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Why Online Gaming Isn't As Fun As It Should Be
Thanks to GameSpot for their 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing why online gaming can often be more frustrating than fun. The columnist finds two main reasons for frustration - firstly: "I don't like getting trounced by someone who is either flat-out, hands-down better at a game than I am or has simply invested many more hours in getting good at the game than I have." He also has issues with impolite players: "I think online gaming brings out some really despicable behavior in people, which I don't particularly mind but that I certainly don't like." Some possible solutions are mentioned, such as "effective player-matching services", but what can and should be done to make playing online a delight?
Well, you're always going to have jerks, whether online or in real life - there isn't much you can do about that except find a group of polite people with whom you have a good game. Hopefully that group of people will also have a comparable level of play and one won't get trounced by the opposition. If they are much better hopefully they'll teach you a trick or two and help you improve your game. Those people may be few and far between, but they're out there.
Futher, if the main point of playing is merely to enjoy the game, does it really matter if you occasionally run into people who are very good at the game? One can't win every time they play, can they? And if everybody is beating you then maybe you just need to practice more. To me the point of playing online is for the comraderie and the competition - the competition adds another level of excitement to the game. It's fun when I do well and when I don't do well it compels me to try harder.
By "you" I mean you in the general sense.
2. Every game needs to have anti-cheating devices that are updated regularly. This not only helps stop cheating, but shuts people up who think they're really good, get their butts kicked and then accuse others of cheating.
3. Easy muting. Many of us have little to no interest in seeing strings of expletives rendered in leetspeak OR plain English. It should take no more than two keystrokes to set someone to /ignore.
3.5. Easy kicking. It should be easy in any game to vote someone off the server, and said vote should result in at least a two-hour ban on that IP returning to the game.
4. Display of average ping rates at server select. In other words, if I'm pinging a game at 80 ms, I'd rather not go into a game where the average ping of the players is 300 or 10. There could even be a feature (server-optional) that only allows people to join whose pings are within a certain percentage of the current average. While I'm sure there are some people who enjoy being the LPB, others get bored if the game's design allows that person to more easily dominate.
Those are the top 4-1/2 off the top of my head.
There are way too many whiny trolling kids on fully public servers, try to find clan servers that are open to public use as they tend to be more actively administrated and have house rules. Be polite with the server admins and make sure you understand the rules of the community. Most admins will listen to input and usually the trolls and lamers find themselves banned pretty quick. There are communities for all types, from no profanities allowed to no racist/sexist talk to everything goes, find one you like and lurk around to try to get an idea of what it's about before approaching admins with issues.
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
Like the author of the article, I tend to get my arse kicked when I play online. But on the other hand, if I have a few mates over with their machines and we have a go at my favourite games on the LAN, I tend to kick arse. It's hard to find a combination of people to play against where I'm vaguely in the same ballpark skill wise, which is why I tend to just play against the bots in UT and crank their skill up if I'm starting to beat them too easily.
If your first FPS game was UT, then no wonder you were getting trounced by elite players. Many of those fools have been owning n00bs since Doom added multiplayer. So count the years from then, let's see how many games as well: Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2, ... and finally we get to UT and Q3's time period. They've simply been playing a lot longer than 3 years-- compared to them you are still a newbie.
I used to play games online on a regular basis, starting with QuakeWorld. Hell, I remember when GameSpy was JUST for Quake. Now I'll rarely play anything online if it's not a game with ONLY friends.
Back then, it was FUN. A little less fun when you lost, but then, losing BADLY in the team-based mods (mostly Team Fortress, for me) wasn't TERRIBLY common, because people would even up the teams either on their own, or with only a little bit of prodding. Even when you DID lose, the winner was usually very gracious about it. The amount of trash talking was generally pretty low. A little bit of boasting and bragging at times, but not with every kill, or even every win.... and almost no cheating accusations.
The same could be said of Half-Life at first. It wasn't until CounterStrike became huge that things REALLY started to go down hill.
As for strategy games, the last time I seriously played any of them online with the public at large (and not just with friends) was the early days of Starcraft, before everyone stopped playing any map that wasn't either "Big Game Hunters" or one of it's variants.
Warcraft 3 does a pretty good job with skill matching (my record is somewhere around 60% wins, and unless you're at the very top or very bottom of the rankings should level out around 50% for each ideally), but the trash talking and insults are still FAR too prevalent for it to be enjoyable.
Skill matching like in Warcraft 3 can work for some, but not all games, but until there's a consistant and reliable way to keep the level of trash talking morons out of the game (don't say server admins - they can't be there ALL the time, and with many games can't monitor everything) online gaming will just keep getting worse and worse.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
if the only people you play against are approximately equal in skill level with you, how are any of you going to ever get better?
Pet peeve: people who think that the amount of fun you have in a game must be directly proportional to how good you are at the game. Why should I have to devote myself to getting better at a game in order to have fun?
I'm a moderately good chess player. I enjoy playing chess. It's fun. I could be a hell of a lot better if I were to take the game more seriously, but I want the game to be fun, not a job.
I'm a poor Q3 player. But I enjoy playing regardless, even if I usually do wind up in the lower half of the scores at local LANfests.
Nobody should have to get better at a game as a prerequisite for having fun.
Period.
And people who don't understand this simply don't understand the most important thing about game design. Namely--it's not whether you win or lose, or how skilled or unskilled you are. It's about fun. Everything else is just candy.
They're not talking about MMORPGs. Back before everquest, there used to be games that you could play online for free.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
This guy needs to grow a backbone; if he wants a game where completely new players have a fair shot against experienced ones, he should go into the alley behind where he works and shoot dice. Games of skill and strategy are always going to reward those who have spent more time studying the game. A ranking system works nicely when communities are small and individuals know one another, but in the largely anonymous online communities that form around your average game, the ranking system breaks down as griefers enter the system.
A prime example of griefing in this fashion is the latest batch of RTS's: C&C Generals and Warcraft 3. Both games have a tiering system, and both systems are liberally abused by individuals who prop up their egos by tearing down the newbies. Just sit down, find a game you won't get sick of in a month, and play.
My personal recommendation for this is Go. Simple rules, simple play, a polite online community and nobody's marketing department is promoting it.
Weapons of Mass Analysis
You'd think this same spirit of competition would draw me right into competitive online games like Counter-Strike or Warcraft III. And, to some extent, it does. But for all the hours I've spent playing shooters and real-time strategy games over the years, and despite how authoritative I try to be about these types of games, I know full well that I'm simply nowhere near as good at them as a lot of people are out there. It would be easy for me to make excuses about how I don't have as much time as some people to play Counter-Strike for eight hours a day, or whatever. But I'll admit it straight-up: Even if I did do nothing but play Counter-Strike (or insert_game_here), I'm quite sure I'd never have the skills to be considered a truly competitive player. Which is fine.
This isn't so much a problem with online games as it is with the types of games that are played online. Awhile ago I used to play Garou: Mark of the Wolves, a fighting game for the NeoGeo, on MAME w/Kaillera online. Yeah, I got my ass kicked a lot, but in about a month I was as good as most of the better players on the servers from North America, Europe, and Asia. They kicked my ass, but I learned from the ass kicking that I got. When some guy started really stomping on me with Hotaru Futaba, I picked Hotaru and kept playing against him until I knew the character roughly as well as he did, and my next opponent got royally stomped by my Hotaru.
Warcraft III does not play like this. Warcraft III obscures what the enemy is doing, encourages absolute silence aside from "gl hf" and "gg", and only shows you the absolute crux of the enemy's larger strategy. The only way to learn the game is to either observe games, watch replays, or spend hours being taught by someone. In other words, the absolute WORST way to learn the game is by actually playing it. That's the worst type of online game for anyone but dedicated fans of the genre, but it seems to be the prevailing trend in online games. Counter-Strike, Tribes, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein work pretty much the same way. When someone shoots you in the head from two hundred feet away, you haven't learned anything. You've gotten your ass kicked, but haven't learned from it, and that means you will probably get your ass kicked again in the same way a couple minutes from now because you don't understand the mechanics of your ass-kicking. Again, the game encourages learning the tricks of the game by reading websites and FAQs, observing games, etcetera... everything but playing the game.
These styles of play are completely contrary to the refined genres of multiplayer arcade games. Arcades have fighting games that let you learn from your opponent and dancing games that allow you to see your opponent's physical technique as he kicks your ass, but explicitly restricts games like light gun shooters and four player brawlers (like TMNT or X-Men) to cooperative human vs. computer play. This is because they simply realized that everything that can be multiplayer should be, but that not every type of game is cut out for it. The PC industry hasn't really caught onto that yet, but you can't really blame them when most of the games that are really conducive to competitive multiplayer would require peripherals like gamepads, dance pads, and other things that guarantee that you won't sell more than five copies of your PC game.
I don't understand his point about people acting like assholes online, though. If some thirteen year old typing "0WN3D!!!!!" in Counter-Strike really bothers you that much, I suggest that you find a cave in the woods to hide in, because someone honking their horn at you on the freeway just might give you a heart attack. It's true that there's a certain detachment from natural social behavior when you're online, but for most of us it works both ways. Someone mocking you online isn't like a real person standing next to you harassing you. It's just background noise. It's no different than the sound of cars and people passing by as you play a game of basketball outside. There
That's the mentality that is ruining online games for people. The fact that no matter how good you get people will still consider you a "Newbie" because you can't devote your entire life to playing those games.
Gotta love games like Counterstrike and Team Fortress which have gameplay that stresses the importance of team play filled with people who are lone guns. Can you imagine a real life counter terrorism squad running around trying to outdo each other, every member of the team having a sniper riffle, occasionally shooting their own teammates in the back and having a good old chuckle about it back at the base?
How we know is more important than what we know.
These problems do not come up as much over there, partly because it is a closed server, only for paying subscribers (10$/month with free game download), but also because of the in game support provided. There are training classes for new players to teach them the basics and rooms limited by in game rank so you can fight players of a similar skill level. There is also good in game monitoring to remove anyone who is ruining the game for others plus its easy to gag anyone if there are no sysops/admins about. All this and up to 200 people dogifghting in a room make for a good online game.
Game info here
The most important thing, however, is to find a handfull of servers and stick with them. Back in the Quake 1 days, there was a server called quake.nye.net that ran a DeathMatch + Mod that added a whole bunch of crazy things to the game like grappling hooks and homing missles. However, I stuck around, and I soon came to be friends with a lot of the other server regulars, such as people from the DMPC clan (I stil don't know how BattleCruiser got so good...), and almost every time I joined that server, I knew I was in for a good time. (And by the way, my nickname was KiLlJoY, if anyone was on that server too).
Most in game server browsers have a favorites list. Gamespy does too. Shop around, and find a server that contians people that you like playing with. Then hang onto that server for dear life. Your online experience will get much better if you become a regular at a server.
Also, Xbox Live has a number of awesome features that can halp you weed out the bad players. When you first get the game, shop around on different servers. Once you find a game that you enjoy playing in, send friend requests to all the cool and kickass players that you have fun playing with (since servers are rarely around for more than a few hours at a time), and whenever you see them online, join them or invite them. The friends list is a gift from god, and in my opinion is one of the best features of Xbox Live.
Hopefully, my few rambling paragraphs has some insight. May your games be happier and more fun.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
I've found that I really dislike online gaming, even when it's a genre I'm really good at. I love RPGs and I'm not a horrible shot in Counter-Strike. However, there are issues at stake.
First off is the situation in which all the little kids are online and being obnoxious. You know (and I hope a gaming service takes the hint), I'd be willing to spring a couple of bucks a month just to make sure that if some jerk comes on and is abusive, he gets nailed and banned. I don't mean laughing or when someone sucks saying they suck. I mean really being obnoxious about it. If people had to link their real life personality with online games they might think twice.
The other issue is how some of these games are really just twitch and shoot. No real-life anything. The "bull-rush each game until you finally get the right way" approach sucks. In reality, you die, you're dead. Also head shots don't always kill, despite some cheap games that think that. Yeah, you can incapacitate someone, but good grief, it'll usually take another shot or two to do them off. If their buddy can snag and patch them, well, they've learned. Any game that improve skill based on not just your twitch-and-shoot capability, but also survivability would be good.
Maybe it's just me, but a frag-fest isn't all that interesting. It was cool when I was, um, 15. Now I'm far more interesting in using good tactics and lining up a good shot.
(I love taking out snipers by returning fire with a pistol.)
In so far as RPGs go, someone should really build in some social repercussions. Yeah, you can slaughter all the villagers, but someone's bound to notice and try to arrest or kill you. Even in pen-and-paper RPGs, players seem to think they'll get away with everything forever. It doesn't occur to them that eventually someone will try to poision them, kill them in their sleep, or otherwise.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
Some people call it camping, I call it defence. Granted, I havent played CTF hardcore since Quake 1 CTF, but the same deal applies.
The only real camping was respawn camping, otherwise its defense.
Aside from that MMORPGs are completely fair because even a novice can level cap eventually, these games are less RL skill and more even in nature. Also I enjoy the fact that their are griefers in MMORPGs, it helps me RP because there would be jerks if you actually lived on Tatooine too.
Trust Your Technolust
Some possible solutions are mentioned, such as "effective player-matching services", but what can and should be done to make playing online a delight?
It's actually hard to believe there is not a good system in place for ranking... it would make the games fun, too, assuming you didn't have assholes joining lower ranks to clean up on the n00bs.
I'm an OK FPS player. At my college, I was one of the better people on campus, and could routinely trounce everyone I know (it's way more satisfying to frag someone you know from down the hall) but when I went online, I sucked horribly.
These games are NOT fun when you are loosing constantly. I've quit games out of frustration before because I'll spend 30 minutes just getting killed before I can even grab a descent weapon. In fact, I rarely, if ever, play games like this anymore.
A ranking system would get me back into them, but only if it's built in. I've become a casual gamer, and it's not worth it to me to have to set up a 3rd party program to play ranked games. I want it to be a standard part of the game, automatic.
It could make things really, really fun this way.
Or, I'll just play Uru.
How about in-game mechanisms like:
a) Award 1.0 frags for killing a player of the same ranking of you. Award more for killing someone better than you. Award less for killing someone not as highly-ranked as you. Below a certain point, the reward for killing a player actually goes negative - lose points for killing newbs (unless you are a newb)
b) Rewarding highly-ranked players if they 'rescue' a newbie by killing any other highly-ranked players who were attacking the newb. (hmmm. perhaps not much window of opportunity for anyone to earn this one)
For extra incentive, 'reward' and 'punish' don't have to be restricted to points/frags. They could involve the gaining of powerups or powerdowns. (eg. Lose the use of a weapon? Slow running?)
...causing all the problems.
"He also has issues with impolite players"
Cause I've never met a football player who was rude because he thaught he was better than me.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
I've played Diablo online alot, and I've played fighting games in the arcade alot. I really didn't enjoy Diablo much, but I enjoy the arcade games immensely. In Diablo, it took me THREE WEEKS to find a single game with 3 players that I could trust not to shoot me in the back. Shooting someone in the back IS NOT CHALLENGING. Anyone that says it is needs to be mugged. In real life.
Now, at the arcade, it's a fair shake. You have all the tools he has, and you're playing by the same rule book. That's fun. If you give me a fair shake, I'll happily lose 10 times in a row just because there's the chance that I can beat someone much better than I have. Hell, I managed to play Duc at MvC2 during E3 one year. Yeah, I got wasted. But it was fun. (he perfected the guy I went with).
One thing that WASN'T fun, even though it was a fair shake was when I was trying out a networked NASCAR Heat game, iirc it was for the xBox. I don't know if the other players thought that I was a computer opponent or what, as I was the one taking a perfect racing line and easily catching up and passing. But every time I got in the lead, one of the other players would send me into the wall in a suicidal move like thier car was a Patriot Missle and I was a SCUD. I've played the same game on a PC with friends and it's always fun though. We're both going for it.
So the big thing to make it fun is for both players to enter the game with the same intent, and playing by the same rules. That makes it fun. When the other player has a big sword of bashing +9999999999 and is out to kill another player then take off, it's not fun.
How can this be forced? In some games it's simple, when you create a game in a RPG/action/adventure game, have the ability to turn PvP OFF.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard