Happy Memorial Day!
The weekend has been a relaxing one. Mainly just been doing some cleaning around the house. Picked up some groceries to have a cookout today.
I have been geeking out a bit with Team Fortress 2. I've been curious about it for a while and this weekend Steam has a free trial weekend. And if you like it, it is also on sale for half off at $9.99. I liked it so I bought it.
There is only one problem with it- the people that play it.
If you aren't familiar with it, it is an online game where you chase people around a map and shoot them. And they shoot you. Simple enough. But the problem comes when these people talk. It is not unusual on a random server for people to swear every other word, use racial epithets to describe anything they don't like, and claim that the people who are winning are homosexual. And that is before you get to the user names people give themselves.
Smack talk is a part of games. I'm surprised that chess masters don't engage in more of it. But there is a difference in talking about how easily your dog could beat someone and using a derogatory sexual or racial descriptor when you have no idea who is on the other side of the network connection. First off, if you can't say it to someone's face you should not be saying it to strangers in a game. To do otherwise is just chicken shit and you really richly deserve a beating for it. Secondly- and this is even more important- if you do that, you are stupid. Not in a school yard "you are a big stupid head" sort of way. Literally- you are a vastly ignorant and unimaginative person. If you can't manage to think up some other more appropriate insult for the person, even if it is an amusing "your mother" joke, then you are a pathetically stupid excuse for a human. If your head is so empty that you can only think to use a racial insult (while being ignorant of the person's actual skin color) or call them homosexual then you are a waste of space. I'm amazed that tyou are able to feed yourself and wipe your own ass.
Oh- I'm assuming you can. My mistake. Sorry about that.
Fortunately, Team Fortress doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as Halo is in this. It seems many Halo players are even more pathetic than that which I've described here. I blame Microsoft. Seriously. They claim that such people will be dealt with when they are reported but I've never heard of someone being banned for it. Yet they did ban a woman for saying she was a lesbian in her profile. So you can call someone gay, you just can't say you are according to Microsoft.
And doubly fortunately, it seems there are at least a few other people that feel the same way. I've found a couple of groups that follow the idea that people talking like that are just not fun to play with. Shamus Young at the Twenty Sided blog and The Over 30 Club both have servers where this sort of thing is frowned upon.
I'm sure I'll find more as I keep playing, but it makes the game much more enjoyable to not be assaulted by ignorance while you are trying to have fun.
I have been geeking out a bit with Team Fortress 2. I've been curious about it for a while and this weekend Steam has a free trial weekend. And if you like it, it is also on sale for half off at $9.99. I liked it so I bought it.
There is only one problem with it- the people that play it.
If you aren't familiar with it, it is an online game where you chase people around a map and shoot them. And they shoot you. Simple enough. But the problem comes when these people talk. It is not unusual on a random server for people to swear every other word, use racial epithets to describe anything they don't like, and claim that the people who are winning are homosexual. And that is before you get to the user names people give themselves.
Smack talk is a part of games. I'm surprised that chess masters don't engage in more of it. But there is a difference in talking about how easily your dog could beat someone and using a derogatory sexual or racial descriptor when you have no idea who is on the other side of the network connection. First off, if you can't say it to someone's face you should not be saying it to strangers in a game. To do otherwise is just chicken shit and you really richly deserve a beating for it. Secondly- and this is even more important- if you do that, you are stupid. Not in a school yard "you are a big stupid head" sort of way. Literally- you are a vastly ignorant and unimaginative person. If you can't manage to think up some other more appropriate insult for the person, even if it is an amusing "your mother" joke, then you are a pathetically stupid excuse for a human. If your head is so empty that you can only think to use a racial insult (while being ignorant of the person's actual skin color) or call them homosexual then you are a waste of space. I'm amazed that tyou are able to feed yourself and wipe your own ass.
Oh- I'm assuming you can. My mistake. Sorry about that.
Fortunately, Team Fortress doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as Halo is in this. It seems many Halo players are even more pathetic than that which I've described here. I blame Microsoft. Seriously. They claim that such people will be dealt with when they are reported but I've never heard of someone being banned for it. Yet they did ban a woman for saying she was a lesbian in her profile. So you can call someone gay, you just can't say you are according to Microsoft.
And doubly fortunately, it seems there are at least a few other people that feel the same way. I've found a couple of groups that follow the idea that people talking like that are just not fun to play with. Shamus Young at the Twenty Sided blog and The Over 30 Club both have servers where this sort of thing is frowned upon.
I'm sure I'll find more as I keep playing, but it makes the game much more enjoyable to not be assaulted by ignorance while you are trying to have fun.