Top 10 Annoyances In Online Gaming

10 Things People Do In Online Games That Need To Stop

It`s safe to say that I`m an online gamer. I`ve been playing online since I was probably 16, playing Counter-Strike on the PC all the way to now where I balance out playing Modern Warfare 2 and NHL 11. I`ve played every genre possible online, and in both single player and team matches.

So it`s very easy to say that I`ve been around the massive circle of online gaming and gamers worldwide and because of that I`ve had to deal with some of the most annoying and infuriating types of gamers that lurk and completely ruin online games for those who are playing for the long lost purpose of having fun.

So with that, I would like to point out, what in my opinion is the top 10 most annoying things that players do that really tick other players off. I myself, am admittedly guilty of doing a few of these things at some point in my gaming life, but have also learned to avoid it.

So without further to do...

#10 - 12 year-old kids playing M-rated online games

You can't hide it, a 12 year-old's voice can be so obviously deciphered through a microphone that there's really no point in trying. Seriously, this is a huge reason why games are constantly attacked by politicians, parents and other people with too much time on their hands. Young kids are still able to either purchase or trick their absent-minded parents to purchase a game that is rated for ages above theirs.

And seriously, we play M-rated games so we don't have to hear children on the mic. It's really annoying, we don't play games like HALO or Modern Warfare to hear a little kid screaming "Stop it! You're not playing fair! Oh my god!" or a little kid with a big mouth screaming every curse word he can think of at the top of his lungs.

The "best" part is when they play games like the new HALO: Reach game and at the beginning of a match and go "I call sniper!". You know what that means...EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS GOING TO BE GOING AFTER THE SNIPER RIFLE NOW. Every other player just wants to here that little kid cry now.

Seriously, parents need to wake up and watch what their kids are playing and put a stop to this nonsense. Then maybe playing an M-rated game online would be worth something to people who actually waited to be of age to play these games.

#9 - Singing/Playing Music

This is pretty straight forward, it is unbelievably annoying to listen to people either singing terrible songs in their terrible singing voices (kind of wish I always had Simon Cowell by my side to help me out with these people) or playing music over their microphone. Why oh why do people think that we want to hear this over the mic? Most of the time, there's already music playing in the background, isn't that good enough?!

And another thing, why is it always bad music? I've never heard someone playing Zepplin or Rush or Metallica on the mic. It's always rap, rap and more rap. Cause nothing gets you in the mood to play an intense tactical shooter online match than the new sissy Eminem singles.

#8 - Making Offensive Names/Gamertags

We've all seen them. Taking shots at people, races, events, anything that is considered low to make fun of. I won't put down the tag name, but someone thought they were so funny, they'd make a gamertag that translated to...let's say a necrophilliac.

It's not funny at all and come on, be creative with your tags! Reference your favorite games or music or anything! My old gamertag was RadicalPersona, the "Radical" referencing the Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross and the "Persona" referencing the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona games. Two of my favorite games, one gamertag and it wasn't very hard to come up with.

#7 - Trash Talking (and not backing up their words)

It's one thing to trash talk. I trash talk every once in a while, mostly just to get the mood going. But at least when the game starts, I'm backing up my words. There's nothing more annoying than a guy screaming about how he's going to destroy all of us, and at the end of a round ends up with for example 3 kills and 24 deaths.

Don't get me wrong, I like a little trash talking, but for god's sake at least play the game a little and master it a little before you open your big mouth like that.

#6 - Going Away In Mid-Game

Why do people bother playing if they're going to drop the controller? I refuse to believe that every one of these players is leaving for a legitimate reason, heck some players intentionally do it just to irritate other players.

But to those who leave in mid-game and not quit, just to get up and get a drink, or go to the bathroom, or make a call, or anything else; could you not have done this before the game started? A round of Modern Warfare 2 is nine minutes, it's not hard to hold it in for nine minutes.

If you're planning on playing a game online, ensure you're going to be there the entire round, it really kills the team you're on to do that to them, it leaves them one man short and in the worst case I've seen, in NHL 11 it can sometimes leave the player constantly offside and make it impossible to generate any offence.

It's nine minutes...I can hold it in for nine hours if I want, come on!

#5 - Over-using Certain Weapons

I'm mostly refering to the so-called "n00b tubers" out there who constantly use grenade/rocket launchers to get kills. This isn't really an issue, it's just annoying to start a game and see four seperate grenades being launched from the other end of the map.

Same goes for knife and shotgun runners. It's sad that a game like MW2 makes it easy for players to get away with "tactics" like these, because in the real field of battle you'd be picked off long before you touched one person. Kind of defeats the purpose of calling games "tactical shooters", doesn't it?

#4 - Playing Team Games Solo

As they say, there's no I in team. But apparently to many, there's one hidden somewhere in between these four letters. Guys rushing across the other end of the map on their own, guys playing sports games and instead of passing, they just run/skate down the court/field/ice on their own like they're superstars.

You know what the best part is about these guys? 90% of the time, they're terrible at the game! It's like the trash talkers, if you're going to play solo in a team game, you better be the best at the game, because otherwise all you're doing is destroying your team's chances of winning and making yourself look like a bigger idiot than everyone else in the game.

What ever happened to playing like a team in team play? I must be insane to think people do that anymore.

#3 - Quitting

I understand that sometimes there's legitimate reasons that people have to leave during a game. But I have a hard time believing that you had a legit reason to quit when you or your team is being smoke in a game.

People have various bad reasons for leaving games. They don't want to waste time, the other team's cheating, the list goes on. The worst reason I've heard is that one player is a "n00b". We were all newbies to games at one point and people dealt with us. We should be helping and teaching new players to get better at the game, not shunning them.

If you took the time to help players, maybe you'd play better? And if you're being smoked, maybe staying around against a team that's doing really well might help you improve your game against tougher opponents? No? Fine, be lazy and a sore loser.

#2 - Glitching/Cheating

Games have glitches and exploits, I get that. But it's one thing to use it once for a laugh and show other players how the developers were too lazy to catch the glitch. But for people to use it as a crutch like comedians use swear words is another thing.

The best example was the infamous glitch goal in NHL 10. I guarantee that most if not all of the top 100 teams at the end of every month's season were teams that used this glitch shot every single chance they had. And that's just plain not fair. Games should be rewarding those who put in an effort to get better at the game, instead they punish those players while cheaters get rewarded.

Put a cheater/glitcher in a fixed game and watch how terrible they'd likely be. I'd love nothing more than to put a cheater in his place.

So we've reached the most annoying thing that people do online. This choice was very easy, but before we get to it, let's recap the last 9:

#10 - 12 year-old kids playing M-rated online games

#9 - Singing/Playing Music

#8 - Making Offensive Names/Gamertags

#7 - Trash Talking (and not backing up their words)

#6 - Going Away In Mid-Game

#5 - Over-using Certain Weapons

#4 - Playing Team Games Solo

#3 - Quitting

#2 - Glitching/Cheating

And finally, the most annoying thing players do online...

#1 - Harassing

This was the easiest choice to make. It's not funny or fun to be insulted online, yet people do it like it's acceptable. People cuss out other players for making mistakes, calling them names that I'm the better man not to mention, but you all know the names that I'm referring to.

The worst are the people that throw around racial slurs left and right, and this especially goes back to 12 year-olds playing M-rated games. Sad part is, it's not to protect their "innocent" ears, IT'S USUALLY THEM WHO FIRE OUT THE "N WORD".

Why do people think they can get away with this? I'm constantly shipping out complaints directly to Microsoft because of people like these. I don't play games online to hear people call me names that question my sexuality, my intelligence, or even get my mother involved. You would never say this to someone's face in real life, so why bother online? You think that because you're behind a mic that you won't get in trouble? Microsoft takes harassment very seriously, and I'm sure Sony does the same.

There is no place for harassment anywhere and that includes in online gaming. All you're doing is proving just how much of a waste of oxygen you really are.

And thus concludes this master list. For some of you, the order may be different, but regardless, I think we can all agree that these 10 things are things that we want to be taken out of online gaming but realize and accept that it will never truly go away.

But you know, it's stuff like this that causes us gamers to be labeled as inappropriate and violent people. Maybe if we were respected to our fellow gamers, outsiders would take us seriously, instead of as the punch line for many jokes.

Come on people, step up to the plate and be the better man or woman. Be respectful, and play the game for fun, not for rankings. Sure it's nice to win, but if we won everything, life would be boring.

That's life, deal with it.

A couple of years ago I was playing Halo 3 online and some 12-year-old kid said I must be a pedophile, so naturally I asked him how he reached this far-fetched conclusion. His answer was that I was playing a video game online with 12 year old kids like him. And I'm thinking, hey wait a minute, isn't this game rated M? He's calling me a pedophile for playing a game that's meant for adults only because he also happens to be playing it? Strange.

Also, I hate people who get mad at me for stealing their kills (as if they're getting paid for them lol)

And I just hate playing with people in general who take it way too seriously and forget that it's just a game.

#5 - Over-using Certain Weapons

This is not the fault of the players. This is due to bad game design and balance by the developers.

This is not the fault of the players. This is due to bad game design and balance by the developers.reason58

However I treat it the same as #2 (Glitching). It's one thing to use it once and a while, but another thing to use it all the time as a crutch to make yourself "good".

[QUOTE="reason58"]This is not the fault of the players. This is due to bad game design and balance by the developers.radicalpersona

However I treat it the same as #2 (Glitching). It's one thing to use it once and a while, but another thing to use it all the time as a crutch to make yourself "good".

Without fail players will gravitate towards whatever provides the most fun. Almost everyone defines fun in multiplayer games are killing other people. It is not the player's fault. They should not have an option that is better than everything else, otherwise the designer has failed.

Especially in competitive environments, it is about winning not "fairness". If they aren't actively cheating then it is fair game. If the developer makes a rocket launcher way powerful then that is what they'll use. It is like complaining that players always use the queen to own in chess.

I believe that most people would define "playing smart" as using the best tool for the job. Purposely handicapping yourself is the opposite of that.

counterstrike has so many cheaters that it can create an atmosphere of suspicion. ive been kicked from a server because there is ledge in assault thats just high enough to see a creeping opponent if youre on level ground and i made a pretty sweet shot on the top of his bobbing head. naturally, that comfirmed all their suspicions that the high mouse sensitivity i play with was really aimbots to aid my wallhacking. i dont know whether to blame the hackers that create the suspicion or the paranoid noobs that booted me.LoG-Sacrament

There is an "I" in "team". Most people write their T's by making an "I" and then putting a line through it. Thus, there is an "I" hidden in team. GHlegend77

There is an "I" in win though. And "I" like to win alot.

There is no "I" in team, but there is "me".

10 Things People Do In Online Games That Need To Stop

It`s safe to say that I`m an online gamer. I`ve been playing online since I was probably 16, playing Counter-Strike on the PC all the way to now where I balance out playing Modern Warfare 2 and NHL 11. I`ve played every genre possible online, and in both single player and team matches.

So it`s very easy to say that I`ve been around the massive circle of online gaming and gamers worldwide and because of that I`ve had to deal with some of the most annoying and infuriating types of gamers that lurk and completely ruin online games for those who are playing for the long lost purpose of having fun.

So with that, I would like to point out, what in my opinion is the top 10 most annoying things that players do that really tick other players off. I myself, am admittedly guilty of doing a few of these things at some point in my gaming life, but have also learned to avoid it.

So without further to do...

#10 - 12 year-old kids playing M-rated online games

You can't hide it, a 12 year-old's voice can be so obviously deciphered through a microphone that there's really no point in trying. Seriously, this is a huge reason why games are constantly attacked by politicians, parents and other people with too much time on their hands. Young kids are still able to either purchase or trick their absent-minded parents to purchase a game that is rated for ages above theirs.

And seriously, we play M-rated games so we don't have to hear children on the mic. It's really annoying, we don't play games like HALO or Modern Warfare to hear a little kid screaming "Stop it! You're not playing fair! Oh my god!" or a little kid with a big mouth screaming every curse word he can think of at the top of his lungs.

The "best" part is when they play games like the new HALO: Reach game and at the beginning of a match and go "I call sniper!". You know what that means...EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS GOING TO BE GOING AFTER THE SNIPER RIFLE NOW. Every other player just wants to here that little kid cry now.

Seriously, parents need to wake up and watch what their kids are playing and put a stop to this nonsense. Then maybe playing an M-rated game online would be worth something to people who actually waited to be of age to play these games.

#9 - Singing/Playing Music

This is pretty straight forward, it is unbelievably annoying to listen to people either singing terrible songs in their terrible singing voices (kind of wish I always had Simon Cowell by my side to help me out with these people) or playing music over their microphone. Why oh why do people think that we want to hear this over the mic? Most of the time, there's already music playing in the background, isn't that good enough?!

And another thing, why is it always bad music? I've never heard someone playing Zepplin or Rush or Metallica on the mic. It's always rap, rap and more rap. Cause nothing gets you in the mood to play an intense tactical shooter online match than the new sissy Eminem singles.

#8 - Making Offensive Names/Gamertags

We've all seen them. Taking shots at people, races, events, anything that is considered low to make fun of. I won't put down the tag name, but someone thought they were so funny, they'd make a gamertag that translated to...let's say a necrophilliac.

It's not funny at all and come on, be creative with your tags! Reference your favorite games or music or anything! My old gamertag was RadicalPersona, the "Radical" referencing the Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross and the "Persona" referencing the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona games. Two of my favorite games, one gamertag and it wasn't very hard to come up with.

#7 - Trash Talking (and not backing up their words)

It's one thing to trash talk. I trash talk every once in a while, mostly just to get the mood going. But at least when the game starts, I'm backing up my words. There's nothing more annoying than a guy screaming about how he's going to destroy all of us, and at the end of a round ends up with for example 3 kills and 24 deaths.

Don't get me wrong, I like a little trash talking, but for god's sake at least play the game a little and master it a little before you open your big mouth like that.

#6 - Going Away In Mid-Game

Why do people bother playing if they're going to drop the controller? I refuse to believe that every one of these players is leaving for a legitimate reason, heck some players intentionally do it just to irritate other players.

But to those who leave in mid-game and not quit, just to get up and get a drink, or go to the bathroom, or make a call, or anything else; could you not have done this before the game started? A round of Modern Warfare 2 is nine minutes, it's not hard to hold it in for nine minutes.

If you're planning on playing a game online, ensure you're going to be there the entire round, it really kills the team you're on to do that to them, it leaves them one man short and in the worst case I've seen, in NHL 11 it can sometimes leave the player constantly offside and make it impossible to generate any offence.

It's nine minutes...I can hold it in for nine hours if I want, come on!

#5 - Over-using Certain Weapons

I'm mostly refering to the so-called "n00b tubers" out there who constantly use grenade/rocket launchers to get kills. This isn't really an issue, it's just annoying to start a game and see four seperate grenades being launched from the other end of the map.

Same goes for knife and shotgun runners. It's sad that a game like MW2 makes it easy for players to get away with "tactics" like these, because in the real field of battle you'd be picked off long before you touched one person. Kind of defeats the purpose of calling games "tactical shooters", doesn't it?

#4 - Playing Team Games Solo

As they say, there's no I in team. But apparently to many, there's one hidden somewhere in between these four letters. Guys rushing across the other end of the map on their own, guys playing sports games and instead of passing, they just run/skate down the court/field/ice on their own like they're superstars.

You know what the best part is about these guys? 90% of the time, they're terrible at the game! It's like the trash talkers, if you're going to play solo in a team game, you better be the best at the game, because otherwise all you're doing is destroying your team's chances of winning and making yourself look like a bigger idiot than everyone else in the game.

What ever happened to playing like a team in team play? I must be insane to think people do that anymore.

#3 - Quitting

I understand that sometimes there's legitimate reasons that people have to leave during a game. But I have a hard time believing that you had a legit reason to quit when you or your team is being smoke in a game.

People have various bad reasons for leaving games. They don't want to waste time, the other team's cheating, the list goes on. The worst reason I've heard is that one player is a "n00b". We were all newbies to games at one point and people dealt with us. We should be helping and teaching new players to get better at the game, not shunning them.

If you took the time to help players, maybe you'd play better? And if you're being smoked, maybe staying around against a team that's doing really well might help you improve your game against tougher opponents? No? Fine, be lazy and a sore loser.

#2 - Glitching/Cheating

Games have glitches and exploits, I get that. But it's one thing to use it once for a laugh and show other players how the developers were too lazy to catch the glitch. But for people to use it as a crutch like comedians use swear words is another thing.

The best example was the infamous glitch goal in NHL 10. I guarantee that most if not all of the top 100 teams at the end of every month's season were teams that used this glitch shot every single chance they had. And that's just plain not fair. Games should be rewarding those who put in an effort to get better at the game, instead they punish those players while cheaters get rewarded.

Put a cheater/glitcher in a fixed game and watch how terrible they'd likely be. I'd love nothing more than to put a cheater in his place.

So we've reached the most annoying thing that people do online. This choice was very easy, but before we get to it, let's recap the last 9:

#10 - 12 year-old kids playing M-rated online games

#9 - Singing/Playing Music

#8 - Making Offensive Names/Gamertags

#7 - Trash Talking (and not backing up their words)

#6 - Going Away In Mid-Game

#5 - Over-using Certain Weapons

#4 - Playing Team Games Solo

#3 - Quitting

#2 - Glitching/Cheating

And finally, the most annoying thing players do online...

#1 - Harassing

This was the easiest choice to make. It's not funny or fun to be insulted online, yet people do it like it's acceptable. People cuss out other players for making mistakes, calling them names that I'm the better man not to mention, but you all know the names that I'm referring to.

The worst are the people that throw around racial slurs left and right, and this especially goes back to 12 year-olds playing M-rated games. Sad part is, it's not to protect their "innocent" ears, IT'S USUALLY THEM WHO FIRE OUT THE "N WORD".

Why do people think they can get away with this? I'm constantly shipping out complaints directly to Microsoft because of people like these. I don't play games online to hear people call me names that question my sexuality, my intelligence, or even get my mother involved. You would never say this to someone's face in real life, so why bother online? You think that because you're behind a mic that you won't get in trouble? Microsoft takes harassment very seriously, and I'm sure Sony does the same.

There is no place for harassment anywhere and that includes in online gaming. All you're doing is proving just how much of a waste of oxygen you really are.

And thus concludes this master list. For some of you, the order may be different, but regardless, I think we can all agree that these 10 things are things that we want to be taken out of online gaming but realize and accept that it will never truly go away.

But you know, it's stuff like this that causes us gamers to be labeled as inappropriate and violent people. Maybe if we were respected to our fellow gamers, outsiders would take us seriously, instead of as the punch line for many jokes.

Come on people, step up to the plate and be the better man or woman. Be respectful, and play the game for fun, not for rankings. Sure it's nice to win, but if we won everything, life would be boring.

That's life, deal with it.

radicalpersona

Wow, I think it's safe to say you've covered virtually every single aspect of annoying online gaming tendencies. It's something I don't think about often, possibly because I don't have Live set up on my 360, but in regards to #9, the only time you should be hearing music while playing online should only be from the game, be an original composition from Halo*, or a song from a game like Guitar Hero#.

* Could refer to any game with an original soundtrack, Halo was just the first thing to pop into my head. That orchestral/opera combination just somehow suits the flow of the game.

# Could also refer to any game with licensed music as part of the soundtrack. I used Guitar Hero because it's a game where music is almost essential; it's no fun with the volume muted.

I agree with you for the most part, however as far as trash-talking I don't really think its necessary in a game whether you back it up or not, unless you know the person your talking to or its done in good nature. As for the 12 yr olds playing M-rated games...I think some M-rated games are ok for 12 yr olds i.e. Halo, Call of Duty; the problem is they really shouldn't be on the multi-player of these games till they are a couple years older, but the irony of it is most of them only play the multi-player and don't even bother with the campaign which would be much better suited for them.

Most problems arent on pc, or can be fixed easily...so lol @ consoles

Do not forget the elitist. They type that know how everyone should play. Then complain when someone does not play that way.

Headless chickens the player that are always running around and then they see you they go into a freaking movements.

I agree with you on almost every point but I accept most of them for what they are. Human flaws. Only saints can plead innocent to all those charges.

I'm sure you've got your own blind spots. Without any meaning to insult you, I'd say you're a whiner at heart. An intelligent one but still. I have a friend who plays RTS games religiously and he can whine about some unbalanced unit for hours. (I still like him though.)

Concerning myself. I'll use each and every glitch I know of when I play to win (and I tend to do that a lot) and I don't consider using them cheating at all. If it's in the game, it's in the game.

I find it irritating when others use them though :P

nice list, but your number 10 would be my number 1 lol, theres really nothing more annoying than hearing a high pichted kid voice while im playing nhl 11

Trash talking and quitting are the WORST when it comes to playing fighting games online. You hear people trash talk when they losing and they complain about a certain character being "cheap" when in reality, they don't know how to deal with that character. Rage quitters are also an issue mainly because they quit during matches and send hate mail, that's right, HATE MAIL. It's worst in ranked matches because when they quit, it doesn't count as their lost and your win. I'm still waiting for developers to fix this problem. Rage quitting was so common in the Vanilla Street Fighter 4, that people made a website that shows them being quitted on and shows their hate mail(sorry don't know the site).

Quitters really wind me up. Played some Halo Reach the other day and some guy quit a match because he fell off the map and killed himself. That has to be one of the most pathetic reasons for quitting I've ever seen. I've fallen off the occassional map, especially if I'm not familiar with said map or I was just an idiot and didn't think, but hey ho, I carry on.

I also can't stand people hogging power weapons. I know it's a race to get whatever gun and that's how it is, fine, but I've played countless matches on Halo 3 where someone walks around with a turret all match, or someone stays in a Ghost / Banshee the whole time. Even if they get killed, they're back ten seconds later with their turret or their Ghost. I get that people play games for fun and sure it's fun to use power weapons but switch it up once in a while. It's hardly skillful to mow people down in a vehicle all match.

And as for harrassment, don't get me started.

I agree with some of the list but I do not agree with #10. It is completely silly in what he suggests. Are 12 year old whiny children annoying? Yes. Should they not be able to play M-rated games if it is purchased by a consenting adult? No.

Gamers have been playing games that were M-rated long before they turned 17+ or whatever. For instance, TC claims he was playing CS at 16, which is less than the required age one need to be in order to play M-rated games. There is absolutely no difference between him at that age and a 12 year old. Both apparently have absent-minded parents who allow them to play M-rated games while they are underage. If a 12 year old shouldn't play an M-rated game due to age neither should a 16 year old. If we are going to look at the issue M-rated games should only be play by gamers 17+. Hell, if you get rid of the 12 year old you will have gotten rid of a large segment of online gaming for M-rated games. Also, not all 12 year olds suck. Some of them will hand you your ass.

TC is a hypocrite. It is okay for him to play M-rated games when he is underage but it isn't okay for other underage kids to play these same games. That argument is just so silly. If you are tired of hearing 12 year old shrieking then "mute" them. It is really that easy.

#8 Doesn't even affect TC or online gameplay. How could this even be annoying? Just don't pay any attention to it.

#5 Is just TC complaining that he isn't good enough to kill/handle a knifer or a grenade spammer.

#1 I somewhat agree. But I also subscribe to the school of thought that if the glitch is available for anyone to exploit then it isn't really cheating. I mean, every single person could use it, so it isn't an unfair advantage one way or another.

Good list,

the main gripe I have is with quitters.

Some people are quite annoying a person in TF2.Like he kept losing to me and said i was a kid and he was hacking he abused most players on the server.And had 99 deaths and 5 kills .he kept on shouting on mike like a kid.And such a liar i asked him his specs he said amd core 2 duo and nvidiaa 9900 gt .Such people ****