Bulletinmybrain:
Live sucks get used to it. Kids kids kids, Well i mean i'm 13 but i don't say shit and i don't instigate then again i don't catch anything anyways because i sound like a grown man.. PSN has been pretty nice so far other then those guys that are insanely good with the m4 custom and can head shot me from a mile away every time with no attachments. Other than that live sucks a lot of kids are assholes, psn is pretty nice you get a lot of people that act right or don't talk at all and pc gaming=awesome if your admin

Firstly don't even think for a second that you sound like a grown man because you don't, kids your age think they do but you don't.

Secondly don't give us the "it ain't me, other kids do it but not me" because kids that feel they need to justify themselves on an internet forum definitely ARE guilty of assholeness

Finally, you are nothing but a fanboy, we're talking about annoying kids with mikes on internet gaming in GENERAL (or if you want, idiots like you) and you try to make it go into an Xbox live sucks argument.

Do us all a favor, screw off, get off gaming until you grow up a few years until you grow half a brain will ya?!

shatnershaman:

TheNecroswanson:

Now, onto your points: Fighting fire with fire, only makes a bigger fire.

Little off topic here they use explosives to put out oil rig fires so maybe insulting the guy insulting you will hurt his feelings so much he will stop playing.

But.... Metaphor......

TheNecroswanson:

But.... Metaphor......

But....real life....

Niniux:
It really isn't only little kids but a lot of my audio strife comes from them. Mostly it's the young, high pitched voices that constantly talk, mumble and sing. It seems more common for the little ones to continually give commentary on what's going on over the mic.

Frankly, most people don't care. A lot of the younger folks have cited prejudice as motivating us older folks to complain about it but it's not true. It almost breaks down into predictable categories. Obviously it's not all little kids. Heck, it probably isn't the majority. But, they're the vocal ones so they're the ones we hear. It usually breaks down to something like:

8-12 - Talks about everything they're doing in the game, very likely to be talking to someone in real life with their mic turned on. Likely to break into bad renditions of currently popular rap songs.

11-14 - Prone to swearing and insulting. "Fag" and "Fuck" get used extensively as if they've just learned the words (which, I will usually comment on, which will get a lot of laughs from the more reasonable folks). Sometimes will sing, not as likely. Will complain about their team sucking, swear about the "cheap" or "noob" tactics the other team uses when they die, etc.

14-20 - Prone to bouts of racist verbal diarrhea. Also can talk a lot about their team sucking, etc. Usually less vocal though.

Most people over 20, in my experience, seem to just not talk or talk about the game. Not that our age group doesn't have it's idiots, we just seem less likely to use anonymity to spew retarded diction.

That's really the root of the problem is anonymity. And there's no real ready solution for that aspect of it.

Thank god I don't fall into any of those categories. I may be 14, but I've been called a pedophile, been told I actually sounded 17 (Which is actually pretty cool), and I've been called gay. A lot. Because of my voice actually being pretty deep.

I used to have to share my XBL account with my brother, along with my 360, before he got his own. When I played, I never really got a negative review, unless I beat somebody and they got pissed. Well... Me and my friend went into Social BT on Halo 3, and we just screwed around the entire time. We got negative reviews for lack of skill :P (My friend ran around asking the other team to be her friends, as a joke, and she actually got a few new friends out of it.)

When my brother played... Well, he screamed "fag", "Noob", "Gay", "Fucking retard", and all that. I am SO happy he got his own 360, because my rep went to 50- something referred, from 90- something. I can still hear him screaming insults at people from his own room. I forgot to mention, He's 12 and sounds like he's 4.

I've never actually muted, ignored, or blocked anyone. I just sit, listen, and laugh at the idiocy spewing forth from their mouths (They being, anyone who's a retard,).

To that one dude who is angry 'cause older people tell him that he is too young to be playing the game: You have no right to complain here, the guy is right, you [i]are[\i] too young to play the game. Just because you don't like the (suggested) rules, it doesn't make someone who points them out to you a mean person.

I've also noticed that the Escapist forum community seems to be made up of a lot of foreigners (hyuk hyuk, I made a funny.) Anyways, saying that American people are always hostile or mean poo-poo heads isn't exactly fair. Of course we hate people with accents; they're weird, they have weird cultures, and say weird things! Of course lots of people hate us; we hate everyone who is different, we're the most powerful country in the world, which is especially annoying to those countries that have been around for thousands of years.

The thing you gotta realize is that when you put 2 different countries in the same room, and they're represented by common citizens, they're going to go at it. Unless, of course, its the U.S. and Australia, in which case we talk about kangaroos, Steve Irwin, then go enjoy the lifestyle of beer and guns.

What some of the non-Americans may not realize is that Americans hate each other too. Lots of people hate hillbillies, I personally hate ignorant wussy hippies, other people hate the rich, lots of people hate the poor, and we all hate New Yorkers (who hate each other, so no loss there.)

Outside countries view the United States of America as united. This is about as ridiculous as viewing all the European countries as friendly. There is the same amount of culture divide in the U.S. (being as big as it is) as there is between different bordering EU countries.

TheIceface:

Outside countries view the United States of America as united.

Well it is the UNITED states of America.

TheIceface:
and we all hate New Yorkers (who hate each other, so no loss there

I got a good chuckle out of this one.

PC Team Fortress is usually pretty good.

That's pretty much all I play. On the rare occassion my mate drags me on to CSS it's horrendous.

i find most ppl on XBL voicechat annoying, wheter thet be 10 or 23 for 1 reason;

they swear and cary on like the fucking world is ending, just because they died or sumthing

now i dont mind if ppl swear on XBL but i hate it wen they say this;

"O U FUCKIN PIECE OF SHIT MOTHER FUCKER, I HATE U SO FUCKIN MUCH, I HOPE UR FUCKIN FAMILY DIES CUZ U STOLE MY KILL U FUCKIN FAGGOT!!!"

now this can be done in ne pitch or accent but granted the heavy australian accent or high pitched squeeker is definately worse.

shatnershaman:

TheNecroswanson:

But.... Metaphor......

But....real life....

but....fire.....

shatnershaman:

TheIceface:

Outside countries view the United States of America as united.

Well it is the UNITED states of America.

except for the blue states and the red states...

the best tool against 10 year olds with microphones is to mute them, or do as I do and make them cry and leave...I'm a bad man...

I must say that I do in fact find kids to be very annoying most of the time, this is a generalisation so don't quote me saying 'Well? I'm not your average 10-14 yr old!', Yes I also played some games that were too old for me but I kept silent when I played so as far as they knew or cared, I was a mature and responsible adult without a microphone.

About the whole 'they shouldn't be playing it' issue, it is entirely dependant on the game so things like Halo 3, Turok and (I'm guessing) COD4...we can be leniant about, it's probably not THAT bad! It's when we move onto online games like 'Condemned 2' that I'm a little concerned when I hear some 8 yr old over the mic.

I've also got to agree with what Salihcin said, at one point I had some kid saying 'I hope you die in your sleep Iron Mal', kids seem to have a problem with maturity when it comes to all things competitive and useually end up acting...dare I say...childish?

Iron Mal:
About the whole 'they shouldn't be playing it' issue, it is entirely dependant on the game so things like Halo 3, Turok and (I'm guessing) COD4...we can be leniant about, it's probably not THAT bad! It's when we move onto online games like 'Condemned 2' that I'm a little concerned when I hear some 8 yr old over the mic.

But the whole issue with underaged people playing those games is that it undermines the current rating system and gives the anti-gaming lobby a little more ammunition to play with. With movies, they don't know that young ones are watching rated 'R' movies because it's not being advertised over the internet.

I know it sucks for young ones. I remember when I was 10, I wanted to watch the movie Tombstone and it was rated 'R'. My parents wouldn't let me and that was that. It really shouldn't matter if the game is like CoD4 or like Condemned 2. They're both rated M.

I can't stand all the drawling of thick twenty-something year olds. Mind you, pre-pubescent whinging ruins the game too. I only play Halo 2 and 3 online and they made it quite easy to mute out all annoyances ;)

TheIceface:

What some of the non-Americans may not realize is that Americans hate each other too. Lots of people hate hillbillies, I personally hate ignorant wussy hippies, other people hate the rich, lots of people hate the poor, and we all hate New Yorkers (who hate each other, so no loss there.)

Really us Yanks are too busy hating each other to really care about the rest of you. But seriously, I know there are a ton of ignorant asses from the States online, but be honest, every country has its share of asshats. Personally, I enjoy gaming with people from other countries, because they do tend to be more mature. But in the end, it is a crap shoot. I can go online one day and have a good gaming session with a <14yo and the next day get a spamming idiot. Overall, I am more pissed at the guys spewing racial/homosexual slurs, and they sound like they are 16-20 and (unfortunately) American.

The youngsters on here are mad for being steriotyped as high pitched jabbering idiots. Well I also don't like being steriotyped as a jackass American who hates all other countries. We've got enough problems in our country, we shouldn't have to worry about every other country hating us.

a few things, i'm sure i've said them before and will say them again, but it's worth repeating

there is a stereotype of young ppl for a reason, there's a lot of truth to it, i know there are a few exceptions to the rule but for the most part they are annoying

if they insult you by saying you're gay or what not, shoot back at them, if you're older i'm sure you can come up with something better. mom or dad jokes work great, if they insult your mom or dad, make a crack about them yourselves. if they call you gay just respond with "oh i'm sorry you're too young for me, are you looking to [insert sexual activity here]?" and keep appologizing that they are too young to do anything with but you'd really like to, it works better than you'd think to either shut them up or get them to leave

swearing isn't always reserved for younger ppl, me and my friends curse up a storm all the time HOWEVER we also know how to not swear when the need arises. if we had a swear jar we'd have a couple cases of beer each week from it, then again we'd probly swear more to add money to the jar.

most importantly the parents need a good bitch slap session, then they need to bitch slap their kids and teach them some manners. it's the parents that aren't doing a good job of disciplining their kids and it gives the kids some idea they can do whatever they want and the parents feel it's wrong to tell their piece of crotch fruit what not to do

this is the result of the "everyone gets a medal" generation and they REALLY suck in the workplace if you ever have one, even worse if their parent decides to get involved, yes it does happen

TheIceface:

What some of the non-Americans may not realize is that Americans hate each other too. Lots of people hate hillbillies, I personally hate ignorant wussy hippies, other people hate the rich, lots of people hate the poor, and we all hate New Yorkers (who hate each other, so no loss there.)

Being a non-American, I have been on the recieving end of much stick and hassle over having the poor judgement to be born outside of the united states and particularly for having a british accent (namely because I'm from the UK) example being statements like 'how about some tea and crumpets?', 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Harry Potter'. While I'm not saying this kind of thing is limited to Americans (I've heard fellow Brits saying stuff like this to other people) but they do have a habbit of doing it the most in my experience. While technicaly there is no such thing as a foreigner when it comes to intereactions over the internet I have noticed most people do seem to forget this and treat people of varying origins as inferior or otherwise alien.

Back to the young though...the sterotype of young gamers being mouthy and irritating is largely based on truth and observation. I have noticed that kids do tend to take games too seriously and personally, this is then followed up by the aforementioned child suddenly believeing they are the digital equivilent of Rambo and Robocop combined when they come out with death threats and insults to every player in the game who isn't on their team, I remember on one occasion I had a kid in-game who said they were going to break my knee-caps with a bat because I wouldn't let them have a gun I was using. If that doesn't work, they can always accuse the older player of hacking or cheating.

I agree with most of this, and being 14 and English I usually get verbally raped the second i have the bad judgemnt to open my gob.

But lest ye forget, lots of forigners play video games too, it still warms my heart to remenisce ( spelling? ) on the occasion when i was playing some COD4 and two mouthy american 8 year olds came online talking about how ussless us brits were untill out of no-where this 30 something starts screaming and swearing them down, the kids were crying on the mics.

Another fond occasion was when i was (trying) to speak german too some of my team mates (as im currently taking gcse German) when this whiney kid starts yelling SPEAK AMERICAN over and over again, eventually i took the liberty of reminding him that "Actually its pronounced ENGLISH!" to which the whole entire team burst out laughing before he abruptly quit the game.

This makes me sound like a horrible person, but hey, i seriously hate it when i get ragged on for being English.
I agree with the "whiney voice test" proposed earlier.

The day they invent a device that lets me punch people over the internet is the happiest day of my life.

Or chocolate flavored spoons.

If they ever invented a device that translates different languages over the mic that would make things simpler. One time I thought someone in a game was french so I thought I would be polite and ask if they spoke english (in french), to which they replied by saying 'I'm dutch you idiot'. Am I the only one who's had problems like that?

And just a modifacation on the chocolate spoon...chocolate spoon WITH mint.

Aries_Split:
The day they invent a device that lets me punch people over the internet is the happiest day of my life.

Or chocolate flavored spoons.

Screw the spoons - go for an entire cutlery set!
I'm not playing online very often (don't own an xbox/ps3, and this computer isn't exactly set up for smooth gaming), so really the only time I can experience people (usually on xbl) is when I go round my friends house. I've used the mic once, and I have to be honest, was probably quite annoying (I'm 17 by the way), so I stopped using it. I just wish people could employ a little more common sense and realise that people don't care how much they think the other team is full of 'n00bs'.
Or you can just tell them you're gay. Usually works, I tried it a couple of times and got several people saying "You are? Woah sorry dude."
I like to think that I won.

I've yet to really run into the demographic that is both young and pricks. Once in 360 Team Fortress 2, but one of my team members (this was in the pre-game lobby) said, very loudly and in a "I will brook no FUCKING nonsense" voice: Shut the fuck up. It worked. He didn't leave the game, but he didn't say another word, and my team ended up winning the match no sweat.

I really need to start playing TF2 online again, it was really fun.

So I guess my new M.O. for dealing with assholes is to tell them to shut up in a tone that implies I will reach down my headset and strangle them if they utter another word.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I wants me some chocolate flavoured spoons too. Hell, I want chocolate flavoured cutlery.

I have a Scottish accent (means deep and sexy baby ;) ) so as usual the little kids say "Are you British?" "yea Scottish" "Do you wear a kilt? LMAOROFLHAHAZOMG" But as i play only with friends on Xbl most of the time it usually turns into one little American screamer, getting quad teamed by Scots....

Easily solves the problem =D

Even if I wanted to play Halo 3 for some reason, it's literally impossible with all the little kids on there. Seriously, try it, see how long you last. The really annoying thing is when they're playing games they shouldnt like Saints Row or GTA4. These kids really need to be killed. When GTA4 came out I was gonna hide outside my Gamestop and kill little kids that came out with the game, but I was too excited to get home and play it myself.

The trick is to play games that are too advanced for little kids, like RSV or Battlestations:Midway.

The solution is just to turn off voice chat. Then you don't have to put up with the "gay" jokes, racism and annoying voices.

You know I don't mind the kids online, I tend not to encounter the jerkoffs though. I only dislike the kids who act like morons.

I often play TF2 with my girlfriend's kid (13) and yes, his voice is a couple of octaves above shattering glass but he generally keeps the chatter to a minimum because I'm there in person to belt him over the head if he starts blathering. Generally all he does is give sometimes usefull but mostly irrelevant tactical reports "Hey guys! Guys there's a scout in our base!" "WE KNOW! We're defending the last capture point!"

It's kind of funny how I start blathering into the mic more often than he does.

Any kid under the age of 16 should be playing an online game in the same room as a parent anyway. Yes it's annoying, but if you want to protect your kid from the darker sides of online gaming (the language, the racism, the sexism etc) and more importantly, if you're going to protect other gamers from being annoyed by your kid then there's no other option. Crappy automatic measures just won't cut it. Quit bitching. Be a parent.

lanostos:

Bulletinmybrain:
Live sucks get used to it. Kids kids kids, Well i mean i'm 13 but i don't say shit and i don't instigate then again i don't catch anything anyways because i sound like a grown man.. PSN has been pretty nice so far other then those guys that are insanely good with the m4 custom and can head shot me from a mile away every time with no attachments. Other than that live sucks a lot of kids are assholes, psn is pretty nice you get a lot of people that act right or don't talk at all and pc gaming=awesome if your admin

Firstly don't even think for a second that you sound like a grown man because you don't, kids your age think they do but you don't.

Secondly don't give us the "it ain't me, other kids do it but not me" because kids that feel they need to justify themselves on an internet forum definitely ARE guilty of assholeness

Finally, you are nothing but a fanboy, we're talking about annoying kids with mikes on internet gaming in GENERAL (or if you want, idiots like you) and you try to make it go into an Xbox live sucks argument.

Do us all a favor, screw off, get off gaming until you grow up a few years until you grow half a brain will ya?!

Lol go ahead don't believe me. Not like it hurts me.

And yet you are flaming someone because they are different. And you sterotype all kids younger then 18 as little high pitched kid. You make it seem all the fucking 13 year olds in the world and are annoying people who spam the mike which is very much not true. As far as my statement justifying myself do you not do the same? Do you not add parts to a story to make it more believable? You don't go into court and say. " I didn't do this your honor."

And as far as my live experience it has suck I do not know why I pay if 80% of the people either don't talk or fall in the annoying category. And if i'm a fanboy why the hell did i criticize PSN and XBL in the same paragraph?

This isn't aimed at any of you "i am relly smart fo my age" 12 year olds specifically, but as a whole. If you're going to try to say that you are so mature for your age, and that you aren't part of the annoying bunch of whiners - use proper grammar, maybe people will actually take the "im so smrt" claim seriously.

As to my personal opinion of kids playing mature games: I get sick of the vast majority of them screaming they're heads off. A few of them are all right, but most shouldn't be playing on-line.

Well I think its plain ignorant if not ageist to say that all people that haven't been through puberty are immature. I know plenty of kids I would rather have around in a bad situation compared to some of those net-scum dullard, stuck up, depressed, socially deprived horny teenagers with bouncing boobs as their avatar who boast about drinking beer they nicked from their parents fridge.

I've never been in a situation like you described, but if I was I imagine it would be quite entertaining. Its fun to be around kids sometimes, their natural zest for life is often uplifting and can make your day that little bit happier. Besides, if it all gets too much for you then most if not all games come with a working mute fuction nowadays.

mjhhiv:
This isn't aimed at any of you "i am relly smart fo my age" 12 year olds specifically, but as a whole. If you're going to try to say that you are so mature for your age, and that you aren't part of the annoying bunch of whiners - use proper grammar, maybe people will actually take the "im so smrt" claim seriously.

As to my personal opinion of kids playing mature games: I get sick of the vast majority of them screaming they're heads off. A few of them are all right, but most shouldn't be playing on-line.

Well grammer is a tad bit harder then spelling, And you made 4 spelling mistakes in the above two paragraphs.;)( I know your joking just had to.)

As has been mentioned, stereotypes tend to have bases of truth, even if the rest is as illogically contorted as my face whenever someone forces me to watch the 'Anakin crybaby' scenes of Attack of the Clones. My personal worse experience was a low-populated COD4 team deathmatch affair that was interupted by the arrival of some minor with a laggy connection, whiney voice, the apparent inability to consider the sanity of others, and the SHEER BLEEDING NERVE to put on some anonomous hip-hop/rap/WHATEVER on in the background, so that we might all have to endure his stereotypical madness. Fortunately the brainboxes at Infinity Ward had the sense to place a lovely little 'mute' option in the menu somewhere, which put the audio invasions to a halt. Peace is liberating.