Columns OMG! Smack-talk, n00b!

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2007/06/02/smack-talk/1

Joe Martin has a think about the culture of smack-talk and it's place in gaming as whole, complete with embarrassing stories from his past.

 

OH YEAH!?

my 4rtikal will pwnz0r joos nub writting
j00 s0 nub, i pwn joo /\11!!!!!

 

This is why I like Microsofts way of doing things. On the 360 you have four areas you can opt to be in, each designed for a different type of player. These are called Gamerzones, you can get left reputation by each of the people you play with, and if I was in the family zone and did a lot of smack talk, I could easily have my rep taken down.

Bungie also addressed this in Halo 3, you can mute individual players, but still play with them (useful when you have pre-pubescent boys screaming that they're going to do stuff to your mum), you can communicate between you own team members on team games, but can only hear the opposing team when you're near each other in the game. There's no pre-game talk between teams, but there is after game, and in the post game lobby if you don't like what people are saying you can press "B" and jump out to the lobby and then jump back in, taking your party with you.

 

Smack talk comes not from video games but the world of competitive sport. You only have to watch replays of the incedent with Zidane and Materazzi from last year to know it can go too far even in the professional realm. When the blood runs high you will use anything to get an edge even a psychological one, Smack talk is the modern equivalent of the Lions Roar.

Good article I can identify with most of it in my own past.

For some classic smack talk I have to cite a TV show from the dim and distant past called Gods Gift that coined the phrase

"Well you are the Devils tossbag"

which has ever been my goto phrase to illicit a giggle

 

What really gets on my nerves beyond anything, is when a more adult player assumes that someone of a younger age, (me of 14) will just be a nuisance and get in the way.

Although i dont consider my self a top notch player i certianly would like to think that i am repected for actually making an effort and not just screaming down the microphone like a complete utter nob to put it as blatently as possible.

 

This article is so true, i found that when i played Halo 2 over live, you would get these idiots who toss about saying there going to wipe em out, however, they end up with the lowest scores because no one likes them and have wiped them out Now compare it to BF2 or BF2142 and theres hardly any talk, other than the "enermy units on the move" because people are playing as a team (trying to mainly) and are not boasting about how good they are.

Sam

 

Best one I heard was from an american, on Halo 2:

"Well you're british, your ruled by a woman"

The comeback:

"You know most games are designed by americans, hence normally having a friendly fire option"

Harsh, but well deserved, as the guy was being a bit of a tit throughout the game

 

Haha I love it, yeah harsh maybe but great comeback. Anyway I play GW a whole lot and mainly PvP where you can sometimes see people writing some pretty offensive stuff, I took to screen-capturing them for fun here is a small collection. Funny enough the insults usually come after you have beaten them, not when they beat you


in case you don't know, rits or rt refer to a character profession (ritualist) who put up spirits

 

I love people that smack talk (not very well). It just makes it all so much easier for me to crush their reputation and dignity into a small powder using the power of critical thinking and debate.

I've seen quite a few idiots of BF2 and HL2DM. Oddly enough I've not seen many on CSS, I suppose if you stop to type in that game you're as good as dead.

 

i see what went wrong, you forgot to nizzle it up for da ironizzle, biznizzle.

next time be reazy, fo' sheazy.

 

heh it all ends with the following your mum joke in the local lans:
(note highlight to veiw)

Your mum is like a pork pie; I had to break open the crust and suck out the jelly, just to get to the meat inside

childish yes but with the right tone of voice it is guaranteed to disgust anyone

 

i'm not really a fan of smack-talk myself.. but I agree that it just comes out of the nature of competitive sports.. I mean "talking trash" is legendary in basketball.. it's just evolved to a new medium now... Interesting article.

 

hence why the mute or silence option is the first item on the help or menu nowadays.

it does sometimes serve a purpose, but most often is an annoyance that is best removed or not used.

 

I'm quite a fan of smack talk, but really only as a tool for irony. Whilst I'm pretty liberal with the insults (typed or yelled into Joe's ear after a 500,000 point combo on THUG2) I use them because they're funny, not because anyone's actually going to take offence or be upset. Yelling "you smacktard he-bitch man slap ass!" (a personal favourite of mine) is just amusing, gets the point across and no-one is offended, but I can see how in the wrong situation (i.e around my great aunt for example) it isn't the best use of the language.

but what gets me is people who honestly use smack talk to have a go at people, people they've never met, never will, and have no impact on their life. Actually, I beleive this isn't a result of computer games, but more the Internet as a medium for communication. due to the lack of meaningful retaliation and the essence of anonminity the 'net provides, the social constructs that prevent people from being rude and unpleasent don't exist. Even the most mild mannered people would have little problem going on a forum, telling someone they were a pile of steaming shite and logging off, it doesn't mean anything. It's the same through games, people's can vent there fustrations at people with no thought for the reprocussions, as there are none.

However, there also exists the problem of people getting used to this, desensitised if you will, and then you start telling your work experience employees to be your bitches (even if that was a pretty cool bit of pop-culture related smack talk). In that respect, i disagree with Joe, put two of these whiny teenagers who say horrible things to each other online in a room together, they'd shut right up, wouldn't nearly have the guts to tell each other those things to their faces. So yeah, I'd say smacktalk is more the result of the medium of the Internet than the games you're playing.

 

usually the childish "12 year old Americans" (as they are known in the gaming rings, due to the high pitched child like voice, American accent and terrible insults) manage to get hold of a mic, so they just yell down that for hours, or scream or whatever (no offence meant towards Americans/12 year olds)

Sadly i have seen far too many, fortunately when you get on a good server which has admins on most of the time its not really a problem, because they get banned pretty rapidly

I think a big problem in BF2 is a lot of the servers aren't admined very well, if at all (due to the poor admin system), and because you usually only hear it in your squad or team, so the admins probably wont notice it (as admins are usually part of the clan so they play in private squads)

Personally, i think mild smack talk is quite good, and its quite amusing when your playing a game, but it has to be funny, none of this "your mum" stuff or whatever

 

I love 2 types of smack talk:
- Really intelligent stuff (like the friendly fire option one)
- Stuff so creative, you wonder, like WTF is a ghostshitter?

 

One of my friends has got to be the worst smack talker I've ever heard. I'm hosting a LAN with 4 people there, and while playing Warcraft III the insults start flying. So we're all describing, in great detail what we "did" to the other players' mums, when my mate suddenly yells out - really quite loudly, I might add -

Spoiler

"Well.... your dad bummed me!"

That's probably one of his worst attempts, but there have been others.

 

lmao that is seriously classic

 

If people who engage in smack talking do devolve into a lower life form, that might not be such a bad thing.

 

just saw this thought it quite topical to the subject of the thread