{"id":8651,"date":"2010-11-22T13:27:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-22T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T22:00:00","slug":"the-online-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/8651-the-online-awesome","title":{"rendered":"The online awesome"},"content":{"rendered":"

First off, this column was written to counterpoise Myles’ piece last week; The online evil<\/a>. So that explains the title, which lacking the aforementioned context might seem a bit oafish. <\/p>\n

Myles makes some great points in the article. Trolls and hackers obviously have a negative effect on our online gaming environments, as do things like lag and broadband instability.  <\/p>\n

However, despite these problems, we can’t seem to stop coming back for more. <\/p>\n

I was actually a fairly late adopter to online gaming. My formulative gaming years were carved out against a backdrop of classic single player titles. I was one of those guys who bought the original StarCraft for the story, and apart from one or two LANs, never touched the multiplayer side of the game.<\/p>\n

My first foray into the world of online gaming was with Call of Duty 4 back in 2007. I also developed a pretty hardcore World of Warcraft addiction around this time, and between these two titles, all my gaming needs were appeased for over a year. I didn’t touch one single player game for this entire period, which suited my student budget quite nicely. <\/p>\n

Things are different now though, and I haven’t paid my WoW account subscription in over 2 years. I can’t impress enough just how much I love certain single player franchises, such as Mass Effect, Portal and Bioshock. However, they are only good for a single playthrough – for me, anyways. <\/p>\n

The ongoing competitive nature of online simply cannot be matched for intensity by single player games, and while Mass Effect 2 is a must-play game, its narrative is what makes it important. <\/p>\n

Going head to head with other human beings in a virtual world provides a rush that no AI will ever be able to match, and it’s not a skill thing. It is the knowledge that you are playing against another human being that elevates the intensity. In the moment, beating another person feels somehow important. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; men have been killing and competing with each other for as far back as as we can go. The fact that sport is so huge is testament to this. Would we get excited about watching the Sprinbok rugby team go up against a team of AI controlled virtual players? Of course not, we want to watch them compete against other humans, and it’s the same for games. <\/p>\n

Occasionally a single player game will draw me in and make me feel like what I am doing is important, whether it be through developing characters, or just a really compelling story. However, I have yet to find a single player game that appeals to the little piece of my lizard brain that gives me the same rush as a round of Capture the Flag, or a StarCraft II league match. <\/p>\n

As for the trolls and hackers, they are almost always outnumbered by reasonable, friendly gamers. If it becomes apparent that someone is using hacks, I simply report them or move to a different server. More of an issue, if you let it get to you, are the juvenile attitudes you are bound to come across at some point or other while online. If you are any good, you should go in expecting to be called a “hacker” or a “camper”. My standard response to these accusations (which are rare) is “OKLOL” followed by a smiley face. This either sends the troll into a dizzying, hilarious rage, or shuts them up altogether. Either way, it’s best to not let them get to you.<\/p>\n

Gaming online is just like doing anything with other people. You will come into contact with a massive variety of personalities. Some will be cool, some won’t, but if you can learn to laugh at the trolls, then you’ll be fine. <\/p>\n

Share your views and experience of gaming online<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trolls, hackers and griefers fail at ruining online gaming for this writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}