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Man, Framed by the LPB Sniper again! ! ! That may sound like nonsense to the average person but to the seasoned Counterstrike veteran it speaks volumes. Today, millions of people of all ages are coming together on the Internet to compete against each other in a variety of online games. The most popular of which is an online modification of the game Half-life entitled Counterstrike. Counterstrike itself is comprised of players broken up in to two teams, terrorists and counter terrorists, who then compete against each other to achieve a range of goals in a variety of levels. People from anyplace in the world can log in to one of the hundreds of Counterstrike servers running on the Internet and team up with and play against anybody anywhere.
To play the game players manipulate their characters movements inside the simulated scenario they see on their monitor. They do so by using the keyboard and mouse in tandem to move around the level, find opposing players and then frag or kill them with whatever weapon they currently have, there by eliminating them for the remainder of the round. However, in most cases the teams goals are more complex than just eliminating the other team. For instance, in one level one player assumes the role of the V. I. P.
and his counter terrorist teammates try to escort him to a helicopter on the other side of the level. The terrorist teams objective is to find and assassinate the V. I. P.
before he is able to escape. This and other missions like it create an exciting and adrenaline filled environment that are part of the reason gamers just can not quit. For the most part people team up with and compete against people they havent met and probably never will meet in a face-to-face manner. This yields some very interesting results.
I was able to observe two peers of mine playing Counterstrike online in the same room on their separate computers on several occasions for extended periods. Also, I installed Counterstrike on my computer here in my dorm room and played online myself a number of times. The first thing that I noted and the first I am going to talk about is the players ability to create and maintain their own online identity. Every player in an online game of Counterstrike or any other game for that matter has his or her own handle or call sign. They are nicknames that the players come up with themselves and adopt as names while in the games.
Players names tend to be either intimidating or humorous in their nature. They could be likened to the call signs that fighter pilots in the armed services employ. After playing for a while players being to recognize others in the servers that they have played with previously by their handles and often choose to chat outside of the game environment where they can only communicate by short text messages. They refrain from actual discussions inside the game because it is viewed a rude thing to do in front of all the people in the server. The main program they use for chatting is ICQ, which is currently the most downloaded file in history.
An interesting fact is that when players communicate outside of the game environment using instant messengers such as ICQ they usually continue to call each other by their handles. Nobody even thinks to ask for real names. They usually just chat about the latest game, computers and computing or life in general. Many gamers forge many online friendships with people they meet playing games that often they value more than their real friendships.
This social aspect is main reason gamers enjoy playing, you can meet people from all over the world that you have things in common with and not have to deal with any physical barriers like appearance that you may feel causes people to prejudge you. The gamer is able to have complete control over what others think of their online identity, that power is comforting to many who feel that in real life they are outsiders or castaways. The social organization of the community extends further than just people joining random pickup games or chatting individually. Players also organize with each other into teams known as clans. Clans are people who all are dedicated to a particular game and choose to compete as team. Clans will then practice and compete together against other clans in online leagues and tournaments.
The clan is where the social aspect of online gaming blossoms. From my observations I noted the serious way in which clan members treat their official matches and relationships with other clan members. I had expected to find a lot of childish disrespect and bickering. The reason I thought that was because I assumed that because they dont have face to face contact with any other gamers and there are no real life consequences to insulting another gamer they wouldnt be worried about saving face or hurting others feelings.
The contrary turned out to be true, especially in the communication between serious gamers. They treat each other with a great deal of respect and follow what appear to be a quiet a few unwritten rules of conduct in and out of the game server. A great example of this comes up in the actual gameplay, serious players will avoid spamming or continuously firing an automatic fire weapon in the game in hopes of flagging someone out of what they consider luck. They know that the technique works and will help them win but they dont do it because it is considered offensive. Despite the other rules of conduct there is however a good deal of trash talk during games. Players have the option to enter and send text messages to each other while playing.
They often use it to make what they feel is a witty or intimidating comment to their opponent, usually after flagging them. The trash talk I heard and saw in the games reminded me very much of the kind of trash talk you would hear during any pickup basketball game. However, the language they use is very unique and exclusive to the Internet community. I noticed three categories of slang that they utilize.
They have words they use to describe other gamers. They often decorate words with different symbols to add unique flavor to them and utilize word fragments that act as abbreviations of phrases. There are a number of words that they use to describe other players and their actions. They are all words that can be interpreted as put downs and that may be humorously or maliciously in their intent.
The two examples of this that I ran across most often were Newbie which is used to describe a player whos new to the game, ignorant to its rules and usually a poor competitor. The other, Lamer is simply to refer to a player who is lame, the antonym of cool. Additionally, the gamers seem to enjoy decorating their language with a variety of other symbols to try and make it more personalized or unique. They most often replace letters in words with similarly shaped numbers or punctuation symbols.
An example is, that they commonly spell the word elite like this, 31337. Other common words and decoration styles are @$$, haX 0 r, and p 1 mp. It is not limited to that however, they will spontaneously choose to replace an the letter l with the number one or the letter s with a dollar sign or whatever other decoration they like to exhibit. Also it is not uncommon to see players use symbols and phonetic word fragments to shorten words or phrases in the sake of brevity, an example of this is replacing the word to with the number 2, or replacing the phrase later with l 8 r. The technique of shortening phrases down to abbreviations is not exclusive to gamers, it is a technique employed by most people that regularly send emails or instant messages. The purpose of such techniques is to save the typist the work of typing out the whole phrase; also it can convey a certain informality between the sender and the receiver.
The more common abbreviations that most people who use the Internet are familiar with are lol for laugh out loud and brb for be right back. Both of those are commonly used by gamers. However, they have also developed some of their own. Examples of that would be HPB and LPB, which is short for High/Low Ping Bastard.
The phrase is one of the most common things I heard on the number of different servers I visited. It refers to the amount of bandwidth or Internet speed a particular player has at his or her disposal. Some of the most interesting communication I had with gamers was when I actually discussed gaming with them outside of the game environment. One think I had expected was a reluctance to admit their hobby because of certain negative stereotypes that go along with it. However, I was surprised to find that none of them were afraid to tell me that they avidly play computer games online daily. They also told me that they are unafraid to disclose their hobby to people they are first meeting.
They were unafraid of any negative first impressions it might trigger. I also talked with them about the opinion of some that violent video games like the ones they enjoy act as a negative force to corrupt and destroy the moral fabric of Americas youth, in fact, some have gone as far to suggest that violent video games are partially to blame for the recent rash of school shootings across the country. Just bringing up the subject heated up the conversation quiet a bit. All of them are firm in their stance that the politicians are pointing fingers at the games have never played them and speak out of ignorance motivated only by their desire to get votes. They blame the ease with which kids can acquire real guns and the negative experiences that people have in high school because of our screwed up social expectations account more for the problem. They say the violence in the game creates that adrenaline filled environment which gives them that rush or release they need to relax and escape from their everyday lives.
While researching Counterstrike and its players I learned about game called Everquest. Everquest is what is known as a RPG or Role Playing Game. The players pay a month fee of 10 dollars to gain access to an online server that acts as a simulated finite world for each person to place their character in. Players manipulate their character and basically live that persons live in that finite simulated world that contains other players. They buy property, get a job and interact with other players. I was unable to actually observe anyone playing Everquest or play it myself.
However it seems to take the level of interaction to new levels. For obvious reasons I find that a little unsettling. I think that is safe to say that many people actually prefer their simulated online personas and friends to their real life ones. That may pose new problems in the future.
At the pace that technology is currently developing I think that soon the number of people who find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their cyber lives will only grow. Also, to speculate a little I think that in the future it will probably be possible to immerse yourself in a totally simulated environment. Will be people totally isolate themselves and spend years inside life simulations oblivious to the real world but still perfectly content to live out their days in a Matrix like cyber dreamscape?
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