265: Curing the Noobonic Plague

[Twilight_guy]

The theoretical gamer's first mistake was reading Youtube comments, he needs to first learn how acidic and hate-filled those comments can be. I guess this comes with experience too but I think most people can pick up on the vileness pretty quick.

My personal theory on why so much hate exists from gamers is that hate is more vocal and gamers are more internet prone. People who fit into the category of gamer tend to also fit into the category of geek and heavy internet user. This means that there tends to be more of them online then for enthusiasts of say, knitting or lawn-mowing. This means seeing more of there comments on gameing sights since there will be more of them online. Compounding this is the general notion that anger is a strong motivator. People who get angry will fly off the handle and post horrible things but calm people can easily choose to not do anything. On top of that, angry posts and comments draw one's attention. The five supportive posts are overridden by the one jerkhole who insulted your mother and you complain about him later rather then acknowledging the other properly because he stuck out. This tends to lead to a discrepancy in the number and notability of nice vs. mean comments. Taken from a group that exists in larger numbers on the great planes of the interwebs and you have a large portion of hate linked to gamers (or at least a perceived large portion).

Now there is some tendency for gamers to be abnormally angry even for there group. I link this to the good portion of gamers that are teenagers and kids and at that socially awkward adolescences (hey wait, that's me!). Being a time of emotional... weirdness teens and some kids tend to have quiet a bit of hate or at least enough emotional unsuitability to easily reach hate. This leads to quiet a few people that are potentially quick to rage. Now I know that this is actually a minority of gamers but still the angry minority is more vocal then the happy majority. In addition, young gamers tend to be more vocal. Even here on the escapist, A big portion of commenters are quiet young this leads to more potentially emotion stressed people talking and more potential rage.

Combine this with the noted tendency of those who struggled to get where they are being threatened by the new people and there apparently acceptance without years of stigma and practice and there inevitable fear turning to rage and you have a whole cesspool of anger building quietly.

Now from your own comments its become clear that rage filled people tend to be isolated (nobody seem to know anyone who is like this) or at least hang out with other mean gamers. This rage might be a reaction out of fear against the world due to social isolation. We all know how isolated people can find pleasure in hiding in games and its possible that this vocal group is angry at people due there isolation and just happen to play games and be drawn to games.

In the end though it's quiet clear that there is a line being drawn in the sand between hardcore and casual. the hardcore side is highly charged and ready to strike against anything casual. My theory on this is that games server as kind of an isolated niche and a secluded private sanctum where isolated and stigmatized gamers hung out with other isolated and stigmatized gamers and were equals but now see the slowly encroaching lines of gaming becoming main stream and are desperately trying to hold back the tide of gaming become not a private niche but an activity that is potential used by every member of society. Games will no longer be an oasis but instead by a sprawling metropolis and the locals want to keep everyone out and horde it so they put up "no noob" signs to shoo away outsiders.

Now where is this wandering stag going? I don't know but I have to say that this is a good article and a fine attempt to find out why there is so much gamer hate.
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[vxicepickxv]

A gamer calling himself "hardcore" is the same as a footballer calling himself "pro", just because he has natural talent.

Not all gamers can be naturally good at games, and not all of them wan't to chainsaw people in half. Maybe for the the sake of their mental health. Some people might want to come home after a hard day, and play peggle to lighten their mood and relieve stress.

Besides, no matter what they say, "hardcore" gamers do play casual games, if only for nostalgia's sake.

I tent to ask the "hardcore" guys on modern warfare 2 hour long until they're picked up as pro gamers? Most of them tend to just shut their mouths after that.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

This is just one of the tendencies of people who feel the need to look down on someone for a reason. If it is in games, forums or in real life, some people just need to feel good about themself in a misplaced sence of superiority.

*Edit: I always like to point out to someone scolding someone for 'noob' that they were once a noob too.

 

[Twinmill5000]

You're right in this article. On my other hobbies, I don't find many people bashing others with non-sarcastic vitrol for being a newcomer to the field. In fact, the only vitriolic comments I've seen outside of gaming and b, were users bashing a guitarist because he was using sweeps. That. And metal flamewars. On the writing community I'm in, most people are laid back. Sure it sucks when you're paired with someone who can't write, but nobody there says the word noob seriously, let alone to actual newcomers. They help them.

Also, now you know why, when I take a break from a game, specifically a fps, it takes me literally jonsing for it like a smoker who tried to quit cold turkey to get me to pick up the mouse and keyboard and start playing again. Being a noob sucks, and I specifically don't like being told off by a 14 year old who has played more recently than I have.

Another issue is that, with gaming, at least for me, skill decays much faster than with something else, like, guitar or writing or web design or graphic design in general.

 

[Kailvin]

This is sadly true... However i find that most of the problems with gamers have somehow congealed into supercritical cess pools that should be "Purged" with nuclear weapons. CSS Halo MW2 and some of the WoW community. They by far are the worst. Many newb's have asked me many things I stop. Help. Explain. It is what everyone should do. We were all newb's at one point. However I utterly hate Noobs. The difference between the two is simple. a Newb is short for Newbie a new player who dosent understand the game. A Noob however is a jerkwad who calls other people it for being better IE in halo someone uses a sniper and gets a headshot the headshotee' would yell NOOB PROS DONT USE SNIPERS into there mic which just pisses me off. Too all newbs out there. Keep trying. There are Shitheads in every community. Get past it. Have fun. Learn to play. Ask for help from a friendly person. Its all a game. Everyone should be there to have fun. Just like you.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, I think a big part of the problem is the whole "don't you know who your talking to?" attitude among a lot of casuals. People that think they are special and shouldn't be talked down to because they are a manager, drive a fancy car, and/or happen to be in good shape. I consider this a benefit of anonymity to be honest because I tend to think it results in a lot of arrogant and self important people getting exactly what they should be getting IRL. To be honest with you, that is a big part of the problem I think, a lot of noobs, especially casual ones tend to be quite arrogant.

To put things into perspective, someone who started playing World Of Warcraft (for example) a few years ago generally had to spend a lot of time figuring things out. If some nub jumps up and starts demanding answers to things people had to work for, and makes it clear they are doing so in order to race to the end of the game and "don't want to waste the time learning", it can make veterans pretty irritated. I'm willing to help a newbie (as opposed to a noob) who seems to be making a genuine effort to play but gets stuck, on the other hand if it's someone who has the wrong attitude and/or seems to be stuck because they are too lazy to bother to read the quest description, I have little or no sympathy.

When it comes to something like "Super Mario Brothers", again a lot of people put many, many hours into beating that game and discovering it's ridiculous numbers of secrets. How you go about asking for help, and how much effort you seem to be putting in seems to have a lot to do with the reception someone gets. A lot of people do very much approach things from the perspective of "I'm uber, and I shouldn't be stuck here, I'm better than this. Someone tell me how to do it".

See, I think there is a point being missed in this article, and that is that there is a differance between newbie and "noob". Everyone was a newbie at one point, but not everyone was a noob. Noob is a state of mind more than anything, an inherant trait that CAN be overcome, but takes work.

Let me sort of illustrate the point in detail, something that will have a lot of World Of Warcraft veterans shaking their heads because they understand exactly what I mean.

Let's say your in Goldshire, someone wants help to kill "Hogger", that's fine, Hogger is famous because he's the first boss most alliance players will meet that requires help, it's designed that way, and we've all been there. People will generally accept this, and we all make Hogger jokes because of it. On the other hand let's say someone says they need help finding and killing "Goldtooth", who is a solo mob and the subject of a quest that tells you exactly where he is. Goldshire isn't that big, and is designed to be explored and for new characters to gain experience by fighting the various wandering monsters as they do. Someone who asks this usually isn't wanting to play the game seriously.

Now to illustrate the problem, let's say the noob above whines enough where he manages to get through Goldshire in record time, and enters Westfall. The guy starts crying because the Defias and Harvesters hit harder and are higher levels than him and he keeps getting trashed. What's more most of the quests require him to search and explore and deal with higher level mobs. Not wanting to go back and level he starts screaming for help about everything and basically gets people to play the game for him.

Accelerate this a while, and you see this guy (and we've all met "him") sitting around in the current endgame hub, with a max level character, and lacking most of the basic skills your supposed to have to play. He inevitably gets stuck in groups for random heroics and/or begs his way into raids that are short people, and causes problems due to lack of developed understanding about concepts like "aggro", or combat movement. Being used to effectively having the game played for him, he never learns week after week. This guy probably doesn't even know how to get items because "he doesn't want to waste the time" and simply buys gold from Chinese farmers to keep himself operating (they stay in business for a reason). He decides he needs an alternate character so he can do other things, he buys one, and then winds up with TWO characters he doesn't know how to play. He starts to get a bad reputation, so he pays to have his name changed by Blizzard periodically.

That is a nub, and in many cases he very much does have a "don't you know who I am?" attitude, and in some cases will even tell you that along with making it clear he doesn't "have the time" for farming or otherwise playing the bloody game.

This kind of mentality exists outside of WoW and MMORPGs as well, you have them in all types of games. "Casual" gamers are oftentimes disliked in part because casual gamers feel they are entitled to being handed success in a game because people like them who have "lives" don't have the time to actually play and develop skills or resources. You get people like this who show up in shooters and other action games as well. A new player in a shooter who doesn't know what he's doing (but is trying to learn) is one thing, a player who doesn't make an effort and keeps playing a sniper to farm kills or whatever and doesn't care about the team (surprisingly common) is something else entirely, especially if you keep meeting them and they aren't even trying to avoid making the same mistakes, or adapt how they are playing.

Polite newbies who are making an effort to learn and play the games right are generally not scorned. Nubs on the other hand are something else entirely when you meet them for real. What's more it's the Nubs who keep the farmers, character sellers, for cash achievement boosters, and other types of unsavory people who mess up entire games in business. Not to mention arguably being the reason why games now routinely sell services for changing character names and servers and such, whch have legitimate uses, but generally seem to mostly be employed by people who want to avoid bad reputations, typically gained from constant nubbish behavior.

Such are my thoughts on the subject. Newbies are arguably the life blood of a game, and what keeps it going and a fresh pool of players, nubs on the other hand are like a parasite that makes you sick, and can eventually lead to the death of the game (or at least enjoyment of it).

 

[Sentox6]

I guess it would be wrong to allude to the relative lack of technical difficulty in Jimmy Page's playing, then.

Damn.

 

[Z-I]

This makes me think of something, particularly a story I should tell you.

With RPing in Warcraft III, usually when people ask before they start spamming units/heroes I usually teach them. One of my friends went to teach such a person, and after a while he left. The new person proceeded to spawn Archimonde and attack everyone else.

These are situations where a newbie doesn't know the point of the game and as such once they learn just stick around beating up people that're trying to get through properly what they got through, or even in some cases trying to get back to a previous level ( Alternate characters, that sort of thing. ). This is likely the same in other games, and if it isn't, I can definitely imagine it working that way, anyway.

The point is, sometimes even if you teach a newbie they still don't work out well. They don't follow the given path in the game, and ruin it for the rest of the people. These are the people that kill low-level quest givers in WoW, the people that noob tube in MW2, and other such things. They know how to play, but they don't know the goal, and eventually delude themselves into thinking that is the goal, and keep doing it, ruining the game for others.

 

[notsosavagemessiah]

this article is a very honest and poignant mirror with which to look into. I often find myself shocked when somebody doesn't know how to "hadouken" in street fighter, or if they can't do any target combos, but i try not to mock them. Because no matter how good you can get, somebody is always better, and that applies to all games. So where then is the sense in being arrogant about it?

Also, if a person is "ruining the game for everyone else" then why don't you teach them better? Often times it's not the person who fails to grasp the concept's fault, so much as the people who play around them. They fail to instruct, or get frustrated in doing so and leave it as is, thusly leaving somebody with an incomplete knowledge of where to go or what to do in said game. If they screw up, correct them, don't complain because they're new, because if you do, and you just leave the new player at that, they'll continue down the path of the "noob" and continue ruining your favorite games. In essence, your lack of training and instruction is in fact ruining the game, not their failure to grasp it.

 

[TheMann]

"There are still purists that think mouse and twenty hard-to-remember keyboard buttons are the 'true' FPSs, but that is a whole separate rant which just reinforces my point."

Huh? WASD, Shift and Spacebar are "twenty hard-to-remember keys"? I count six. Well, I also use Control to sprint if the game calls for it, or E and Q if there's special functions, but all those keys are so close together. This guy's obviously a console junkie or doesn't use the PC much. However, if you prefer one over the other it's your business. I'm not going to flame anyone for using a console. Geez, but for the life of me I seriously can't play an FPS on a console; I'd get my ass kicked. Well, aside from Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, but those also weren't very complicated.

OT: I tend to shrug it off if someone calls me a noob. I don't say much anyway. Besides, I figure, just get better if you really want to shut them up. I was playing TF2 last night and I am a noob/newb to that game in particular, and was getting schooled pretty badly, but nobody said anything about it. Of course, our whole team was getting curb-stomped so maybe they just didn't care. Most things said were jokes or "How did that just happen? Holy shit we we suck!" I suppose eventually they'll be some shithead on there finger pointing but I really don't care. Still people need to realize that being rude just reflects poorly on the community in general.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

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.

Made a button for my online store that had the konomi code on it. Brought some to an anime convention to sell and you'd be surprised who recognized the code.

Girl gamers.

I think there was only one, maybe two, guys who recognized it. But most of the girl gamers knew it right off the bat.

I found it very entertaining.

 

[Phoenix8541]

A classic example of people who, in their real lives, have no feelings of accomplishment or pride for themselves. So in the one area they are proficient or even excellent, they choose lash out at those around them for what they lack in their own lives. As a community of gamers who wish to improve the medium and wish to see it grow we must make a conscious decision to represent the sub-culture for what it truly is and not what it has appeared to be by those who wish to use public forums to outsource frustrations or emotional inadequacies.

"Criticism that is not constructive, is just an opinion" -Phoenix8541