Playing Nice: Getting Etiquette Back in the Game World
Competition is great and all, but these days, you might have to admit that there’s a lack of sportsmanship in video games. If you’ve seen those videos on the internet of teenagers swearing at their XBox for winning or losing a game, or that flash animation based on an Onyxia wipe where the raid leader just swore at his entire team, then you probably have a good idea of what’s going on.
Over at the 2Old2Play website, Chemterror discusses how he thinks more mature gamers (not necessarily older ones) can be beneficial in stemming the tide of rudeness coming out of the mouths of gamers, young and old. The basic solution? Getting parents and other sorts of mature gamers involved in keeping the young ones from going completely nuts during a bout of Halo 2 (or in an MMO or Xbox Live match).
For instance, he cites this one example of a father leading his son and his son’s friends to beating other experienced teams:
These guys had obviously practiced together quite a bit, and used great teamwork in soundly thumping my team and me. I could tell this parent was involved in what his kid was doing, instead of a) totally ignoring his son b) telling his son that video games would rot his brain, or c) “acting” like he was interested in his son’s hobby. Not once did these guys use any foul language, unless you count “noob” as a four-letter word.
The other part of the solution is for responsible gamers to become role models rather than hypocrites. Sure, it might take a bit of role-playing to suppress the urge to swear, but if you can influence even one other person to act more civilized in his killing and dying, then it becomes a step forward for all of gamerkind.
Besides, wouldn’t seeing kids playing politely and sharing strategies look better for gaming’s reputation than having people testify against video games and watching our backs against an irate Florida lawyer? What do you think?
Via 2Old2Play
Competition is great and all, but these days, you might have to admit that there’s a lack of sportsmanship in video games. If you’ve seen those videos on the internet of teenagers swearing at their XBox for winning or losing a game, or that flash animation based on an Onyxia wipe where the raid leader just swore at his entire team, then you probably have a good idea of what’s going on.
Over at the 2Old2Play website, Chemterror discusses how he thinks more mature gamers (not necessarily older ones) can be beneficial in stemming the tide of rudeness coming out of the mouths of gamers, young and old. The basic solution? Getting parents and other sorts of mature gamers involved in keeping the young ones from going completely nuts during a bout of Halo 2 (or in an MMO or Xbox Live match).
For instance, he cites this one example of a father leading his son and his son’s friends to beating other experienced teams:
These guys had obviously practiced together quite a bit, and used great teamwork in soundly thumping my team and me. I could tell this parent was involved in what his kid was doing, instead of a) totally ignoring his son b) telling his son that video games would rot his brain, or c) “acting” like he was interested in his son’s hobby. Not once did these guys use any foul language, unless you count “noob” as a four-letter word.
The other part of the solution is for responsible gamers to become role models rather than hypocrites. Sure, it might take a bit of role-playing to suppress the urge to swear, but if you can influence even one other person to act more civilized in his killing and dying, then it becomes a step forward for all of gamerkind.
Besides, wouldn’t seeing kids playing politely and sharing strategies look better for gaming’s reputation than having people testify against video games and watching our backs against an irate Florida lawyer? What do you think?
Via 2Old2Play
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