Introductions and Reflections

Hi readers,

As a contributor to this blog, I felt that after letting Sean get some groundwork in, I would make a post for myself. Mostly introduction, part opinion, with the latter part that may get "rant-y", I hope that I can make a good impression.

Anyway, background. I've been casually gaming for most of my life, probably like the majority of Americans. Up until a year ago, I was mainly a PC gamer. That isn't to say that I didn't get some console play in, but it wasn't my forte. To put it into quantitative analysis, I got my first PC in 1988. I got my first console in 1999 (Playstation). I've owned at least one gaming capable computer since 1996. I've owned 3 consoles total, and one of them I had for less than 6 months.

My PC Gaming history could span several blogs, but let's just keep it short and sweet. If you name a big franchise (and even many smaller ones), I've played it. Hell I've probably played all the games (up until 2007). Command and Conquer, Civilization, Medal of Honor, Quake, Diablo, Starcraft, Counter-Strike, Warcraft (yes, including WoW).

My console history, while sparse, includes some of the top titles. As a kid I played my friend's NES , SNES, and Genesis. I loved Sonic, Mario, Metroid, Contra, all the classics. When I got my Playstation, I immediately bought Metal Gear Solid and FFVII (which is incredibly overrated, but that's a separate post). I played GTAIII, Vice City, Gran Turismo, etc. Fast forward to today, where I got a 360 last October.

The rest of this post is going to be my take on the ghastly state of online play that consoles provide, specifically in the "quality of opponent" aspect. Now I'm not exactly saying that console gamers are not as good as their PC counterparts. I'm saying that how they approach the game is terrible. In my opinion, from playing titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Madden, FIFA, etc, is that the console gamer, while compared to a PC gamer, is more rude, crass, and just less fun to play with. Sure, do you sometimes get flamed on WoW if you're grouping and pull aggro and cause a wipe? Yeah, but the vitriol that spews from XBox LIVE gamers is unmatched. About a week ago, playing Ground War on MW2, I noticed that a teammate had died trying to pick up his care package, and there were no other teammates around. I proceeded to kill the enemy that killed him, and pick up the crate. Instead of saying "thanks for looking out", I had to spend the rest of the match listening to how much of a "homo" I was for 'stealing' his reward, including remarks about pedophilia and racism. And it's not just the random kids that do this either. I have friends that I play with, and they are all pretty much really decent people. When that console headset goes on though, a metamorphosis happens, and suddenly my good friend is shouting "I was doing your mom" at the other team.

Perhaps in a later post I'll explore the sociological impact of this kind of gaming, and how the XBox LIVE community has grown to a society in and of itself, with rules and classes and the like.

Thanks for listening.