Ready Up

Hell is other people

Existentialist French philosophers don’t like a great deal of things, they are possibly one of the more challenging schools of philosophy to read and enjoy with the bleakness of nothingness present in their writing making any kind of enjoyable engagement a battle against the inevitable depression you feel when reading. We can attribute today’s title to Jean-Paul Satre, a man who would loathe modern gaming on the Xbox 360 due to it’s social aspect. Even in single player (hell even when watching a DVD) you are constantly part of a larger social group with updates on who logs in and invites for games popping up from friends and people you’ve played recently. Everyone has voice chat, parties are common, Live Vision Camera’s put a face to the gamer and all in all it’s the best console for linking your wider gaming social circle with your console. Yet the other night I was playing with Ready-Uppers and it got me wondering if Satre was right, and if Xbox Live has failed.

By and large people are idiots. Life is an exercise in finding the tiny percentage of people who you actually like and surrounding yourself with them. As such I went through more than a few communities before finding Ready-Up for gaming with, however the nature of Live play means that you have to occassionally use random matchmaking and it’s here where we can find ourselves sympathising with Satre. A cursory look across the wider gaming community shows the disdain a large portion of Live gamers are held in. Childish, sexist, racist and homophobic. I shouldn’t forget overly aggressive, one of the primary reasons people don’t play random matchmaking as when you (perish the thought) lose you have your team mates screaming obscenities at the horror of losing a video game. If you are a female you are laughed and perved over in equal measure if you dare raise your voice, if you are British get ready for some “We saved your ass from Nazi’s” and if you happen to mention that you aren’t white…best just log off. When talking to people on Live it’s the idiots more than lag and more than the cost that keeps people from jumping on for a quick game on Live. Simply speaking they make for a hostile atmosphere and most gamers aren’t up for trying to take back Live.

InternetDickwad

Now, I’ve spoken before about how to take back and fix Xbox Live. Today however I ask the simple question, if the online community is hostile to the point where people don’t want to hit matchmaking for a quick game then has Microsoft failed at creating a usable online service? There is little support for clans, or groups of preferred gamers so they clearly expect the matchmaking service to take centre stage but if it’s destroyed to the point where the racist trash talking kids own it then can Microsoft claim to have the premier online infrastructure of all the consoles? Surely with this glaring issue on Live it must be considered a weak service, at least until they offer an alternative for gamers who feel that matchmaking now simply cannot be used? E3 is just around the corner and at the Microsoft press conference you can put your mortgage on Microsoft talking about how much of a success Live is with high numbers of subscribers but will they discuss the scores of gamers left on the fringes of their community due to the hell that is Xbox Live gamers?

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Somehow I don’t think so. We’re stuck with them for the forseeeable future, the only hope is to get into the forums and meet like minded gamers. It’s not the ideal way of playing on Live, but it’s the only way left.

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John Boyle

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6 responses to “Hell is other people”

  1. Michael avatar
    Michael

    Tis Sartre…. I’m just sayin’

    Not everyone random on Live is an idiot. I happened across a L4D Survival game maybe two weeks ago with three randoms (to me) though I think I was the random there. They were all cool! 😀 So it could be said Live is an exercise in finding the tiny percentage of people who you actually like and surrounding yourself with them as well! ;D

  2. Tony avatar
    Tony

    I think the thing that saves Live is the simple fact that once you do find someone who isn’t a completely raving dickhead, then it’s easy to add them to your friends list and organise to play with them again.

    I never play against randoms these days with my headset on, I save that for playing with people on my friends list.

    As Michael said above, though – aside from Ready Uppers, most of the people who made that list were at one point randoms who turned out to be nice people.

    Sure it’s like panning for gold in an open sewer, but there are a few choice nuggets out there, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty.

  3. John.B avatar
    John.B

    “Sure it’s like panning for gold in an open sewer”

    That’s the best description I’ve seen for Live…ever.

  4. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    Fantastic blog, John. I totally agree and have often thought the same quote applies perfectly to Live. Coupled with the irritation of multiplayer achievements which force you into this pool of human flotsam if you want them, Live is certainly not ‘all that’.

    Tony’s quip holds very true. There are good folk out there but it’s like playing Russian Roulette. Occasionally you’ll get a kindly soul or bump into someone funny, friendly, or helpful (often depending on the game(s) that you play) but it is the FEAR of the troublesome dobbas that is often more off putting than encountering one.

    In the same way that grannies and pretty much most people these days can fear going outside ‘just in case’, Live is slowly mirroring life. I would never go on and play Halo, Gears, or COD if I enjoyed those games simply because I equate them to walking through a notorious housing scheme or council estate – you have heard about the trouble and the wisest course of action is to stay clear just in case it happens to you.

    You’re right, it does damage Live’s rep and MS’ handling leaves a lot to be desired. Rather than persecuting someone for declaring their sexuality in their profiles, how about monitoring some of the complaints of harrassment or racism/homophobia that prevail?

    Finding a forum such as this and therefore ‘vetting’ who you play with is probably the best solution.

  5. John.B avatar
    John.B

    “You’re right, it does damage Live’s rep and MS’ handling leaves a lot to be desired. Rather than persecuting someone for declaring their sexuality in their profiles, how about monitoring some of the complaints of harrassment or racism/homophobia that prevail?”

    I’d KILL to see the ins and outs of the Microsoft complaints system. I’m willing to wager that they cannot monitor “problem” gamers.

  6. MrCuddleswick avatar
    MrCuddleswick

    The reason I don’t like Matchmaking is that it takes so bloody long. GOW2 and Halo 3 are prime examples. I’m far from practiced at those games, so all I really want to do is spend an hour here and there, picking up the odd kill bet generally being defeated easily by all and sundry. Of that hour, it’s fair to say that often as much as 15 minutes is spent waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting for a match.

    The actual general populace who I come across on Live don’t really anger me. The world is full of fools. It doesn’t surprise me that when you give them a microphone and listen to them, they sound like fools.

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