Sunday, 24 June 2001 1515Z
Young people, playing online games or on the Internet... -Teatime

The following is a guest editorial sent to my by Kalashnikov. It's offering some interesting insights on the issues of younger players in TFC.

For quite a while now, I have been a dedicated half-life gamer. Starting out when I was 13 (I am 15 now, and have been for ... oh 30 minutes ... since 12:00 PM/00:00 AM on Fri/Sat the 22nd/23rd). And have been in 2 clans, staying in the first for around 1 year, and being in the second for 6 months ... and being a floater (drifter) in between. And what really scares me is the fact that, even though I am not a 9 year old whiner, (15...) I am still afraid to reveal my age, or even hint at the fact that I am not an adult.

The reason for this is whenever I see someone doing this in a game that is younger than 16, they get slagged off, or whenever they ask a question, intelligent or not, most of the time they are told 'fuck off you whiner/child'. It has happened to me time and time again. The problem is, older people, or even some people like me that I have had the misfortune to meet, have had the image of the 9 year old CS gamer impressed onto them. The major problem people like me have is that we become tarred with the same brush as the minority of really young players that have been give half-life as a present, for their birthday.

Let me tell you why some extremely young people become disliked as much as they are. Ever since I have come onto the net at about 12, as an Age of Empire's gamer (ugh), I have conducted myself in much the same manner as I would in RL (Real Life™). This means being responsible, helping others out with problems, not insulting people, and generally being sociable. I do not see the internet as a barrier that means I can do whatever I want with impunity, though I probably could. The problem is, younger children see the net as something where everyone is anonymous, maybe rightly so, and they make use of it in that way. They insult people that they would not in RL™, they attempt to hack, and they generally do not conduct themselves with the same respect or maturity that they do in the Real World. This does bring a certain amount of dislike to them, and this, unfortunately, carries into their gaming. We all know that at a young age, we took almost everything very seriously. We would have (and I expect quite a few did) whine about petty things, such as who got the extra millimeter of coke in that glass that your mother poured out for you. Some people would bawl their eyes out because of that. Because at a younger age children take things more seriously, games become more than a game for them, they become something they 'must' be good at. And they cannot accept that there are people better than them out there. So when they lose, they don't like it and take a bad attitude, not treating it as a game.

As a result people hate them. This sort of child normally is the person you see in a game of TFC spamming 'LAG! LAG!" Over and over again. This is the sort of person that will make up all kinds of excuses to explain their death. This is the sort of person that overuses 1337speak (come on, we all use it sometimes ;)) and spams it over and over again. And consequently, this is the sort of person people hate. Understandably. But from what I have seen, people will do one of two things about this.

Ignore the person completely, giving no constructive criticism or taking no action
Or...
Take too much action, and not suggest anything, but immediately kick/ban the person from the server.
This does not help anyone. This just serves to infuriate the person more, and make them take their anger out on another person. What I propose is this. Before banning them, talk to them. don't shout. (caps). don't annoy them. Just calmly explain to them that what they are doing is not good for them, and it isn't 'cool', and it isn't 'funny'. Tell them how to enjoy the game, and tell them, for gods sake, to play like a normal person. I do accept that some/most children wont accept this, but try. Otherwise things will only get worse.

The problem, in short then, is this: The declining age of the TFC/Half-Life community means that too many people are taking it more seriously than before. This leads all too frequently to arguments, and people being pissed off at the young person. Possibly with reason. However, too many responses to shouting, name calling etc. are 'I bet he's 13.' this comes from generalization, and is wrong. Maybe if some people took the time to try and change the way these '9 year olds' feel, we wouldn't have these problems.

What I propose is this: Try and be a little more tolerant of the younger gamers. Tell them where they go wrong, help them to improve. Try and ignore some spam, and tell them what is wrong with spam, if they continue. But most of all, try and help them to understand that it is only a game.

What I expect or demand from the older gamers is to be able to tell that the number of so called '9 year old whiners' is a minority in the community. And also, try and understand that a 15 year old is not automatically a whiner. Or a 9 year old (that should be obvious). Please, don't tar us all with the same brush. don't punish the majority for a very small minority, most of which is there because of the unhelpfulness of the general community.

I might add that spamming, whining or trash-talking is no prerogative of the young. We all know that an older person isn't automatically more mature or more reasonable than a younger person. However we have to deal with the fact that we have an increasing number of younger people playing online games. We have to take into account that their social skills might be a little behind their gaming skills :-p, and I agree with Kalashnikov that those of us who claim to be mature and reasonable should show a little more tolerance and - IMO very important - serve as an example to the younger players.
How can we expect them to act maturely, to be humble and learn fairplay and good conduct when we older players don't behave much better?

Here we encounter a far more grave problem: The increasing decline of the community. The community becomes increasingly focused on skill and victory. For many people everything is just a mean to personal glory. I suspect a number of people even see playing in a clan as a mean to show off themselves. What example can those people offer? Isn't in fact the community adapting to the egocentric attitude we blame on younger players?

When we worship skill and success above all, is it a surprise that those kids don't learn to fit in, to humble themselves and to work with their team instead of trying to prove their l33tness?

Look around you and ask yourself if we are not setting the wrong signals to the upcoming generation of gamers. Ask yourself if we don't get the immature behaviour we deserve by imparting the wrong values ...

Thanks, Kalashnikov, for this editorial. You can discuss this editorial here.

Friday, 22 June 2001 1315Z
Time to get back into business... -Teatime

Okay, there have been very little content the past few weeks. But slowly my life returns to a state at least remotely resembling normal, so I hope I'll be able to update the Fort more regularly again in the future.

I'm working on an editorial dealing with the state of the community and the changes which I think have taken place over the last two years, and I hope I will finish it soon. So stay tuned ...

Friday, 08 June 2001 1400Z
And more farewells... -Teatime

Damn, I'm way too much behind things ... :-(

Sorry to see you leave, PK. I know you from those early days when I entered this wondrous world of TFC and found the PF forums with all these strange folks, amongst them many nice and helpful people. Over these 2 years you have earned my utmost respect. You always had an immense knowledge of the game and the technological aspects behind it, you understood the mechanics of the game and you knew about the basics which make this game work, like class balance. You were always great in making your points in a rational and enlightening manner. At the same time you were a prime example that skill and sportsmanship are no contradiction and that one can play competitively without relying on cheap tactics.

You will be missed, my friend ...