I play online compute games a lot. Not arcade-style games, just calm strategic kinds like Risk and Backgammon. Still, sometimes you meet really angry people. Sometimes you can tell they are adults, sometimes you can tell they are teens. I try to be really careful around teens.
I'm not talking about chat rooms. I stay far away from them. But just in games, you can tell sometimes when someone is REALLY angry. I feel sorry for those people, whether they are teens or adults. On very rare ocassions, I offer to just talk.
It doesn't usually work out. Angry people are hard to talk to. Just tonight, I came across a backgammon player who almost immediately accused me of using a cheat program. Right, my rating is in the lower 20% I would guess. If I was using a cheat program, I would have to be about the most inept cheater of all time. You START at 1500 and my rating is 1274. Some high level cheating going on THERE, right?
After being informed that he was reporting me for cheating (I rolled doubles once and that really upset him - and never mind that he did several times himself). And never mind that he won 2 of 3 games. But then he mentioned "reporting me" several more times.
Everything about this player says he is a teen (unreasonableness, anger, and lashing out), and I really don't want to ruin the slight personal validation that some teen gets by winning a game if he is alone in a basement or bedroom struggling to get some feeling of success in his life.
But still, I'm kind of pissed off about it all. I'm thinking a game site for those only 30 and older might be a good idea.
Mark
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4 comments:
I think an entire generation has grown up without being taught social skills but are very literate in computer skills. I know each generation says they fear for the current one, and I realize I am showing off my age, but this topic that you speak to says volumes about that aspect. It's sad when someone would rather "text" than talk, or chat online than in a coffee shop. It's sad and scary. People become unfeeling and cruel (and angry) because it's much easier to develop bravado behind a keyboard (or a steering wheel for that matter -- another topic).
Well I feel better about getting that off my chest. MOL
I'm wondering if 30 is old enough?
I play backgammon a lot Mark, usually with anonymous players. The drop-out rate/abandonment of games is very very high: far higher than when I play on sites where you at least know the screen name of the person you're playing. What I find disappointing is that so many people abandon the game the moment they look like they've fallen behind. Not only do I think that this is ill mannered and discourteous, it also denies those players the opportunity of strategizing to win from a poor position. It can be done - with a bit of luck - and the feeling is fabulous! I feel sorry for players who don't give themselves the chance of experiencing that feeling and whose style of play seems to indicate that they allow the luck aspect of the game (the throw of the dice) to overwhelm the skill and strategy aspects.
Unfortunately (??) on the site that I use for this anonymous style of play, free text messaging isn't allowed. There are a fixed number of fixed messages that players can select from, so it's not possible for me to make my case to my opponent for sticking with a game. Mind you, I guess the people who set up the game might have predicted some of the things that teenagers and angry people might write if they were allowed free rein, especially when they're anonymous.
Megan
Sydney, Australia
Man, what a DEAL!!!! Makes me glad I only do Words with Friends.
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