The "Screaming Children on Mics" Argument

[thiosk]

I don't play multiplayer games anymore, in part because of the profanity laced hyper-competitiveness of 12-16 year olds.

The console FPS democratized the shooter. And the part that sucks about democracy is that everyone has a voice-- especially the fucking pricks.

 

[C95J]

When I play Black Ops I barely ever encounter anyone who actually is a screaming 12 year old. But even if I did, there is no excuse for argument anyway.

It's a bit like complaining that you can't get too sleep because your light is still on. You could either:
1. Keep uselessly complaining about the light shining into your eyes.
2. Go and turn the fucking light off, like a normal person.

Seriously, not only is it not as bad as you think, or make it out to be, but it is also a very easily solved problem when you do encounter someone like this.

 

[kebab4you]

Wow the elitism is really stinking this place up.
I personally don't have a problem with screaming children, they are hilarious to annoy, and if that fails just pretend you are attracted to them. They soon shut up.

I'd rather have screaming kids on my console than the nerd population polluting pc games, playing their shitty outdated memes down the mics constantly while their lackeys applaud like a collection of retarded chimps.

Oh sorry, did I just put console players in a better light than pcs? Somebody crucify me please.

Wait what?Since when did being a nerd and spouting memes go hand in hand?From my experience mostly kids are the meme spouting machines online.
And when did this become a "Pc is better the console" thread?

 

[Custard_Angel]

I can have a wonderful time, but when I hear "12-year-old-voice" suddenly the fun drains away and I'm in a world of morons.

 

[Zac Smith]

Black Ops is an 18 anyway here in the UK so theoretically there shouldn't be screaming 13 year olds playing anyway. But we shouldn't have to resort to muting every player we meet, its just courtesy. You wouldn't walk down the street screaming and swearing at strangers about how you "did their mum" last night (Well, most kids wouldn't I hope) So why is it accepted as part of online gaming. People who play for a good time shouldn't have to put up with immature behavior online

 

[SammiYin]

Wow the elitism is really stinking this place up.
I personally don't have a problem with screaming children, they are hilarious to annoy, and if that fails just pretend you are attracted to them. They soon shut up.

I'd rather have screaming kids on my console than the nerd population polluting pc games, playing their shitty outdated memes down the mics constantly while their lackeys applaud like a collection of retarded chimps.

Oh sorry, did I just put console players in a better light than pcs? Somebody crucify me please.

Wait what?Since when did being a nerd and spouting memes go hand in hand?From my experience mostly kids are the meme spouting machines online.
And when did this become a "Pc is better the console" thread?

That's the impression I got from reading some of these posts at what the thread was interpreted as. But to answer your question, I don't meet a lot of screaming children when I play pc games online, but the people who keep shouting "it's over 9000!" among other irritating things that only nerds would spout, so yea it's a pretty nerdy hobby. But to get this thread back on track
no screaming children don't effect my gameplay, in fact they improve it, as I said before it's hilarious to annoy them, same with any other chodey minority you come across.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well for starters yes the age rating does apply to a degree people shouldn't be playing it if they aren't mature. Secondly just because something is there doesn't mean it has to be used well at least to the degree people need to use in CoD on consoles. I have seen more than one comment saying people mute everyone in a CoD lobby just to avoid this in game. You wouldn't shout in someone's ear or talk like that to someone in public face to face so why is it acceptable in game?

It really does ruin the experience. Now while I don't suffer from this being on PC and to talk with people on a mic you really need to be on a vent or TS server when I have played on consoles I shouldn't have to mute at least 1 person per game. A lot of the kids like this are immature little shits who only care about winning and have no problem abusing imba perks and weapons which also lessens the experience.

Saying this I understand that these kids are probably a minority and anyone who acts like should be banned from playing online for a few years.

 

[PixelKing]

The arguement is that if a child plays the game properly, uses good manners and benefits the game why shouldn't he play the game? I've played with adults who scream and swear and it annoys me. For the record, I'm 13 and have been for a mere 3 days and if people are going to assume i'm a screaming kid just because of my age then i'm going to get annoyed. Age over maturity, remember that.

 

[Leviathan_]

Typical console user/BlOps player attitude who doesn't value teamwork at all. The reason why I switched over to PC gaming.

 

[The Funslinger]

That's the thing. I shouldn't have to mute anyone. Let's just put a couple of games side-by-side here. When I play TF2 I never mute anyone, everyone is polite (as far as gamers go), funny and interesting to talk to. When I play COD on the other-hand, I routinely have mute-all on purely because I don't want to deal with the immature bullshit that comes out of those kid's mouths. I shouldn't have to deal with that shit, and yet there seems to be a huge concentration of those sorts of people in that player-base.

Why should they have less right to play COD than you?

Because they're kids?

You can throw out the argument of age ratings, but in many countries selling games to people under the recommended age is allowed.

Up until a few years ago, that's how it was in the UK. However, recently people have received huge fines for selling games to children under the age rating. I've had to start using ID, as I look fairly young. It's annoying, but I don't disagree, I mean gaming got all this flak at pitching brutal, bloody and "adult" stuff to kids, and it wasn't doing the medium any favors. We can't really play the "look at the age rating" argument if kids can buy those games without adult supervision.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

That's the thing. I shouldn't have to mute anyone. Let's just put a couple of games side-by-side here. When I play TF2 I never mute anyone, everyone is polite (as far as gamers go), funny and interesting to talk to. When I play COD on the other-hand, I routinely have mute-all on purely because I don't want to deal with the immature bullshit that comes out of those kid's mouths. I shouldn't have to deal with that shit, and yet there seems to be a huge concentration of those sorts of people in that player-base.

Either you are talking out of your arse or you are a very, very lucky person.

6 prestiges in Black Ops. 7 days played. You know how many screaming kids I have run into? Or how many squeeky voiced pre teens? About 20. Just like most other people.

TF2 on the other hand? Every second server. Maybe you frequent a specific dedicated server and any kid screaming ****** gets kicked before he can finish the word?

Sure there are squeeky voice pre-teens in TF2, but they're pretty much all polite, compared to every second person in COD, regardless of age, being a complete douchebag.

 

[Bat Vader]

I never really experienced any kids screaming into the mic. That is most likely because I always muted everyone before the game started. If a kid is going to play an M-rated game they should act like an adult when they are playing. I have quit playing the multiplayer part of Call of Duty. It just got boring after awhile.

 

[Creator002]

Once when I was in a game of Gun Game and, as soon as I entered the lobby, the only other person with a microphone said "Creator002, you're a ******".
Just because I was the unlucky one with the mic. We, as gamers, shouldn't have to put up with random slurs from people because we choose to game, just like I shouldn't have to fear getting mugged while walking down an alley as a shortcut to my next destination.

Anyway, I usually don't mute people, I just annoy them until they mute me or leave, so I knifed the little kid he whole next round. He came second last (above me) and he rage-quitted. Do I win?

Basically:

Black Ops is an 18 anyway here in the UK so theoretically there shouldn't be screaming 13 year olds playing anyway. But we shouldn't have to resort to muting every player we meet, its just courtesy. You wouldn't walk down the street screaming and swearing at strangers about how you "did their mum" last night (Well, most kids wouldn't I hope) So why is it accepted as part of online gaming.

EDIT - My example's a rare occurance. Xbox LIVE isn't a cess-pool of these foul-mouthed brats, it's just the few arses that force a generalisation the entire community.

 

[maddness666]

Allow me, if you will, to use a parable.
There was once a town, and in this town there were a great many streets roads and alleys.
One day, a group of unsavoury people moved into an alleyway. They would scream and shout at anyone who walked through their alley.
The townsfolk were greatly saddened. Although they could get around easily enough by taking other roads, the town was sullied.
Despite it making little practical difference, the town wasn't the friendly welcoming place it once was.

Later the people from the alley would take up arms in the form of grenade launchers and would kill may townsfolk in the name of their evil god, Kill to Death ratio. But that is another story for another time.

 

[Sammaul]

Not much of an MP fan myself, but somehow everytime I play, I come across some very annoying douches, not necessarily children.
Last time I played UC3 Beta, I heard someone ask how to do a melee-attack, I told him to use square, he told me to shut up.....

Only other time I spent a lot of hours online was with BF2, never heard any slurs or insults...

 

[Enamour]

This is why I'm glad about South Africa's small gaming community. The servers dry up after a few months and the only ones left to play are the dedicated guys who're keen to play competitively. For some reason, people who actually take something seriously (not the "I'm imba" wankers) tend to not be cunts. Even CoD online was only occasionally annoying on voice.

Bad Company 2 is great, TF2 is great on the manners and voice front... but then again we haven't forgotten what responsible parenting is, even the teens are respectful in their squeaky voices. Whoops, we're heading into Americans and British need to be held accountable for their children territory.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Typical console user/BlOps player attitude who doesn't value teamwork at all. The reason why I switched over to PC gaming.

The elitism in this place stinks.

The "typical console user" attitude is identical to the typical PC gamer attitude. Any differences you may think you have encountered is a product of your imagination. Having played on live for a very long time, and having played on PC for even longer, sometimes even the same games on both platforms, let me tell you, there is no fucking difference.

The one key difference is that if you are playing a PC game which allows dedicated servers (most of them) the fuckwits screaming at you are more likely to get banned. If you frequent that server you wont run into them again. The amount of fuckwits screaming is the same. And its very close to ZERO.

If you ***** about little kids with mics you are clearly doing so for one of the following reasons; you need something to ***** about or you need to claim superiority of platform X because platform Z has more kids with mics.

Well given the whole BF:BC2 thing with teamwork that got something released on PC first does tend to show that PC players do tend to participate more as a team. Banning people is the whole point of there being less screamers in PC games while you can never have that same community on a console game but maybe Gears 3 will change that. Remember same goes for you as goes for them if you point a finger at someone else there are probably 3 pointing back at you. While typical users may be the same on console it is harder to eliminate screamers forever due to client based gaming.

 

[E.Blackadder]

It's hard with the age rating. If a 13 year old wants alcohol (6 pack for instance) their parents don't make the decision as to wether he/she is responsible enough. It's the law. Annoying as it is, games are the same . It's illegal for a 13 year old to play a R18.
On topic, sure you could mute kids like that, and some might argue freedom of speech and all that, but you shouldn't have to. My advice is to tell them calmly how annoying they are, then shoot them in the back. That will shut them up.

EDIT: Ignore the 'shut them up' part, it will probably intensify the annoyance and therefore make things more enjoyable for you.

 

[fragmaster09]

That's the thing. I shouldn't have to mute anyone. Let's just put a couple of games side-by-side here. When I play TF2 I never mute anyone, everyone is polite (as far as gamers go), funny and interesting to talk to. When I play COD on the other-hand, I routinely have mute-all on purely because I don't want to deal with the immature bullshit that comes out of those kid's mouths. I shouldn't have to deal with that shit, and yet there seems to be a huge concentration of those sorts of people in that player-base.

also, WITHIN BlOps, they change, i find a zombies match and either everyone is polite(ish), helpful and co-operative, or they don't have mics(sure there are dark horses who are immature, but 1/20 is less than 18/20...), but i go on to MP and that is the place i have been called G**,told that i f*** my mother, and that i am a "n*****"... all by the same 8-year old...in the same game... who didn't understand me when i told him he was homophobic and racist... and these peolple are the ones who make me lose faith that Americans can ever be spoken to in polite conversation.

also, i don't feel that i should be REQUIRED to mute everyone just to play, and if i muted everyone always, then the minority(who always seem to be british), who try to work as a team, and help each other, wouldn't get noticed

 

[Baradiel]

I remember the few hours I spent playing CS:S as being an incredibly harrowing experience. The things I heard...

Point is, dickheads are NOT solely of Live-persuasion. To tell you the truth, I haven't bumped in to many "screaming children" on Black Ops, possibly for two reason:

1. I rarely play Black Ops, because I think it's a boring game.

2. If I ever play Black Ops, I play while in a Party. I don't need to hear anything other people say. While they could be well-thought out tactics for winning the game, they are more likely going to be either someone singing along to some crap song, insults streaming out of someones mouth like the fucking Niagara Falls, or just inane gibberish.