Why are online players so freaking good?

I don't think the problem is me, I've been a gamer for a long time and consider myself above average in most games. I also beat most of my gamer friends in local multiplayer matches in any game. But whenever I go online in any game, Battlefield 3, MW3, Marvel vs Capcom 3, FIFA, etc. I do pretty badly. Why are there so many hardcore gamers online? Why can't there be as many average/casual players? Are these online/hardcore gamers seriously basement dwellers? Because whenever I play my regular friends, they aren't half as good as most online players. Solid_Snake325

You're playing against people that generally play nothing but said game. If you just pick a game up to play online competively once in a while, you aren't going to do well. You're playing against people that play all day and you're basically right with the basement dwellers comment.

Online/pub communities are actually notoriously bad compared to the competitive communities in every game.

Cause these are people that don't have anything else to do but sit in front of there tv's all day long playing games. So if you play games on line for hours on end or even days on end you would do a lot better.

Cause these are people that don't have anything else to do but sit in front of there tv's all day long playing games. So if you play games on line for hours on end or even days on end you would do a lot better.

CADMAN_3

Because they spend all day playing the same game.

Obvious troll is obvious.Vangaurdius

Not a good answer.

The better answer would be that people do sit there and play the same videogames, over and over again, until they know it like the back of their hand. That's why they are pretty good at what they do.

[QUOTE="Vangaurdius"]Obvious troll is obvious.Metamania

Not a good answer.

The better answer would be that people do sit there and play the same videogames, over and over again, until they know it like the back of their hand. That's why they are pretty good at what they do.

I thought it was a fair answer given the insulting, whining tone of the TC's post. I can beat my three buddies because I'm awesome but I can't beat people who play more than an hour a week so they clearly have no lives!

I also beat most of my gamer friends in local multiplayer matches in any game. But whenever I go online in any game, Battlefield 3, MW3, Marvel vs Capcom 3, FIFA, etc. I do pretty badly. Why are there so many hardcore gamers online? Why can't there be as many average/casual players? Are these online/hardcore gamers seriously basement dwellers?

Any person with two brain cells to rub together knows that any good game (and I speak of not just videogames, but board games and sports) rewards time invested. Its silly to whine about depth.

Same problem I have, and I know it's because I play too many different kinds of games to get good at any one in particular. The vast majority of each of those games' online communities are full of people who play nothing but that one game. And most of those games are not very friendly to new players - couple that with an extremely experienced community and the entire experience becomes the opposite of fun.DJ_Lae

That's been my experience in one on one games such as fighting games, but things are easier in team based games. If a guy tries to be useful to his team and doesn't worry about being the star (at least for a while) he can quickly get a handle on things.

Every game should break up the communities kind of like Crysis 2 does. They have the noob section for people under a certain level, and then the leet section for the other players. Personally it usually takes me like 4 games to get in the groove and then I can do ok. It takes a while to be a beast at it like some guys. I would have to dedicate time that I don't have to reach that level. Just be happy if you're at least a postive player.

[QUOTE="CADMAN_3"]

Cause these are people that don't have anything else to do but sit in front of there tv's all day long playing games. So if you play games on line for hours on end or even days on end you would do a lot better.

Elann2008

Not to sound offensive, but most of those Online players are really good because they spend waaaaaaaay too much time playing Online Multiplayer.

To be on the same level as they are, you'd physically need to spend hours upon hours upon hours practicing in online matches. And most of those players are single, have part time jobs, younger, high school, middle school students and live at home with their parents.

I'm 34, I don't game too often on PSN and I don't have Gold I'm on XBL Silver. I don't know anybody at my age who's even remotely that good or proficient.

It's all about obsession and sheer repitition. Anybody can be great at something if they do it over and over constantly.

Like others have said, a lot of the people you run into online play that 1 game all day every day. I thought I had a lot of time logged in to Call of Duty, but I'm not even ranked in the top million, and I have like 2 days played and a 2.0 k/d ratio. This basically means that there are over a million people out there that literally play the game all day every single day. You'd be surprised how many people are addicted to online gaming. There are millions of people out there who will literally wake up and play Call of Duty 7 days a week for 10 hours a day without ever taking a break. It's like a disease.

.

Answer: They aren't?

You being able to trounce a couple of your friends is in no way a proper indications of how good you are at video games.

I'm not saying you suck, or that their are no good players online. I get stomped plenty online. But I also feel I get my fair share of wins.

Just because someone seems really good does NOT mean they do nothing but play that one game for 10 hours a day. Some of them very well may do that. But it could also just mean this person has been playing that game a lot lately, and thus is in top form for it. If I put in Tekken 6 and tried to play online right now, I would likely get my head stomped in. If I spent the next week brushing up on it, my w/l ratio would likely be somewhere in the 70-80% range.

But yes if you want to be really good at a game, you have to play that game a lot. Not just play it, but treat it like real practice. I don't even want to try to think of how many hours I've spent in the training mode for Marvel vs Capcom 3 haha.

I don't think the problem is me, I've been a gamer for a long time and consider myself above average in most games. I also beat most of my gamer friends in local multiplayer matches in any game. But whenever I go online in any game, Battlefield 3, MW3, Marvel vs Capcom 3, FIFA, etc. I do pretty badly. Why are there so many hardcore gamers online? Why can't there be as many average/casual players? Are these online/hardcore gamers seriously basement dwellers? Because whenever I play my regular friends, they aren't half as good as most online players. Solid_Snake325

Because they focus on that game only. Imagine the next example:

Guy number one plays:

FIFA - sucks
Call of Duty - he owns everybody
Mortal Kombat - sucks

Guy number two (me) plays:

FIFA - good
Call of Duty - mediocre
Mortal Kombat - mediocre

I need to get this out. While legit players should not be penalized for their work, a lot of the other players have hacked their way into leaderboards, making it literally impossible to achieve that goal.

Take, for example, the coliseum battles in Tales Of Vesperia. When I played the game, my strongest character (Yuri) would destroy everything in sight in a very short amount of time. Now, it's been awhile since I played the game, but I know I did decent. So I compared my time to what the best had to offer and I was surprised to see someone claiming to have beaten the entire battle from thirty seconds to a minute. It isn't just for Vesperia though; it's for games like Call Of Duty or Halo, with these insane amount of kills or beating certain stages in the fastest amount of time possible. Most times are unfortunately not legit, yet they still stay on the boards.

Only a few companies go to such great pains to track down the hackers and remove them, but not all of them do.

Sorry if I got off the subject, but it is related. Online players are good, but only in the legitimate sense. The others that are illegitmate are not.

That's why I just don't play online anymore in any competitive mode at all. Co-op only. Competitive online gaming is not compatible with people like me. I just can't sink such obscene amounts of time into some game online. What little time I do have to game, I prefer to relax and have fun. Playing games with a bunch of screaming pre-pubs and a few basement dwelling neckbeards living at home with mom who are sore losers and even worse winners is pretty much the anti-fun. It's a black hole of fun, it's where fun goes to die.

[QUOTE="Vangaurdius"]Obvious troll is obvious.Metamania

Not a good answer.

The better answer would be that people do sit there and play the same videogames, over and over again, until they know it like the back of their hand. That's why they are pretty good at what they do.

I used to do that but I don't like it anymore. The game feels more like some chore than an actual game played for enjoyment. The spontanuity is completely gone at that point and the only chance of something new happening depends completely on who you play against. Even so, the possibilities are just to few for me to enjoy the game anymore.

And as the comment above me states. It takes time and you need to play the game to get better at it in this way. But everyone is capable of playing well. One of the teams i was on was one of the top 10 clans in the world on GRAW 2 and my team was made up of my friend and people he grew up with and they werent that great. But once we pointed out what other people did, where the people would be etc. They became very good players as well. I realized I sound very arrogant. I do not mean that it is just my complaint with shooters which is why i play Super Streetfighter/ dark souls. BF3 people tend to focus on objectives (which is important) but thats all that is in their mind. And I would focus on the other team, set yourself up, and cut them off from parts of the map and 9 times out of 10 you will win overall as well have a really high K/D.ZzNashoO

Or they can just go online and cry.

I need to get this out. While legit players should not be penalized for their work, a lot of the other players have hacked their way into leaderboards, making it literally impossible to achieve that goal.

Take, for example, the coliseum battles in Tales Of Vesperia. When I played the game, my strongest character (Yuri) would destroy everything in sight in a very short amount of time. Now, it's been awhile since I played the game, but I know I did decent. So I compared my time to what the best had to offer and I was surprised to see someone claiming to have beaten the entire battle from thirty seconds to a minute. It isn't just for Vesperia though; it's for games like Call Of Duty or Halo, with these insane amount of kills or beating certain stages in the fastest amount of time possible. Most times are unfortunately not legit, yet they still stay on the boards.

Only a few companies go to such great pains to track down the hackers and remove them, but not all of them do.

Sorry if I got off the subject, but it is related. Online players are good, but only in the legitimate sense. The others that are illegitmate are not.

People play the one or alternate between two games for years and get a lot of practice at them.

I've always found that playing at the hardest difficulty on most games in SP just-about prepares me for online. Play it at normal level and you'll crash and burn. It's a silly question really, just play said game more to be better at it; it's not really about them not having lives, though i'm sure it applies to some.

They just happen to be better than you that's all. They have techniques and skills that help them be good. They're just really good at it. Some people have far less time logged on BF3 than me yet beat me by a lot. It's just how it is, Practice

So I think we all agree the more time you play one dedicated game online the better you will become. That said, everyone has different reasons for why they spend so many hours online. Some dont work (maybe their a student, family wealth, drug dealing, ect.), others that do have alot of work just spend every minute of their free time playing (which means they dont get out much). The last catagory is the fraternity house example (A bunch of guys living together playing on the same Live account). These guys rack up huge stats due to 10 - 20 people playing on one online account. Each guy plays at a different time, according to their daily schedule, so the game is almost always racking up stats.

I have only been great at one online game, Battlefield Bad Company 2. I had just broken up with my gf and started a new bartending job (I was working long hours in real estate previously). I would only work 20 to 30 hours a week bartending and had just bought a new big screen. My roomate was a sushi chef, so he only worked about the same amount. We got into playing BBC2 when it first came out and it was really our first experience playing a teambased game with a mic. We loved it and played non-stop. We made the top 1,000 player (I think it had 100,000 playing at the time) which movitated us even more to take the game to the next level. We got even better and made the top 100. Seriously, watching my roomate (which was better than I was) was a thing of beauty. Every move of his was well timed and well thought out, and he never stopped moving. It didnt matter which pack he started which, cuz he changed packs every 10 seconds, picking up whichever dead bodies pack was on the ground that made strategic sense at the time. Other players (execpt for a very select few that we made friends with) didnt have a chance.

Now that was fun for a while but my life has moved on and I dont think I could ever dedicate so much time to one game again. But it was fun.

For the record, I don't think the TC is "whining" at all. This is definitely something I've encountered as well. It's not fun to play competitively online (and sometimes even co-op with strangers) because a 90+ percentile have annoying amounts of skill in said game (which is typical of the obsessive teenage mentality that permeates online play), and it's simply not fun to play against people of such differentiating skill levels, matchmaking be damned. It's either all, or nothing with online play it seems.

So yeah, he's got a great point. Play some other f***ing games, people. Jesus.

[QUOTE="Metamania"]

I need to get this out. While legit players should not be penalized for their work, a lot of the other players have hacked their way into leaderboards, making it literally impossible to achieve that goal.

Take, for example, the coliseum battles in Tales Of Vesperia. When I played the game, my strongest character (Yuri) would destroy everything in sight in a very short amount of time. Now, it's been awhile since I played the game, but I know I did decent. So I compared my time to what the best had to offer and I was surprised to see someone claiming to have beaten the entire battle from thirty seconds to a minute. It isn't just for Vesperia though; it's for games like Call Of Duty or Halo, with these insane amount of kills or beating certain stages in the fastest amount of time possible. Most times are unfortunately not legit, yet they still stay on the boards.

Only a few companies go to such great pains to track down the hackers and remove them, but not all of them do.

Sorry if I got off the subject, but it is related. Online players are good, but only in the legitimate sense. The others that are illegitmate are not.

BranKetra

Exactly! I've done that for other games too, like AA. You would think you would have moved up higher in the ranks, but no matter how much more you improve, they can somehow get a million more points than you and it's like "What the hell?" You'll never win in cases like that!

Just because someone may be good at a game doesn't mean they are "obsessive", "a basement dweller", "have no life", etc. Give 100 people 5 hours with a game and you'll most likely have nearly everyone at varying degrees of proficiency with said game. No matter how good you think you are there is always someone better. We can't all win or have K/D ratios greater then 1.00 and being good at any particular game shouldn't be something that's looked down upon. I'm a pretty average player at most competitive online games and slightly above average in a select few but I still have a tremendous amount of fun playing online. There's also nothing wrong if someone just sticks to playing a select few games regardless of their choice for doing so. It's their time/life/money/whatever.Archangel3371

Yeah, but out of those 100 people, 90 have played the previous entry, and the entry before that, so they have thousands of hours of practice. And if not, they've played games with similar mechanics for years. TC's point is that the enviroment isn't welcoming to new players, nor is it fun to sit down and play these games casually, simply because most people who play competitively online do so with tremendous dedication, vigor, and yes, obsessiveness. No one is saying you're a bad person for playing 10,000 hours of Call Of Duty: Modern Wallet R*pe 231354 while ignoring genre-definiing masterpieces like Arkham City, it just makes you annoying.

For the record, I don't think the TC is "whining" at all. This is definitely something I've encountered as well. It's not fun to play competitively online (and sometimes even co-op with strangers) because a 90+ percentile have annoying amounts of skill in said game (which is typical of the obsessive teenage mentality that permeates online play), and it's simply not fun to play against people of such differentiating skill levels, matchmaking be damned. It's either all, or nothing with online play it seems.

So yeah, he's got a great point. Play some other f***ing games, people. Jesus.

Jbul

No, the TC does not have a point. Online games have become more and more accessible over the years. All you have to do is LEARN the game. Just like how you would learn the single player. I play a lot of online games, and I have seen peopke run around like headless chickens or camp like p****ies. THere is no middle ground with these idiots. People are not cautious and don't learn to follow the objectives. I played a lot of KZ2, MAG and KZ3... games that reward you for sticking with your teammates and completing objectives instead of going solo, and guess what? Half of the people who bought the game on Day 1 liked going solo. It was infruraiting watching these idiots go rambo and get themselves killed over and over again isntead of following the mother f***ing objectives.

I play COD games like once a week every year, but I still make the top 3 99% of the time. not because i have amazing reflexes or because i play 6 hours a day, but because i learn the maps and above all, i learn the game.

[QUOTE="Archangel3371"]Just because someone may be good at a game doesn't mean they are "obsessive", "a basement dweller", "have no life", etc. Give 100 people 5 hours with a game and you'll most likely have nearly everyone at varying degrees of proficiency with said game. No matter how good you think you are there is always someone better. We can't all win or have K/D ratios greater then 1.00 and being good at any particular game shouldn't be something that's looked down upon. I'm a pretty average player at most competitive online games and slightly above average in a select few but I still have a tremendous amount of fun playing online. There's also nothing wrong if someone just sticks to playing a select few games regardless of their choice for doing so. It's their time/life/money/whatever.Jbul

Yeah, but out of those 100 people, 90 have played the previous entry, and the entry before that, so they have thousands of hours of practice. And if not, they've played games with similar mechanics for years. TC's point is that the enviroment isn't welcoming to new players, nor is it fun to sit down and play these games casually, simply because most people who play competitively online do so with tremendous dedication, vigor, and yes, obsessiveness. No one is saying you're a bad person for playing 10,000 hours of Call Of Duty: Modern Wallet R*pe 231354 while ignoring genre-definiing masterpieces like Arkham City, it just makes you annoying.

I am sorry but we are all gamers here. We have all put in thousands of hours of shooters over the last decade or so. Of course, we are going to be good at online shooters. The TC sucks at those games not because I spent thousands of hours in CoD but because he sucks at those games.

This is the oldest excuse in the books, if you suck at life, blame someone successful. Saying that anyone good at online shooters is only good because he has put in thousands of hours in that game is BS, but I remember you complaining to me that even though you had put in 200 hours in SFIV, you would still get your ass kicked every once in a while. SOmetimes you just have to admit that there is someone better than you, and move on. How can I be the top player in a round of MW3 when I barely played Black Ops for 10 hours, or Modern Warfare 2 for less than three weeks? I never touched WAW's multiplayer, but i got pretty good at MW2 before i rage quit the game. I had a total of 60-70 hours of total time in CoD mp before MW3 and i didnt have any problems getting the most scores after only a few games.

[QUOTE="Jbul"]

For the record, I don't think the TC is "whining" at all. This is definitely something I've encountered as well. It's not fun to play competitively online (and sometimes even co-op with strangers) because a 90+ percentile have annoying amounts of skill in said game (which is typical of the obsessive teenage mentality that permeates online play), and it's simply not fun to play against people of such differentiating skill levels, matchmaking be damned. It's either all, or nothing with online play it seems.

So yeah, he's got a great point. Play some other f***ing games, people. Jesus.

S0lidSnake

No, the TC does not have a point. Online games have become more and more accessible over the years. All you have to do is LEARN the game. Just like how you would learn the single player. I play a lot of online games, and I have seen peopke run around like headless chickens or camp like p****ies. THere is no middle ground with these idiots. People are not cautious and don't learn to follow the objectives. I played a lot of KZ2, MAG and KZ3... games that reward you for sticking with your teammates and completing objectives instead of going solo, and guess what? Half of the people who bought the game on Day 1 liked going solo. It was infruraiting watching these idiots go rambo and get themselves killed over and over again isntead of following the mother f***ing objectives.

I play COD games like once a week every year, but I still make the top 3 99% of the time. not because i have amazing reflexes or because i play 6 hours a day, but because i learn the maps and above all, i learn the game.

Well, excuse us mere mortals for being frustrated at the average players online skill, Mr. "MAG IS THE BEST GAME EVER". I call bulls*** on your claim you end up on the Top 3 in every game while playing once a week. I've multiple prestiged in every Call Of Duty multiplayer (aside from MW3), I have excellent gaming skills, and I've rarely ended up in the Top 3. And it's not because I don't learn the map or know the game, it's because some 12 year old is singing "Peanut Butter And Jelly" at the top of his lungs in the microphone on the other end while PWN'ing everyone else in the match 5-1. You also aren't an "average online player" mind you -- you're always obsessing about some new game's online competitive multiplayer, and in fact those modes are very important to you.

Don't defend the idiocy and obsession of the online community, it's annoying and discouraging to players with varied gaming tastes.

[QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

[QUOTE="Jbul"]

For the record, I don't think the TC is "whining" at all. This is definitely something I've encountered as well. It's not fun to play competitively online (and sometimes even co-op with strangers) because a 90+ percentile have annoying amounts of skill in said game (which is typical of the obsessive teenage mentality that permeates online play), and it's simply not fun to play against people of such differentiating skill levels, matchmaking be damned. It's either all, or nothing with online play it seems.

So yeah, he's got a great point. Play some other f***ing games, people. Jesus.

Jbul

No, the TC does not have a point. Online games have become more and more accessible over the years. All you have to do is LEARN the game. Just like how you would learn the single player. I play a lot of online games, and I have seen peopke run around like headless chickens or camp like p****ies. THere is no middle ground with these idiots. People are not cautious and don't learn to follow the objectives. I played a lot of KZ2, MAG and KZ3... games that reward you for sticking with your teammates and completing objectives instead of going solo, and guess what? Half of the people who bought the game on Day 1 liked going solo. It was infruraiting watching these idiots go rambo and get themselves killed over and over again isntead of following the mother f***ing objectives.

I play COD games like once a week every year, but I still make the top 3 99% of the time. not because i have amazing reflexes or because i play 6 hours a day, but because i learn the maps and above all, i learn the game.

Well, excuse us mere mortals for being frustrated at the average players online skill, Mr. "MAG IS THE BEST GAME EVER". I call bulls*** on your claim you end up on the Top 3 in every game while playing once a week. I've multiple prestiged in every Call Of Duty multiplayer (aside from MW3), I have excellent gaming skills, and I've rarely ended up in the Top 3. And it's not because I don't learn the map or know the game, it's because some 12 year old is singing "Peanut Butter And Jelly" at the top of his lungs in the microphone on the other end while PWN'ing everyone else in the match 5-1. You also aren't an "average online player" mind you -- you're always obsessing about some new game's online competitive multiplayer, and in fact those modes are very important to you.

Don't defend the idiocy and obsession of the online community, it's annoying and discouraging to players with varied gaming tastes.

lol first off, i didnt mean to come off all angry or confrontational, i just watched an awesome epsiode of Breaking Bad and I am on a crazy adrenaline rush. lol

Secondly, i didnt say i played it once a week. I said i played it for a week. Put in 20+ hours in that week and got raelly f***ing good at it. If your logic was true then I should've been obliterated by guys who have been playing CoD for the past 5 years.

I also never claimed to be an average online player. What I am trying to say is that I learned the game and got better at it without spending 1000 hours playing it. According to some in this thread, people stick with just one game the entire year and master it. This is simply not true because I myself, like you pointed out, play almost every big mp game that comes out every year. And i am great at all of them. KZ3, Gears 3, Resitance 3, MW3, Uncharted 3 all of them and guess what? I still routinely get outscored by guys like dvader and ragnaar, not because they have spent more hours playing that game, but because they are just better players than I am. Hell, Dvader doesnt even play many online games and I can hardly keep up with him when playing Uncharted. And I'm pretty damn good at Uncharted, just ask AzelKosmos.

Allright let me clarify then. You get 100 people who haven't played a game before and them 5 hours on a game and they'll mostly have varying degrees of proficiency. Why? Because some people play with more focus, some learn quicker, some have better reflexes or hand/eye coordination, etc. There are numerous reasons why there will always be someone better then the next person. To simply throw out blanket derogatory statements as to why someone is better at any particular game is incorrect and to suggest that said people need to play more different games is ignorant. Bottom line is that some people will make any excuse or belittle the better player for there loss.Archangel3371

Exactly! It's as if people in this thread haven't played competitive sports. I'm a pretty good hitter, but there is always a guy who is stronger and hits the baseball farther than me. Do i get upset at that guy and accuse him of having no life? No, i give him the respect he deserves and do my best to beat him/his team. At the end of the day, I know that there are people out there who are stronger, more talented and better at sports than I will ever be, and that's something I am content with. All i can do is practice, get better and give them one hell of a challenge.

I dont come on freaking gamespot and b*** about it. lol

I find it funny how both of you break out sports analogies when the most physical activity you likely endure in a day is a trip from your couch to the s**tter.

I can say as someone who's been an athlete my entire life that if you put a newbie in the ring with me (I've been boxing for 10 years), I'm going to break his jaw. That's why the boxing coach won't let it happen - he wouldn't have any fun, he wouldn't learn anything, and he'd never box again.

Stick to what you know and go earn your 10th prestige, boys.

I find it funny how both of you break out sports analogies when the most physical activity you likely endure in a day is a trip from your couch to the s**tter.

I can say as someone who's been an athlete my entire life that if you put a newbie in the ring with me (I've been boxing for 10 years), I'm going to break his jaw. That's why the boxing coach won't let it happen - he wouldn't have any fun, he wouldn't learn anything, and he'd never box again.

Stick to what you know and go earn your 10th prestige, boys.

Jbul