This is going to be something of a rant, but I just feel like getting it off my chest while it's fresh in my memory, and it's also something I've been thinking about lately. If you plan on replying, please don't do so unless you've read the entire thing; that will help avoid pointless/stupid arguments (this forum seems to be full of them, for some reason, and I'd rather not get involved in another, if possible) This particular incident just drove the point home and serves as a good example.

Today I came across something rather astonishing (if only for how utterly random and inane it all was); I was playing a game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and doing pretty poorly, as usual (I'm about as good at this game as I am at being an actual Counter-Terrorist, so in other words, pretty "kak", as you would say), but it was a fun game, because the people were all quite talkative, especially one in particular called "TR@$#^[email protected]". He was a pretty good player, and clearly knew it, since he spent most of the game bragging about how he was in the "top 12", but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, there was another girl in the game besides myself (no one knew I was a girl, which suited me fine), and this TR@$#^[email protected] guy was constantly harassing her and making lewd comments. Now this isn't a problem per se, since he seemed to just be playing around, and she seemed to be reciprocating a little, so that's not what this is about, but I still feel it's worth mentioning. Both of them were talking Afrikaans every now and then, which I ordinarily have no problem with, but the following map, I found myself on TR@$#^[email protected]'s team, and he was barking orders in Afrikaans. I said that I didn't understand what he was saying, so both they, and some of the other players started getting defensive for some reason. They said that I was an idiot for not understanding, so I told them I'm from the US. They started insulting my username (Kimitar) for some reason, telling me that is a shitty name (This is a nickname that my mother used to call me when I was younger). Not sure what prompted that, but there it is. Anyway, nothing really changed, the Afrikaans kept up, so I just decided to do my own thing, since I didn't get all of the banter. I actually did okay score-wise, but nothing special.

After about 3 more maps, I decided to try a different weapon, one I didn't use very often. I was actually pretty decent with it. It's a semi-automatic sniper rifle called the "SCAR", or something to that effect. TR@$#^[email protected] was on the opposite team. Anyway, I was doing really well, but there was banter going around about how someone was using a "noob-cannon". I had no idea what that was, so I assumed they were talking about something else or at least someone else, and that it didn't concern me. After about the 5th round, when I'd managed to get a decent score, one of the guys started calling me a bitch (ironic since he didn't know I was female), and suggested to TR@$#^[email protected] that they should hunt "this bitch". TR@$#^[email protected] said something about how he didn't care about people that use "noob-cannons", and would just deal with it his own way, by using the regular sniper rifle. Unfortunately for him, I easily beat him, because I used my surroundings in a much better way than he did. I also got several kills with my pistols (dual pistols), but that was completely ignored, apparently. As I killed him, he got angrier and angrier, and started calling me a bitch as well, and that I was a noob for using the "noob-cannon". At this point I realized it was the gun I was using that people took offense to.

Now about roughly 5 of the 6 or so enemy team members were insulting me, telling me "go the fuck back to America, bitch, we don't want you here", and similar delightful suggestions about what to do with myself. I said that I actually found it easier to use the regular sniper rifle than the SCAR, since it's hard to consistently get yourself into a position to use it effectively, because the gun is terrible for close or even medium range combat, whereas the regular sniper rifle is much more forgiving, since you can kill an enemy in one hit. At that point the gloves where off, they kept telling me I was pathetic, a noob etc. One of them kept talking Afrikaans, but he kept saying my name in there somewhere, so presumably he was cussing me out me in Afrikaans or something, I have no idea.

The following match, I used different guns, and still did well. I told TR@$#^[email protected] that I was "new to the game and that I have no idea what guns random asshole #1 on the internet didn't want me to play with", so I asked if using the shotgun (which I'd just killed him with) was okay. At this point he just said "shut the fuck up, bitch". So I decided to cut my losses and leave, since I clearly wasn't wanted.

--------------

TL;DR: A guy acts like an asshole because I'm not South African, and because I used a gun in a video game that he didn't approve of.

--------------

Now with regards to the "Afrikaans thing", I'd love to say that this was a contained incident, but I've had something similar happen to me in Team Fortress 2; when they learned I couldn't speak Afrikaans, they started mocking me. I actually learned what the word "poes" means simply from playing online games in South Africa...

I'm definitely not saying that all South Africans are like this, I've met some great people here, online or otherwise, but I just don't get the hatred for non-South Africans that some of you have, especially the Afrikaans-speaking people. It comes across as bigoted and xenophobic (or is it just Americans that they hate? I don't get it).

As for the rest of it, I know that there are a lot of assholes online in general, but I'd just like everyone to be aware of how you might come across with stuff like this, and the image you're portraying, both about yourself, and your community (and this goes for everyone, not just South Africans).

You can't expect everyone to know everything about a game, and you can't expect everyone to play the way you want them to. I genuinely liked TR@$#^[email protected] before the "noob-cannon" incident, despite the odd approach everyone took to the fact that I was not South African. How on earth is a new player supposed to know that they would garner such hate for using a gun in a game? If they'd asked me politely not to use that particular gun, and gave me a valid reason as to why, hell, I'd probably have done it.

The same thing is true of people who, for example, don't close off their bases (basically you build your buildings at the entrance of a base to close off access) in team games of Starcraft 2, and heaven help you if you don't, since your ally is sure to share his extensive knowledge of dirty words with you. Instead of giving people crap for not playing the game the way you want them to, suggest an alternative, or at least attempt to explain what the issue is, or gosh, I don't know, help them learn? I had an encounter with a guy from this very forum; I had asked for help with getting to grips with Guild Wars 2, and he offered to meet me in the game. I asked him to explain some of it to me and show me around, but he stayed in place, and just seemed to get annoyed at my ignorance. I asked what the point of certain things in the game were, and he basically just got obnoxious about it and told me "it is what it is, if you don't like it, leave", which I was about ready to do, since what little he explained made almost no sense, and his rudeness seemed indicative of the experience I was going to be getting, if I played with people from his server (I actually switched from that server to a different one, because of that jerk). This is the kind of attitude I don't get. Fortunately, another kind soul offered to help, and actually took the time to explain things rationally, and show me how stuff worked. Now I'm level 60 and going strong, and I love the game.

The same sort of thing goes for "rush" tactics in strategy games, which people generally hate, in a very "loud" and obnoxious way. Using Starcraft 2 as an example again, the rush tactic is generally somewhat risky. If you don't pull it off well, you're going to end up paying for it, but if it does work, it typically means your enemy wasn't paying enough attention, and yet somehow that is almost always your fault. Prepared to be called a lot of colorful names, should you ever choose to "rush". Anyway, the point is: if you're able to do something in a game, within the scope of what the developers intended, it really shouldn't be something you're not allowed to do, or be ostracized for doing, right? Especially in the case of games that get regular updates like CS:GO and SC2. If it was a problem or "illegal" or whatever, surely they'd remove it?

That's my opinion on the matter; I'd love to hear yours, and I'd like to get some discussion going. If anyone is offended by anything I said, that wasn't my intention, but please try to understand the message I'm trying to get across.