Slightly worried that my nine year-old son has the mind of a griefer.
I'm 2-1 up as Tottenham in FIFA 12's new Head To Head Divisions (designed to combat the myriad complaints over FIFA 11's online matchmaking). It's the main way to play ranked matches online, pitting you against teams of the same star rating and players in the same division - everyone starts in division ten, with ten games to earn promotion.
At 2-1 up against Man City (Spurs now being a five star team it's rare for me to face anyone else aside from Barcelona and Real Madrid) a grim tackle in the area earns me a penalty.
"What are you...?" I stare in horror at Friedel's wire-thin green sweet spot just as it's dissected by a perfectly timed button press. By the time I recover, Friedel is streaking across the pitch towards the camera with a cupped hand held to his ear. "What are you doing?" The boy shrugs. "It was funny," he says.
FIFA has a reputation for attracting preening, spiteful online players - rage quitters being the headline morons, followed by idiots who pause the game randomly in the hope you'll quit, or make you watch their fugly scrambled equalizers on lengthy replay. The Friedel incident gave me an insight into what they might be thinking.
The new structure of Divisions has done a good job of eliminating quitters. In the 50-odd games I've played to this point I've encountered just one - a Barca baby, who couldn't handle going 2-0 down after 14 minutes.
Everyone else has clung on, and I've been good or lucky enough to hand out a couple of five and six goal beatings. In that one instance, FIFA 12 analysed the disconnection and awarded me the points - it's difficult to see what more action the game itself could take.
The other offenders are still out in force. And without being able to see these people, every random pause and every drawn out goal replay becomes a deliberate attempt to infuriate and upset; each flamboyant over-celebration a skilful fusillade in a psychological war.
But, as the episode with the boy taught me, maybe they're just having a laugh. Maybe they're not trying maliciously to wind you up - maybe they don't care about you at all. Maybe they want to have fun. Losing isn't fun, so they sometimes quit. Scoring is fun, so they watch it again. And again.
And he's right. FIFA 12's new Divisions setup goes a long way to providing a structure of reward and punishment that encourages people to play nice. The rest of the distance could be made up by everyone taking a deep breath and remembering that it's supposed to be fun.
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Comments
8 comments so far...
jm3811 on 26 Dec '11 said:
I've always wondered why there was no thumbs up system in gaming that would allow to give credit to the team players; just like we give stars to the PSN downloads.
That would nicely balance the multiple options that we have to report glitchers, cheats or other sinners.
Most of all that would help some of us to find their soul partners without having to spend ages in hell.
dwhlufc on 26 Dec '11 said:
They implemented such a system in PES12,not ure about last years game as this is the first PES i've bought since the ps2,there is one slight problem with it though,people don't seem to give you the thumbs up even if you win or lose without quitting.
Isn't there anyway for the devs to put a system in place where you gain more xp for finishing games and lose xp for quitting or quitters can't choose 5 star teams,i know some people don't mind quitters as they win but personally i enjoy finishing the game like a true sportman when winning or losing.
BenThomasFoster on 26 Dec '11 said:
Indeed I always try to remind those player who run with the keeper, play everyone completey onside by sitting on goal line, sitting on the opposing teams box, playing out of position, no passing. Thats it's more fun to play the normal way and/or better to quit and find a game where you can get ST. if they don't get that i remind them how imature or selfish they are depending on their crime. with either "how old are you 6?" or "if your fiends seen you play like this would they think your cool?" 9/10 times they are 15 years+ (and then they stop playing ect because they know they should be acting their age) ect ect. I simply don't get how running qith the keeper(or playing) can be fun, How playing everyone onside so they attack all the time can be fun, how you hardly get touches of the ball because your offside and make it likes a 10v11 game, how a defender or CM play's out of position and thus we get less of the ball and not passing because we all know nobody at all i've seen has actually got past more than 2 players
The_KFD_Case on 28 Dec '11 said:
Which is yet another reason why I prefer single player games overall (though admittedly I do enjoy L4D2 and in the past some CS:Source). I make no apologies: I will quit in a heartbeat if I start to find the game session become joyless grinding that aggravates me. Gaming is supposed to be primarily about a sense of enjoyment, fun, and achievement to me personally. After a while of suffering idiocy or incompetence - deliberate or otherwise (especially the former) - from others I'll walk away. After all, if you're not having fun what's the point?
jm3811 on 28 Dec '11 said:
We quite agree on that although in my book (and "experience") it's OK to quit when you are surrounded by douchebags. I wouldn't spend my time in a Battlefield game with a dirty dozen.
I guess that what needs to be implemented in coop team games is the reward system for common objectives. To the extreme it would give zero point for a kill and every gain would belong to the team. Apart from earning a few medals that's pretty much how it works in real conflicts.
TheLastDodo on 28 Dec '11 said:
KFD sums it up.
Fun.
Stick your K/D's and your trophies/achievements up your arse.
gmcb007 on 28 Dec '11 said:
Exactly. If I wanted to get pleasure out of statistics then I would have got a job in logistics!
jm3811 on 28 Dec '11 said:
I'm very proud of my BFBC2 K/D. I mean: 0.77 WOW!
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