Here's why you're surprised when you stink at multiplayer games

Let me describe a scenario that I think we've all been in. You pick up a game like Gears of War 3 or Starcraft II or the deck-building iOS game Ascension.

You jam through the single-player campaign or do a little comp'-stomping in skirmish mode -- maybe even on the second-to-hardest difficulty 'cause you're totally hardcore like that. And you're better at the game than anyone on your friends list, judging by the local leaderboards and the way nobody will play with you anymore. You've got this game figured out, man, and you think you're pretty good.

So you decide to venture online and try your hand at ranked ladder matches, a tournament, or maybe even just some pickup games via online matchmaking. You get creamed. Murdered. Owned.

At the end of the match, your competition has left you with a kill/death ratio in a realm of negative numbers so low that mathematicians hadn't even bothered to think about it yet because they figured nobody would ever use them. This baffles you.

[sonicsidewinder]

hehe cool.

I just hopped on Tribes:Ascend for the first time and was suprised by how well I was doing amongst all the other nubby players.

Do I underestimate myself? I always felt quite confident in my knowledge.

But this article too sheds light on how most -spoiler- console -spoiler- games baby up their audience. Only when it comes to being competetive, they can't help but cry when they are beaten.

Moaning little babies. "UGH!! I SHOULDVE KILLED HIM!" >:(

Heehee.

[grailly]

HUH!?! I play on all platforms and the biggest cry babies are by far the PC gamers, wanting you to be banned from a server the first time they get sniped because you're "camping" or raging like hell on starcraft 2 because your race is "OP".

and the article is comparing single player to multiplayer. PC games have the same single player as consoles so there's exactly the same amount of hand-holding there...

[MrMister]

I really liked the article! I fall into the category of the guy who thinks he's better than he actually is. Next time I'll reflect on how much I don't quite know yet, re-watch battle-recorders to compare what I do to that of my pro competitors, and re-evaluate things again. Also, I'll do like the writer said, and ask the pro's what they know.

[grailly]

interesting, I don't really fall into these categories(for gaming at least), I usually think I'm bad, and I'm actually bad lol.

for other tasks though, like learning go and chess I definitely felt this effect. You always think you're starting to grasp how you're supposed to play the game and think you were a fool before until you realize that you actually don't know how to play at all.

[killerhog]

Words of advice. Foreigners love cheating. Just played r2 today and had to deal with German and spaniard players using lag and modded controllers. It's so obvious when people cheat, still they weren't as good and without their cheating I would of dominating them worser. They either cheat from the get-go or cheat when they begin to lose. It's always this scenario from playing fps games for the past 6 years.

[StayStatic]

"I would of dominating them worser"
Yet that sounds so foreign LoL and 'worser' is not even a word :P

However I do agree with you about foreigners chatting crap into the microphones randomly xD

[Fez]

Do you know Germans and Spaniards aren't foreigners in their respective countries?

[IaMs12]

Exactly.

[phinch]

you mean the spanish?

[BattleTorn]

"You can't accurately reflect about your own opinion of yourself because you're not good enough. And you're not good enough because you can't accurately reflect on your own opinion of yourself."

OOoohhh!!

[glennco]

i don't remember being baffled by losing when i first started playing multiplayer. i expected it given i was playing against real players. enemy AI has never been convincing to me, so why would i think that was a representation of real players?

what you are refering to is ego.

[urwifeminder]

I love to loose in games im crap online i dont play to win i play to do weird things distract my team so they fail i find it amusing when they whinge griefer for life.

[PAYNEinc85]

I used to be good at games. Then i took an arrow to the knee.