Another thing, is that when only the occasion that the Americans aren't mocking the old accent, they're trying to get me to team-up with them on some German kid, because apparently the German kid is a Nazi...I object to that and do my damndest to help the German kid.

The Bandit:

Squid94:
Last time I (as a British person) said something in an online game (Call of Duty, I believe), I had my accent taken the piss out of. Sorry, but you guys are "notorious" for that kind of stuff. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of American friends, but I've met some reeeal pricks.

/rant.

Oh, boo hoo. Everytime I play with a British person you hear the idiotic "Americans are fat and/or stupid" nonsense.

I also have a southern accent, and I get shit for it just as much as you do for your accent. Probably more, in fact. How many times have you been asked if you sleep with your sister? Grow a pair and quit whining.

Also- this wasn't meant to specifically call you out. The first four or five posts were this same whining. You were just the lucky one I quoted.

Pfft, and I'm the on that needs to "grow a pair"?

Enough Americans I've met to make it count are pricks. However, as I stated in my original post, some of my good friends are from the states.

My friend was playing some gears or halo or something, when the game was pretty much half and half of brits and americans. Soon an argument began between the two groups, which he stayed out of. Then it came to "Shut up, you crumpet munching little shit, we've made great games like Gears of war, GTA 4..."

at which point my friend butted in,

"That was made in scotland, you dumb twat."

after which the argument stymied, the brits won, and my friend changed servers.

Moral of the story? Brits are fine talking to brits. It's when we have to talk to other nationalities that we become more introversive.

Americans are notorious for going "Cup of tea, mate. Good day mate" like we are Australian. We don't speak up because quite simply you guys just irritate us. We arn't going to communicate if everytime we open our mouths you talk down to us.

Pretty much the reason i dont talk much online is because, like most have said, we brits get taken the piss out of by Americans for our accent, or simply because we're english. Apparently, we all drink tea, eat crumpets, and we all know the Queen. What the fudgeydoodlesticks? People seem to actually believe that too, which scares me.
Not to say you dont meet nice Americans - i've had good fun with some in the past, and talked about random things like the difference between our countries and stuff.

If you get British people playing with British people, then its usually quite a bit of fun.
Unless the other British people are "chavs/gangstas" and insult you for no reason, then theres a problem.

I figure I'll make another comment to point out the fact that communication is only as useful as three key factors; the speaker, the listener and the medium.

Problems with the speaker tend to revolve around trying to convey information whilst being totally unable to present a context. For example, I can play Resistance 2 with my friends and announce "sniper on the clocktower!" and they'll understand. However, you might not. The reason you might not is because you cannot actually ENTER the clocktower I am referring to, and what I mean is "sniper on the building in front of the clocktower." That's a few seconds of confusion that'll probably get you shot.
The reason this problem persists is inability to universally convey information. I cannot sit down with players pre-game and say "Okay, HERE is the Bunker. HERE is Sniper Alley. HERE is the Crow's Nest." I am forced to try to use overly-accurate descriptions to get information across. This brings me to point two...

The Listener. Sometimes, people are just retarded. Occasionally they use an excuse like "I not speak English", but when I've listened to an hour of twat-talk in what passes for English in the inbred little backwater my teammate hails from, I don't bite.
Here's a hypothetical - a game where there are two teams, a Red and a Blue. Both teams have a Building they can use for sniping plonked right next to their spawn point. The buildings are even colour-coded for simplicity. There are gamers out there who, if you yell "Sniper on Red Building!" they will stop dead and ask what the fuck you are on about. Then they will get shot by the guy you were trying to warn them about, and spend half an hour bitching that A) the guy came out of nowhere, and B) his team are a load of fags for not helping him.
In other words, communication with a cuntbag is a waste of effort.

Finally, the medium. Unless the games are region-locked, there is a chance that the reason the other guy is ignoring everything you say is you are saying it in German, and he's listening in French. I seem to wind up in games with a lot of French / Spanish / Italian gamers, which can make organisation a bitch.

In short, in order for this to REALLY work, Valve need to do three things:

1) Region-lock games so everyone speaks the same language.
2) Instigate a system where players can, as a group, study the map and learn how to convey information quickly and accurately together BEFORE the game is launched.
3) Make the dipshits go back to Call of Duty, or wherever the fuck they came from.

Conclusion - not happening.

I wonder where they have that from. Almost every time I've played L4D with British people they've been very talkative.

First post here - this topic made me want to join.
I talk. I talk when required. Short, basic stuff. Which is easier to understand?
"Guys, incoming tank, Next to the North tower block" or
"Hey you retards, get over here, help me, theres a fukin tank coming, its, its...over there! You guys, its shooting at me! Help me! Oh you guys are complete..."
(I understand that this only works if your on a map with 1 towerblock, that is at the Northern end of a town...)
Exactly how is talking about family guy relevant to the game? I'm trying to play a game, I don't go on Live to have a chat (unless I'm playing with friends)

On the topic of why we Brits don't talk - I've endured many, many wonderful evenings of anti-brit abuse from Americans. "limey prick, crumpets, tea, shag the queen, WW2! etc, etc...". Hell, sometimes a team I'm on has lost simply because most of them spend time yelling at me than actually paying attention to the game. Sometimes I attempt to get my way out with humour.
As has been said before, if we get flak for talking, why would we bother?

The stupidest thing I've ever had shouted at me? (He sounded 12)
"You limey wankers, you should be grateful that we saved yo' asses in Vietnam!"
...Excuse me?

I have been in games with fellow Brits who are talkative. Not all of us are mute.

I always, ALWAYS have mic on when playing Left 4 Dead. Without mics it's simply not that fun.

Just in case you can't tell, I'm British.

If there Are people worth talking to who might contribute interesting conversation then I speak, but in my experience people who are online in games like COD 4, Halo 3, Killzone and World at War are either morons, dicks or don't want to talk either, so i leave them alone.

Hybridwolf:
Because we get asked irrating questions, or are repeatedly told "we saved your arse in world war 1/2"

Not funny.

Reading that gave me a sudden thought... According to Wikipedia, over 416,000 U.S. military personnel died in World War II. And this is how their sacrifice is remembered. "Saving Britain's ass"... They may be insulting the British, but even other Americans have every right to be pissed at moron comments like that.

It's mainly because Americans love to make fun of our accent and ask if we know the Queen. I was once told to go and I quote "Shag the queen Britfag". High pitched american voice, naturally. May have been Texan or anywhere in the southern US. That's why I don't talk and worship the mute button.

They hear Americans having "fun", I hear annoying Frat boys with no sense of humour that does not involve a toilet and screaming abuse. If that's Valve's idea of "fun" then they need to consult a dictionary.

the thing is the americans have like 6 insults against us and use them over and over in the same match i mean i was told to go drink some tea over 7 tmes in a match that lasted about 5 minutes and then they think there clever for coming u with these 'clever' remarks about us

Im British i love taking in games but, because im fourteen i feel either everyones ignoring me or that im annoying everyone else in the game.

You are asking the same people who allow their government to put cameras up on all of their streets, and to ban any media they disagree with, to speak up?

Good luck.

Because I hate being asked if I know the f*cking Queen, and why if I'm British "don't you talk like James Bond?"

I come from Yorkshire! We're not all royals and cockneys!

Spatzist:

Hybridwolf:
Because we get asked irrating questions, or are repeatedly told "we saved your arse in world war 1/2"

Not funny.

Reading that gave me a sudden thought... According to Wikipedia, over 416,000 U.S. military personnel died in World War II. And this is how their sacrifice is remembered. "Saving Britain's ass"... They may be insulting the British, but even other Americans have every right to be pissed at moron comments like that.

Oh if your going to list the number killed, lets add civilans to that count...

United Kingdom: 382,700 (military) 67,100 (civilan) 449,800 (overall)
United States: 416,800 (military) 1,700 (civilan) 418,500 (overall)

And if we are going to be really clever, lets add Russia the true "winners" of the war.

Soviet Union 1939 Borders: 8,800,000 to 10,700,000 (Military) 12,154,000 to 14,254,000 (civilan) 1,000,000 (Jewish people alone) 23,954,000 (overall)

Bearing in mind, the majority of American deaths only occured because they went running into Japan, I don't think Americans have a right to claim they "won". Espically since they came in very late into the game and only came in because they got attacked first.

TBH I never play with people I don't know on l4d because they have 0 tolerance and I have to spend about half an hour trying to find a server I don't get kicked from within 30 seconds. I don't really see the point in playing on really hard because it's just frustrating, and on normal textchat works fine.

EDIT: On the topic of accents, I'm English and once managed to convince an Aussie girl that I was Aussie. My accent's terrible, and when I said "OK I can't keep this up, I'm English", she didn't believe me and thought I was putting my real accent on. Fun times.

Why do us brits wanna talk to 13 year-old Americans?

Generic_Dave:
They hear Americans having "fun", I hear annoying Frat boys with no sense of humour that does not involve a toilet and screaming abuse. If that's Valve's idea of "fun" then they need to consult a dictionary.

hahaha, off topic, but I looked up 'frat boy' on the urban dictionary and this is what they came up with--

frat boy

1.) See homosexual
2.) The same neanderthalistic douchebags that used to play high school football and talk about how shitty you were in high school who now joined a homoerotic club so they can rape each other's ass in private.
3.) A collection of date-rapists that like to drink shitty beer and "stick it in" passed out drunk girls.
4.) Scum of the earth.
5.) A collection of the people with the smallest penises on a college campus.
Woah, look at that frat boy riding around in his giant monster truck with KC lights and the passed out girl in the passenger seat. I hope his truck tires blow out and he flips over and burns in a firey inferno.

And it goes on and on. Check it out.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frat+boy

Has anyone here been on the Escapist TF2 server?

I think it would put Valve's fears to rest :P

Last time a spoke to americans in l4d it resulted in them taking the piss out of my accent, team killing and telling me to come back after i've drunk sum tea. So yeah.

I'm seeing a lot of British people complain that they get made fun of whenever they talk. GET OVER IT! I'm sure girls get made fun of/ hit on when they talk on xbox live sometimes but I've still met a lot of girls on left 4 dead that talk.

Don't be afraid guys, we're a different community...well, for the most part. Most left 4 dead players don't make fun of their teammates because they know how much they need you. If we get pounced, we don't want our British teammate to leave us because we were asking them if they wanted tea and crumpets five minutes earlier. Give us a chance, guys. There are some idiots out there but the majority of us are team players. That's how we got good at this game.

I think a lot of you are missing the point.

"But I can't speak because Americans/children/Communists/pedobears will make fun of my accent/gender!"

Yeah. That's wonderful. You'll have to get along with these people if you want to play Realism mode successfully.

If you can't, well, you're going to be dead quite a bit.

Actually I think a lot of it has to do with British arrogance actually, which is why a lot of the "We saved your arse during two world wars" stuff comes up. Pretty much a lot of brits seem to have this complex about not having an empire anymore and being dependant on the US similar to how the US was dependant on Britan even after our independance. Not to mention the whole "revolution" thing a couple centuries ago, and the differant perspectives on history that is all about.

In general stuff like that isn't initiated by Americans when it comes to online chatter I've seen. I've noticed non-Americans want to get into politics a heck of a lot more frequently than Americans do online. Of course I'm speaking more or less from World Of Warcraft, where my guild leader for example is a New Zealander and we've pretty much come to the conclusion that politics are a no-go. Simply put the American perspective, and the perspective of other countries are ultimatly at odds. People from other countries being as ignorant (or more so) than we are, but in the end everyone who is not American generally agreeing that Americans are wrong just because globally we're still top dog and more or less get our way.

That said I don't do shooters very often, and in general am not online doing multiplayer via console very much unless it's for fighting games (which I have an occasional interest in). However my limited experience has shown that most people who play shooters multiplayer tend to get together with people they know. Thus I think some of the problems being discussed are brits talking to other brits (so to speak), as opposed to people just remaining quiet when they are online.

In general, my multiplayer co-op experiences in MMORPGs are basically a matter of me playing alone, eventually meeting people I wind up hanging out with for quests, forming guilds with those people, raiding, meeting more people via raids or PVP, and then just generally being with that general group even as guild fall apart and reform. Then being something of a clique(even if sometimes I'm a pseudo-outsider) we all talk about newbs which are basically anyone we haven't known for a year or more. :P

Really I don't know many console gamers IRL anymore (those I used to know were co-workers and I've been retired on disabillity for a number of years now). I kind of got the impression that the entire point of Left 4 Dead was for you and your friends to all buy the game, and then team up after work/school to bag some zombies. I do not play (or own) it despite liking the premise for this reason. I figured just trying to meet people randomly on XBL or PSN and play a game like that was a recipe for disaster anyway. Most of the "random matchmaking" features not being intended for team-play games, but for stuff like death matches or fighting games where your pretty much getting together for 3-5 minutes tops in an adversarial enviroment. :P

Just because Americans are talking alot more doesn't mean they are working together better. Quite a bit of it is 'OMG, UR SUCH A N00B! WTF!' Or having a laugh at some's accent.

This is my experience anyway. We don't talk. We get on with the job.

Amnestic:
Every time I talked on CoD4 I got berated for not being from the US.
Same with Halo 3.

I'd talk more if it didn't distract my team.

Well then learn to talk American!

Stupid Brits, I'd thought you all would've figured that out by now.

/sarcasm

Therumancer:
*snip*

I think it's best you edit that posted before people come to rip you a new one.

Your sickeningly smug, misguided, and often over-the-top posts are begining to wear on me and many others.

I bid you good day sir, as I do not wish to be splashed with blood during your mauling.

Suiseiseki IRL:

Therumancer:
*snip*

I think it's best you edit that posted before people come to rip you a new one.

Your sickeningly smug, misguided, and often over-the-top posts are begining to wear on me and may others.

Welcome to the world of free speech, and yes I do promote some rather unpopular viewpoints, and I do so fully within the guidelines of the site. I have backed down every single time a "Red Guard" has questioned me. Sure, I could probably go to some forums where my views would be more... represented. However most such forums would not generally be gaming oriented, have content (like this site does) that I am interested in, etc...

Yes I *DO* expect I ruffle some feathers as the fandom community tends to be very leftist and politically correct, and I generally am not (despite having some left wing viewpoints myself). But to some extent I feel you need to have your feathers ruffled, and I sort of hope with time things will start to balance out.

As far as what I said in my post above, like many posts, I expect a lot of people here to disagree with it. I even say so myself in a lot of things I write. But that doesn't mean I am wrong, or am going to censor myself, because some people don't like it (OMG! Someone has a differant point of view!). Geez, if we were to apply that in reverse just think about how many posts would have to be edited. Or worse yet, if every post on the site had to be 100% politically or socially neutral (or non-politically). Just imagine how many posts would have to be edited for social liberalism <Gasp!>.

However, I re-read my post just to be polite, figuring that maybe I mis-stated something. Perhaps I'm missing something, but it appears I pretty much said what I intended to. Let me summarize:

Many Posters: "Well the brits don't talk because Americans are a bunch of misinformed idiots who blather nonsense".

Me: "Well I think you've got that wrong since the brits are pretty misinformed and idiotic online as well".

That's it in brief. What am I suppose to say? Anti-Americanism is hip (especially for Americans) but that doesn't mean I agree with it. I've dealt with Brits online and as far as where I'm sitting it seems pretty accurate. My WoW-playing has been nothing if not multi-national, though we generally stay away from politics because once you start argueing about who is ignorant and who isn't it goes nowhere and just upsets everyone.

I happen to have many criticisms of America, but in general when I see people bashing my country one way or another, I snap right back, especially seeing as I feel that in the final equasion we're the best country in the world. OMG I know... I know... it's horrible, an American with national pride who generally supports what his country does. Shocking I know for people who when they hear "America Sux" expect a chorus of agreement, including from left wingers within the US.

... and yeah, the "we saved you during World War II" thing usually jumps into it when Britan starts screaming about how wonderful it is compared to America, and all the things it's done.

Truthfully that's a bit more politic than talking about the era of British nationalism and colonialism, where Britan decided to do a lot of the things America is accused of except for real, went on a multi-fronted war of conquest "for the good of all these savages", overextended itself, and wound up mor or less collapsing. For example, one of the reasons why South Africa seems like it's such a bloody mess was because of British Colonialism (even though those colonies became independant). Sure, we've made a big mess of things trying to fix things (putting Mandela in charge who was probably worse than the racist pro-white goverment that was there to begin with in absolute terms) but in general that's us playing clean up.

Then you've of course got the fact that nations like China, India, The Middle East, etc.. seem to have issues with seeing "The West" as seperate nations to an extent. It's not so much that they see everyone as Americans, but that they see Americans as simply the continuation of the British Empire that was all up in their face previously. Tomorrow if Australia or Britan became the dominant world power, I doubt much would change in their relations despite what people might think. It's sort of like when a Chinese guy calls another Chinese a "twinkie" (Yellow on the outside, white inside), they are being anti-white, not nessicarly anti-any nation because one thing people seem to not get is that not everyone in the world views us as seperatly as we are... and a lot of this goes back to things from WELL before the US even existed, or was anything more than a joke on a global scale.

Fine, people disagree with me, but honestly there is validity to my viewpoints whether anyone wants to admit it or not. To me at least pointing out to an Anti-American brit that we saved them during two world wars is a heck of a lot nicer and less offensive (despite what they might think) then say starting an arguement about how much more aggressive the British Empire was than America ever was, stuff like the Apartheid, and how much cr@p we're currently
dealing with that's rooted in origins well before our country ever existed.

What's more I'm one of those people who feels that it would be wrong for us to return to isolationism (for a lot of reasons), but on certain levels sort of wishes we'd do it. In the end the world needs the "World Police" and someone is eventually going to have to step in. Find someone else to be "Not America" and foot the bill. It's one thing to support it, it's another to walk point.... and in the end that's the root of a lot of the cr@p we get. It's easy to criticize when your not doing the job.

Most people who talk are online are not the people you actually want to talk to online.

So fuck that, i'll be silent thanks.

Therumancer:
*snip*

Yes, you're certianly top dog. Remind me again how the Best Country In the World's military offensives are going in Afghanistan after 8 years?

Or how your economy is doing? What's the deficit up to now?

Or! Let's move on to firearms homicide rates.

And teen pregnancy rates - guess that education system you're paying through the nose for is paying off.

How about obesity/overweight rates?

Or perhaps your government? With someone who could barely operate a computer less than a year ago trying to push a Net Neutrality bill through Congress? Clearly there's no companies pushing their own personal views via donations there. Oh no, your government is a bastion of purity.

Not to mention your political system being so wraught with pathetic party politics, underhanded dealings, lobby interest groups and voter apathy. The vast majority of your citizens seemingly have no qualms with quoting the Constitution having never even read it.

Best country in the world - Ha! By what standards?

I've not even got a real beef with Americans or America as a whole. When I visited eight years ago, most everyone I met was a decent enough person. Don't pull "Best country in the world" on me though, because there's no such thing. And if there was, it certainly isn't America.

The day your economy collapses because of reliance on Chinese Loans and the like will be a day in which the planet turns its head at the once great giant who had it all and blew it away in their own arrogance and sheds a single tear because of what they could have been and what they weren't.

So once again - I ask you, "Best Country"? By what standards?

Yes, I am awfully ill-informed about this, for I am just a poor, stupid Brit. :(

Bollocks. I chit-chat when I'm paying. It's just that the ratio of Americans to British on these types of things tend to be skewed the other way. It's got bugger all to do with us being quiet.

Besides ALOT of people online are very, very racist towards us because of our accents (this is what I've observed from rude American fuck wits who boot me for my accent.) Not all Americans are like this but some people are, the things that I'm always hung up on is that the fucking adults do this more than the teenagers.

So, we're not quiet you're just loud!

Malygris:
Valve Guy Says British Gamers Need to Speak Up
"You guys are notorious non-talkers on both 360 and PC. Americans are just chattering away, working together as a team. If you want to work together as a team you've got to talk!"
Permalink

... who said I wanted to work together as a team?

lazy_bum:
....and even in a few cases had votekicks started against me on the basis of i'm english and therefore shouldnt be allowed to 'clog up our servers with their foriegness and stupid accents'.

*rant over*

Did... did this actually happen?

I'll tell you what. You give me their addresses, then just turn around and pretend you don't hear the gunfire. I mean... jeez.