265: Curing the Noobonic Plague

[mew4ever23]

This is a phenomenon that has gone on long enough. How quickly "Hardcore" players forget that they too were a noob as some point.

 

[Midniqht]

While I wholeheartedly agree with the point of this article, I feel a bit hypocritical. I, too, am guilty of griefing noobs sometimes. Maybe I'm just easily irritable...
To me, the irritant is not the fact that they're new or just getting into it, nor is it ignorance or naivety. Sometimes it's the fact that they sometimes ask the same questions over and over again. It's the repetition that kills the experience and sets me off. And sometimes, it's the "go easy on me" or "let me win" mentality that they carry.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm generally a nice and understanding co-player. The average noob doesn't bother me as long as it seems like they're enjoying themselves and trying to learn. I'm extremely glad that Microsoft and Sony are trying to get into the "casual" side of gaming, because it allows more people access to what we all love - games. This article makes me feel guilty and I kind of want to improve my act all of a sudden.

 

[Varrdy]

"But it seems that some of the rudest, most arrogant feedback on the net can come from gamers"

And it strikes me that the majority of this feedback, as some of your quoted examples proved, is poorly written with bad grammar, no punctuation and very little or no capitalisation. Calling someone a retard when you can't even type properly just goes to prove that the so called "noob" is the least of everyone's problems!

I have had access to games since I was 8 and while my attention to them has waxed and waned over the years, I would still consider myself a "casual" gamer even though I'm spending more and more hours playing them (Ah the joys of unemployment), I refuse to go online because I know just how many intolerable dickheads there are out there.

I must also point out that this crap goes on everywhere to some degree. I am an aspiring graphic artist and am self-taught. I started drawing 8 years ago and I sucked BIG TIME. However I have developed into someone who's level of suckage has declined to the point I've made a few quid from it and a local comic shop has a few of my peices on display. I've had a lot of good commentary, constructive criticsm and downright brainless comments that would shame a YouTuber. This has made me tolerant of beginning artists and whilst the never-ending procession of badly-drawn-in-MS-Paint can grate somewhat, a few of the creators of these peices do develop and improve their style.

What am I on about here? Well I will tell you. There was an issue a while back where someone posted a picture that I am told was "crap" (I've not seen it myself but I've read the comments) but he admitted he'd just started drawing and whilst he said he hoped people would like it (not entirely unreasonable), he knew he needed to improve. Anyway he was met with a torrent of abuse from people who weren't even artists. They said they didn't want to see such rubbish and that he should give up and if this were not bad enough, at least the guy had the balls to TRY rather than just sit there waiting for other people to do it.

Anyway, along came a well-known and established artist in this particular genre and the first thought was "Great! He knows what the poor guy went through and he'll tear the haters a new arsehole!"

No.

He sided with the haters and told the guy he'd never be a good artist and that he should quit and at this point several others, myself included, exploded from an overdose of WhatTheFuck?!?

The parallel with this guy and "hardcore" gamers is obvious. When you become sucessful BUT forget that you used to be just as crap once turns you into a something that starts in "C" ends in "T" and has a "U" and a "N" in it too - and no it's not a "Coconut" either...

Wardy

 

[Sephiwind]

This is a great article. I have been gaming since the days of the 2600 and these "Hardcore" douche bags piss me off to no end. When I play MMO's and see these idiots berate new players I usualy ***** them out and remind them that they were once "noobs" at this game as well. I mean hell I cna play a game over and over again and still find something new about it. Just because I didn't know some small detail does that still make me a noob?

 

[Deadlock Radium]

Personally, I dont mind noobs, I often help them out when I can anf give them some constructive criticism while everyone else in the server often just yells at them to go away.

My justification is that we were all noobs at one point and need help to reach better levels of gaming

Exactly. Just what he said.
I don't mind the so called "noobs" unless they go around and annoy me with everything, but if they ask me for some help or something, I don't mind and may actually lend a helping hand.
We were all noobs once.

 

[Leviathan_]

Curing the Noobonic Plague

Spend any time on the internet speaking to gamers, and you're going to be called a noob at some point. Bryan Lufkin examines the phenomenon of many gamers' unsympathetic attitude towards those with less experience, or anyone, really.

Read Full Article

There is still a difference between newbs and noobs, you know. Noobs are those who do not take any advice from more experienced players, ignore everything someone tels them, sometimes even insults those who dare to comment on the way he/she plays, and spoils the gaming experience of other people. These are the kind of people who will instantly make a thread on a game's forum about a problem they're encountering, and bump it every 10 minutes, even when the solution could be in a previously created thread or in a stickied/FAQ thread.

Newbs are people who are new to the game but are eager to learn and listen to advice given by more experienced players, The more mature kind of person.


So yes, I really do hate noobs. They are annoying, ignorant little brats who think they can do whatever they want, but then come crying when they get scolded on.

Only thing I can say is: grow thicker skin.

 

[Fappy]

Good read. I'm generally really patient with new comers (except my sister, she deserves it anyway) and will usually use a very gradual approach to teaching casual players. For instance, we had family friends visit last week and I had just bought the new fighting game BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. One of my friends, who has very limited fighting game experience, wanted to play. I started up practice mode and taught him the basics right off the bat: movement, attack buttons, block and jump. After I let him beat on me a little I started beating back and taught him more advanced aspects of the game (barrier, grabs, sprite reset, specials, etc.) to help him counter my attacks. Eventually he actually won a match or two. Although its nice to be able to pick up an unfamiliar genre by yourself I think its really important to have some one with experience to help you get started.

Everyone on youtube is like that, not just the gamers

100% true.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

I think this article is trying to pin point a needle in a... pile of needles. I think it all could be summed up by the so oft used phrase "welcome to the internet". Sure, you might be able to look up tutorials on playing guitar and not get flamed, but guitarist all tend to be untalented hipster fucks that just want to impress the chicks, so kind of a squishy audience anyways.

People act like assholes on the internet because they have shitty jobs, loud kids, a stupid little brother, got stuck behind old fat ladies who take up a whole isle in a grocery store, etc and we can't really do shit about it. You can point your fingers at gamers and say "they are the worst" but I don't think that's true by any means, gamers spend a good amount of time online so it's possibly more apparent.

More over, it probably seems more obvious being that you're actually involved in the gaming community. You ever see the shit film snobs say online? Or worse yet, 'otaku'. Maybe something more mainstream check out the comments on any page related to a major sport.

All the pissed off 25-30 year old 'hardcore' gamers are mad because when they started this hobby, they were NERDS and GEEKS and beaten up in gym class by the jocks because they played video games. Now the people who were beating them up want to play video games too, but never had to be labeled as nerds when they were young.

You know, never really sure where this stereotype came from, I was certainly never picked on for gaming. In fact the people who owned consoles and a shit ton of games were fairly popular, if for no other reason than people wanting to play their games. Besides there was never really a reason to pick on anyone that played video games when I was younger because, sure enough, there were always those weird kids that played magic the gathering or D&D.

 

[squid5580]

Madigan believes that the experimental group in Aronson and Mills' study is similar to "old school gamers who had to endure years of what used to be a much less socially acceptable or expensive hobby. They may overvalue their history and knowledge of gaming trivia while resenting new entrants to the scene who didn't have to go through what they did to get it."

This.

All the pissed off 25-30 year old 'hardcore' gamers are mad because when they started this hobby, they were NERDS and GEEKS and beaten up in gym class by the jocks because they played video games. Now the people who were beating them up want to play video games too, but never had to be labelled as nerds when they were young.

And there is a certain value, in their eyes, to all that torment. A badge of honor that is being sullied by these new entrants into their domain. They don't want to be mainstream, because the mainstream took their lunch money when they were kids.

Not all of us. I was the first kid on the block to get an NES. It had the opposite effect than the one you describe.

 

[Loonerinoes]

There's a reason, I think, as to why most hardcore gamers seem to be fine peeps IRL while usually being the kinds of twats who insult casuals over the internet to make themselves feel better.

Personally, I think this assessment is inaccurate. Since the GIFT has already been referenced, allow me to use it to explain my take on the theory:

The problem with 'n00bs' however is proven by John Gabriel's Greater internet fuckwad theory.

Here's my take:
Total fuckward+lack of anonymity+audience+consequences=Someone who pretends to be a "normal person"

In other words, while the Penny Arcade guys prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt and act as if it's just the anonymity and audience making them act not like themselves, I see it in reverse.

See, the common defence a lot of internet jackasses use when confronted about their behavior is "I just act that way online, I'm not like that in real life". Which from my perspective is utter bull. Someone who acts like an asshole online does so because they, in real life and everywhere else, are an asshole. The thing is, if they act like an asshole in real life, everyone would hate them, they'd have no friends, wouldn't be able to hold a job and would run a severe risk of being beaten up on a regular basis. So they curtail their natural behavior to conform to more socially expected norms and project a facade of being a "decent, normal person". But they're still an asshole.

This theory is based on the concept (and Trope) What You Are In The Dark [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatYouAreInTheDark], the idea that your true nature is revealed by how you act when you think no-one will know (or at least not know it's you). If you scroll down to the bottom, the Tropes page even lists people's behavior on the internet as a real-life example of the trope in effect.

So, going back to Loonerinoes' original quote which I cited, these "hardcore gamers" you mentioned are not "fine peeps" in real life. They're douchebags. They just act like "fine peeps" in real life to stop you from punching them in the balls- they prefer to bully people who can't fight back.

This is true also to a degree. I concur with what you've said, but please take note that over here we've really stumbled into a bigger philosophical question.

And that is wether or not a person who doesn't act like a dick, purely because of the consequences that would happen to them as a result, is still a dick or not?

I think it boils down to how you view humanity in general. The easy way out is to say "People are shit." but really...I don't think that having selfish reasons, like consequences, stop you from doing bad things makes you necessarily a bad person. In the end the action (or lack thereof) is still what counts in my eyes, not some douchebag writing that someone writes on the internet to belittle someone else.

Or to put it in another way, I really don't give that much weight to words and place it moreso on actions. If these hardcore peeps actually followed through on their forum posts, by say...finding out the noob IRL and trying to intimidate him in person, then I'd genuinely start viewing them as dicks. Fact is most don't resort to that at all...and because they don't resort to that *action* I don't consider the arguments and bitching they throw about on the internet to make them out to be bad people. Just smacktalkers really, ones whose words I could not take personally even if my life depended on it because they don't know jack shit about what they're talking about.

But that's just me...and as I've said, this is pretty much an even bigger philosophical issue at this point I think.

 

[zombiejoe]

Good article, I liked it.

 

[V8 Ninja]

As many users have already said; blame the internet, not the people. Most people subconsciously think that the internet is a place where every participant is a mindless super-intelligent AI when in reality it's a place used and built by the people.

 

[Cosplay Horatio]

I remember when I played L4D2 someone was getting smoked but I didn't see it happening and not paying attention to what they were saying I was helping up the closest survivor and then got kicked because the other guy died moments after I noticed what was going on.

These things happen sometimes on accident and people like myself still get called noob. We all can't remember how to play every now and then and need to refresh our minds for the next time that happens.

 

[Ed.]

I've been through all the stages in ES (a HL2 mod) from noob to regular to experienced to pro and a well known name in the community for that game to Dev and these angry fucktards are present at every step it really is the inter nets anonymity.

You have glossed over something here though something we call the diferance between a newb and a noob some people who come on ask for help get it improve some come on do idiotic things yell at people who try and help them then rage quit cursing at the game.

 

[Stevo_s]

The konami code is that up down up down left right left right a b select start right?

Anyways very cool to be honest I feel kinda bad when kill a noob in Modern Warfare 2 more than 8 times... And hell I use youtube for some games as well.

 

[Emperorpeng]

I've been gaming since I was seven, but when I started college, everyone I knew was playing Halo 2; a game I'd never played from a genre I wasn't familiar with. I got owned consistently for months.
FPSs have a harsh learning curve even for those experienced with general gaming conventions.

 

[Lma0nade]

Why continue being a noob when you have Hax?

 

[eniac0]

i havent read *all* the posts so forgive me if im repeating. i think one point the article misses is the age factor. from experience, all the people that constantly talk thrash to noobs (or anyone for that matter) are either 1. below the 20 years old line and/or 2. have a difficulty socially expressing themselves (as-in making friends in real life).

the other thing is that as it is the case in many situation, they're the vocal minority that makes all gamers look bad. most people are just happy logging on, doing their thing and logging off, whenever that is.

its not any less irritating since its pretty difficult to slap these bitches around. personally im midway between casual and hardcore, i guess that would make me a normal guy. i dont play a game enough to know all of the tricks but i like to think i can reach a level where i can be useful to the team.

but i think that this goes to show that bluetooth headsets on the ps3 are generally a bad idea now its much easier to mute some random ***** on the chat window than it is to mute the same guy during an online game with audio chat.

 

[tehroc]

There is a difference between a newbie and a noob. A newbie is generally new to the game and unaware of any gaffs; he will be the first to tell you this. A noob may not be new but is also unaware of any gaff except the noob wont accept criticism.

 

[Plurralbles]

well... you kind of have to start getting pissed when someone refuses to use hte search bar and refuses to look through the comment section of a youtube vid. The amount of times someone asks how to use or get FRAPS is fucking annoying. There are even comments asking how to start up multiplayer a lot of hte time on vids for things like Rome Total War. The vid maker actually made his own "accessing multiplayer for dummies" vid because it's just TOO "complicated" to read the manual.