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Gaming With Strangers

Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 10:15 am

Blog, Features

Years ago when online gaming was “the future” I poo-pooed it as an excuse for developers to give up on AI. If multiplayer games could be filled with real people there would be no need to create more human-like bots. After all when playing with strangers is there really much of a difference between that and shooting at computer controlled players?

Yes, I was wrong. There is most certainly a difference. Even without voice chat there is still something psychological about knowing there is a person on the end of your gunfire. Taking someone out is far more satisfying in Burnout knowing that someone out there is yelling at their TV. In fact Burnout Paradise actively encourages the multiplayer rivalry.

Once voice chat is thrown into the mix gaming with strangers can be a very mixed bag. I have “met” some really nice people playing online who are happy to chat away and even give good advice on how to play… Then there are “those” people. I don’t think I have to give examples everyone has heard racist, homophobic, foul-mouthed rants from users hiding behind a gamer name. Anonymity seems to turn some people into really unlikeable characters.

I remember feeling out right cheated by bots in Perfect Dark as their ridiculous accuracy and perfect knowledge of your situation left you ripped to shreds. When someone out foxes you on Call of Duty you know it was probably pure skill or dumb luck that was your demise. Some games think “good” AI is being hard for hard’s sake: the cheating Pro Evolution Soccer computer springs to mind.

If you look at playing with strangers through my old cynical eyes the idea can be stretched further. Instead of just replacing bots perhaps actual enemies in a single player campaign could become human controlled. It is something that Left 4 Dead is going to attempt by allowing players to attack the 4 survivors as the zombies. Convincing gamers to play as enemies in a non death-match capacity could be tricky and is maybe more of a gimmick than it is the future. Again this could all be seen as a laziness with regards to AI development.

As I said there are “those” people out there who you would rather not play against, but when you do find someone fun to play with it makes it all worth while. If you are playing a game online with strangers you know immediately you at least have that game and probable gaming in common. It allows you to meet people you would otherwise never speak to, be they from another part of the world or completely different peer group.

Anything that allows me to make new friends and talk to new people can’t be a bad thing. Now how to make sure everyone plays nice and get rid of the low-lives. Once we can properly punish people end discourage bad behaviour gaming with strangers could really go mainstream.

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3.7 / 5 (3 votes)

6 Comments For This Post

  1. proog Says:

    Some people really shouldn’t be allowed to own a mic. Fortunately, I think that the gamers behaving badly are in greater numbers on Xbox Live than on PSN, probably because the 360 comes with a headset for everyone so the kids can yell at people too, rather than the separate Bluetooth headset purchase for the PS3. This might encourage people who actually want to chat and behave properly to get a headset instead of it being available for all the screaming kids. Then again, I feel there’s very little good voice chat that works, either because people don’t own a headset or because their headset mic is so shitty that you can’t understand a word they’re saying. Friendly, cooperative talk is nice and should by all means be encouraged.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    fredrikpedersen Says:

    We’ll let’s hope the headset gets bundled in more games than just SOCOM.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    fredrikpedersen Says:

    *Well

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    cc_star Says:

    Tom Clancy’s marvellous looking End War

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Los Havros Says:

    I really enjoy competitive play. Most fun I’ve had so far online? Warhawk, probably.

    What do I hate about online play? Kids screaming rubbish through their mics and campers.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Metalgsean Says:

    The Playstationeye works as a very good mic in most games, burnout tends to be the highest quality. It is good not having to turn anything on or whack anything in your ear, although you do have to adjust output volume on some games as the viop comes from the tv rather than going direct to your ear.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  2. fredrikpedersen Says:

    I hate when one player in Burnout just doesnt want to take the challenges, and instead he block’s the ramp we’re sUpposed to hit. Annoying little kids.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  3. dairylee Says:

    Personally I think TF2 and CS:S get the moderation spot on. With the way the servers are ran it’s up to the admins to decide what goes on the server. So once you find a server that is run by mature like minded people (admittedly hard on CS:S) then the experience is usually a lot better.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Julzzey Says:

    yeah i think that CS:S and TF2 and basically all ‘Valve’ Games are really good when it comes to online chat how u can mute anyone even an admin an there are lots of servers which are run by systems like internode which is a really good server list im not advertising and i dont work for them or anything but lookout ffor the internode servers if ur on those

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  4. glennpfc Says:

    I look forward to the day I can chose to have my matchmaking based on personal profiles and not just on gamer skill…maybe then I will play nicer people online.. if you are a nice person though, feel free to add me on PSN: glennpfc

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  5. gazo69 Says:

    Unfortunately, this world is made up of, o i’d say 90% DICKHEADS! The best thing we can hope for in all games is the option to mute, and/or the option to kick the DICKHEADS out. AMEN

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    artefx Says:

    That’s all I seem to do in Burnout. Kicking people who don’t wanna do the challenges. Its the single most annoying thing imo.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Metalgsean Says:

    Tell me about it, i got all Burnout tropheys apart from the 10 freeburn and 10 timed challenges because everyone just cocks about, drives me mad!!

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    gazo69 Says:

    Add me guys, i love doing the chalanges. :)

    psn id: gazo69

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Metalgsean Says:

    I will do, im Naes21 on PSN

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    GamerRiley Says:

    Call of Duty 4 has to be the worst for dickheads. I thought these guys just loited outside Tesco Express all night? Apparently not there all playing COD4

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Shadow0410 Says:

    Yeah sadly they all noticed that they could stay warm at home and still hurl abuse around at random people with no real risk to themselves. I find myself muting more people in CoD4 than I do shooting them sometimes.

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  6. Severn2j Says:

    I only use my headset to talk with friends (the ones I have IRL) during ganmes.. 99% of the time, if Im playing against strangers I dont tend to say anything (unless spoken to, of course).

    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

4 Trackbacks For This Post

  1. Gaming With Strangers | Games Says:

    [...] Even without voice chat there is still something psychological about knowing there is a perso Check out the source Blogs about [...]

  2. GoNintendo » Blog Archive » Gaming With Strangers- What are you waiting for? Says:

    [...] Article here [...]

  3. Gaming With Strangers | Games Blog Says:

    [...] Article here [...]

  4. Links For The Day « Malstrom’s Articles News Says:

    [...] Gaming With Strangers- This author writes that he enjoyed playing with strangers once voice chat became common. But he doesn’t like ‘those’ people that are annoying (who does?). My experience has been the opposite. Almost all of my online gaming is exclusive to strangers or strangers that have turned into friends. I never, ever, play with real life people. The reason why is that people are very different on the Internet then they are in real life. Most real life people I know sound like noobs on the Internet. Also, I have the personality of ‘trying to win’. When I play a RTS or MMORPG, my focus is on winning. If I lose, I watch replays on how I died. When I win, I watch replays of my glorious victory and try to guess what the opponent was thinking as I slaughtered him. I *love* team games in RTS. However, I demand the same consistent dedication from my teammates. My real life friends don’t have that dedication. They simply are surprised how fast they are blown away on the Internet, and I am shaking my head. Gaming skills decline when you are older and have a life. However, gaming skills take a severe drop downward once you get married. Once you have a kid, your gaming skills go into ‘retard mode’. All my real life friends have kids so they lack that competitive drive. In MMORPGs, I have tried both real life and strangers through various servers and characters in WoW. Real life people were better to do RAIDs but I realized that I never liked playing online with real life people. I prefer the more spontaneous stranger approach. It is really fun to just meet someone and become friends when your game personalities match. When WoW came out, I ended up being a buddy to a player in Russia (even though Russia didn’t get the game until much, much later). However, my online playing was before voice chat became popular. I *despise* voice chat as I despise telephones. Voice chat, to me, seems girly as if I have somehow become a fourteen year old girl chatting over the phone for hours about something irrelevant (which is what MMORPG is). I prefer text perhaps due to my ultra-fast typing skills. In all cases, I choose text over voice chat and this, hilariously, annoys some people. Voice chat in a MMORPG makes me feel I am in some bizzarro hotline that has a video game. This might be why I like the Wii Chat speaker. It doesn’t remind me of a stupid telephone but more of a room to room communication. [...]

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