My evening on Xbox Live

[Splush]

I haven't played online much recently, hardly at all since I exhausted Splinter Cell co-op, but I bought Rainbow 6: Lockdown on Monday in a moment of consumer weakness and have been trying it out online this evening. The game itself is very fun, I don't like how they've dumbed down the R6 series but it's still a fine game. This cannot so easily be said of the players, however, although dumbing-down is an appropriate term for the experience. Events that transpired tonight include the following:


Americans and Brits argueing about Britain's part in WW2, and by logical association the extent of the British arguer's videogame talents.
A game host keeping people waiting in the pre-game lobby while he checked a world of warcraft auction.
One person singing a song about a "big lipped nigger" while other players suggested suitable names for said nigger.
A Brit calling an American some rude names, and the American responding by reminiscing about the war of independance, followed by a recital of the US national anthem.

In theory, voice chat is a huge step forward for online gaming, but the reality always seems rather different. I never find myself enjoying online games these days unless they're exclusively with friends. It seems that people were never this bad when I used to play online Quake religiously, is that just rose-tinted glasses? Discuss.

[Woloch]

no such luck, unfourtunately. You really have discovered the foulest pit of humanity, the terror that is X-Box live.

racism, homophobia, xenophobia, extreme vulgarity (far beyond cursing) and behaving like a dumb jackass are not only accepted, but common, maybe even encouraged, to the point where you should expect to encounter it in every game you play.

occasionally, you'll stumble across a group of people who are tolerable, and if you should be so lucky, friend them and follow them around so you know at least somebody in your game isn't a jackass.

if worst comes to worst, you can just turn off your speakers. That's what I do.

[Cjw]

Same. I only turn on voice every so often, and each experience i have with it just makes me want to turn it off even longer.

I don't see the appeal of lisitning to a whole bunch of twats shouting "OMG GHEY FAG GOT PWNED".

Infact, my first ever game on halo 2 on xbox live, i was treated to a tirade of abuse in the post-game lobby, with several 13 year olds telling me to go hang myself.

Yep-i think i'll keep the voice off for now.

[Splush]

I accepted long ago that public games of Halo 2 should be played sans-headset, but the different kinds of people you get from game to game is quite a weird phenomenon. If I only ever played PGR2 I'd be under the impression that Xbox Live was solely the domain of friendly, mature, funny people.

If they made it quick and easy to rate players on various things (sportsmanship, friendliness, etc.) and actually used that data in matchmaking, I reckon the whole experience could be greatly improved. In the meantime I should probably stop whining and stay in little friends-only cliques like everyone else.

Speaking of which, I'm off to play pro evo.

[Woloch]

for gods sake don't ever try to play street fighter anniversary edition online (not that anybody but me owns the game, but meh). You'll be treated to an idiot who thinks it is appropriate to trash talk after parrying a fireball, or just one solid stream of curses.

plus EVERYBODY just does the newbie gambit (jump in HK->d.HK) over and over again and then picks gill when you dragon punch them out of the air :/

and if you find a decent player, you'll have to hear the word "newb" about 100000 times in one round.

...and the lag is horrible.

/rant

[achilles]

I think Cloud Trifle has it.

I love xbox live, I mostly play Halo 2 (Xbox Live might as well be called 'Halo 2 Live'), and I hardly ever end up playing with ...stupid people. If I do end up having to play with sore winners (I find it rather sad how there is such thing) or racist people, I just leave negative feedback, and then leave the game.

But yes, It most definitely is more fun playing with friends.

[Sorcha]

I play Halo2 mostly, simply because the online services for that game are the best. But, I only have about 30 guys (well it's true, not many girls out there :() on my friends list. And I will only play if I can be in a party with at least one of them. It's so horrible if you don't. Unless you play a big game (like Big Team Battle) with 16 people, then you can just turn your mic off and still play but the other people don't really notice you.

Another thing that's annoying, in a post-game lobby if there's more than 4 people in the game then all the ranting and cursing and insulting is blurred by the other ranting cursing and insulting. What's the point of everyone yelling abuse when no one can actually register what you've said because there are 7 able-lunged Americans yelling at each other all yelling at once?! :confused: (Not only that but hurting my ear drums.)

[terrorbite]

The thing which annoys me the most is the constant smack talk during games, which usually comes from Americans.

[Splush]

You know how in Halo 2 when somebody talks their name flashes in the corner of the screen? It lets you know who is being a dick so you can mute, ignore or report that player. Rainbow 6 Lockdown doesn't do that in-game so you're left guessing who the culprit is. Halo 2's live implementation is really amazing, other developers really need to start copying it more.

A point I've always found interesting in Halo 2 though, is that when you kill a player you can talk directly to them for a few seconds so you can throw a few random racial slurs their way (presumably), but the dead player can't talk back during this, so he has no way of saying "good shot". When I played Quake online every day the bulk of the chat in a game was "shot" or "nice one" or just ":)". Ah, the good old days.

[FoxDhoj]

Hmm, I know there are utter twunts all over Xbox Live, especially Americans on Halo 2, who kill you, say "HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, BRITISH FAG!" and then when you kill them, and they kill you again, they put on a really awful excuse for an English accent, and say "WANT SOME CRUMPETS AND TEA WITH THAT, FAG?"

There are those types, or the alright types, usually my clan (HBO Helljumpers) members and friends and also a few people from these forums. They're fun to play with, don't take it too far, and don't moan all the time. It's quite enjoyable a lot of the time. I only go on it when I'm really bored though, and when there are some people online. Otherwise, don't bother - you'll just end up with a bunch of Americans plebbing on about "kicking some guy in the face in 7-11"...

[Lewiji]

Bleh, is there any way to not play against particularly distant foes? Xbox Live users seem to know nothing about latency. I hope the 360's live service has this capability if the xbox doesn't.

[Youlikeyams?]

Well then - glad to see PS2's online is far friendlier...

[Splush]

Bleh, is there any way to not play against particularly distant foes? Xbox Live users seem to know nothing about latency. I hope the 360's live service has this capability if the xbox doesn't.
I don't think any games have the option to do this. Most games let you filter by language, and just adding a distinction between British and American English would probably work quite well. To be honest I don't give a toss about latency, I've rarely been annoyed by it on Xbox Live, I just want some kind of twat filter.

I believe the next iteration of Xbox Live will have "zones" like casual, serious, underground and family that you can put yourself in, which could help quite a bit. I'm not sure what they mean by underground but it sounds both rad and tubular.

[Lewiji]

Hmm, sounds good, but as a "full-time" PC gamer I really do notice lag...Are there any "Britain only" servers? Are there actually any "dedicated" servers or are they all hosted off some kid's ADSL connection?

[Cjw]

Well for halo 2, there is a topic on the bungie.net forums where you can join a UK users only list, or similar.

It doesn't bother me too much, as most of the time i just pop in and out of matchmaking.

[Bloopo]

I haven't got xbox live (or an xbox for that matter), but I do play PC multiplayer games regularly, and I don't think I've ever met an English guy (or girl), that was a tit on voice chat. Although, on CS 1.6, its a bit hard to tell, because it makes it sound like everyone's from Northern Ireland...

However, most people on Battlefield 2 with mics are pretty nice people, and if they aren't you can just leave their squad, simple as.

[Splush]

Hmm, sounds good, but as a "full-time" PC gamer I really do notice lag...Are there any "Britain only" servers? Are there actually any "dedicated" servers or are they all hosted off some kid's ADSL connection?
I think it all depends on the game itself, I suspect things like Delta Force may have official dedicated servers run either by Microsoft or the publishers, but I haven't played it so I can't say for sure. Generally speaking it's non-dedicated servers though. Some games (R6 Lockdown included) give the player the option to start a game as a dedicated server, which would make sense for somebody with a really beefy connection, although I can't see why anybody would want to leave their Xbox on hosting a game for other people and not want to join in themselves.

Halo 2 somehow decides which player has the most suitable connection and chooses a host automatically, and doesn't tell anyone who the host is, and generally it works excellently. As I said before, Halo 2's live implimentation really is great and needs to be imitated by other games more.

[Piedude-KT]

I played Xbox Live (Halo 2) at a friends house and I was laughing my head off, just because of the pure stupidity of theese people. We decided in the end to resort to repeating what they were saying in an American accent, until they just stopped. I mean calling us "Brit snobs" is pretty stupid. Some English guy didn't help by shouting something McDonalds related. But Project Gotham Racing was much friendlier. And I had a conversation made up complete of the word "Blah" with some nice chappy. So it's not all bad, really.

[Lewiji]

Post

Ah, okay :) I'm just trying to decide whether to actually buy a console or just get new shit for my PC with the money, if the 360's Live is meant to be much better than the current Live, it sounds good :)

[CRISPY 842]

There are those types, or the alright types, usually my clan (HBO Helljumpers) members and friends and also a few people from these forums. They're fun to play with, don't take it too far, and don't moan all the time. It's quite enjoyable a lot of the time. I only go on it when I'm really bored though, and when there are some people online. Otherwise, don't bother - you'll just end up with a bunch of Americans plebbing on about "kicking some guy in the face in 7-11"...

How dare you i always like to take it too far

[achilles]

True, most twats are American, but that's only because most players are American, so please stop American-bashing (No, I'm not American, I just have a lot of really cool Americans on my friends list).

Anotherthing that pisses me off, is when people remove you from their friends list because your level is too low. It's just rediculous, why do Bungie let us see our levels? I think they should remain hidden.

[Maple Moose]

My friends and I quit for a few months, We couldn't have a nice game without racism and such. I hated trying to sword someone then they would call me racist remarks and such..

[achilles]

I don't get racist remarks...

everyone seems to love kiwis for some reason.

[drfateboy]

You better not dis Americans, since I am a American. If you have ever talk to real Americans they are actually very fun to be around with!

[McFrenzy]

Black Hawk Down on Xbox live has been cool only a few laggy moments and very little smack talking. I loved Halo 2 when I first got online with it until I was branded a Noob for over 20 minutes by two eight year olds who while I explained I was getting used to the controls went off about who won WWII. I replied I had no idea as I was drunk on Typhoo tea and couldn't see for all the halucinations it was giving me!
Apparently I was being pwned all the while?!!!
Halo 2 can be a good laugh especially when you have a good crowd on.

[terrorbite]

I was drunk on Typhoo tea

A fine tea, sir.

[Mozzer]

The only online game I've really played is Burnout 3 on PS2, and a little bit of SOCOM. Aside from the occasional small hysterical American child who laughs at everything you say and every crash, I haven't really had any problems. The lag is a different matter.

[Cloud Trifle]

Oooohh.

I missed this thread.

1.) Splush should play Halo 2 with me because Im a nice person online, and I dont hang around with bellends.

2.) As much as I don't like trash talk, it would be unfair not to mention other countries learning english Just to insult us. (Some americans are very nice peeps ;).)

3.) I've never had problems with street fighter anniversary collection... Not that I play that often though...

4.) Americans do need to get their facts right before insulting people though... I once had an american tell me I was getting beaten by the Germans like they beat the hell out of us in WW2.

Apart from that, you do meet some genuinely nice people.

[poliobear]

did some one actually say that the germans did that?! what an idiot. but you have not experienced idiocy until you play ghost recon 2. one time me and my sibbie were playing and the guy started yelling at us about being a "pro gamer" and some other stuff. mostly i just tell them to get a goal in life or that no one cares. still, sometimes you get people thta are so stupid it's fun to listen to them.

please PM me with your gamertags. mine is PolioBear. note the capitilazation.

[Woloch]

3.) I've never had problems with street fighter anniversary collection... Not that I play that often though...

you must be made of MAGIC if the few times you've played have been with the few guys who aren't assholes.

There's only like 2 of them who play public in the whole world. All the other nice people I know only play people on their friends list, or people their friends said were good. I am amazed at your luck.

I have played 200+ games (funny considering this isn't my account, and I don't even own an X-Box) and I'd say maybe 5 have not included assholes.

unless you're playing SF2:AE, in which case I don't know anything about that.

[T3-X]

I dont mind a bit of showboating amongst friends, but most livers don't seem to even realise their actions, it's almost like a plague.

[Splush]

I ought to say that I made this thread right after a particularily frustrating evening, it's generally much better.

Also, it's unfair to specifically blame Americans, it's just that the majority of users happen to be Americans so naturally the majority of annoying users are as well. I think there's just always going to be clashes when people from different cultures around the world are allowed to talk to each other with relative anonymity.

But as I say it's not all bad, I've even been enjoying Halo 2 recently.

[Cloud Trifle]

But as I say it's not all bad, I've even been enjoying Halo 2 recently.

Still not with me ¬_¬.

My SF Anniversary is the original, I think. I've only played a few games on there, maybe only 80 - 120. But Ive never experienced anything that bad on there. Mostly my connections is so bad I cant hear them...

There appears to be a rising level of cheating again, on Halo 2 so be warned guys. If you want more info, via PM.

Summit Strike is pretty cool though. It's very hard to get used to if you are a non stop halo player like myself :). Graphics are brilliant, and gameplay is brilliant too. I recommend for definite.

[Rush]

I mostly play Conker: Live and Reloaded. It has its moments
The most annoying thing is that most of the player base is under the age of 13. Which is VERY wierd, considering there is a huge warning on the front of the box. The game is kinda glitchy too, but the glitches aren't hard to do, so you can do them back if someone is glitching you.

But the best thing is being able to choose which game to join. After playing Halo 2 for so long and getting stuck with douchebags without having much say in the matter, it's nice to be able to avoid games that have known assholes in them. :D

[Cloud Trifle]

But the best thing is being able to choose which game to join. After playing Halo 2 for so long and getting stuck with douchebags without having much say in the matter, it's nice to be able to avoid games that have known assholes in them. :D

QFT.

But also, there is the other side of the story, where you get a more "official" ranking by playing random people and not just second accounts or whatever on other xboxes.

[Rush]

Yeah. The ranking system in Conker is an absolute mess due to people boosting their stats and copying other players stats. Giving upgrades and bonuses to people who meet certain stat numbers doesn't help either.

The stat copying is out of control. The ranks never stay because as soon as someone rises to #1, someone else just copies their stats and gets like 2 more CP and boom, new 1st place. :(

[FoxDhoj]

Conker winds me up - it's so difficult to not get killed, it's ridiculous. It feels too flimsy to me.

Burnout 3/Revenge, XIII and Crimson Skies are where most of the laid-back gamers are though.

But I still play Halo 2...at least I have enough sensible friends/clan to play with.

[Splush]

I've got to try Crimson Skies some time, I bought it dirt cheap then got stuck on the single player (fairly early on) and gave up.

[FoxDhoj]

I've got to try Crimson Skies some time, I bought it dirt cheap then got stuck on the single player (fairly early on) and gave up.

I found the single player fairly easy, but got frustrated quite quickly. Though single player is better than multiplayer/online play, I must say. I wish you could do online co-op.