I've come to a revelation.

[blurredvision]

So I was at a friend's house over the weekend, and a few of us were passing around the controller with some CoD4 online matches on the PS3. We had quite a bit of fun, even though we all sported losing kill:death records on just about every match we played. I was also surprised that my friend's wife has become completely hooked into playing CoD4 online, as she's put over 4 days worth of play into it. Without even thinking about it, I wondered to myself how they could play online so much when their kill/death ratio and wins were so horrible. Another friend recently got a 360, and has been playing the hell out of March Madness 08 online, and recently told me his record was something like 18-45 online, and he was having a blast with it. I always wondered how they played these games even though their records did not stand up to scrutiny. I never thought about my views towards this, it was just how I thought.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I'm at home and playing some CoD4 online on the 360. Since I was at home by myself, I tend to get a little vocal when I get pissed off. I played 3 matches, and none of them were really favorable to my stats. During the last match, I got completely pissed, even yelling at the TV a couple of times at instances that I thought were either bullshit or just my poor skills.

It was at that time that I realized that my online gaming habits are horrible. After I quit out of the online match, I actually sat back on the couch and realized how stupid I was being. Why do I act as if my online stats are the be-all end-all measuring stick of how much fun I'm having? I've done this all the way back to when games first started keeping track of stats, and I've never really realized it until now. I've only put around 5 1/2 hours into CoD4 online, but now that I look back on it, my main concern in each and every match has been my kill/death ratio. I literally get pissed when I have a bad match, because I know it brings that ratio down.

As I thought about it more, I realized that I've actually refused playing games online because I know I'll be beaten pretty often. This includes basically all sports games, as well as Battlefield 2 (I stopped playing it because I was getting owned in every game I played) and RS:Vegas on the 360 (I never got into online much because I'd die 90% of the time). My friend who plays March Madness online absolutely has a blast, even though he loses a majority of his games. Why can't I be that carefree playing online? It's like I think someone is always judging me by my stats, when the reality is that pretty much nobody ever looks at my stats, and even if they do, they won't care if I die twice as much as I kill people, or if only win 20% of my games.

So consider this my public confession. Hell, consider it a late New Year's resolution. From now on, I'm going to make a conscious effort to absolutely not care about my stats while playing online. From here going forward, I will make an effort to play sports games online purely for fun, not for stats. I will play CoD4 online and not get fighting mad because I keep getting shot in the back or lose a knife duel. I will tell myself that I still had fun even though I finished a match with 5 kills and 20 deaths. I know that people on my friend's list do not look at my stats on a regular basis even though I play games as if they do, and I will not care if someone sees how crappy I am at a game.

I need to have fun regardless of my stats. Anybody afflicted as bad as me? Maybe you need an intervention.

 

[purbeast0]

haha i know the feeling about COD4.

i dunno why but COD4 seemed to do that to me more than others, and I think it was because in COD4 it was pretty badly coded net wise, and there were so many issues I had when playing it online. it was just completely frustrating to see me aim dead on with 4 bursts of the m16 to the enemies head, him turn and fire once at me and kill me, then me watch the kill cam showing me fire maybe 2 bursts, in a completely different direction than I was aiming. things like that you have no control over. i quickly learned to just qiut out of those types of games and get into another. if it happens a few times in a row i just get off.

then in halo 3 after playing cod4 for quite a bit, i then realized how in halo 3 you are completely helpless 1/2 the tiem because you spawn with a weapon that sucks ass.

it's things like this that you have 0 control over that are just completely frustrating.

i have realized in burnout recently as well that i just do not get pissed online at all. granted i haven't done much competition online (mainly been doing freburning for challenges) and have only done a few races, even when i'm in first and crash, i still just laugh. i actually get more frustrated in single player mode than online because the takedown stuff in single player is so inconsistent that it gets frustrating.

the way you don't want to compete if you don't think you will win sounds JUST like one of my friends. he basically won't play an online game because he just HATES losing. he also will cheat in any game to get the advantage. i remember when i first played god of war it was at his house. he loaded it up for me and had every freaking cheat on. im like dude can you turn it off? it's not fun.

the ONLY game he will play online is sf2 on xbla or sf:ac. and the thing is, EVERYTIME he loses, he'll make up some excuse. it's annoying to watch him play. he will not play FPS games cause he sucks at them and just refuses to try and get better, because he doesn't want to lose.

he's like this in everything though. he won't play sports, he won't play poker, he just all around won't compete unless it's something he KNOWS he will win at.

 

[R Nilla]

I have the same problem. Having stat tracking is pretty impressive, but at the same time it can become a burden. I think I also need to free myself from being so stat-conscious. I always feel a lot of pressure when playing games online, I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just too much self-consciousness paired with a bit of social anxiety. I know for Halo 3, I often found myself thinking about my play in terms of stats, rather than just having fun and playing the damn game.

I've played Halo 3 at a friend's house a few times, and have had a blast since I had no stats to worry about as a Guest. When playing the GTA games, I would reload if I died, so I didn't have a bunch of deaths show up on my stats. Which is ridiculous, because I'm distorting the truth rather than letting the game keep track of what I've done (that, and no one will ever see these stats but me).

I've been better with COD4 and I attribute that to the fact that there isn't an intense amount of stat tracking (like Halo 3)--and also because I usually do fairly well. Some rounds I won't even pay attention to the stats only to find at the end of the round I achieved first place by a landslide. I've had a lot of fun with this game and have been able to play without worrying about my stats, although doing well can also be a burden because I know I have the highest K/D ratio of my friends, and it's almost like there's pressure to maintain that.

I think it helps a lot to play with friends, though. I usually play COD4 with friends and we have a lot of fun together, even if we're getting owned. I remember playing a clan of 12 year olds, and one kid on their team was insanely good. He owned absolutely everyone and we were in awe of his skills. Our team still had fun and enjoyed watching him destroy us.

Maybe it's just our competitive nature as human beings, but I also find myself getting angry a lot while playing games and that seems to defeat the purpose. A lot of times games are just fucking cheap, though. I tried to push through the COD4 single player campaign on Veteran, but it seemed like an exercise in futility. Some parts are nearly impossible, and I eventually realized that I wasn't having any fun so I've given up. Burnout Paradise has also started to really piss me off, some things just seem really cheap.

I don't think I've ever felt stat-conscious about sports games online, but it's hard to say because I never play them. I quickly gave up because I discovered people just cheat and take advantage of glitches so it's not fun. I just want to play a normal game of hockey, not lose 41-4 because the other player uses a glitch to score immediately after winning the face-off.

 

[pontifex]

same way here and i don't like it, but i can't seem to help it. i think the worst thing is, like someone else said, that you unload into an enemy and your shots should have hit the guy and killed him, yet he turns around and kills you in 1 shot.

Games are supposed to be fun and relaxing, yet sometimes they just piss you off, lol.

 

[mugs]

Yeah, I came to that realization a while ago. In CoD 4 I struggled for a while trying to get to 1.5 k/d, then once I hit it I stopped caring so much. I started using weapons that might not get me such a good K/D, started trying to complete challenges and stuff like that. In Halo 3 it was a highest skill of 30 that I felt was my peak, and after I hit that I've been playing social games pretty much exclusively since. I have a lot more fun in social games, partly because I play with a friend who is not very good who I couldn't really play with in ranked matches.

I'm not sure what kind of stat tracking Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 will have when it comes out, but I don't think I'll care. I'll be in it for the fun from the start.

 

[byronm]

Online i'm a bullet magnet.. i typically jump in to play with people i know and try and hammer through single player experiences when i can. Wish i had the time to do more but thats life. Stats = fun but hardly something to play FOR.

Its entertainment/fun and if you lose site of that, then its work!

 

[Queasy]

Heh, I'm not big on paying attention to my k/d ratio but I'll still get pissed. Mostly though, it is when I'm getting murdered over and over again. I played a game of Domination on that really really really small Shipment map for the first time the other night. That was just ridiculous for 6vs6. I'd spawn, die, spawn, die, spawn, take two steps, die. Worst map ever.

As long as I feel like I'm doing decent and contributing to the overall success of the team, I'm good.

 

[PingSpike]

I probably would still do this but I'm on dialup now. I'm not so obsessed with the K/D ratio, which not all games have.

I do understand the "I can't win, I don't want to play thing." Its not even about the winning for me though. To me, the perfect game is where I'm playing at my top level and there is a chance of winning. If my team loses by a little after trying hard to win it, thats fun too.

But online games tend to end up as horrible blow outs at least half the time! One team totally outmatching the other. Its sort of fun slaughtering the noob crew when you're on the good side of that, but it's not as good as even teams and it really sucks when you're in the loser camp. I'm a pretty good player, but my playing style doesn't turn tides on its own. If I join the crappy team, I just end up not having any fun. If I'm on the loser side to begin with, half the time I just leave because I'm not having any fun. I know that just weakens the crappy team further.

If the server has an auto team shuffle every 10 rounds or something, I'll often stick around. But I'll make up my own 'game within a game' to have fun. In CS:S I used it as an opportunity to use fun weapons that aren't very good...like the machine pistol. In DoD:S, I typically pretended that my only weapon was the shovel. I died over and over and over again. But eventually I started developing these bizarre strategies for attacking enemies at choke points to negate their range advantage. DoD:S has some tight maps, and if you know the map pretty good, have patience and only fight them on your terms you can actually do pretty well bashing skulls with the shovel. It was surprisingly easy to sneak behind enemy lines and whack an entire group of defensemen facing the other direction before some one noticed a lot of guys were dying from shovel kills in a row.

The best part of crazy shovel attack commando is the terror aspect. The shovel commando is immortal. His moral will not falter when you kill him, for he was at such a horrible disadvantage to begin with he never really had a chance. But he will respawn, and he will be waiting. Every corner you turn or ladder you climb he could be there, springing out of the shadows. He might wait until you're wounded. He might charge while you're reloading. And when he kills you its embarrassing and demoralizing because all he had was a shovel you had a gun and grenades and you know your team is way better then his.

 

[GCS]

You know I can sympathize with you here because I never did online gaming at all for one reason I SUCK AT GAMES. I always just did the single player campaigns only and enjoyed them. Basically I only get to play maybe an hour a week or even less than that so I really have no time to get good.

HOWEVER .... I recently started doing the Forza 2 Anandtech night and I can tell you that this is some of the most fun I have ever had playing video games ... ever (aside from my 5 year old whoopin' my a$$ in every game we have -- btw when did I start to suck so bad that I can't beat my 5 year old???). What you have to know is that I pretty much finish dead last in every race. Sometimes I'll get 7th but that's only because someone wrecks on the last lap or they have fallen behind the leaders too far so they lay back so they can race with me. But you know what, it doesn't matter. I am having fun and lots of it!! Last week we had a massive crash on one track and all but 1 guy got taken out. What a clusterf**k but holy crap was it fun. Would I like to win some, sure if I don't will I stop playing -- nope.

If something is no fun then either don't do it or change your approach to it. Games are meant to be fun. The day I feel like my video gaming is a "chore" or its "work" then why bother.

Greg

 

[Aikouka]

Kind of reminds me of a "hidden message" in a manga I finished reading awhile ago ( Prince of Tennis ). The idea was that once you start playing it (in the manga's case, tennis), you are really enjoying the activity for what it is... fun. But once you start competing, you lose that feeling, because you no longer care about playing just to have fun, you're worrying more about a score and getting a point ( or a kill in a FPS ). They went on to talk about your greatest potential and stuff, but not so sure that applies to FPS games.

This actually kind of changes the way I play WoW for example. Now if I think a situation will not be fun, I simply don't do it. I don't care if I wanted that thing to get finished or whatever. I'd rather ensure my satisfaction first.

 

[CPA]

I felt just like you, that is until I started playing TF2 on XBox Live. The game is so hilarious it doesn't matter how often I get killed.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

When I was in my teens and 20's, I was highly competitive, and my ego was easily bruised. Now, in my 40's, the piss and vinegar have subsided, and I am all about fun. I have played many rounds in Gears of War, using only my pistol, other team is short a player? pistol. other team doesn't have a strong player? pistol. My team sux? Pistol. Frag taggers get a shotgun in the face though. Haven't played any MP other than Gears yet, but I put a LCD HDTV in the master bedroom, and moved the 360 in there over the weekend, so I'll be jumping into one of the AT game nights. I just have to pick which game to buy now?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
When I was in my teens and 20's, I was highly competitive, and my ego was easily bruised. Now, in my 40's, the piss and vinegar have subsided, and I am all about fun. I have played many rounds in Gears of War, using only my pistol, other team is short a player? pistol. other team doesn't have a strong player? pistol. My team sux? Pistol. Frag taggers get a shotgun in the face though. Haven't played any MP other than Gears yet, but I put a LCD HDTV in the master bedroom, and moved the 360 in there over the weekend, so I'll be jumping into one of the AT game nights. I just have to pick which game to buy now?

Never heard the term "frag tagging" before. I figured it had something to do with marking your kill, like with a paint spray in Counterstrike (which I've never seen anyone do) or by teabagging in Halo 3 (which is pretty common). I googled it up and based on the wikipedia article I determined that
1. It's the same thing as a sticky grenade in Halo
2. Gears of War players apparently think it's unsportsmanlike

That's interesting, because in Halo it doesn't really have that stigma. I can't say I really like playing against people who are really sticky whores, basically using it as their primary weapon. But most of the time I don't think less of a person for using a sticky grenade. In Gears it seems like you have to get right up next to the guy to use one, which to me makes it an even more acceptable tactic. But then in Halo 3 or CoD 4, if you can get right up next to a guy and they don't know you're there, then they're as good as dead anyway.

I just checked my Halo 3 stats, and in ranked games I have ~2.12% of my kills with plasma and spike grenades, but only around 1% of those are for sticks. On the other hand those grenades account for about 4% of my deaths. So they aren't terribly prevalent.

 

[purbeast0]

mugs its not like sticky nades really at all. it's basically placing a grenade on your enemy when they are right next to you.

the problem with it prior to a patch was that it was SSSOOO easy to do, and that it would "pull" you into your enemy if you tried to tag em from a slight distance, or if you weren't aimed directly at them, making it a very VERY easy/cheap kill when up close.

 

[sdifox]

I like to say my job in online multi player fps is to take bullets for my teammates since I am useless as a shooter.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

I also suffer from this disease and it greatly hinders my ability to have fun playing games online, to the point where I just don't do it much. Its just a natural tendency and desire to avoid losing at things. It would be nice if I could get over it though, maybe therapy would help.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
mugs its not like sticky nades really at all. it's basically placing a grenade on your enemy when they are right next to you.

the problem with it prior to a patch was that it was SSSOOO easy to do, and that it would "pull" you into your enemy if you tried to tag em from a slight distance, or if you weren't aimed directly at them, making it a very VERY easy/cheap kill when up close.

Exactly, grenade and chainsaw were such cheap kills at that point, good players eschewed them, though when outnumbered 2-to-4 I'd resort to anything, and even put my pistol away.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: purbeast0
mugs its not like sticky nades really at all. it's basically placing a grenade on your enemy when they are right next to you.

the problem with it prior to a patch was that it was SSSOOO easy to do, and that it would "pull" you into your enemy if you tried to tag em from a slight distance, or if you weren't aimed directly at them, making it a very VERY easy/cheap kill when up close.

Exactly, grenade and chainsaw were such cheap kills at that point, good players eschewed them, though when outnumbered 2-to-4 I'd resort to anything, and even put my pistol away.

chainsaw is not really that cheap, it just sucked there was no way to really have a "clash" if you did them same time, the winner would "randomly" be picked.

the chainsaw is actually a bad way to kill if you are near 2 enemies, cause it takes so long to kill with. i remember seeing "trains" of people dying from chainsaws for this reason heh.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
mugs its not like sticky nades really at all. it's basically placing a grenade on your enemy when they are right next to you.

the problem with it prior to a patch was that it was SSSOOO easy to do, and that it would "pull" you into your enemy if you tried to tag em from a slight distance, or if you weren't aimed directly at them, making it a very VERY easy/cheap kill when up close.

It's still the same as a sticky grenade (with the exception that it can't be thrown, which makes it less effective than a sticky grenade). It sounds like the issue is with poor programming, not the weapon itself.

 

[mc866]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: purbeast0
mugs its not like sticky nades really at all. it's basically placing a grenade on your enemy when they are right next to you.

the problem with it prior to a patch was that it was SSSOOO easy to do, and that it would "pull" you into your enemy if you tried to tag em from a slight distance, or if you weren't aimed directly at them, making it a very VERY easy/cheap kill when up close.

Exactly, grenade and chainsaw were such cheap kills at that point, good players eschewed them, though when outnumbered 2-to-4 I'd resort to anything, and even put my pistol away.

chainsaw is not really that cheap, it just sucked there was no way to really have a "clash" if you did them same time, the winner would "randomly" be picked.

the chainsaw is actually a bad way to kill if you are near 2 enemies, cause it takes so long to kill with. i remember seeing "trains" of people dying from chainsaws for this reason heh.

Chainsaw was cheap to a point because sometimes it would pull the enemy in, but it also had it's flaws too because at the end of it you were completely vulnerable and could get your head popped off by the shotty. The main thing I found frustrating was how good some people got with the shottys in that game, that or they weren't good, they just found a glitch.

Back to the OP. I tend to get pretty upset from time to time when playing online. I'm not very good so I don't get real upset when I loose, it's more when I feel I got a bad bounce or something cheap happened. For instance while playing COD4 lately I tend to get more upset when I think I have the drop on someone and out of nowhere he get's the headshot. Then when I watch the kill cam it looks like he just spaz sprayed and got me with the headshot. That's the worst for me. If I look at my k:d record and w:l record it's pretty bad but I still have fun especially when playing with friends.

The one game I cannot stand though because I'm so bad is Halo. I honestly just try not to play unless we have a full room of guys that want to play. The first game I really got addicted to and enjoyed playing online was CS:S and the reason I think I had as much fun as I did was the fact that I was terrible but had a great time playing against challenging opponents and even though I got worked for months and once I finally did start getting better it was that much more of an accomplishment to be able to keep up with the guys that had been owning me. Dunno I guess if you look at it as a challenge it may be more fun.

 

[EvilComputer92]

I wish I was like you guys when it comes to staying calm while your getting killed. Getting killed over and over with no kills in between really gets to me. One time, two team slayer game in row, we lost 49-50 because some idiot on our team rushed into the enemy. I seriously threw my controller across the room.

I used to play Halo 3 fairly competitively, but now I pretty much gave up on it completely since I find it aggravates me more than it actually provides fun. The only time I get on now is if I know there are friends to play with. If I enter a game and my team is already down by 20 points then I usually just quit out, or if I'm the only person getting any kills on my team. That's probably why I have almost 500 games played and I'm still only a commander.

I find in general that if I'm not good at a game I can't have fun with it. Few exceptions, including Command and Conquer 3 and Rainbow Six.

So consider this my public confession. Hell, consider it a late New Year's resolution. From now on, I'm going to make a conscious effort to absolutely not care about my stats while playing online. From here going forward, I will make an effort to play sports games online purely for fun, not for stats. I will play CoD4 online and not get fighting mad because I keep getting shot in the back or lose a knife duel. I will tell myself that I still had fun even though I finished a match with 5 kills and 20 deaths. I know that people on my friend's list do not look at my stats on a regular basis even though I play games as if they do, and I will not care if someone sees how crappy I am at a game.

I would say it's easier said then done. Look at my example of the 49-50 loss and suddenly it's much harder to stay clam when you know you were so close to winning.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
I wish I was like you guys when it comes to staying calm while your getting killed. Getting killed over and over with no kills in between really gets to me. One time, two team slayer game in row, we lost 49-50 because some idiot on our team rushed into the enemy. I seriously threw my controller across the room.

It is frustrating getting killed over and over without any kills in between, especially when the other team is playing together as a team while your team is not, and as a result you're not able to counter whatever it is they're doing that is dominating you. Like when one guy is sniping and the rest are defending him, and you can't snipe the sniper because some idiot took your sniper rifle out to the middle of the map and lost it. I don't care how my team does as much as how I do, because I know I can't control my teammates. Of course I like to win, but losing doesn't bother me as much as when I play poorly. What does bother me is when my teammates play so ineffectively that we might as well be a man or two down - making it easier for the other team to kill ME.

 

[octopus41092]

I think it might be because that you think that you're better than everyone else and you should be doing better. Most "hardcore" gamers seem to think this way, at least for me thats usually what makes me angry when I have a bad score in a game.

 

[bigpow]

blurredvision, congrats!
You're one step closer to becoming a better person.

Some of us have mild OCD and we like to keep even numbers on gamerscore, balanced placement of fork and knife, etc.
So that might explain why you were obsessed with keeping certain kill ratio, etc.

But it all comes down to the ultimate reason why one plays games: FUN.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: bigpow
Some of us have mild OCD and we like to keep even numbers on gamerscore, balanced placement of fork and knife, etc.
So that might explain why you were obsessed with keeping certain kill ratio, etc.

I'm definitely not OCD. The best that I can think of why I am so obsessed with stats is because I guess I feel that it's the ultimate judge from my peers. It probably comes down to a lack of self-esteem, as stupid as that sounds.

Oh well, I'm working on it already. I played a few matches of CoD4 online tonight, and a couple of times I felt myself getting mad. I just calmed down quickly, told myself it didn't matter, and got myself ready for the fight again. It worked pretty well, since I didn't really do anything spectacular, but I kept my wits about me . I even donned the headset, which I haven't done yet in CoD4 online play.