The good, the bossy, the obnoxious.

We've all been playing games online for some time now, and I wanted to address something that has been hampering the experience of mature and serious gamers. How many times have you been forced to back out of sessions in response to annoying personalities, most often those of children imposing themselves as the leader of the pack. They issue orders, make vulgar offensive statements, or often times (and I do mean often) sing some silly song into the headset until your eardrums threaten to explode.  I'm aware there is a system in place to weed out such nonsense, but at certain times in the day it seems unavoidable, and you end up calling it a day because you can't seem to find a respectable lot to team up against zombies or overthrow those nasty Nazis.

Its hard to feel like you hold some natural authority being the technical elder in these groups. I've had so many 10 year olds talk down to me I feel like walking into a middle school with a wooden paddle and going haywire. Why the hell are these fledglings even playing some of these games? With all the gore, violence and profanity, you'd think the parents would actually pay closer attention to the mature ratings for what they were intended... Oh wait that's right, parents don't give a shit these days. Anything to keep little Bobby from nagging them while they sip Martinis in the back yard and discuss the last episode of John and Kate plus eight.

One game in particular that I refuse to play online is GTA4. I swear to god everybody signs on to that game with their inner thug bursting at the seams. Is there anything more annoying than a prepubescent rascal making like they're honorary members of the crips? Its a sad, ongoing social commentary that I like in a documentary, not upping my blood pressure when I'm trying to complete a co-op mission. Trash talk is one thing, but I firmly believe certain age gaps shouldn't be bridged with unchecked hubris and swagger.

My proposal is for the the industry to find a way to identify the age of participants and place them in lobbies accordingly. In the long run, it would help to avoid us having to spend half the day attempting to team up with people who have the right to tell me how to play.

How old are you?

Also, get over it. You can't go into a store and say "I wont buy from here because theres a kid crying"

Did someone invent the mute button?

Due to the stereotypes being thrown around, I'll just leave this here...

You're probably an early 20's "angry young man" anyway. You would have been like that if games were the same in your day. Stop fighting the last war and  just do it.

Yeah, it can be annoying but I found I simply unplugged my headset and set team speak to mute so I wouldn't hear anything from the TV's speakers. It sucks because if you do power through the annoying kids and racist jerks you'll get into that occasional game with genuinely cool people who don't take the game mind numbingly serious or spout out offensive statements every time they die (I wasn't aware my race was synonymous with "I just got killed"). But some nights I just don't have the energy to suffer through the filth.

Am i the only one who finds them hilariuos?

" @Ineedaname: When you're working together and need to communicate, how does that help exactly? "

I wish it was only an issue with the 'children' who play games online, but unfortunately there's 'adults' that act the same exact way.  Either way it's annoying, but I've come to accept it as how gaming is on the net.  If I can't mute them, I will just quit match and find a more suitable one.  

I do like your idea, but then you'd get stuck with adults who act like kids.  There's no way to win this battle.

Wow, the OP was simply stating how he felt on an issue and the general response is "get over it"? Isn't that what forums are supposed to be used for? He wasn't disrespectful, vulgar, or whiny. Just presented his case and left it open for discussion. Instead what he got was "quit bitching" or "you must be 12" comments. I'm 35 and I fully agree with the guy. As much as some would say to just ignore the little shits, communication is a vital component to the multiplayer aspect. I don't want to play L4D with a bunch of 12 year olds who just want to run around screaming and shooting each other.

If you were talking solely about competitive games, or any aspect of halo, i'd be all "quit whining" or "this is why I only play single player games" etc.

They should create a game type where you nominate the most annoying, racist or vulgar player and have him/her practically spawn killed all the time. Wait, that probably wouldn't work, especially if the whole game is filled with annoying little kids.....or adults.

"@jobe13: Thanks for having my back yo. Solid!"

Congratulations, you've fallen into the "those damn kids" mentality. Happens to everyone.

Rest assured, you were as much of a little douchebag when you were a child in your own way, even if you don't remember it. Everyone was. No exceptions.

Back in my day...

"Back in my day..."

" @Einherjan said:

"Back in my day..."

You could punch the dude giving you hassle because he was more than likely 2 feet away from you behind a monitor playing Doom over LAN with you :P "