Valve Guy Says British Gamers Need to Speak Up

[Snotnarok]

-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.

Not at all, I wasn't offended, I was more offended by an entire topic (or nearly everyone) blaming one country for the entire internets retardation. The internet is full dumb people, cheers to people who use some restraint on the net.

 

[T-Bone24]

Seriously? I play on a British TF2 server. Everyone, EVERYONE is yelling. In a friendly way. It's filthy most of the time.

 

[Amnestic]

*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.

I didn't take your second suggestion seriously - but the first one sounded semi-genuine and actually believable >_> Perhaps my brain was clouded with firework smoke, but I took you to be serious.

Ah well, no harm done.

 

[Andronicus]

It's fascinating that he should synonymise "crazy talk" with "fun". I believe it would be more accurately associated with the term "annoying" or "brainless" or "American".

Hehe. My apologies for the generalisation. Frankly, if the British populace feel their breath is better spent on other activities, then more power to them. I assume that playing this "realism" mode isn't a requisite of owning the game.

While we're on the subject, has anyone actually taking the time to perform a survey to find the most vocal country whilst online? That would be an interesting set of results.

 

[Platinum117]

Probably been said a hundred times already but when every word i say is responded to with LOL YOU'RE BRITISH in an equally annoying high pitched 13 year old americans accent, its just better to rape their asses and be good at the game than working together.

 

[josetaco]

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!

friend let me tell you this most americans are not well traveled. Even the ones that are hardly ever half to deal with any one with an accent. Even americans close to mexico because most mexicans speak better english than me. I consider myself well traveled in north america and I once told a stripper from the uk to drop her accent not knowing that she wasn't faking it.
In europe its easy for you to hate us for being so fascinated by your accents but man over here your exotic over in europe your common

 

[Kevvers]

Speaking in an English accent is an open invitation for jokes about tea and crumpets in an accent that Dick Van Dyke would think overdone. Its not that were silent, its just were silent when there are Americans about.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

I hadn't noticed it til the thread pointed it out, but I really haven't heard many Brits...at ALL. I mean, I'm playing L4D, TF2, WoW, etc. But it turned out the one guy who SOUNDED British was faking it...huh.

As for fun-poking at accents? It's not just Yank V Brit. America's known for being a rather wide-spread country, and people in the north-west are constantly snickering at those from, say, Texas. Meanwhile the Texans are getting a big laugh out of Oregonians.

True story: pick-up game in L4D with 2 friends and one player from, well, Texas. There was no audible laughter or "cowboy" jokes, and we all got along quite amiably. However, after about 16 "y'alls," we finally prompted the question: "Dude, do you guys really all say 'y'all' down there?"
"Yeah, we do. Do ya'll REALLY say 'dude?'"
So yeah, it was a very 'win' moment for us all, and we continued to play the game.

I could definitely see how hearing "tea and crumpets" every time you tried to offer helpful advice would discourage mic users. (Just start griefing if they persist ;P )

As for girl gamers?....um...not to add to the stereotype, but I am ALWAYS a bit shocked when I log onto 2fort and suddenly hear a voice say "Spy-(insertclasshere)" in a lilting timbre that is quite a change from the male 20-somethings usually yelling into chat. I don't really care, it's more of a "Oh! Well, that's new" feeling.

But...um...yeah. Brits should start talking more. Variety is fun to listen to :3

Yaayyy. stupidly-long post >_<; /ramble

 

[Praggers]

TBH I generally don't play online with others unless my achievement whoring requires it. i do play online with friends on my friends list, most recently was Burnout Paradise. I can't say I've been a victim of XBL Racism, but this could be due to being in private party chat and not game chat.

I'm also fairly shy, and i'm abit intimidated by playing online by the fact that those people playing online have generally been playing online for a while and so have gotten quite good. so there is the stigmata of being a n00b as well. am i alone in this?

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

A lot of Americans online have a habit of being stupid while talking. I'd be silent too if I was British :<

So apparently Internet microphone dumbassery only applies to Americans? Are we absolutely sure about this? Cause if you are I can introduce you to some recordings of a few foul-mouthed Aussies during games of TF2 I've played.

Yes I admit a lot of my countrymen are idiots especially behind the anonymity shield of the Internet, but personally I like vocal communication no matter what accent is applied to it...as long as I can hear what you're saying that is.

Ah, but the time zone change between UK and Australia is half a day so it's uncommon to play against them whilst there are nearly always many Americans playing. Sure, other countries can be dicks too and similarly not everyone from the US is an asshole but from the point of view of a UK gamer, Americans are the main offender.

 

[Fniff]

Behold,my god.

The chat window.

I have beaten talking on an online thing once again!

 

[Dommyboy]

British people online? What is this? Closest I can relate to them is a bunch of people from Wales who I played with on different games, they talked, well, to the best of their abilities.

 

[Susano]

Maybe I'll start talking when people aren't dicks to me so much...Also, maybe they lower the price of mics so I can actually TALK to people, my dyslexia gives my heavy hands and I'm breaking mics like 2 days after I get them.

I'll probably be avoiding the realism mode on whatever I buy it on, then, thanks for ruining a game mode by forcing you to talk.

I don't think you're talking about dyslexia, that's what makes you not able to spell things.

Dyspraxia, affects hand/eye co-ordination.

I don't talk online 'cause I hate my voice.

 

[Flushfacker]

I am British, I use the mic when I play L4D online. I think its true that the Brits do talk a lot less than the Americans. This isn't often a bad thing though as the vast majority of yanks I have encountered have severe cases of verbal diarrhea and tend to go by the 'why use one word when I can ramble on for 10 minutes?' philosophy. I prefer playing with word efficient people, especially when under attack from a zombie horde.

 

[Dahaka27]

I personally don't need all the players in a deathmatch to try and place my accent.
Just gets boring when the 8 year olds demand that you tell them where you are from, to which I tell them to politely shut up in my very obvious Edinburgh accent and they still don't get it....

 

[Amnestic]

I personally don't need all the players in a deathmatch to try and place my accent.
Just gets boring when the 8 year olds demand that you tell them where you are from, to which I tell them to politely shut up in my very obvious Edinburgh accent and they still don't get it....

Tell them you're from Mars and are playing the game to try to get a better understanding of human culture.

 

[wooty]

Yep, you can either stay silent and play the game without saying a word and possibly have a good time, or you can retaliate against the ones taking the piss and then end up having the entire server ganging up on you. I usually stick with the first option, saves the ear-ache

 

[SharPhoe]

I am deeply saddened by the number of people from non-US areas being afraid to talk because of ridicule. I really am. If I could, I would apologize on behalf of all of the Americans responsible for making you guys uncomfortable, it's simply not fair.