Man, trolls suck be they on forums, in blog comments, or, when playing video games. I just had an experience with the OnLive video game service which has me of two minds.
I was playing Borderlands ( I *LOVE* This game ) single player… And a spectator started watching me. As soon as he entered (before I could even do anything) he gave me 30 “jeers” (essentially its like sitting on the sidelines at a sports game and yelling “BOOOOOOOO YOU SUCK.”)
Now I know that I can go into my preferences and turn notifications of “cheers” and “jeers” off (it’s be nice if I could just turn jeers off, but thats another matter.) The online person being an ass isn’t what bothers me (I’ve run everything from IRC networks to Forums to Blogs, I’ve come to grips with people and their need to troll.) It’s that now someone can troll me when I’m not playing a game multiplayer.
I tend to play games for an escape, the same reason I read books. On my Xbox360 I can play a game locally, and nobody bothers me. On OnLive that’s not the case. Someone can randomly find me – whether im playing a network game or not – whether they own the same game or not – whether we’re friends or not – and give me an, apparently, unlimited number of thumbs down. Even were I to change my settings to not show jeers while I’m playing it still goes on my OnLive profile telling the world “this guy must really suck.”
I think that the technology of OnLive is AMAZING, though I wish their selection of games was bigger and/or more timely, but I’m not sure I like other people intruding on my experience in this way with complete impunity. It really only takes a handful of spoiled apples to ruin the bunch sometimes.
I wonder how prevalent this is and whether other people find it as subtly annoying as I have?
[ Edit: As it turns out I was completely wrong about the permanence of cheers and jeers, they are thankfully not attached to your profile (at least not anywhere that I or anyone else can see them.) In this I was wrong 🙂 ]
I guess what bugs me is that I didn't consider myself "online" at that moment… While "online" considered me fair game.
"I tend to play games for an escape, the same reason I read books. On my Xbox360 I can play a game locally, and nobody bothers me. On OnLive that’s not the case."
Why don't you just disable spectating? 🙂 Then no one can spectate you, and you wont get bothered. Then you're all alone while playing.
@MAG1270 That's exactly what I'll do it if becomes an continuing issue, so good advice. It was more of a surprise than anything else. As I said in my previous comment: "I guess what bugs me is that I didn’t consider myself “online” at that moment." I'll continue using the service as is for now, and just add this to my understanding. I wish people didn't feel the need to troll at all, anywhere, but then I'd like world peace too 😉
If my memory serves me right, you can only allow friends to spectate as well.
Also, cheers and jeers are only for as long as your gaming session, and do not get posted to your profile.
-Little Buster
@little buster I didn't realize, until earlier today, that the cheers/jeers weren't permanent. I could have sworn that I saw them on someones profile, however, I must be mistaken because when I viewed my own they were, in fact, absent.
It's good to know that cheer/jeers are not kept on permanent record. 😀
My first session with Onlive resulted in over 100 jeers. Although I generally dismiss input from trolls, I was mildly worried about such a number of jeers leaving others with a similar impression to that of "this guy must really suck" … regardless of how true or untrue that assessment may actually be…
At the end of the day, such ratings don't mean anything (sticks and stones and all that), but it did sting the ego a little to see them popping up every few minutes.
😀