NOTICE: This blog was written on April 6th and posted April 8th due to horrible Tech Support at Bellsouth. Well either way that is a story for another time so here is the blog that should have been posted two days ago.

First of all I would like to mention that this is a response to Draqq_Zyxorian's blog about Rock Band online. Even though I don't really play Rock Band, I know how it feels to get screwed out of a kill on first person shooters. You get that feeling in your stomach, and your mind tells you to turn on your microphone and just blast that sorry loser out. Unfortunately, on most online games there is some form of punishment for bad behavior, whether its bad reputation or a suspension. Perhaps you end up taking your anger out on your controller (keyboard, joystick, etc), or just bottle it, up but its still in the back of your mind. Here are some things that piss me off on Xbox Live and PC shooters.

1. Stealing Kills (Especially when your sniping) - This applies mostly to Call of Duty 4, considering it introduces the "Last Stand" perk. So you found your perfect spot, and you have a tango(enemy) in sight that isn't moving... camping perhaps. You take the shot... and score! +10 right? Nope, it seems he was shot down in last stand by a nearby ally... who you might have saved by the way. Now this might not seem like a big deal at first, but most of the time this occurs multiple times in a single match. Sometimes by the exact player. At the end of the day you take a backseat with eight kills, while this ninja looted up three of your kills and got twenty eight overall. What are you going to do now? Are you going to leave or are you just going to hope this doesn't happen again. Ninjas, be sure to talk to your teammates about the kills you are going to steal because it might not be alright with everyone else.

2. Trash Talk - We all know that there are some players out there that are just really good at a certain game. They are used to the controls, they get the most kills and points, and are usually the highest rank. Now most of those players deserve bragging rights because they did play the game a long time and got better at it as time passed. Just because you got 45 kills and poor Joe over there got only 12 doesn't mean that you can start talking about how bad he is. I respect that you are a good player, but no one needs to hear crap about them being a noob, or something alone those lines. I bet if you were playing a different kind of match Joe would destroy you at it, and wouldn't call you out too boot. If you are one of those people that can't hold back, by all means keep talking. I found that 40% of the time those so called "leet" players end up at the bottom of the list the next match. Then your publicly exposed as the jerk you are, which is more the reason not to talk trash, unless you can back it up of course.

3. Clans/Guilds - Probably one of my favorite features in online gaming, role-playing and shooters is the ability to start and join clans, in which a group of gamers train together, have a good time, and eventually battle other clans. Sometimes you have a clan that has an ego. They are such great campers in whatnot, killing you where you spawn and making gaming a living hell altogether. I am not saying all clans are like this, most of them just like to have a good time. There are the occasional competitive groups that are all business, but they usually don't waste time in Public Matches. If you are a member or leader of a clan, please remember your values and that your playing this for fun. I have seen numerous clans get nasty towards newer players just because they aren't as good. I bet if you look back to when you first started playing that game online, you weren't much better than him. Keep the ego down and enjoy yourself instead of making enemies online.

4. Traitors - The most annoying part of an online shooter is that on rare occasions you have a player that is trigger happy. Sometimes this eager teammate kills you accidentally, but you can tell when they are killing their allies on purpose. I have a simple question for these kind of players. Why? Why do it? You lose points, you probably lose reputation, and eventually everyone will leave the game. Is it fun ruining people's matches to you? I mean it just doesn't make any sense to me. In most games, when you kill someone on your side you have a penalty. If you are just messing around and the people you are playing with are just having a good time killing each other, than by all means join in. Those people who just join a game and kill all of their teammates are in my mind the scum of the world... or the Internet or whatever your playing the game on.

So bottom line is that online gaming can be fun and enjoyable if you don't your not playing with the kind of people that love ruining people's days or are just too full of themselves to realize that they aren't the best. If you happen to be one of the geniuses that figures out that camping gets you more kills, or that betraying is amusing than please refrain from Public games and contact with the gaming society. Thank you.