It's an unfortunate fact that online gaming involves
tolerating a remarkable amount of rudeness, vulgarity, poor
sportsmanship, and plain old bad manners. Some games communities
are a little more mature than others, but you can generally
expect this sort of misbehavior in just about every multiplayer
games you come across. I understand that people are largely
anonymous online, and they can get very emotionally involved in
the competition, but that's no reason to throw out any semblance
of politeness or decency. I've put together a few pointers on
good online gaming etiquette, although I suspect the worst
offenders aren't likely to take notice.
Play Fair
Cheating and using exploits is an admission that you can't win without them.
Furthermore, you'll find winning a fair fight a lot more rewarding. If winning
is really important to you, keep practicing and learn from what successful
players are doing. Should the competition prove to be too much for you, finding
a different games like
365 is a better solution than cheating.
Be A Good Sport
Laughing at defeated opponents, bragging about your achievements, overdoing it
with taunts and emotes, all make you look childish. The fact is, even children
should know better. An appropriate emote used at the right moment can be a
beautiful thing, but when it accompanies every encounter in the games, it turns
into that much more mindless spam, which brings us to our next rule.
Don't Spam
You really don't need to hammer the chat system with WTS messages to sell an
item, nor do you need to use every channel in the game when there is a channel
dedicated to trade. If people aren't interested, repeating a message in chat
every 3 seconds isn't likely to change that. Wait a minute or two, and maybe
you'll start to get through to a new audience.
Spare Us the Caps
C'mon people, this is a no-brainer that has been around since the dawn of the
Internet - don't use all capital letters in chat. It's the text equivalent of
yelling at everyone, and nobody wants to be yelled at.
You Were a Noob Too
Nobody can pick up a new games and instantly familiarize themselves with all its
nuances and details. There are heaps of acronyms and slang particular to each
game, and it's absurd to expect people to know these things without a little
help from other players. Someone once explained to you what was going on, now
you can do the same, rather than simply telling them they're "noobs" and leaving
it at that.
A Little Teamwork, Please
If you're part of a team, try to cooperate with your teammates a little.
Rambo-style games rarely pays off in a team-oriented game, so don't expect your
teammates to be right behind you when you go kamakazi into a gauntlet of
enemies. Also keep in mind that actually winning the match is more important
than being at the top of the scoreboard.
Don't Be a Quitter
It's amazing how often people will disconnect without a word when they're
losing, or drop out when their group encounter isn't going well. If you don't
think you can win, surrender. If your instance run isn't going well, try to work
it out politely or offer some friendly advice. At times when your group isn't up
to the task, explain the problem to others without insulting them. You never
know what kind of solutions people will come up with until you give them a
chance.
Not Everyone Who Wins Is a Cheater
Just because another player kills you a couple times does not mean that they're
cheating. As good as you may think you are at any game, there are likely a lot
of players who are just as good or better than you are. If you're as hot as all
that, then start playing professionally in LAN tournaments where there is no way
to cheat. If you're almost certain that someone is cheating, report them to an
admin and let them investigate rather than throwing around accusations you can't
back up.
Camping Is a Lame Tactic
Although some games encourage it, camping spawn points and corpses is generally
a lame tactic. In many cases it's only possible because of flawed game design,
but it's still a weak strategy that players with any dignity don't resort to.
Ignore Insults
When someone insults you, your best option is to ignore them. If the insults
persist, most chat and voice systems have 'ignore' functions to ensure that
further communications from them are blocked. Returning the insults typically
only escalates the exchange into something you'll regret later.
Enjoy the Game
Games are meant to be fun, and if you can't laugh it off when things go wrong,
or forgive a team member for screwing up, then maybe it's time for a break. Most
of us have enough stress in our lives, we don't really care to add a bunch of
gaming stress to that. When you start taking it too seriously, it defeats the
purpose of playing a game in the first place.
