Complaining Across a Very Small Sea of Games

I have two siblings, both of whom are better at games than I am. Particularly platforming games and anything with precise timing, which I hate with a passion. They are both fans of first person shooters. They both started playing FPS games at the same time I did, starting with Left 4 Dead and Garry’s Mod. They’ve always played similar games. They both adore class-based shooters. They are Terroxy and Nommy.

Nommy is the youngest of the three of us. She plays with a small group of friends. Mostly Overwatch these days. She’s gone off Team Fortress 2, because she prefers the smaller teams and likes the characters more. She hasn’t played TF2 in ages, the last time she did so was to open her Smissmas Stocking Stuffer. She loves Overwatch with a passion and is currently ranked in Platinum.

Terroxy is the middle sibling. He plays with a large collection of people, but still keeps contact with old friends. He prefers to play Team Fortress 2 and has a very impressive inventory of hats and weapons. He doesn’t like Overwatch, he feels that ultimate abilities are often too much of an “I win!” button and doesn’t see any point in spending €30 for something he can already play for free.

Just like me and any other human being, they get annoyed at their games. And they start complaining and shouting at their games. The same way I’m told not to. I hear them complain as I sit around playing Skyrim or Warframe or whatever. After a lot of listening (and eavesdropping and them coming up to me and talking to me and complaining), I’ve come to the conclusion that their complaints are almost identical.

Let’s have a quick list of things that they complain about:

• “Oh god, lag.”
• “Why the fuck have I been disconnected? My connection is fine!”
• “Fucking griefing team mates!”
• “Why do we have three snipers?”
• “Come on, you stupid team!”
• “We’ve got four light attacking classes on defense!”
• “Move! We can go in! Why are you hiding?”
• “How was that a crit/headshot?”
• “How was that NOT a crit/headshot?”
• “Oh god not this map again!”
• “How is there a sentry there?”
• “I swear I already destroyed like ten buildings!”
• “Oh my god, that should have hit!”
• “WHY DO WE HAVE THREE SNIPERS?”
• “Fucking Snipers.”
• “We need some supports!”
• “Why do we only have one support and why are they being a fucking battle medic?”
• “How did they not die? I shot them so many times!”
• “Where the fuck is my team?”

Their complaints are often identical. I would be unable to tell the two apart if I didn’t already know that Nommy plays OW and Terroxy plays TF2 and all the names were removed.

But what does this have to do with anything? It’s really simple. The majority of problems with both TF2 and OW stem from the players themselves. And from snipers and auto-aim turrets. You see, people are bastards and they don’t like it when other people don’t do as they are told. Throw 12 or 24 of them into a server and chaos ensues. Coupled with matchmaking systems that will never be perfect, you end up with a frustrating situation. Add in those snipers and auto-aim turrets (which people love to play as/with but hate to be killed by) and pretty much every multiplayer game ends up with the exact same complaints.

Thing is, you can’t control people, but you can control the other two things. Developers could stop putting sniper classes into everything and maybe ease up on the automated, automatic aimbot death machines. At least in PvP games where the main skills that separate people is mobility and aim.

In the mean time, complaints like the above will resonate through PvP games for all eternity.