Off-Topic Forum

We all know what happens when a kid is left home alone with a video game, Xbox LIVE or PSN, and a headset.  In the age of vulgar rap music, teenage pregnancies, nuclear bombs, yada yada yada (none of these are revelent to this topic), there seems to be a major trend going on in games nowadays. This issue is everywhere, and it's been brought up many times. It's the issue with people (or "kids", as the majority of people would say) who take it upon themselves to not only swear but bash and hate and make racist and homophobic comments into their little headsets. Such behavior ruins games for everyone involved, because nobody wants to sit there and be teased by a little brat who thinks he's all that.

Now, I know this issue has been talked about over and over again, like I've said. However, I want to present this issue from a different perspective. Rather than the "I work 10 hours a day, come home, feed my family, and I'm forced to listen to little kids swear" perspective (the perspective from a person much older then the culprits), I want to bring this issue up from the age of 14. Yes, I am 14 years old, turning 15 in a few months and going into high school. Too many times have I seen people wishing that everyone under the age of however old they are get banned from online gaming because they are simply annoying. To them, everyone under the age of 15 or so is an annoying brat who needs to shut up and "drop their balls". As a person in the same age group as many of the agitating players out there, I must say that the constant belief that everyone who is young is obnoxious is sickening in a way. I can't even talk online without someone who is obviously older than me telling me to be quiet and that (I shouldn't be playing "x" game).

Now, I share some of the same feelings a lot of other people do. I don't like playing with people who scream and use hateful words. It discourages me from working with my team. I think the real issue is that us 14 year olds, and those younger and older, who actually work together online and refuse to talk trash when it isn't needed get hated on because of assumptions. All I'm asking is to cut us some slack. Not everyone who is young is irritating, and if you are one of those people who feel the need to hate on everybody younger than you, than you need to step back and think about what you are accomplishing by being the real asshole in this situation.

Also:

@kmdrkul said:

" Don't feel the need to defend yourself, just because of your age.  You'll either end up looking like you are trying too hard to act older or that you are incriminating yourself and trying to conceal something.  Just be yourself, ignore the kids your age online if you have to, and enjoy gaming as it's always been. "

I wasn't necessarily trying to defend myself, although it may have come off that way. I was simply raising the issue that lots of players online take it upon themselves to act like jerks to younger people because of their age

Son, I can say, I was a lot like you. Best thing to do is play with the people who don't mind what you sound like. For those other annoying kids though, there's always the good old mute button. And there will always be those douchebag kids who bash anyone who sounds younger than them just because.

Other thing you can do is take up PC gaming, which IMO is loads friendlier than XBL. In some games such as TF2 or L4D, I've met a lot of nice dudes on those games. Just don't play CSS or WoW (Them racist kids in them games)

I'm usually just in a party with some of my friends.

I remember the days of Socom 2 on the PS2. I always used to get kicked out of games because I would say "I have the bomb" or something relevant. And then get kicked/harassed because I had a "little kid" voice. Just don't let it bother you. I do know that Socom 2 did have a voice masker to make your voice sound deeper though. It did seem to help in my case. Not sure if thats a soloution that any other games impliment these days though. Just try not to let it bother you, and make sure to not let it turn into an arguing match. Because (even though I'm guilty of it and this isn't a nice thing to say) arguing on the internet is like competing in the special olympics. Even if you "win", you're still retarded.

Don't even know why you feel the need to distance yourself from the idiots your age.  There are plenty of older idiots as well from every age, country, ethnicity, etc etc etc.  The older people who you're trying to appeal to don't care what you have to say and the ones who do already know not to stereotype and generalize.  Basically, just don't worry about it.  Jerks will be jerks. 

I just play with my wife and friends. When I play with the public it's mostly on Guitar Hero and I mostly sing, so I cant afford to listen to listen to kids calling each other 'fags'.

I was once however chastised by a mother on xbl for swearing in a game of Burnout Paradise. She came on the mic and demanded that I stop swearing now because her 10 year old son was playing. I responded with a firm "No". For a start, it's my God-given right, secondly I pointed out that letting her 10 year old son play online after 11 o'clock on a thursday was what I see as pad parenting. I'm a parent, but you don't need to be to see this as highly irresponsible.

 I respect the fact that the modern home console is considered to be around 30 years old. We were kids in the mid 80's, we have grown with the home console.

The problem is this woman probably saw consoles as toys in the 80's, so she sees them as toys now. The XBOX is not a toy, nor is it a babysitter. This is a point I've always had a hard time getting across, and Nintendo's marketing department isn't making it easy for me.

I'm not having a go at kids on xbl, but I hate parents who say "here you go, now leave me alone". The reason that you have all these little wankers on Halo and TF2 is because parents need to just once in a while sit and play a few games with thier kids and maybe take an interest in their recreational hobbies.

Age is the last thing that matters when it comes to online gaming , but I personally refuse to play online games because of trash words that come out of many individual of all ages .
So yes I agree that NOT all the 15 year olds are irritating but I also believe that NOT all the 20+ year olds are tolerable .

I don't even play online often because of this. If someone sounds like a kid there hated on. People act tough and etc. Makes it hard to find interesting gamers online.

Most kids are fine, but every time I end up in a random game on Xbox Live with a bunch of foul-mouthed children I find myself wishing there was an option to play exclusively with people of a certain age or older. That would be fantastic. It would change the face of online gaming as we know it.

It would be the best of both worlds...kids get to play with other kids, and adults can play with other adults. Friends lists and private matches excluded, of course...and for those that don't care, they can leave the box unchecked and just play with everyone.

Perhaps it's because I only play on the PC, but the majority of expletive-spewing morons that I've encountered were in their 20s. Sure, from time to time I stumble upon the annoying, sqeaky-voiced kid who's vocabulary seems to consist of nothing but racist  and bigoted language, but usually that's not the case.

I'm 15, but I haven't gotten an awful lot of grief over that fact. It might be because of the gaming crowd that I hang out with, but it's never been problematic for me *shrugs*. I can understand that it might be different on Live though.

I avoid all of that simply by not having Live Gold. On the PS3 or maybe even the Wii, the online may be worse (not much on the PS3), but it's free, and you only put up with 1/4 of the annoying people you do on Xbox.

It's funny, I'm 17 and you remind me a lot of myself at your age. I remember writing an editorial about this very same subject for a similar site, and you make a few great points. The fact is, many of the people spewing this shit are the people who tell younger teens to "stop playing and grow balls". Truth be told, when all of my friends started buying 360's I've stopped playing on the Game Channel when I play multiplayer games. When the NXE launched last fall, it pretty much took what little time I spent on it and reduced it to nothing. The party system lets me talk with all of my friends and play with them without having to put up with the bullshit that goes on in the game itself.

As far as people making racist, homophobic comments, I feel like the word fag's progress from reserved anti-gay slur into common vocabulary among teens is pretty alarming. I'm guilty of throwing the word around myself, but not with the intention of degrating gay people, it's kind of a synonym for "pussy" these days, just as "gay" is supposed to mean "stupid". I feel like the frequent use of both of these words has turned a terrible slur into a commonplace adjective. As I've said, I've used those words around friends too, and never really realized what I was saying. The fact that I attend an all-guys high school and seeing a few classmates come out, I've toned down my use of the word a lot, but not every kid my age can be taught this way. It's just kind of sad.

Doesn't Xbox Live have a voice masking option?  I'm not sure how well it works, but maybe you can try it out and have someone on your friends list tell you if it sounds okay or not.  I may be completely wrong about this, but I think I've seen the option somewhere.  Also, sorry if this was already mentioned; I didn't read too much of the thread.

2 Main problems I see today :

#1. There actually IS a videogame community these days, WITH voice chat.  Before online gaming and online gaming discussion (on forums like this one), you could only communicate games with people you knew on the phone or in person.  Up until recent years, even PC games mostly used text chat only, unless you got on a Vent server or something, and then it was usually with people you already knew and got along with.  So it's a perceived problem, people have always been assholes.

#2. Kids these days are exposed to more uncensored media than ever before.  The internet is uncontrolled, it's unfiltered.  Unless you had particularly lazy parents who let porno magazines and tapes laying around when you were 8, the internet is a much bigger source of racism, swearing, drugs and porn than children would have been exposed to just 15 years ago.