Slashdot Mirror
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?
That's ok I like them too and always read all the Gamespotting columns. Check out Alex Navaro's column this week...he is just learning the ways of Microsoft it seems.
But I trendily digress, the article is very true. I picked up Unreal Tournament back in early 2000 and it was my first foray in the online world. It was fun being a newbie playing on Heat.net but soon that went belly up and I had to switch to the in-game server browser. Boy was I in for a surprise with the raw talent at playing UT those guys had! You would think playing everyday for hours on end for many years and you might be able to compete.
Nope. After playing for 3 years I finally gave the game up because I still couldn't compete with the 'elite' guys. Those guys are so insane and rightly called freaks.
You don't even need to have any kind of stats or calculations to do skill matching.
You know on single player games, where you choose your difficulty? Why not just look for "newbie", "intermediate", or "pro" games?
If someone joins a newbie server and is whupping ass on everyone, have the game prompt the newbies on whether or not they want to kick the person who is kicking ass. If he's beating on them that bad he should be on a different server or skill level anyway.
Server admins could set their servers to whatever level they want to cater to, or let the server advertise itself everywhere and the first player to join causes it to settle on that player's skill level until it's empty again.
Of course it's not perfect, but it would be an easy implementation and should help. Finding games of people about your skill level should be convenient and easy, and why have to wait for X number of games for the ranking system to figure out where you should be, or spend your time playing hardcore players who started new accounts to clear their records? Just tell the game what you want...
The first online game I played was Doom (with a hack called, I think, Doomgate). It was amazing to us at the time. Can you imagine - playing online with people in other countries!
It was a special experience, and those that played treated it with respect. Some of the first custom maps people made for Doom online play had built-in "typing rooms". If you wanted to talk to your opponents, you popped in there. The walls had a custom texture that said something like "TYPING ROOM - NO KILL ZONE", and it was considered cheating if you hurt anyone in there.
I picture the first propeller-driven biplane aircraft pilots waving at each other in a gentlemanly fashion - when they only dropped bombs on enemy troops, before they strapped a machinegun on the front and started shooting at each other.
For me, online play has gone horribly wrong since then. The floodgates opened, the masses want a jet-fighter with guided nuclear missiles to smash into the bleeding skulls of their enemies. Death-In-A-Box, internet play assumed. Sign Up And Kill Shit. If you're not typing to taunt, go play on IRC. I hate it. I can't play Quake3, Unreal Tournament or Battlefield 1942 online anymore.
Planetside is the closest yet in getting back to that early sensation of getting to know the people I was playing with. Unfortunately it's also a complete failure due to the masses of bugs, faction inbalance (should have 2 sides, not 3), broken rewards system (there's no incentive to defend). There's also a tremendous difficulty in finding other players due to Star Wars Galaxies sucking out the population (and I'm not following them because I prefer my games to not be turn-based, thanks).
Here's hoping that someone at id Software has played Planetside, finds inspiration, can see the problems - and decides they want to blow them out of the water.
Problem with "n00b servers" is in many cases, hardcore players go on them just to get the "thrill" of bagging someone who has never played online before.
A BIG part of the problem with stuff like Blizzard's matchmaking on Warcraft 3 is you get wankers with multiple accounts posing as "n00bs" so they can beat the living hell out of you.
Nothing is going to fix online gaming and make it fun for all until we can personally track down and beat the living shit out of the griefers.
I often do too, but what killed the idea of ranking-based matchmaking for me is Warcraft 3. To put it plainly, I suck at it. Which is to say I had about a 30% win ratio. But every other match I played was some guy who was starting over to clear his record, or starting a "for fun" account, or some other variant of a very skilled player being identified incorrectly. When you've played five games of something and you're faced with UBERDOOD13 with hundreds of battles behind him, it's not a lot of fun. I could have kept playing and improved, but I just wasn't having fun, so I played about twenty matches (i really tried to like it) and gave up.
:D
Stats and Rankings are wonderful.. rankings got me hooked on Unreal Tournament and made me play it for ungodly hours a week for six months trying to stay in the top ten of the gametype Domination.. and I've been a hardcore fan of the series for years since then. But I think both of these ideas could exist side by side, it's not an either or proposition. Newbie servers: no ranking (maybe stats for fun). Seperate Intermediate and Pro stats/rankings so there is no benefit to dropping below your skill level to whore points which, yes, still happens in ELO based systems.
The hardest part of the idea is deciding what level of gameplay performance would trigger the "do you wanna boot this slumming lamer" message
The problem with letting players handle the skill matching is that a lot of people would deliberately understate their playing skill in order to play games that they can easily win. They're not interested in a competitive match... they want to beat someone and run their smack and talk about how pathetic the other player is, and how great they are.
Take a look at the Starcraft games on BNet sometime. Starcraft has been out for quite a few years now. You'd think that there aren't that many new players trying it out, but it seems like every third game on BNet is "n00bs ONLY!!" or some crap like that. Not because there are that many new players, but because people want an easy win against another human. Same thing with the supposed Free-For-All games where two or 3 guys will team up right away because they made an agreement before the game started. They don't want competition, they want an easy win and the feeling of smug superiority that comes with it.
From my perspective, the solution is simple. Give me a way to positively ID players, no matter what nick or account they use. BNet could use each players CD key to generate a unique "Player ID" which would be displayed beside the players name. The ID number would stay the same no matter what names the player used or what accounts he played under.
Then give me a way to easily make notations about players, or put them in categories while I'm playing. If I've got someone in the "Don't play with" category, I should get some kind of warning every time I see them, or every time they join a game I'm playing in. If I feel that someone is very skilled and a fun person to play with, I should be able to see them easily as well. In short, take away some of the anonymity, and force players to experience some repercussions for their negative actions.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
I used to play Quake 3 a lot, particularly the Space CTF map. For the uninitiated, the Space map is a platform that is hovering the middle of nothingness. Fall off the platform, and you go screaming to your doom. It's out in the open. You can see the enemy's flag from your flag. Right above the flag, there's a levitating platform that has a railgun. Picture this for a moment. From your base, you can snipe somebody at the other base as they try to plant the flag. Unfortunately, I've been called a 'faggot camper' a number of times for using that element in the map. You see, sometimes people get damn good at using the railgun, and it can be very difficult from one end of the map to the other.
Camping in general can be a problem. I've personally witnessed somebody really ruin a level doing that. He waited in front of a respawn point and *blam* was killing everybody that freshly materialized. Thus, he was always racking up the points. In this particular map, sometimes the teams are so imbalanced that 2-3 people from one team can completely supress the other team, thus ruining the fun.
You know, I can see the complaint. Control that platform, and you control the game. However, what people often fail to see is that the platform was placed there with a railgun on purpose. If somebody's sniping you, take them out!
I've had some not so fun nights because of this. Not because somebody was better than me with a railgun, but because people would start bitching and moaning anytime used a railgun in that map. Eventually it'd turn into a flame fest, and I don't mean with rocket launchers. *blip* YOU FAG! *Blip* STFU *Blip* Nice little tent you have up there! *blip* You suck!
Sad thing was, there was no way to ignore it. Bitch bitch bitch. Eventually vendettas would form and instead of capturing the flag, people would get angry with each other and either take up 'camping' or worry too much about taking out the 'camper'.
My point? Frankly, skill is only a factor in it. There are a lot of people out there who deseperately need a lesson in tact. If I'm up on the sniper perch and you can't get past me, what's wrong with politely asking me nicely to ease up? When somebody says "YOU FAGGOT CAMPER!", I just keep shooting them. Never once has somebody said "Hey man, could ya lighten up there?", if they had I would have been happy to comply.
Yeah, I know, I'm an asshole. But I don't think it's unreasonable to be polite. I'm just there to have fun.
"Derp de derp."
I didn't read the entire article (skimmed it), and I'm only 19, but I've been playing online games for probably 7-8 years now (started with Doom, which I guess was very basic, but still had multiplayer, nonetheless). I think that it is the communities that online games have to offer.
The first online (truely online) game I got involved in was Quake II, which was badass. People were friendly, there was a great community, id is just a cool company, etc. Then I had a little hiatus, and came back in the Unreal Tournament days. Again, another incredible game with an incredible community. I joined a clan with an average player age or 35. Obviously, a bunch of adults playing a game makes it *much* more enjoyable than a bunch of 13 year olds. Adults can get stuff done, pay for stuff, and instill a sense of maturity in all the players. I also thought the UT community was really friendly as well. Tons of maps being made, we had *many* friends in other clans, Epic, again, is a cool company that supports the community (see the 1 million dollar contest they are supporting right now).
However, after that, it started to decline. The UT community pretty much stayed the same, but I started to play other FPS games, like Soldier of Fortune 2, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and a few others. The communities for these games were horrible. Just a ton of whiney, immature, 13 year olds who cause a ton of trouble in servers. Clans don't work (my friends started one and it failed miserably whereas the UT clan I'm in has been around for more than 3 years).
So...when the communities of games improve, the online games will improve. (Also, in case you couldn't tell, this is entirely from playing FPS's since thats all I play, but I hear its the same for RPG and RTS games).
-Vic
"I mean if you ARE getting seriously "0wn3d""
Not necessarily. I know several online gameplayers who can come into a mach three quarters of the way through and still win - they do have real talent. Yes, there are a lot of cheaters out there, but that doesn't prevent someone wiping the floor with you without cheating.
when it comes to multiplayer, I've discovered recently I'd rather hang out on the couch with a few friends in front of a console, then secluded in my room fragging people I don't know and will never meet. whether we pass wavebirds back and forth playing soul calibur 2, hangin out for 10 minute smash bros. matches, or invite a bunch of friends (and a few extra xboxes and tv's) over for a massive 16 player halo game, I'd much rather play with people I know. he mentions something about "reaching out and punching someone," and frankly, thats not it. its the fact that you're all there. its very social... you take a break, gather round the pizza box and congratulate each other on good frags or whatever...
when we play halo, we do a few matches of ctf.. and we set it up so that everyone on one tv is up against everyone on the other... and that way, we can lean forward, point at each other's screens, say "hey, sneak up this way, I'm going to go in over here, and..." its just a lot more social, playing together in the same room.
These are the same problems that have plagued people with sports.
I play basketball regularly with some friends of mine at a local court, and that court is pretty much known as the place for people of "medium" ability to play. No one there is joining up with the NBA anytime soon, but no one sucks either. Occasionally really good or really bad people come, but eventually they leave because it is either not as challenging or too hard.
Likewise, about a mile down the road is a court that is known to have really really good players. When you want a real challenge you go there.
It is the same with online games. Why not have some sort of tiered league? You could give people the ability to kick off someone who obviously belongs in a different league.
Or some sort of ebay like system for rating people..rate them as "good" or "fair" or "only looking for an ego boost". I don't know.
It seems to work for basketball.
As for bad language, well, what can you do? People say what they say.
-- bearclaw
That way you can aimlessly walk around massive world, interracting with next-to-nothing, and raising your experience level just by staying logged in.