Valve Guy Says British Gamers Need to Speak Up

[fuzzball]

Because we get asked irrating questions, or are repeatedly told "we saved your arse in world war 1/2"

Not funny.

Lol, i read that and just for giggles i decided to read it like World War one and a half, lol.

OT: Everyone taunts British people a lot, but if they talked enough it would just become normal

 

[Jzolr0708]

I'm American.... and the amount of prejudice in this thread makes me sad.


Yes, I know you don't want to get made fun of for your accent or even deal with that, but it gets very inconvenient to the group when you won't respond to any questions such as "You need that Medpack? Or can I take it" Or "You mind taking the outside, or should I?" on a finale.

Mate, tricks of the trade. Be friendly. Be chatty at first. Tell jokes and try to invite in. Most Brits have anti yank barriers up, so we just ignore the yank speak. If people see you're friendly then we're more likely to talk, give and accept advice.

Thats good advice, and I appreciate it, but in L4D, when using the matchmaking system it has, I'd often be paired with many players in a party chat, or who had a mic on but didn't talk. I'd check their profile, and see, mostly, International Xbox live members. I'd just appreciate some more openness towards other players. Sure, you'll meet ass holes, but they're everywhere. I get made fun of over XBL for things such as my gamer picture, or even my MOTTO, sadly.

 

[TheHitcher]

Because everytime we say something we get the whole. "Oh look a British guy" "Are you French or something?" "Do you like tea"

While this appears harmless it goes on...and on...and on...and on...

Honestly, if I hop into a CoD4 game with a bunch of Americans my first thought is "What's the point even saying anything." I have nothing against Americans, but if accents are gonna get in the way of team play then we might as well not bother!

 

[Aurora219]

Generalisation much?

I talk when I need to. I'm just usually sick to death of the American tossers who won't shut up - the flipside of this argument. With so many people online talking crap, griefing and belittling the other players, I take pride in knowing when to shut up.

Yes I'm English.

 

[Little Duck]

I'm American.... and the amount of prejudice in this thread makes me sad.


Yes, I know you don't want to get made fun of for your accent or even deal with that, but it gets very inconvenient to the group when you won't respond to any questions such as "You need that Medpack? Or can I take it" Or "You mind taking the outside, or should I?" on a finale.

Mate, tricks of the trade. Be friendly. Be chatty at first. Tell jokes and try to invite in. Most Brits have anti yank barriers up, so we just ignore the yank speak. If people see you're friendly then we're more likely to talk, give and accept advice.

Thats good advice, and I appreciate it, but in L4D, when using the matchmaking system it has, I'd often be paired with many players in a party chat, or who had a mic on but didn't talk. I'd check their profile, and see, mostly, International Xbox live members. I'd just appreciate some more openness towards other players. Sure, you'll meet ass holes, but they're everywhere. I get made fun of over XBL for things such as my gamer picture, or even my MOTTO, sadly.

That is a bad on our behalf. The whole "he's an American let's ignore him, as he will insult us" comes up in the case of the mic.

In the anonymous case, Alot of the time British people have Mics about 2 feet away from them, but are worried about being insulted to deathm so don't use them. I found that being a bit inviting, saw the whole team use more mics by the end of the game. Clearly though we need to make an effort to talk more, but you'll need to make an effort to be more inviting. Maybe if we all work together, we could uninlaterally tell all the 13 year olds to shut up together.

 

[Yokai]

It's true, I don't hear many Brits when playing TF2 and the like. However, I do remember one time playing the Age of Chivalry mod when a bunch of Americans kept pestering this British dude to say "squirrel", because they thought it sounded funny in his accent. So I get why they would remain quiet.

 

[Neotericity]

I feel a connection between both Americans and British folk on xbox because as a Canadian I feel like happy medium or something...

 

[silentsentinel]

Its opposite for me. Whenever I play Call of Duty 4, I inexplicably end up on a British server, where all they do is talk about stupid Yanks.

 

[HobbesMkii]

*snip*

Yeah, maybe I'm just stubborn but I'm not going out of my way to put on a fake accent just so I can talk to a bunch of voices over the internet.

Ja. Zis was ein joke, Herr Joke-Hitler. (NOTE: This faux-German is also a joke)

I mean, if you took No. 1 seriously, I can't imagine what you thought of me for point No. 2 (but I sincerely hope it wasn't good). I wasn't trying to make any serious suggestions. If a bunch of British players told me to shut up every time I spoke online because of my annoying American accent, I wouldn't feel compelled to slog through a false accent either. I guess I was just suggesting that Valve was being rather short sighted and American-centric (which is fair, since they are an American company, no matter how many Australians they hire/visit), and I thought I'd play off that for a little bit. I'm not really a rah-rah gung-ho America-First person.

 

[zana bonanza]

Replace "go drink some tea" with "get back in the kitchen where you belong" and maybe Valve would understand why female gamers aren't big on using mics either.

This. So much. The majority of people who play those games are guys, and the majority of those guys are immature douche bags. Anonymity plays a large part in it too; you don't know the guy you're talking to and he doesn't know you, so who cares if you're a jackass? >>;

I feel for you Brits, I really do. Personally, I think your accents are really hot and would only improve my gaming experience more.

EDIT: Aren't there any voice modifiers out there yet? Something to change your voice into something generic? Not sure how much it would help, but at least there'd be no nationally jokes.

 

[Snotnarok]

I like how most people are bashing Americans here, I've never made fun of anyone for their accent, and I don't know anyone who's ever said anything with a British or German player (who BARELY spoke english). Yet I've been kicked from games because I was American with no better reason other than that.

How about cut the racists crap and just grow some thicker skin, there's idiots in every country that'll make fun of how you talk no matter where you're from. So either get over it or learn to use the mute button instead of being racist.

 

[Guitar Gamer]

what is that Valve guy talking about? maybe they like Canadians better or something (I jest I jest)but I get just as much chatter out of them as anybody else

 

[AngloDoom]

I like how most people are bashing Americans here, I've never made fun of anyone for their accent, and I don't know anyone who's ever said anything with a British or German player (who BARELY spoke english). Yet I've been kicked from games because I was American with no better reason other than that.

How about cut the racists crap and just grow some thicker skin, there's idiots in every country that'll make fun of how you talk no matter where you're from. So either get over it or learn to use the mute button instead of being racist.

...So your argument is that you've never experienced racism for being British, so it must be a very small factor yet everyone here mentioned it?

Yes, I know we all have this mindset on the Escapist of 'Grow a thicker skin', but I think that's the wrong attitude to take. Why should I be expected to re-evaluate my expectations and etiquette because the obnoxious minority once again ruin it for the majority?

I personally use the mute button, but when you instruct someone to 'grow a thicker skin' (altering their personality) it always strikes me as odd that people don't pull the arseholes aside and say 'stop being a prick' (altering their personality). Why do we have to tailor our experiences online to suit the dickheads of society?


Either way, I just think the English are less inclined to talk online simply because we've got more of an aloof culture. There's little you can do about that, really. While I think online play can be improved through the mic, I'd say nine out of ten times it just ends up with people hurling abuse, playing shite music, or screaming whenever they get killed as if real bullets ripped through their flesh.

 

[Snotnarok]

I like how most people are bashing Americans here, I've never made fun of anyone for their accent, and I don't know anyone who's ever said anything with a British or German player (who BARELY spoke english). Yet I've been kicked from games because I was American with no better reason other than that.

How about cut the racists crap and just grow some thicker skin, there's idiots in every country that'll make fun of how you talk no matter where you're from. So either get over it or learn to use the mute button instead of being racist.

...So your argument is that you've never experienced racism for being British, so it must be a very small factor yet everyone here mentioned it?

Yes, I know we all have this mindset on the Escapist of 'Grow a thicker skin', but I think that's the wrong attitude to take. Why should I be expected to re-evaluate my expectations and etiquette because the obnoxious minority once again ruin it for the majority?

I personally use the mute button, but when you instruct someone to 'grow a thicker skin' (altering their personality) it always strikes me as odd that people don't pull the arseholes aside and say 'stop being a prick' (altering their personality). Why do we have to tailor our experiences online to suit the dickheads of society?


Either way, I just think the English are less inclined to talk online simply because we've got more of an aloof culture. There's little you can do about that, really. While I think online play can be improved through the mic, I'd say nine out of ten times it just ends up with people hurling abuse, playing shite music, or screaming whenever they get killed as if real bullets ripped through their flesh.

I'm going to guess you glanced over my post because if British racism and American racism is different it's news to me.

I said grow a thicker skin because everyone on the net will experience racism, and it's not exactly hard to dodge, most of the time you just mute and ignore, or you can leave the server or boot people, there's options instead of most people just saying it's the Americans fault. I say you glanced over my post because, I said that I was booted from several games just because I'm American. So no I've not encountered British racism toward me, I've experienced racism toward Americans which is what many here are posting is at fault. So yes I've experienced racism for being from a country, is it bad that they do it? Yes, should we have to suffer? No. But do we? Yes. So the solution is use the tools at hand to get around it.

My point is, there's assholes from every country, I've had Russians grief in TF2 keeping our spawn doors closed, do I hate Russians? No I informed a mod, he removed them and we went on playing.

Racism pisses me off and to see so many people saying "it's because the Americans I don't talk" just annoys me, it could have been any country and it would have pissed me off, generalizing an entire country is irritating to me.

The internet is full of idiots from all different countries, it's also got a lot of friendly people.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

Valve needs to fix a single issue in chatting during gameplay before they can results like this.
The "People are Dicks" issue is currently causing the most difficulty in useful chatter in multiplay FPS games.

I once were in a game where two guys and one girl were talking in spanish. I didn't care, I didn't talk, I just listened as I played. One of the other american sounding people didn't like that these three were talking in spanish and started to curse at them over this. he seemed to believe that people playing in america shouldn't have to listen to anything but english. But until the USA takes an offical language for itself, american whiners should shut up

I have been in game where a supposedly black man calling everyone for being white and playing as "n****r" because these people were all using uzi's and shotguns than any other weapon. He kept using black gang speak to the point that other teammates just started to leave the game.

I have been in a game where one guy used an non-scoped weapon to take out his opponent from a distance and then even though only the people on his team can hear it... he cried "CHEATER!" The host ended up dropping the loudmouth because he wouldn't shut up.

 

[Snotnarok]

Valve needs to fix a single issue in chatting during gameplay before they can results like this.
The "People are Dicks" issue is currently causing the most difficulty in useful chatter in multiplay FPS games.

I once were in a game where two guys and one girl were talking in spanish. I didn't care, I didn't talk, I just listened as I played. One of the other american sounding people didn't like that these three were talking in spanish and started to curse at them over this.

I have been in game where a supposedly black man calling everyone for being white and playing as "n****r" because these people were all using uzi's and shotguns than any other weapon. He kept using black gang speak to the point that other teammates just started to leave the game.

I have been in a game where one guy used an non-scoped weapon to take out his opponent from a distance and then even though only the people on his team can hear it... he cried "CHEATER!" The host ended up dropping the loudmouth because he wouldn't shut up.

There is a fix for that, valve games have a mute feature, for PC anyway. Xbox needs to get on that since there's a few people I'd like to mute in games.

 

[Deleted]

don't be embarrassed about your accents, go blast those blimey buggers!

 

[Superior Mind]

Most NZers and Aussies don't talk all that much either I've found.

 

[AngloDoom]

-Snip-

...So your argument is that you've never experienced racism for being British, so it must be a very small factor yet everyone here mentioned it?

Yes, I know we all have this mindset on the Escapist of 'Grow a thicker skin', but I think that's the wrong attitude to take. Why should I be expected to re-evaluate my expectations and etiquette because the obnoxious minority once again ruin it for the majority?

I personally use the mute button, but when you instruct someone to 'grow a thicker skin' (altering their personality) it always strikes me as odd that people don't pull the arseholes aside and say 'stop being a prick' (altering their personality). Why do we have to tailor our experiences online to suit the dickheads of society?


Either way, I just think the English are less inclined to talk online simply because we've got more of an aloof culture. There's little you can do about that, really. While I think online play can be improved through the mic, I'd say nine out of ten times it just ends up with people hurling abuse, playing shite music, or screaming whenever they get killed as if real bullets ripped through their flesh.

I'm going to guess you glanced over my post because if British racism and American racism is different it's news to me.

I said grow a thicker skin because everyone on the net will experience racism, and it's not exactly hard to dodge, most of the time you just mute and ignore, or you can leave the server or boot people, there's options instead of most people just saying it's the Americans fault. I say you glanced over my post because, I said that I was booted from several games just because I'm American. So no I've not encountered British racism toward me, I've experienced racism toward Americans which is what many here are posting is at fault. So yes I've experienced racism for being from a country, is it bad that they do it? Yes, should we have to suffer? No. But do we? Yes. So the solution is use the tools at hand to get around it.

My point is, there's assholes from every country, I've had Russians grief in TF2 keeping our spawn doors closed, do I hate Russians? No I informed a mod, he removed them and we went on playing.

Racism pisses me off and to see so many people saying "it's because the Americans I don't talk" just annoys me, it could have been any country and it would have pissed me off, generalizing an entire country is irritating to me.

The internet is full of idiots from all different countries, it's also got a lot of friendly people.

I totally agree with you, arseholes and nice people exist in every country. I never once blamed America for the arseholes on the internet, I was making a general comment over why people should have to put up with it. We all have this mentality of it being inevitable that abuse will occur, so we should become more thick-skinned. Why advice people on becoming more insensitive, when you could advice people who are dickheads not to be? It's the rule of obnoxious minority overruling the majority of decent people once more. If we have an attitude of 'everyone should just put up with that one prick on the server', then the one prick is the winner. If we had an attitude of 'lets punish that one prick on the server', it would be less beneficial to be said prick.

I wasn't trying to intone that you've never received racism through the internet, I'd believe you receive less than a British person simply because there are more Americans than English and therefore proportionately more racist Americans.

While I agree people should just use the 'Ignore' button for the most part, people aren't just limited to talking on a mic in games. This is more a general rant over how it seems people bend over backwards to avoid troublemakers, when there should be more a mentality of "this guy is being a griefer and ruining our game, lets kill the fucker", rather than a mentality of "lets ignore him, but still have an impact on our game".

No worries, I'm not taking on an assault at you, more a general rant at teh_intarwebs. It's 7am here, I haven't slept for a long while, so if my sentences are disjointed and I seem to have misinterpreted, while it is no excuse, I hope you can understand.