Recently, some kid sent me a voice message on Xbox Live. I had never heard of the person before, and because it was a voice message instead of a typed message, I suspected it would be a heckler. And sure enough, when I listened to the message, it was!
I couldn’t quite make it out, but the message went something like:
“You have no life. You have like 46 games with like a thousand freaking gamerscore. Get a life man! I don’t even have that much and people are telling me to get a life. This is sad!”
What compels someone to do that? You see someone with a gamerscore you consider “too high”, and instead of going about your merry way, you get consumed with enough rage that you have to let the person know you don’t approve of what he’s doing? It’s not like an anonymous message either – I checked the profile of the person that sent me the message and he’s some kid that pretty much primarily plays Halo 3.
Is it insecurity? Maybe since other people have already told him to “get a life” he needs to pass it on to someone he thinks he can step on to feel better about himself. From looking at his gamertag, he puts his location as “Where i destroyed u”. So he must be competitive or something if he’s “talking trash” in his profile. But since I enjoy completing my games and he either doesn’t or can’t, he needs to actually reach out and express to me that he’s not a fan of me playing games.
Does he feel that much better after sending a message to a stranger and then going back to play Halo 3, forgetting all about that incident? Maybe he found my gamertag from checking a recently played with list for one of his friends, in the single online Halo 3 multiplayer match I played recently. This really isn’t helping the stereotype of the typical Halo 3 player: obnoxiously ignorant (yet sometimes ridiculously skilled) adolescents. If I continued to stick around and play Halo 3 multiplayer, I’d probably be getting more of these types of messages.
Thankfully, these type of kids aren’t as prevalent in Call of Duty 4. If I do see him in Modern Warfare 2 though, let’s just say I will have to teach him some manners.
While I can’t argue the existence of these people, I pretty much play Halo 3 with voices off. That way, I don’t have to deal with it.
So was this kid’s voice pre-pubescent or was he really an adolescent? Anyway, this is why the party system changed everything, we don’t have to listen to kids swearing at us or adults being racist or sexist anymore. So kudos to Microsoft for that. Also, I know I need a life…but trying to complete games is fun! Haha.
Let’s put him on our preferred player list so we can pwn him tho.
Of course he can’t beat you in Modern Warfare 2. How do you kill that which has no life?
haha sorry I had to.
Do you remember the South Park episode where they’re playing Lord of the Rings? They come across a bunch of kids playing Harry Potter, and Cartman goes “HA! Fags!”
It’s like that.
i haven’t gotten voice messages but i’ve gotten the normal type of messages after playing SF4 calling me a “lucky b*tch” or “haha pwned you” or something… i think they have a word for all this – nerdrage.
I feel like Arby vs. Chief kinda addressed this too. There was no real solution. What I do when i get msgs from ppl in-game is I respond in spanish. and I keep responding in spanish until they just give up.
If they know spanish, then i switch to chinese.
but dude – this wasn’t in game, but a message that was sent to me! i guess i could have just ignored it and not listened to the message, but i have to say i was curious haha
You’re probably his hero or something, and he HAD to send you something.
actually…his voice wasn’t quite pre-pubescent so he could have been a teenager. from his avatar he is sporting a goat so he could be older too but i’m guessing he’s gotta be young if ppl are still telling him to “get a life.”
But then again, teenagers (and I have a strange problem talking about teenagers as if I wasn’t one o_0) tend to make their avatar as “OmG sIcK!” or “D00D NIEZ ZTUFF MAEN” as they can, and don’t care about it being a representation of them. >_>
Anyway, just ignore them. As stated in a good webcomic I once read:
Normal Guy + Total Anonymity + Audience = Total ****wad.
That’s MY #1 rule of the internet and Xbox LIVE, though thankfully there are some people who actually do care about how the people on the other end of what they are saying/typing. :/