March 3, 2009

• Playing other people online on a video game console, has got to be one of the best things to happen in gaming this past decade. For years, it's always been a PC only thing, but then the Dreamcast started online competitive gaming on a console with just a 56k modem, which paved the way for current game consoles fully embracing it (except for the Wii). The First Person Shooter genre is ofcourse the one that supports online competition the most, but for me it's the fighting game genre that I prefer for my online battles. Throughout the years I've played online with fighting games like Capcom Vs SNK 2, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, and Virtua Fighter V, but now with the release of Street Fighter IV that's where most of my time is spent. The issue about online competition however is that it's unavoidably a world wide experience, which means that you'll meet other gamers from all over the world, who are either nice people or those who aren't so nice. The stereotype is that the majority of people online are a bunch of deucebags and jerks hiding behind the anonymity of the internet, and quite possibly some 13 year old boy. Sometimes it's preferable to just play with people you know, because it can be aggravating meeting a-holes out there.

  Recently, after what I thought was a pretty good competitive match online on Street Fighter IV, I decided to send a message to the other guy. This is how it went...

  optimum5 (me) : "nice"
  THELONEWEREWOLF (the other guy) : "NICE? SO U WANT ME 2 KICK YOUR ASS AGAIN?"
  optimum5 : "lol dude I was giving you a compliment idiot lol"
  THELONEWEREWOLF : "IDIOT?!" *trash talk censored for this blog post*
  optimum5 : "=P"

  Seriously now, that's the kind of conversation that happens more often than it should online. The all caps thing is something the guy did too, which I decided to keep here for show. Luckily there's a function "Avoid This Player" and "Block Communications" available for use on xbox LIVE, which I unsurprisingly applied to Mr. THELONEWEREWOLF dude, right after my smiley. I swear, people like him is what causes people like me to think twice about bothering to communicate with people online. Ofcourse there have been some pretty cool people I've met through xbox LIVE, all the way from the East Coast of the USA, to the UK, South America, and even Japan. Online gaming may not be perfect in the sense of a great social experience, but at least it exists.

  • 8:28 am
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