Ok, so by now many of you may realize just how highly addictive Freestyle Street Basketball for the PC is right? I mean I play it at least every couple of days (everyday on a good week). The problem is, sometimes I have to wonder what type of crowd is this game drawing in? Sometimes the players on the game seem kind of, how should I put this, noobish when it comes to the sport of basketball. Now I realize that some of these guys are just some fat, pimple-faced, 13-year-old kid that is just playing this MMO while they wait for the next expansion of World of Warcraft to come out becuase they have six characters at level 70 after the Burning Crusade came out but come on! I'm notsaying there aren't some young heads that don't know how to play some online sports games because most of them can, but it'sjust not theFreestyle community because these guys play mostlyMMO's. I have gotten mytail kicked on X BoxLive a few times byguyswhose voice sounds like an 8-year-old girl's so I know a lot of these kids are legitimate sport game players who probably play middle school orjunior varsity football in Idaho somewhere. I just have a problem with people trying to play asports game who have no idea howthe actually sport is played.I mean if I play the game for 2-3 hours I spend the first hour roaming from team to team as I explain to some player why their level 8 guard should not be playing defense against a level 15 C or PF. Umm...I don't know would it have anything to do with the fact that he is twice your weight and size. It really bothers the heck out of me when I have my forwards and centers on the floor and my rebounding goes dowwn because I have some noob guard standing in my way (or the opposing team guard is wide open becuase my players won't rotate on defesne). Don't get me wrong, I am not the best player in the Freestyle community but I do hold my own and I am getting good enough to hang with a lot of the big dogs now, but some of these guys I have to wonder if they have ever touched a basketball in real life. The only conclusion I have come up with is that these guys are really just overweight, teenage nerds that just play MMO RPG's all day. Nerds aside though, there a lots of other ways this game (and it's community can annoy a person to death). I feel like it is my responsibility as an athlete and gamer to name a few.

1. Terminology

Every community has it's own language. Sure, I understand that, but bring all of your old terminology from WOW is not only incredibly fruity but it is just wrong. No matter how many times you say it during a basketball game "Woot Woot" is not cool. Also, I don't care how many jumpers you shoot on an opponent, you just lose cool point for saying "Face" whenever someone plays good defense on you and you still score. By the way, no one has "owned" anyonein this country since before the civil war, so take that in consideration when you play. Dorks.

2. Defense

How come no one understands that if the C/PF has to guard the opposing team's big man that the guards and other forwards need to hit 5th gear and get out to the opposing guards. Also, some players think that they know everything about the game and keep telling teammates to "D up" problem is, I almost always have a hand in the man's face. If he still hits the shot or he "faces" me as they call it I did "D up." Why are you telling me to play better D? Things happen just deal with it.

3. Ball Hogs

Okay, if you have ever played a real game of baketball knows that feeling of bitter disgust you feel when you have that player on your team that thinks he is the man-child but he really is garbage. Some how the whole community is filled with these guys. It is really annoying when you spend every second of every game saying "Pass!" and it is even worse when you actually get the ball and then don't give the ball to an open teammate. Meanwhile, all of the blocks your defender gets per game has left you with a .027439824483083 shooting average.

4. Kicking People Out

So, our friends at Sierra hook us up and split all of the servers into different levelsso that rookies can play on one server and pros can play on a different server. Why do people kick people out of their rooms without knowing anything about them. I mean it's one thing if you play with a guy and he's garbage and you kick him out. You can even kick out someone that is just annoying or uses a lot of profanity, etc. Why look at someone's stats and just decide to kick them out. I mean yeah, if you got a center that only averages 0.5 rebounds a game then ok, but otherwise...I mean I have a C that has 5.0 rebounds per game. Before I started getting good at rebounding I was pretty sad. Now I probably grab about 8.0 per game (average for most good C/PF) and I still get kicked sometimes because of the 5.0.

5. Crying About Lag

We all know by now that Sierra uses the sorriest servers known to man, right? Yet we continue to use lag as an excuse for everything. I mean sure there are times when you are 20 ft in front of a guy and he blocks your shot. You might be getting ready to dunk and an opponent steals the ball from the top of the key. Those are understandable reasons to be upset. What's not understandable is to be mad when you miss a shot with all three defenders standing in your face. That is not lag. That is just good old-fashioned stupidity. There are certain cases when lag totally destroys a game but not all of the time. My suggestion is to pick one of the courts that usually doesn't lag that bad (Big Flow, Ruckers, and I think the Cage). Also, the game is probably lagging for the other team also so chill out.

6. Trash Talk

Part of streetball is talking a little junk.Cool. The problem is the guys playing this game half of the time are middle school and JV basketball team rejects (and you wonder why you didn't make the team). If you missed the section on terminology (see #1) you will know that I am tired of hearing nerdy sayings like "owned" and "face." What makes things worse is if I use real basketball terminology, no one knows what I'm talking about. I have to explain to centers why it is a good idea to "yam on people" or tell a guard to "take someones cookies." The bothersome part about trash talk on this game is people will talk trash as soon as you get into the lobby. I'm mean how many times can you tell a guy "you garbage" especially after he beats you.