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Author: concrete
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3 Comments
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I'm not sure why the inspiration to write this struck me at *looks over* 4:45 in the morning, but I have been seeing a bit of negativity around the game lately. Not to say that the whole community or all players are turning into evil flesh eating zombies or anything, but it just reinforces for me why it's important to remember why we're all here in the first place.
I think one of the reasons people start to turn negative is because they begin to take everything for granted, and sometimes even look at things with a perspective of trying to find something to complain about. The bottom line is, nobody is being forced to play. If you wake up one day and find that you must drag yourself to your pc to play, that it's become monotonous and more of a drain than anything, then quit, or if nothing else take a break for a little while. A day, a week, a month, whatever it takes.
Playing games with people who enjoy what they're doing, and act like they enjoy it, is one of the most fun and rewarding experiences you can have with gaming, especially online. Next time you think of complaining about your crappy connection costing you a match, or causing you to play poorly, just stop and think about why you even care. If I find myself being frustrated by stupid things in UT it usually helps to just take a step back and remember what it was like when I was first starting. I had never imagined playing videogames with people from all over the world any time I wanted, being able to test and compare different strategies or styles constantly, and communicate with them all the while.
With competition online and even on LAN getting more and more developed, and with money playing an increasingly large role, it's easy to think of gaming almost in a "job" sort of light. But I seriously doubt that anybody got into gaming for the money. Whatever game or games got you hooked originally, it wasn't because you had to stay on top of some ladder or league or whatever and win every competition to win prizes, it was because you genuinely enjoyed the game.
One of the most humbling things that's happened to me in gaming kind of illustrates all of this. It was just a late-night random pub server on UT1 weaps tdm awhile back. I went in and it ended up being 3 people so of course teams had to be uneven. My team started off with 2 and the other player said something like "that's fine i could use the practice :)", and of course I was thinking "either this guy's really good, or arrogant, or both." Well it soon became evident that this guy was the 3rd best player in the server, and we pretty much slaughtered him for the remaining 12 or so minutes of the map. During and after this, there wasn't a single complaint out of him. In fact he even let out a few "ns" and ":)" remarks. I actually found myself getting angry in a sort of humorous way. I wanted to just yell at him "NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE MAD! Call us noobs for not evening teams! Blame lag! SOMEthing! We just toasted you with uneven teams, you should be mad!"
Then I realized, he shouldn't have been mad. It was just a meaningless game on a random night. Nobody's reputation was on the line. There was nothing at all at stake, it was simply a chance for some people to do something they enjoy together and perhaps get a little better in the process. Playing games shouldn't only be fun if you win, because in the long run 99% of the games you play the score is asbolutely irrelevant. And never forget, even playing games on the highest competitive level, you're still playing.
I could probably go on with this article forever, but I'll just wrap it up by mentioning that one of the easiest ways to alleviate the pressure of playing well is to just switch gametypes. Yknow that little tab up at the top right of the server browser that always says your gametype? IT CHANGES! I'm primarily a TDM player, and I can guarantee that I could go into any and all bombing run servers on any given night and have MAYBE 1 or 2 people so much as recognize my name. It's really refreshing to play a gametype where there's no inherent reason for me to be any good at =P and it really helps to focus back on the game itself, and why I play it.
Think of some real hardcore song that can really hype you up every time you hear it. Now think of what you could picture yourself doing with that song in the background. Racing some people through a city at 150 miles per hour? Standing out in the streets kicking some ninja ass? Just breaking stuff in general (and in slow motion of course)?
Playing UT2004? It may not be at the top of the list, but it'd show up on mine every time.
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