270: The 12-Year-Old English Kid Who Carried Us to Victory

[hyperdrachen]

Good Story, very inspirational, but. IS everything in it true though? It sounds pretty far out that almost everyone on a team of Modern Warfare would follow a guy nomatter how inspiring he is. Chances are a great part probably has music in their ears or some others reason not to being able to listen on top of not wanting to in the first place?

If it is true though. Good on you, this is probably a once in a lifetime thing.

according to the article only 3 team members got on board, the rest continued thier mucking about.

That said I think theres somethign we often forget about when singing of the trash online. Look how many of us complain about it/ detest it. Surely there are some hippocrates there but usually I gotta say there's maybe 1 guy in the game calling me "******" and such. The rest are mostly quiet or, perhaps just shout the occasional idea, or obscenity at frustration from death. I'm not really appauled by somone saying "aw fuck" when they die. But going on a 5 minute rant about what a ****** the sniper is, is a different issue.

Yeah there are some really low folks online, but are they even really the majority?

 

[Outright Villainy]

this is just a guess so don't take this to badly, but I'm guessing you never read great expatiations?

ot
I doubt this was true, all the servers are separated by continent I think.... at least that would explain that the few times I do go on all I get are French and German players

I've not read Great Expectations, but I am familiar with "Pip" as a character in that -- but I wasn't sure if the South Park "Pip" was a reference to that, or that it was just a reference to the English slang, "pip" (or "pip-pip").

Well this episode [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_(South_Park)] seems to put that issue to rest. I think the ending change was also a parody on how Dickens changed his as well.

Ot: Yeah, it's always amazing when a leader emerges.

In Team Fortress we have a simple way of selecting our leaders.
Any medic with a mic is a leader.

Pretty much; I think my biggest love about that game is how easily any role can be filled by those who are so inclined. People rally behind a medic, and they want to protect him. They'll do as he say because he's keeping everyone alive.

 

[idiot445]

My best online FPS experience was similar to this. One late night on MW2 a 12-year-old British kid got into a lobby with 11/12 mics. Favela came up as the map, and the kid suggested we have an entire battle of riot shields. I'm not sure how or why, but everyone went along with it. We all ran around smacking each other in the back, and it was one of the most fun matches I've ever had. We followed it up in Terminal with an all knife fight and then just shotguns in Underpass. Anyone could have ruined the fun by not participating, but somehow the group held it together for those three matches. After that people started leaving because it was late at night, and the dynamic fell apart. I've never seen anything like that again.

 

[Piecewise]

Hate to say it but, "Cool story, bro"

 

[Albino Boo]

I'm not sure that being able to lead a team in a fps means that you leadership skills beyond leading a team in fps. People playing an fps are least engaged in playing, they have chosen to play purely on voluntary bases and that half the battle. In the real world getting people to engage is the hard bit. Trying to take a group of individuals some of whom don't what be there at all, others who just want to use you as means of victory in private personality clash and some people who will just tell want want hear as means of advancement is the hard job of being a leader. None of those skills you develop in a fps.

 

[Evil the White]

Just going to niggle this, the quote at the top is wrong; "Kill the pig" is only said once whenever the chant comes up. I studied this book over the course of two years, so I'm allowed to be mildly annoyed.

 

[Dak_N_Jaxter]

LOL
Fun to read.
It was a simple story, but the way it was so glorified and dramatised made it all the more fun.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

Old Speckled Hen?

Can I claim to be the 12 year old in order to get one of the finest mass-produced ales in existence?

 

[rpsms]

Even the people who aren't on a mic or even helping to tow the line can hear the intel on where and what the team is doing and where the other team is.

So always speak up.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

*wipes away a single, manly tear*

That was beautiful, man. Simply beautiful.

 

[chuckwendig]

Just going to niggle this, the quote at the top is wrong; "Kill the pig" is only said once whenever the chant comes up. I studied this book over the course of two years, so I'm allowed to be mildly annoyed.

Don't have the actual book in front of me at present, but:

http://books.google.com/books?id=hau4eUh2Z7wC&pg=PA68&dq=%22kill+the+pig%22&hl=en&ei=s1CGTLCVHMLflgetnpCNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22kill%20the%20pig%22&f=false

-- Chuck

 

[chuckwendig]

Oh, and thanks, all.

Glad you liked it.

I now have great thirst for Old Speckled Hen. Sure, it's not even noon. Sure, that probably makes me an alcoholic. Sure, I'm not wearing pants. Shut up.

-- Chuck

 

[The Cheezy One]

i wish i could rally people around me
must have been a good group of people. if you try to lead on MW or MW2 most of the time, you sound pretentious and whiny:
"I have a plan. Everyone follow me"
they could be the best leader ever, but if theyre not, youve just sworn yourself to someone bad. which is embarressing and painful

ahhh, i did lord of the flies for GCSE. if anything, this sounds like a reversal. from the shattering of the conch (everone losing), it reforms (Pip turning up) and order reigns (win). or possibly, Pip is the captain at the end, the man that everyone obeys, not because hes powerful (the savages could have easily killed him, even as young as they were), but because he represents order, which is what the boys craved

sorry, rambled a bit there, wont make sense to anyone who hasnt read the book

 

[chuckwendig]

i wish i could rally people around me
must have been a good group of people. if you try to lead on MW or MW2 most of the time, you sound pretentious and whiny:
"I have a plan. Everyone follow me"
they could be the best leader ever, but if theyre not, youve just sworn yourself to someone bad. which is embarressing and painful

ahhh, i did lord of the flies for GCSE. if anything, this sounds like a reversal. from the shattering of the conch (everone losing), it reforms (Pip turning up) and order reigns (win). or possibly, Pip is the captain at the end, the man that everyone obeys, not because hes powerful (the savages could have easily killed him, even as young as they were), but because he represents order, which is what the boys craved

sorry, rambled a bit there, wont make sense to anyone who hasnt read the book

That's exactly it, yes. It begins with me thinking that the multiplayer experience is like Lord of the Flies: brutality and boulders. But the reality is far less cynical, showing a world where Piggy is not only *not* crushed by his peers, but actually manages to be a leader instead of merely a whiny sidekick.

-- Chuck

 

[lillebille]

that was great! ive had similar things happen to me in team fortress 2
but i think many people have...

 

[kaieth]

Pip's from Great Expectations, by the way. The character in South Park is an homage to the book.

 

[The Cheezy One]

That's exactly it, yes. It begins with me thinking that the multiplayer experience is like Lord of the Flies: brutality and boulders. But the reality is far less cynical, showing a world where Piggy is not only *not* crushed by his peers, but actually manages to be a leader instead of merely a whiny sidekick.

-- Chuck

its a shame you cant recreate that experience. its not just everyone working together, you can recreate that with some friends on at the same time (well, i cant because i dont have enough friends interested in gaming as me, which is why i find multiplayer-orientated games unattractive), its the feeling that other people on the internet care. they arent in it for their own gain, they honestly want to help others, or feel like they are storming a bunker as elite SAS. working together adds a realism to games that squad based single player gameplay can only hint at. its unfortunate that in MW and MW2, working together is disadvantageous - twice as much person to hide, and you can both get killed in the same bullet/burst. even battlefield:bad company's touted 'teamwork based' gameplay doesnt seem to cut it.
i have some thoughts as to improve team-based gameplay - for example, creating a sort of 'matrix' with the players, that applies bonuses to everyone in it e.g. increased damage, spread damage around the group? this would improve team based gameplay, and people would have to work together so they are moving in the same direction, literally and metaphorically.
but thinking about it, youre more talking about 'leader' based gameplay, something fairly different.
i believe MAG for the ps3 tried this, where the larger objectives (capture town) would funnel down into smaller, squad based objectives (knock out machine gun post, destroy helicopter). however, im not sure how popular that turned out, being a wii/360 owner. and it suffers the major problem, that when people stop playing it, it stops being a game. and that kind of immersion cant be fixed with bots.

 

[Bloodstain]

Very nice article, Mr. Wendig.

I wish I met people like Pip in online gaming.

 

[strum4h]

In Team Fortress we have a simple way of selecting our leaders.
Any medic with a mic is a leader.

It's that simple, medic's have little direct ability so they need to be able to order people around.
Being able to come to terms with the idea that you're not the one shooting people is pretty much the maturity test.

Of course leadership in Team Fortress is a rather simple affair, everyone already knows the goal, but the teamwork enters into it in the form of trying to synchronise the efforts of the team.

That is the most true thing that I have ever read.

 

[Phoenixlight]

12 year olds shouldn't be playing unsuitable games /thread