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Friday, August 10, 2012

The Death of Video Games: Part II - Competition and Community

So, with the next installment of my "The Death of Video Games" posts, I wanted to touch on something that isn't necessarily part of a video game, but something that is way to important to leave out. I'm not saying communities suck, so just read on and listen to my thoughts; you may see something in a new light.

Community: Noun
  1. A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
The above definition is brought to you by Dictionary.com, and it paints a portrait of a group of people who are together for whatever reason, sharing goals, ideals, and history with one another. While the word community itself is one that we usually look at with great pride, in both gaming and reality, there are communities that we tend to want to stay away from. In the gaming world, communities pop up around games after they had been released, and are really only prevalent in games that support online interactivity, although it could be argued that single-player games, too, have communities that consist of fans and haters alike. No matter which way you look at it, communities have powers beyond comparison, which can be good or bad. Not to mention how the competitive nature of online multiplayer forces you to interact with all different types of people, and I can guarantee you will not get along with a lot of them. This, in turn, will affect you overall feel for the game. If you've ever had played League of Legends or Call of Duty.

"If you play with trolls, you're gunna have a bad time."
Now, I've played a decent amount of both games, and I'm not here to tell you whether they are good or not. I will tell you, though, that a game like LoL is not an easy game to get into at all, especially if you have no prior experience with such an odd style of game. You can read all the tutorials and watch all the videos you want, but once you are playing, shit gets real, and with my experience, a good amount of people don't really care if you have played for 1 hour or 1 year; they will not let off on how bad you may be doing. That, coupled with the steep learning curve, is not something I look forward to in a game. I guess my argument only holds a certain amount of weight, considering LoL just passed WoW as the most played online game.  I'm not saying I don't understand their frustration; I know I've gotten really angry when my team as a whole is lacking, but I've never been as vocal as some people.

I don't know what makes us torture ourselves like this.
CoD has the same problem, for sure. I played the shit out of CoD4, and I wasn't too shabby. Even back then, way before the second one came out, the players weren't always very friendly. It was more that they were all just a bunch of ignorant dill-holes, looking to have the highest killstreak. There is only so much fun you can have while everyone on their mics are calling everyone else very racist and vulgar names. One of the many reasons that the first thing I do in game is mute everyone. Now, I know this doesn't apply for everyone playing the game, and I don't mean to say that just because people are competitive, it's killing a game. All I wanted to point out is that by having this attitude while playing with people online, you are ruining the experience for others, and who really wants to play a game like that?

I've also played a lot of games where the community was actually pretty nice. The best example of this would have to be Team Fortress 2. Not that it isn't without its trolls and assholes. but I usually have a pretty good time communicating with everyone there. TF2 even has an option to become a tutor for new players. I don't know how it works since I've never tried, but just the thought that people might be willing to help people out is awesome. I think that if everyone could get together with an understanding that we are all here to enjoy this game, it wouldn't be so frustrating. An attitude like that could change the world, so pass along the good feelings, because karma will come full circle.

I know this was a shorter post than what I usually do, but It's just a quick thought. Please, don't troll; It's not as funny as you think it is. Leave your comments, concerns, and suggestions for future topics in the comment section below, and as always, thanks for reading, stay tuned, and stay sweet! :)

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