The gaming community is a wonderful one, with its roots starting out on internet forums and eventually entering into the mainstream. However, that doesn’t mean everyone’s an angel. Here are five different types of gamers that can ruin a gaming experience, whether you’re playing a multiplayer game or just trying to strike up a conversation.
5. Glitch Hunter
I’ll go ahead and say hackers go under this category, but emphasize that not everyone who knows how to use a glitch passed their Computer Science III course. Using ways that developers didn’t intend, glitch hunters can break the game and easily win in multiplayer matches. While glitches can have some amazing uses, and not all are nefarious, the ones who use it against other players are nasty in multiplayer. Using mods or an altered game designed to make the game easier for you and give you an advantage is also an annoying way to ruing the game experience for everyone.
4. Griefer
Griefers come in all varieties across the net. Their sole purpose in games is to ruin the game for everyone else. Whether your Minecraft home just got destroyed or your team just obliterated by its own member, these guys will have fun. Instead of having winning as their goal, they aim primarily to annoy. The easiest way to ruin their day is to kick or ban them as soon as they reveal themselves without getting mad. Better yet, you could repair their damage in front of them. Either way, don’t acknowledge their efforts, and do your best to spot them early on, before they can start mass-murdering your team.
3. Insulters
Plaguing headsets since the introduction of XBOX live, insulters get off on calling anyone and everyone their insult of choice. Whether it’s a racial, sexist, or religious slur, they at least don’t discriminate against WHO they insult—everyone is game, and everyone gets the same label. I realize that everyone has the right to free speech, but there’s a point where you should exercise etiquette like a human being instead of someone raised underneath a rock with no exposure to people with common sense. There’s different ways to express frustration. Yell, shout, whatever. But being angry doesn’t exempt your behavior.
2. Entitled
This doesn’t count the people who bought something and didn’t get what they were promised in writing, advertisements, or store deals. No, those people are actually entitled. I’m talking about the ones who complain to companies about sequels or lack thereof, demand updates or mods or features that they suggested, or think that games should be cheaper in this economy. Unfortunately making a game isn’t cheap, and the increase in prices lately just reflects how much more a studio needs to spend to make a game. Overpricing, sure, that’s not right. But rarely can a company give you games at a price that has very little profit in it for them. What’s more, game companies took their time creating the game that got you liking them—they probably have better ideas than you do about what to do with it next. Despite popular belief, game companies are still run by humans, and they do have some constraints. Some games don’t have happy endings, others don’t have realistic premises, but those are how the games were designed, and are nothing to complain about.
1. Fanatics
Fanatics are truly the worst kind of gamers. After spending most of their lives playing just a handful of games, they feel knowledgeable enough to say that their favorites are the best. Whether they’re trying to convince you that your favorite series is crap or that your console is terrible, they rarely know what they’re talking about. Haters who automatically ignore ‘casual’ games fall into this rut. Take anything a suspected fanatic says with a grain of salt. Ask them to explain their reasoning, and see if they can come up with a better excuse then, ‘Well, mine is better!’ Above all, be sure they’ve actually played or used the things they’re complaining about before listening to their opinion. Knowledge is a powerful thing, but fanatics pick it up selectively.