wgreer25:
Don't get me wrong though. I will rib on a friend, a FRIEND, not a complete stranger.

If you wouldn't, I'd think you had something wrong with you. Hooray for ribbing on friends! /boundless joy

L.B. Jeffries:
Ugh...speaking of accents, I usually cover up my American southern accent when I'm online. The few times I went online after too much bourbon that it slipped out...got nothing but flak for it. From other Americans, naturally.

Yet another reason I stopped playing with anyone except people I know.

Then you guys are getting good at hiding it :D ! Last time I heard a full-on southern accent was back when "Delta Force: Black Hawk Down" made its debut on Live. SRSLY the WHOLE server was southerners. They heard me talk (in my rather eloquently vocabularied yet slightly accented voice) , and immediately started calling me n***er. That, and the sackless child voices made me severely cut back on my Live usage, causing me to only play system link, and locked matches.

My mother is French, my dad is British, and I was born in Canada. I usually get it the worst, usually involving me living in an igloo, having a pet polar bear, eating seals, worshiping the queen, hating the queen, or something involving me being gay. Apparently, everyone from Canada is a homo. Sometimes, just to piss em off, I play It's Raining Men REALLY loud in the background and pretend it's drowning them out. What they say after is pure gold.

Unfortunately Gabe And Tycho nailed it about the whole Internet anonymity creating potty mouthed morons.

Sucking at FPSs, and thus not playing much, I tend to avoid this. Also, don't have X-BOX Live, so that's oh for two. Then again, the topic is pretty generic enough to handle all online gaming chat.

Granted, I remember back when you could play Counterstrike on a 56K modem, and people didn't act like every kill/death meant one's entire career was at stake and laugh at stupid things.

The whole this country vs. that country thing cuts both ways. Nobody can casually mention the USA in a game or on a forum without some self-important European (or otherwise) twat trying to get his pathetically predictable insult or generalization out there, and no one else can casually mention the UK or any other country without having some self-important American (or otherwise) twat trying to get his pathetically predictable insult or generalization out there.

Looking through this thread alone is proof enough of that. No one side is at ALL innocent in this ignorant mess that erupts with tiring regularity wherever any country is mentioned.

Really, anyone and everyone just needs to get the hell over themselves and play a damn game for once. Additionally, attacking anyone for their accent or to insult their vernacular is lame, period. Just...lame.

Even as an American, I can't stand playing with other Americans.

I'm from Tennessee, so I'm basically stereotyped as having a beer gut and living in a trailer park with my cousin-wife, and yet I'm a rather intelligent person.

People on live catch the SLIGHT southern accent in my voice and decide to make as many redneck jokes as they possably can.

I want a brittish accent really bad, they sound really cool

OurGloriousLeader:
On response to seeing someone's gamertag being 'RapX', 'Pdiddyy' or whatever, a high pitched, nasal tone saying 'Hey, Rapx...are you black?'

Time for some hilarious N wording everyone!

the use of the N word, online is never funny, because it is always used in tired and cliched ways. you'd think, with how long racism has been going on that we would be seeing some incredible creative innovations in the use of the N word.

moving to Missouri i thought they would be on the cutting edge of racism since they have believed in it for so long. but no, it's always the same basic tired usages. just the kind of witt you'd expect from bumper stickers and cliches lifted from 1950's assholes.

Close your mouth more when you speak, SargentToughie. It sounds weird, but a British accent ('Generic British" as I mentioned before) is functionally just the reverse of "Generic Southern USA". Everything is more constrained and focused...How did a friend who studied in London put it.

"With American English the words are sloshing about in your mouth on their way out. With English english each word is pushed to the front of the mouth and let out in the most precise way possible". Of course, that only applies to the 'posh' British accent, but hey, it's a start, and I found it pretty easy to hop to a more casual one from there when I was teaching myself.

On the actual topic, the whole bit about country vs country is completely right. Even while, sadly, it is usually American kids doing this, the problem (as this thread illustrates) is everywhere, and we shouldn't pretend as though it isn't.

...I need to master this whole "quote function" thing.

So can we all agree that you can pretty much tell when an insult's coming whenever someone starts to speak? I thought that was the most accurate analysis

Well actually I'm irish and just yesterday I got slagged by a host of british who still seem to think Ireland is in the UK?

EDIT:No you stupid Americans I don't speak celtic,gealic or japanese its CALLED IRISH PLEASE!The language is named after the country!Is it that hard?

I am English. I speak English. I live in England. England happens to be part of the United Kingdom, which is part of the European Union. I would much rather that my passport did not have to describe my nationality as British. I hate the British. The British Empire. "Great Britain".

My heart sinks when fellow players hear me in a game of Halo 3 and remark on my 'cool' British accent. There is no such thing as a British accent. Many, not all, people who live in Wales may not speak Welsh, but do retain a distinctive Welsh accent. The same can be said of many people living in Scotland. For the benefit of those cartographically-challenged Americans who may be reading this: Wales and Scotland are also part of the United Kingdom, also known as Great Britain and we are all, currently labelled as British.

This may change in future as I do not feel that the Scottish are happy about not being an independent nation with their own passports. Both Scotland and Wales have undergone 'devolution', which means that the UK Government has set up Parliaments in both Scotland and Wales. I would like England to get its own Parliament and eventually to be recognized as an independent state so that I could carry a passport that said that my nationality was English.

The future is one of small countries in a larger European Community and I would be happy to be a English European.

Uncompetative:
For the benefit of those cartographically-challenged Americans who may be reading this: Wales and Scotland are also part of the United Kingdom, also known as Great Britain and we are all, currently labelled as British.

that wasn't necessary. every country is taught a regional version of world history.

i can't imagine that you'd be able to articulate the boundaries of a pre Gaudalupe treaty mexico and the subsequent migration patterns of mestizos after said territory became America. but i don't think you are "challenged" in anyway since that information doesn't serve much relevance to you.

I was thinking the same thing. Well, sort of. Same basic point.

But that's exactly the kind of stuff that starts these whole messes in the first place. The post would have carried the same message without the sling on another nationality.

SteinFaust:

L.B. Jeffries:
Ugh...speaking of accents, I usually cover up my American southern accent when I'm online. The few times I went online after too much bourbon that it slipped out...got nothing but flak for it. From other Americans, naturally.

Yet another reason I stopped playing with anyone except people I know.

Then you guys are getting good at hiding it :D ! Last time I heard a full-on southern accent was back when "Delta Force: Black Hawk Down" made its debut on Live. SRSLY the WHOLE server was southerners. They heard me talk (in my rather eloquently vocabularied yet slightly accented voice) , and immediately started calling me n***er. That, and the sackless child voices made me severely cut back on my Live usage, causing me to only play system link, and locked matches.

When I went to high school up North the accent was beaten out of me by the less than enthralled Yankees I hung out with.

It's sort of like sucking in your gut or fixing your posture. When I'm relaxed, my tongue lags, my vowels slow down, and I start abbreviating words Samuel Johnson never wanted to be abbreviated. Ergo, the bourbon gets it going.

When I'm tense, speaking in front of strangers, etc. then I snap to and speak in a completely blank accent. It's not really an issue anymore though, the way I do online play now (if at all) is having one person wear the mic and be ambassador. I just sit and play while he deals with all the noise.

L.B. Jeffries:
When I went to high school up North the accent was beaten out of me by the less than enthralled Yankees I hung out with.

It's sort of like sucking in your gut or fixing your posture. When I'm relaxed, my tongue lags, my vowels slow down, and I start abbreviating words Samuel Johnson never wanted to be abbreviated. Ergo, the bourbon gets it going.

When I'm tense, speaking in front of strangers, etc. then I snap to and speak in a completely blank accent. It's not really an issue anymore though, the way I do online play now (if at all) is having one person wear the mic and be ambassador. I just sit and play while he deals with all the noise.

Yeah, I get what you mean about using two accents.
and wow, you use a second person for arguments too? that's what my friends do for me to stop me from flying off the handle and destroying their televisions XD

I do see a lot of insults on Xbox Live, usually if anyone of a different nationality comes onto a server that is dominated by a certain nationality it will result in flaming. This mostly happens with people from the US and English people. I notice that its usually all kids doing this kind of flaming so its pretty easy to outsmart them and laugh. I find all blind insulting that goes on in Halo to be entertaining, its good for a few laughs.

EDIT: I'd also like to note that I am from the United States and that I do not flame anyone online unless they have it coming to them.

Before I go, I should mention that in the 2222 total games of Halo 3 that I have played only once did anyone on my team use the microphone in an intelligent manner. It was a game of Territories on Last Resort and all he did was 'lead' by announcing which Territories to concentrate our defensive (or offensive) efforts on. For some reason no one questioned his authority. Probably because he wasn't barking out orders, but making confident constructive suggestions (and not whining if no one went along with his plan). Pretty quickly an organic rhythm took hold and it just seemed easier to 'go with the flow' because it was evidently working. We won.

Unfortunately this was a freak occurrence.

Generally, in the pre-game lobby, the other players (some who are on my team), see what my gamertag is and start to critcize and question my sexuality, why I'm even playing, etc. Hardly morale-boosting.

The reason behind the name is that when Xbox LIVE asked me to come up with something unique, I kept finding that all of the ironic, dryly comic, non-self aggrandizing epithets were already taken. I wanted a real word (in the end I managed to spell it wrong, it should be spelt 'Uncompetitive', but then I'm there to play a game, not compete in a Spelling Bee), not some xXo1337oXx hideous eyesore.

It seemed as if everyone was called 'SirKillalot', or 'TBag', etc. (this was presumably meant to be consistent with their playing style wherein they would "Tea-Bag", or "Corpse-Hump" the faceplace of their fallen enemy, for that player's extra embarrassment as they waited looking down, like disembodied ghosts, on their disrespected corpse - despite the fact that this constituted Homosexual Necrophilia) and I wanted to use the opportunity to express a different sentiment.

Okay, I thought. Microsoft are asking me for a unique gamertag for Halo 3 and all the other games I will play on LIVE where I don't even get to kill anyone (like PGR3), I'll flip the apparent super-competitive culture on its head and declare that I'm not super-competitive. However, this was too long, so I went with Uncompetative instead.

Wow, was that a mistake. If you think you've got a lot of abuse for wearing Pink armor...

So, about five months ago I decided to only use my wireless headset when playing Custom Games with Friends. Shame really, but at least I know on the basis of over two thousand games that I'm not missing anything: only once has voice chat been not used for abuse.

Every console online experience i've had is terrible, its depressing how moronic some of these people are. I've got nothing against Americans but sadly they are the worst offenders, they can't seem to handle the fact that other people exist in the world other than themselves. If anyone sounds or seems culturally different to them they are freaks, the enemy or something.

I'm currently trying to enjoy GTA4 online but it saddens me for every one good person you find to play with, 50 cunts will follow.

My boss is British. I love the Brits! (just in case he sees this) I've actually been around Brits so much that I find myself saying "mate" and "Cheers!" in everyday sentences! Now if I could just do an Australian accent I'd be happy.

I for one can't understand how calling someone a Yank, Brit or Jew is actually insulting. It's kind of how the N-word used to be, just slang for Nigerian. It didn't really have a negative connotation back then.

IRT- Codgo
The worst, period, or simply the most prominent?

The level of perceived douchebaggery has a positive correlation with the size of the respective population, from what I've seem.

Frankly, I don't think any one country has any greater a percentage of douchebags than another. After all, we're all human. Something as seemingly primal as the need to be offensively defensive against anything we perceive as different is an inescapable condition of our minds' function. The wonders of the internet and the blessing of anonymity to speak our minds freely, for better or worse, has exacerbated that condition to a level you wouldn't witness in any average, face to face discussion.
Guess I just pointed at the sky and said it was blue. Ah well.

It all seems to depend on the game and the audience attracted to that game as well. Can't go one round of Halo3 or CoD4 without hearing some question of another's sexuality or an offer to service one's mom. But yet, can play an entire night of Team Fortress 2 and never deal with it once.

Codgo:
Every console online experience i've had is terrible, its depressing how moronic some of these people are. I've got nothing against Americans but sadly they are the worst offenders, they can't seem to handle the fact that other people exist in the world other than themselves. If anyone sounds or seems culturally different to them they are freaks, the enemy or something.

I'm currently trying to enjoy GTA4 online but it saddens me for every one good person you find to play with, 50 cunts will follow.

You have to realize that there are FAR MORE American's in most of these servers than any other nation. It's simply a matter of probability that you'll get more dumb Americans in a server than Brits.

Can't go one round of Halo3 or CoD4 without hearing some question of another's sexuality or an offer to service one's mom. But yet, can play an entire night of Team Fortress 2 and never deal with it once.

It's true, I've found the TF2 crowd to be a little more mature than others, I think partly because it takes considerably more teamwork to play well.

Novan Leon:
You have to realize that there are FAR MORE American's in most of these servers than any other nation. It's simply a matter of probability that you'll get more dumb Americans in a server than Brits.

Nobody is saying there aren't any British or European douchebags, I've met more than I can count!

The Americans are just fucking louder. The "Master Race" complex they seem to be developing doesn't help either.

Novan Leon:
My boss is British. I love the Brits! (just in case he sees this)

Ha ha, good work :)

larispostae:
I'm a Mexican. You wouldn't believe how much racism I encounter.

I was in a match with my clan and we were talking and my accent slipped (if I talk too fast, you can hear it). The other team laughed and made fun of me until I just quit. Also, people find it hilarious that I love metal and dislike tacos.

You like Bill Hicks, therefore you are officially better than any of those guys that mock you.

Some people assume that I'm black because of my gamertag. It was especially augmented when in one halo 3 game there were an unusual amount of people with white as their primary color and I decided to comment on that. Instantly, one of those closet racists using anonymity to vent their prejudice seemed to assume I was saying that everyone was ethnically white and began to throw every racial slur he knew at me. I'm actually rather white, but I went along with it and had an interesting conversation with him.

I'm from the U.S. myself and I kind of resent how Europeans generally hate us, but I can't blame them. Many Americans do suck, and there are a lot of Americans who generally hate Europeans (especially the French) for no reason. But I think the fact that most people on xbl are Americans makes it easier to hate American gamers. In my experience, the ratio of english speaking american retards and english speaking european retards is the same, but you hear a lot more americans.

so, if you are from the UK, just know that I've never made any lame jokes about tea or biscuits or moronically asked if you're british since I think I can reasonably identify some major accents from that area.

Zealot_Guy:
And I love it when people claim to fuck my mum. Yeah. Sure.

Russell Howard said it best when he said:

Some bloke said to me "I've fucked your Mum" and I thought "You're, what? 27? My Mum's 65 - sound's like a result for Mum!"

shufflemonkey16:
so, if you are from the UK, just know that I've never made any lame jokes about tea or biscuits or moronically asked if you're british since I think I can reasonably identify some major accents from that area.

It's interesting that so many people from the UK in this thread have had this experience, as I haven't. The most I've had is '...are you British?', and that's where it ended. In fact, it's more of a talking point. I certainly haven't been asked any stupid questions about tea. [EDIT: And I can't really imagine how I'd find this particularly offensive anyway!]. What I experience on there is more racism against black people, or antisemitism (actually, the prevalence of this really surprised me when I first got on Xbox Live), or just general (but strong) arsery.

I know some comment is coming after they ask where I'm from... New Jersey. Before you ask, the only people in Jersey that talk with an heavy accent are either way North or they got it from somewhere else.

I've given up on Xbox Live, mostly for the reason being discussed , partly because any good FPS on Xbox is also on PC (yes, I'm aware that Halo 3 isn't on PC....yet, but I'm with Yahtzee in the mindset that Halo is an overhyped turd), and partly because I like RPG's better anyway. But, when I used to play CoD 4 people would always ask me where I was from (I have a very light accent). Telling them I was from Louisiana brought on a deluge of hillbilly, redneck, and inbreeding jokes. Usually I wouldn't dignify them with an verbal response. I preferred to reply with a round of bullets to their head and/or nether regions, which usually proved sufficient to (quoting Yahtzee) "shut those twat-mouths up".

Well im american and about half the time I just mute pretty much everyone. Americans British or any race it doesnt really matter because in every match i play except in the morning you hear idiotic a racial comments. For instance the other day me and my other friends got in an argument with several people. they heard are accents and began talking like what most americans think british people sound. We werent doing anything and i know thats british people talk. Plus I have other friends that are from other racial backrounds and there made fun of it constatly. im not sure if there americans or not but its idiotic. Which is the reason i play less & less of xbox live and more and more on computer games. WoW anyone?

Drbog:
Well actually I'm irish and just yesterday I got slagged by a host of british who still seem to think Ireland is in the UK?

Yeah just uneducated, ignorant, bigot, imperialist Brits (I'm English so I'm not Brit bashing, just idiot bashing) who think they own the whole of Ireland and not just the North and have some inbuilt hatred for the Irish (which by the way I don't, I love you guys; Ireland is such a lovely place!). A sad reflection on a minority of the XBL community who have no other purpose in life other than to go online and insult others because they think they're big and clever when in reality they're just morons, they are the ones with no life. I'm glad I no longer have XBL considering the amount of ignorant tossers, racists, homophobics and pre-pubescent boys that play on there. I haven't encountered any idiots on PSN yet but I'm sure I will at some point, sadly, although I find that not many people speak on there which could be a blessing in disguise. I never met an Irish person in my time on XBL which is quite unfortunate, although I certainly hope they aren't afraid of speaking just because some idiot Brit or American might mock their accent.

I really hate it when people are rude and talk crap to eachother, I mean your on a team so you'd think people would try to work together and get along but whenever I play Halo 3 the whole team runs around like chickens with there heads cut off and insult eachother.

Whenever I get insulted or someone tries to piss me off I just ignore it no real good reason to react at all just adds fuel to the fire if you ask me.

Uncompetative:
Before I go, I should mention that in the 2222 total games of Halo 3 that I have played only once did anyone on my team use the microphone in an intelligent manner. It was a game of Territories on Last Resort and all he did was 'lead' by announcing which Territories to concentrate our defensive (or offensive) efforts on. For some reason no one questioned his authority. Probably because he wasn't barking out orders, but making confident constructive suggestions (and not whining if no one went along with his plan). Pretty quickly an organic rhythm took hold and it just seemed easier to 'go with the flow' because it was evidently working.

and that delivery is key... i will sometimes give updates as to what i'm doing, and as in your example i'll usually get people to tag along.

another angle is to just openly ask anybody if they want a gunner/sidekick/wingman

usually the demonstration of order will get others onto the same page

Sniper_Zegai:

Novan Leon:
You have to realize that there are FAR MORE American's in most of these servers than any other nation. It's simply a matter of probability that you'll get more dumb Americans in a server than Brits.

Nobody is saying there aren't any British or European douchebags, I've met more than I can count!

The Americans are just fucking louder. The "Master Race" complex they seem to be developing doesn't help either.

This was exactly what i was thinking, there are assholes everywhere. But i think Americans get the award to most vocal, i find British and European servers the talk is less confrontational and sometimes there is very little chat at all. Less social sometimes maybe but often its very welcome.