t hear him ask for help. Groups tend to kick you straight away for any one of these transgressions and it’s just so frustrating when that happens.
Usually if somone is being an idiot, and idiots in the game are easy to make fun of, and if other people in the server think he is being a dick… they will appreciate your griefing and join in, or help make fun of the guy.
One of the best ways to deal with them (aside from muting) is to ignore… and they will shut up. They are only doing it to be funny/popular or to get a rise out of people. If they aren’t making someone angry they aren’t getting what they want and they will stop wasting their efforts.
As a grumpy old fart when it comes to gaming, being called names is the least of my gripes. Quite frankly, the high-pitched shirek of a pre-teen is far more unnerving than being called a jewfaggottapir (clearly, the poor sod with the foul mouth is either mentally disabled or has never been laid). Using VOIP before you’ve gone through puperty should be punishable by death. Or at least they should have their vocal cords surgically removed.
The only game I’ve played online to any extent is Battlefield 2. The horde of selfish assholes is one thing. At least their “me first, fuck you” attitude has it’s own douchebaggish logic. But the number of people who have ten times the gaming hours and experience points that I have, yet don’t understand even the most fundamental mechanics of the game is simply mindboggling.
I guess I’m just too old and impatient to deal with this shit.
There is a single golden rule of good multiplayer gaming: Know thine playmate. With a little bit of effort you can usually find informal gaming clans that don’t require you to play for 40 hours a week and will patiently bear with your noobishness, their only requirement being that you don’t act like a complete fucktard. Jump on a server with a random bunch of people and all bets are off.
Yep, dealing with assholes on servers is pretty much a matter of accepting you can’t do much about them. Play games that let you mute people. Find other servers. Kickvote if you can and think that the rest of the server is equally annoyed. Trying to debate with or start a flame war with what could be a 12-year-old on the other side is pointless.
I don’t mean to bag on you, Neng, but you’re part of the problem (as are Jon and Aeon). The best way to deal with these people is to not engage them. 99% of the assholes online are being disruptive because they want attention. This is true of multiplayer servers, forums, and comments sections. When you give it to them and further disrupt the experience of everyone else around, you’re just compounding the problem and encouraging the assholes to continue.
