I’ve just got a hold of Soul Calibur V a couple of days ago and after a little getting used to it I went online. I’m not yet very good at it, but I’ve got enough instinct left from the extraordinary amount of time I put into Soul Blade, SC I, and SC II that I can still kick some of these young whippersnappers’ butts.
The thing is that when I come up against someone with, say, a Win-Loss score of 3 – 16 I really feel bad about beating them. Obviously that one insane Yoshimitsu player with like a 90% win ratio over 300 matches, I had no issue about trying to beat the crap out of him. But when it’s someone who just doesn’t seem to be so good at the game I can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as I turn their braincase into mush. I just find myself imagining them sitting there, losing yet again – who are they? Is it someone’s dad who was urged to get one of these new-fangled consoles? Is it some kid who is not yet coordinated enough to carry on? The weird thing is I don’t have this issue in face-to-face gaming. I’ve beaten the absolute crap out of small children without a second’s hesitation or remorse when we’re in the same room. And of course if it’s a team game, like a WoW battleground or a game of Team Fortress 2, I don’t have any issues about bringing my A game.
Pike will no doubt mock me for this, as she insists I should be as merciless, as vicious, and as absolutely stone-hearted as possible whilst playing games. Nevertheless sometimes I just feel like a jerkface, even though of course everyone there is there by choice and it would be more insulting not to do my best. But do any of you out there have these similar twinges of guilt and worry, where you can’t help but imagine the person on the other side of the screen and how sad they must be to, yet again, be getting pounded into dust?
It’s probably me, jerkface.
(Just kidding. I haven’t gotten Soulcalibur V yet. After that point… it’ll probably be me.)
Yeah, same here. I’m soundly terrible at the vast majority of multiplayer games I’ve ever tried. I can actually hold my own against the Beginner AI in League of Legends, but that’s about it (and I haven’t tried it since they upgraded the bots last patch, so that may be out too).
When I played Street Fighter 4 often enough on PC, If I noticed the other player was way undermatched, I would limit my attacks to simple combos or basic moves only. This way they have something of a fighting chance and it is more challenging for me. I don’t really thing of it as insulting if you don’t play your full game everytime. I look at it as they have a learning experience to learn how to counter a certain playstyle or an obvious way to see that their repetitive strategy isn’t working. If I just beat them to a pulp in 2o seconds that is boring for me and they learn nothing from it.
I don’t play against other people, in on-line games, but when I play Skyrim and I come up against a low level npc (say a bandit or Forsworn) and they’re doing the down-on-one-knee, I-submit!-I-submit! thing, I do get a microsecond of guilt… just before I do a power attack that decapitates them :) – It’s their career choice, they could have taken up farming or something :D
Gareth
What about just putting an arrow into their knee? *shot*
Were you shot… with an arrow… in the knee?
As long as you aren’t the type of player to rub superiority in an inferior player’s faces (I’m looking at you teabagging D-bags in any FPS game), I see no problems with it. The inferior player will never get better if he (or she. lol girls don’t play ga-OH GOD PIKE DON’T KILL ME) doesn’t face a superior player and learn from the experience. A person is only a newb for a short time. As long as they don’t cross the line and become a noob.
<3 Fig!
When my friend and I play smash bros brawl, I get my face pounded in. I generally look at a 30:70 win:loss ratio, give or take. It’s still amazing fun, though. While I don’t play multiplayer fighting games, I doubt I’d hold back much.