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

[Chuck Wendig]

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

Playing multiplayer shooters can be like wading through a morass of childish teabaggers. Chuck Wendig reminds us that, even though bad sportsmanship exists, a light can still shine through in the darkness.

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[Throwitawaynow]

Déjà vu I could have sworn I read this somewhere before.

Edit: It's a best of, we both need to read the top of the website lol!

 

[Zepren]

Deja'vu I could have sworn I read this somewhere before.

Edit: Ah it's cause it's the best of 2010

 

[LogicNProportion]

I loved this article when it first came out, and I love it now.

I've encountered a few players like Pip, and it truly is a fun experience.

 

[Fanta Grape]

I remember reading this... It's my favourite article I've ever read on the site.

I swear to God, it's people like these that makes multiplayer gaming worthwhile

 

[cerebus23]

God takes me back to crysis, and bgs in wow and well just about every game with online play, you get XX amount of people that no matter what think they are rambo, and will run around getting owned, the other team actually seems to have the team that gets it, that hey it is a group thing and we hang together watch each others backs we will slaughter the other team. Meanwhile most of the time you are stuck with the worst team ever.

Best thing about being on the worst team is eventually some of them start bailing on the match, and sometimes new players cycle in, and sometimes those players are good if not great team players. So me i do not panic i just sit around and curse to myself when i get on a team that just will not work together. On occasion i will try to say hey you know we need to have a plan and move in groups or something see if anyone take the hint, if not i find me a spot to sit and get killed until the match ends or we get some decent players.

 

[mattaui]

Chuck Wendig is an extremely entertaining author. I suggest everyone who enjoyed this check out his blog at terribleminds.com, especially if you've got any interest in the craft of writing. He produces some of the most hilariously inspirational diatribes on the subject, along with random craziness on other topics.

 

[B-Rye]

To Pip; present and future leader, current online life-taker and hell-raiser. I gladly raise my glass to you.

 

[Nesrie]

So you create an article that talks about how great multiplayer gaming can be with strangers when you leave out all the immature, sexual and generally unpleasant business out of the communication channels... except the way you describe the scenario is loaded with that crap. And I am not talking about the intro, I am talking about the way he described fellow gamers who did not follow Pip and himself.

 

[rokkolpo]

*raise glass*

To pip, may his voice be as low as his enemies are buried!

 

[Kermi]

It's still a lovely story, but I've yet to find my "Pip" in MW2 or Halo 3/Reach.

Children are still annoying children to me, and whenever we're losing all they do is whine, in their horrible little voices "Come on guys, get it together!" while they fire their assault rifle at some menacing trees or drive their teammates off a cliff in a Warthog.

The little kids are almost invariably the reason my team loses. Yet somehow they rationalise it as everyone else's fault that they threw a grenade against a wall then walked over it.

 

[Socialdismay]

Wow, I hadn't read this before. It was really fun to read.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Ender Wiggin much? Fascinating. Missed this the first time 'round, glad it came back as a best of. Great read, and proof that there are those around who still care for the game, not just the shit talking.

 

[Fasckira]

Epic read, a seriously well written article! Glad for the repost.

 

[mythstoorfoot]

I hope you all understand the moral of the story: us Brits are your salvation.

Lovely article, and so well written. Jolly good show all round, old chap!

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

very cool. this is actually what i enjoyed most about MMOs like WoW back when i still played them--not so much competent kids, as competent team players and leaders in general. although, that said, i did know a few kids i never would have guessed were kids, because their behavior, social skills, and team spirit were excellent. it's always a good feeling to be able to trust the people you're playing with

 

[TiefBlau]

Oh hey, a kid who has played Team Fortress 2 before.

 

[Ironmaus]

So you create an article that talks about how great multiplayer gaming can be with strangers when you leave out all the immature, sexual and generally unpleasant business out of the communication channels... except the way you describe the scenario is loaded with that crap. And I am not talking about the intro, I am talking about the way he described fellow gamers who did not follow Pip and himself.

Agreed. It feels like the lesson is that, so long as you are on the right side (defined for this scenario as those who follow Pip), you can refer to others as "idiots with buckets on their heads, playing a game of grab-ass as they died again and again." I know it seems different because the author is talking about someone in the past rather than talking to them in the present, but I don't think we can dismiss it that easily. He's still locked into immature and sexually-based descriptions of others and their behavior.

How much more mature would it be if your opponent in Black Ops was totally silent to you during the match, but later wrote on his Facebook page how you handle a sniper rifle as sloppy as he handled your mom last night? Does pulling the discourse outside the game somehow redeem that kind of talk? I think we're excusing it a little too readily just because we like the idea of Pip, and I don't know that the idea of Pip would approve.

 

[Clemenstation]

Missed this article the first time round. Well written and I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that sometimes, against all odds, teamwork congeals from the cesspools of public play. It just doesn't happen all that often.