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Voice com etiquette
When yelling back simply doesn’t cut it
By Darin Kwilinski
Anonymity is undoubtedly the biggest problem with voice communication in video gaming. Would they pull that crap if you were sitting next to them? I doubt it.
Let’s state the obvious right off the bat: videogames are competitive. Online matches that begin as friendly skirmishes can quickly turn to all-out war in a matter of simple re-spawns. Before you know it, your attention becomes effectively narrowed to fragging that little 12-year-old who stuck you with a plasma grenade.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a little competition. However, everyone I know has had that very same 12-year-old terror in their match suddenly bust out screaming fanatically profane language like he’s tossing out candy at a parade, at least once. More often than not, matches can quickly digress from that healthy fun competition into a constant squealing and nasally stream of “explicative this” and “explicative that.”
It feels partly disheartening to witness this. I feel like when I was their age I only knew the basics when it came to insulting random strangers. While entirely ignorant, some of these kids seem to have perfected genius-level cussing, a possible oxymoron, I know.
How does one control something like that? The kicker is you can’t. It’s as if all one can do is just sit there and take it.
Anonymity is undoubtedly the biggest problem with voice communication in video gaming. Would they pull that crap if you were sitting next to them? I doubt it. You’d sucker-punch them in the ear the first chance you got. Yet they are sitting comfortably in their safe haven, miles and miles away from you.
Who gave these kids the right to act the way they act? No one. But if they can’t get caught, then they can’t get punished. Beating them at their own game feels just as daunting. I don’t have eight hours a day to practice and play “Halo 3.” Do you?
The problem doesn’t end there, though. You, yes you, reader, have probably been guilty of this kind of online trash-talking in one way, shape, or form yourself. I understand that the screaming prepubescent 12-year-old started it, but you are older. On the basis of age alone you should act more wisely and maturely. But in the case that you lose your cool, here are some tips to control the situation.
Do not yell back. These kids do this for hours at a time, nearly every day of the week. You may think you’re clever, or maybe even consider yourself something of a “smart-ass,” but these kids will probably beat you at trash-talking out of sheer, unflinching ignorance. They have nothing to lose by looking stupid over a voice program, so you yelling back, firing your best verbal ammunition, will only add fuel to the fire. In turn, this will only anger the other gamers around you.
Vote to kick them out of the match or mute them. Plenty of games provide this option, and it’s eerily satisfying to imagine that maybe, just maybe, the next room the little abusive brat joins will kick him out too.
Lastly, if you can, beat them at their own game. No, not verbally, but literally beat them at the game you are playing. Who cares if they talk crap? Start chanting “Score board! Score board!” like you used to at high school basketball games. Just let the leader board do the talking. And don’t forget, if you’re playing any of the “Halo” installments: always, always, always remember to teabag the little monster after every frag for extra spite.
Now who’s laughing?
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