Okay, so I’m not that old (I just turned 32 last month). However, after a brief excursion with halo 2 and unreal championship on xbox live last year, I feel like it. I haven’t heard that much unnecessary profanity and insults since my high school locker room.
Nevertheless, I’m getting the itch to play xbox live again. What games if any tend to attract an older, more mature audience? Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six perhaps?
WTF?! You think you’re old at 32?!
–Dave
LOL!!! Um, no.
After my xbox live experience, I feel old. Almost made me feel subconcious, like perhaps I was too old to play video games. :)
I’ve been playing a lot of BF2 Modern Combat on Live, and I haven’t run into any annoying chatter or purposeful teamkilling, which is pretty amazing now that I think about it. Occasionally you’ll even find people working together, although this is often to help people get medals. Somebody asked me to impale myself on barbed wire a few times the other night so that they could heal me and get their medic medal. That’s not as cool as coordinating a flanking manuever on the last flag, but its still friendly.
I’m sure you’ll find smacktards in any game online, so its best to just play the game you enjoy most. Unless that game is Halo 2 which is just totally rife with cheating modders.
I’ve found that both Rainbow Six: Black Arrow and Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike attract more mature players than Halo 2. This is not a great feat, however.
I’m told that Moto GP has a fairly committed and serious group of players, if that’s your kind of thing, as does Forza to a lesser extent.
Also Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s multiplayer is complicated and involved enough that it generally weeds out a lot of the idiots. So much so that there’s not too many people playing it, unfortunately. You actually have to pass an in-game exam to activate the mutliplayer aspect - but it really is worth it.
People over 30 are practically ancient. Put down that controller and get yourself into a nursing home I say.
Does Xbox Live 1 have the whole Gamerzone thing where you self-select into various groups and it uses that in matchmaking? Since I set that up on 360 Live I’ve had a much lower rate of random idiots in the “Recreation” zone.
Basically Live! is as good as your friends list. When you find good people add them to your friends list, eventually you will be playing with mostly friends. The racing games and sports games are easier to do this with because you only need to get with maybe 7 other people tops but still if you at least have friends on your side in like Halo 2 you can make fun of the retards on the other side.
– Xaroc
Is the Xbox360 any better with those seperate categories?
Every once in a while when I’m playing on Live and I happen to get in a race with a couple of youngsters who feel like spouting profanity makes them sound adult, I’ll mention how very UNlike an adult it makes them sound. That’s when you hear the profanity REALLY start! I mean, they’ve had sex with my mother (gee, thanks Mom!), sex with my wife, sex with my sister (if I had one), I’m gay (uhh, how would they know unless they were as well), etc. That’s what the player feedback is all about. If I get a young jerk, I can make it where I won’t get into a game with them. Mostly I just play with folks on my friend’s list though which REALLY REALLY has lots of profanity. I gotta get some new friends…
Philosophist, as others have pointed out, it’s largely a matter of the game. But even then, it’s no guarantee. I’ll never forget hanging out in the lobby waiting for a Steel Battalion game to start while some jackass announced that he was drunk and then regaled us with jokes about Jews. People are jerks.
It helps to play games that don’t really require any interaction. Driving games are great for just jumping in without a microphone. But I hear you, brother. I personally have zero desire to play with or against strangers.
But as Xaroc says, Live is only as good as your friends list. What’s your gamertag? Drop ‘tomchick’ (age 39!) onto your list and keep an eye out for other folks here.
-TomMine is YankeeFan4444. Everyone add me and we’ll hook up (well, you know what I mean). Then you’ll see what some good Southern cussin’ is all about! I keed, I keed (that dog puppet on Conan reference). :lol:
Only play games where you can turn off all forms of interplayer communication.
I’ve been trying to get into an online FPS, but the endless moronic jibber-jabber is repulsive. So I turned it off, and now there is an almost zen peace and quiet to the carnage.
Since wireless controllers and headsets don’t get along in the Xbox 1 world, I’ve never used voice chat.
I don’t think I’m missing a whole lot.
I don’t have a headset for XBox, but it sounds like I’m not missing much. I haven’t yet been able to hear the voice comms in game. Does this require a headset? Anyway, I can’t imagine what my wife would think if she heard some squeaky kid’s voice spewing vitrolic coming out of the TV.
Anyway, sometimes it’s funny because I’m the only one without a headset in games. Everyone will run one way in a map and I’ll run the other. D’oh!
I think the amount of smacktards you meet is inflated when you read messageboards. Yes, there are a bunch, but not so many that using the headset is a waste of time. Even the smacktards want to win. If you’re in a team game, you’re losing and you can provide them with a better strategy, they will listen and they will appreciate your help.
I usually play with the headset on in any Live game. With Rainbow Six: Lockdown, I just made a lot of jokes about how much my team sucked and me and my sucky teammates had a good time. :)
Plus, without a headset, you could never have enjoyed Bitterman getting all pissed off in Halo 2. GODDAMMI… thunk …and he’s a real good player too. :)
–Dave
Rainbow Six tended to be a bit better than Halo2 as I remember it as far as number of kids playing…
I solved the issue by mostly only playing with some old college friends and others I know. Also recently joined a board that is dedicated to more mature gamers, for Halo2 inparticular.
The bottom line with the shit-talkers is to simply serve up some pwnage and listen to them quickly clam up.
–Dave
Shit-talkers deserve to play alone. Work on that friends list and quickly forget that they exist.