Weighing in...

As a non-fps player, I just wanted to post a few thoughts that the rest of the gamers may be having -

Firstly, I don't understand how you all treat each other. For the most part it's full of people running their mouths about how they ganked you, and how you don't want none of that and how you cant handle it. There was a guy with a GT: IHOPEYOURAGEQUIT, ironically he went something like 4-15 in the match I saw him in.

I understand a large percentage of the player base is men 14-25, and I, at 28, fall just outside of that age-range, but seriously, the way people are treated in this game (and I will assume other FPSs have similar experiences attached) is an absolute joke.

I was a competitive athlete well into college, so I understand trash talking but this is just downright degrading to hear people frothing at the mouth with the best obscenity they can muster. It's utterly embarrassing sometimes.

On the reverse side, I find a large number of players who don't talk at all. They don't discuss strategy, they don't listen to tactics and they seem to enjoy the thrill of going lone wolf all over the place, leaving their teammates hanging out to dry. After rolling a support in a few games, I drastically changed my style with my 'sin, not wanting to leave teammates undefended at crucial points in a fight.

Now I have heard of a mythical land of GB that is supposed to support tactical play, with a team emphasis, but I've also heard it's loaded with the aforementioned trash-talking slobs that seem to lay verbal waste to things as their getting their digital teeth kicked in. As well, you actually have to record your games to show how the other team is exploiting and cheating you our of a hard-earned victory.

I guess I would love to know how you people survive this monstrosity that is XBL. Personally, I'll take my Fable 3, Two Worlds 2, Fallout 3: NV and be happy that there is no one around to interrupt me having fun.

I will play MNC for a while longer, till 9/14 when the next game I want hits the shelves, and then this chapter of my gaming life will fade quietly into the background. It's sad that such a gem of a game (which isn't in my preferred genre at all) is ruined by a load of juvenile behavior

Get friends. Party up. Problem solved.

If people aren't talking it's probably because 1) they don't want to get verbally abused and don't have a mic plugged in, or 2) they're in a party with their friends

its normally not woth talking because you normally get people who seem to have anger issues yelling at everything for no reason, its not worth arguing with someone on your team, i tend to just party up because of this and then you dont have to listen to them

PARTY PLAY FTW and better tactics

With the trash talking problem, all anyone can really tell you is;

Welcome to internet gaming.

It's going to happen anywhere you go. Public matches on shooters, matchmaking in sports games, PC servers, people even do it on games like Hexic 2 and Geometry Wars. It's just part of internet anonymity. The "mute" function is there for that reason.

As far as people not talking, most people don't want to play strategically, and don't care about winning. They just want to run around and shoot/punch things. There are alternatives obviously; Private matches, Gamebattles, and playing with a party of friends are really the only ones.

A lot of people will say competitive gaming is the main cause for 'Trash Talking'. I tend to agree for the most part. There are many mature competitive teams out there but they're usually the ones that have been going for a long time. Although, it is something you have to come to expect, as it's not like you would be able to join a competitive sports team (for example) at the age range you posted and not find any there, either.

I wouldn't even pick on a player with limited skill (by pick on I mean: get aggressive with, not kill many times :twisted: ) as that goes outside my level of sportsmanship I expect from myself. But if there's some guy who thinks he's all pro and gets pwnd... different story.

People put on an aggressive demeanor while gaming because it's something they might consider themselves good at so they feel the need to flex their muscles/ruffle their own feathers if you will. You're best just to ignore it for the most part.

I've typed all that and forgotten about the rest of your post.

EDIT: Oh, the reverse. Well, another thing to just expect. Anti-XBOX fanboys always blame PartyChat as killing team-chat, and to an extent that might be the case but for the most part people don't want to chat with randoms. I plug in the mic everytime I play and talk to anyone who might be; had some good games few days a go with some Americans who called out Assassins and asked if you needed assistance and made it much better.

As others have posted, the most surefire way to get the most out of a chat experience is to find some players (this is a good place to start) and play together fairly regularly. I guess you're American so we might not get a load of time to play together but feel free to add me as OptiMAT prime if you want to start somewhere.

After playing a few FPS games on XBL, my friends & I decided to set our chat settings to 'Friends Only' on our profiles. The reason for this is because I can never find a team that talks tactics anyway, and I have no need to hear all the verbal diarrhea.

Once in a while someone might shout something like "They're rushing from the left side!" but it happens so infrequently that it's just not worth it to deal with all the nonsense.

I play a Support most of the time, and I do fine as far as teamwork goes, even without communicating. If I see a Gunner rushing the enemy base, I'm right there behind him, dropping a firebase & healing away.

As other people have mentioned, you should try to get some friends on board, so you can have a group of people you can chat with and not have to worry about all the kiddies who like to drop f-bombs when mommy isn't home.

Moral of the story: Don't lose heart. Anonymity makes a lot of people act like jerks. Pity them, as they probably have no life skills. Just mute them and enjoy the game.

Saying things like "you all" is a pretty generalization for every single person on this board. While I admit that alot of people can be annoying and use poor tactics and communications, it's one thing to say everyone does. I've had some public random games with a few people who were extremely friendly, fun and good team players, and of course I sent them a friend request immediantly.

Don't judge one game, or even an entire genre based on the actions of a few people.

lol trash talkin in this game? ive been in maybe 1 game where sum1 has trash talked otherwise its mostly just me bitching at my micless teammates for sucking. try playing CoD and u will see real trash talking. theres so many dumbass little kids that it provides some good entertainment

also this game is full of people who dont normally play fps games and its fairly obvious to those who do

Welcome to the wonderful world of online gaming. What you describe happens in EVERY single game every played over the interwebs. Whether it be PvP in a MMO, or a shooter game, all bets are off.

As the above posters have mentioned, get some like minded friends, team up and play the way you want. With all the bad sh*t that you get with xbl, you get a lot of good. I've made a few great friends that I've met over xbl, and over a year later we still game with each other almost daily.

Look for those kind of people, I'm sure you can find lots of them on this very forum. Good luck, and if you ever want to play with people who feel the same as you do, and are the same age or older than you, hit me up with a PM, I'll send ya a friends request. Could always use another like minded team player on our list.

Thanks for the responses all. TBH I was expecting to get flamed as that seems to be the norm. GT: Surberus I'd love to try a party/priv whatever if you all are interested.

but meanwhile contribute to the problem by tuning out.

I swear I'm barking out to an empty room since no one responds but I know the odd guy is listening because I'll mention something going on and actually see 'some' response...just too bad those folks aren't communicating back.

I find those with mics and those are the guys I put on my friends list for this game and party up with to start.

So basic msg to all...at least start with your headset ready...give us a chance to communicate. You may just find some folks to play with regularily.

I frequently trash talk my friends.

One of my big problems with the whole "mute is your friend" thing is it's not always readily apparent who the *** in question is. Unless they're trash talking on the lobby. I mean, I do generally mute people who are being jerks, if I can tell who they are, but I'm saying I get why people complain.

I personally normally keep my mic on, but really, I don't get many people actually talking except the trash talkers.

And honestly, if I wanted to be hit up with homophobic slurs, I could go outside.

I think the problem in this game and most games isn't necessarily that there are a lot of trash talkers, but that they're the noisy ones. All the people without blinking mic icons are potentially normal, responsible, even polite people who might opt for teamwork or general chatting.

Say ten years ago, internet games used text chat instead of voice chat. There were still the egotistical, immature folks flooding the chat with all caps and exclamation marks, but they couldn't drown out normal people, as much as they would try.

The solution is the mute button. Mute aggressively, so that they cannot flood the channel. If everyone does it, then quiet people might have a chance to speak. For more extreme cases, leave feedback that will lead to a voice ban.

It takes effort, but sometimes it's worth it. I have good memories of playing a game with someone from France, and trying to practice my broken high school French. Or hearing about how certain games show up on cable TV in Singapore. The internet isn't all bad--it just has a vocal minority.

Welcome to the internet.

I haven't really heard any absurd trash talking. I have noticed no one really discusses strategy and I think it's mostly because people just don't use their mics. I just found mine and started using it two nights ago and found only like 2 or 3 other people per game with mics.

i only really talk to my friends because when in some games there's no point in discussing tactics when iv got 4 snipers and an assassin on my team while im playing as a tank and the other team has 4 gunners and 2 supports and they are destroying the rest of my team. If i did ask them to switch class they would probably tell me where to go so yeah :|

As someone who has played almost every major shooter with voice chat since UT2003 it comes down to one simple thing

microphone + anonymity= retarted jackholes.. they want to sound big and bad.. and know that they are exposed to getting the butt beating there mother or father should have handed out a long time ago... so they just flap there yapper for the heck of it... lucky I've found in most cases thoese acting this way are the dumber among us and one quick witted comeback or pointing out a flaw in something they say will shut them up. Granted MNC is not to bad yet... but this is being said after comming off of over a year of Call of Duty:MW2.

As far as thoese that dont talk.. I'm guilty of that more times then not.. if a team wants to talk tatics and try to org I'll speak up.. but if its just random bathering I'm using to focused on trying to win the game to care enought to speak up. Case in point.. last night a guy went of because no one but him was talking.. yet he said nothing of value.. basicly was just cheerleading... not that trying to psyc everyone up is wrong.. but it doesn't really warent a responce unless its a shout back cheer.

TLR B/c I'm an athlete.



Sorry. I couldn't resist.