The post below contains my comments on the latest Harry Potter book; it’s password protected to avoid accidentally spoiling anyone. The password, as you may have deduced from the title of the next post, is “spoilers” (no quotes).
Mike, at Cold Fury, lost his wife, Christina, in a tragic motorcycle accident. I’m sure he’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers; he certainly has mine.
At the beginning of a Shadowrun match the other evening, one of my teammates (who we’ll call “Slayer” for the sake of expediency) started complaining about another teammate (hereafter referred to as “NewGuy”). Apparently, Slayer had been on a team with NewGuy earlier in the day, and NewGuy, in Slayer’s opinion, “sucked”. He spent the first minute or so of the match informing the rest of us how badly NewGuy sucked. NewGuy, who sounded fairly young, said that he’d only gotten the game yesterday, and that he was learning. “Well,” Slayer replied, “you should quit. If I sucked that badly the first time I picked up a game, I would be ashamed to ever touch a controller again.”
I felt that was pretty out of line, but since I rarely say anything in these games, I didn’t speak up. I wish I had, though, because Slayer proceeded to berate the entire team, telling us how many things we were doing wrong (including, at one point, attacking me for not saving him while he was bleeding out, when I was unable to do so (for reasons that I won’t explain here, because I’d have to spell out the entire scenario)). At the time, I just grumbled in annoyance at people who take these games way too seriously.
In Monday’s Penny Arcade News Posts, Gabe describes going to a Gamestop Pokemon tournament. At the tournament he attended, he was the only person his age to show up, though there was one other, loud-mouthed participant who was much older than the other competitors (though much younger than Gabe himself). Gabe had decided to drop out of the tournament in order to let the kids have more fun, but found himself with the opportunity to compete against the loud-mouthed teenager in the first round. His first story is worth the read, especially when he points out how much good sportsmanship was exhibited by the younger children. The second story, an e-mail he received from a youngster who’d competed in a tournament that had several older competitors, reminded me of my experience with Slayer.
I’ve never understood why some people get so bloodthirsty about the games they play. These people not only strive to do the best they can at games, they almost obsess about it, to the point that they make it next-to-impossible for other people to enjoy playing with them. I’ve noticed this a lot on online games that allow some degree of customization for each player’s character. In MMORPGs, many players obsess over the “right” way to do things. I know that I avoided joining parties in some of those games because my choices in customizing my characters focused on maximizing the fun, not the power, of my character, and I grew sick of being questioned by people that I would likely never play with again.
In general, I prefer multiplayer games, but only those that allow me to play with small groups, so that I can simply play with my close friends and avoid the rest of the gaming community. Not because the mass of that community is bad (most of my online experiences with Shadowrun have been good), but because a few rotten apples ruin the fun that could otherwise be had.
I wish that players who obsess about winning and about being the best would leave those of us who suck at video games alone. Just let us have fun.
I finished Harry Potter book 7 this morning just before I had to leave for church. Short review: It’s a fitting end to the series. Longer review will follow when I have a bit of time (probably tomorrow)