John B noticed this little quote-span-into-article over at C&VG where Chet opines that the British are “notorious non-talkers” in online games. Basically, while Americans yabber constantly, the Brits take a more taciturn approach. This will, apparently, cause some major problems when playing L4D2’s realism mode. Talk or die. TALK OR DIE. What do you make of it. Is this true? Or is it that Americans think that because Brits just don’t like speaking to you. And understandably. Give us our tea, you bastards. You don’t even drink the stuff.
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Not surprising that the former Old Man Murray writer might be more tolerant than average of juvenile profanity and homophobic “humor”.
(Yes I realize that OMM’s homophobic jokes were ironic and sort of making fun of homophobia, but they’re still not for people who cringe at kids using “gay” as an insult.)
Welcome to the internet. I’d strongly suggest you invest in NetNanny if you plan on staying long.
I used to play Arm A with a brit. As you may now that game can involve long times of nothing happenign and as an American I can’t stand not talking when nothing is going on :P Yes, he almost never said anything just listened to me and laughed quiet a lot at my horrible jokes (and the other American who did talk back) He was probably sitting there thinking how stupid all our horrible American jokes were. But after a few weeks and months he actaully opened up and starting getting in on the jokes :P He was a great guy though.
When it came down to planning an assault there was none better. The two of us destroyed an entire anti-aircraft battery together with a well timed assault using human air support :) No doubt whilst he enjoyed a cup of tea.
“When I’m playing L4D I discuss hideous generalisations with everyone. All the time.”
This.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah theres a hunter on me! blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
“When a Smoker pulls you off somewhere you’ve got to yell because nobody can see where you are.”
lol kidnapee is kidnapped
Stupid question, but how exactly do they know the person that isn’t talking is British if, y’know, they aren’t talking?
I dunno, but some modded servers detect the country with geoip and show it wen you join. So is doable.
I drink nothing but tea and whisky, you should talk to me.
On the other hand, I’m not much for random comms chatter either, so maybe I should just get it over with and move to the UK.
Interesting on LOTRO it was the other way around.
As an American, some of the best online gaming experiences I’ve had have been with Brits for that very reasons. Cheers.
Now people from Brazil are even worse than Americans if you ask me, they NEVER stop talking :P
BR?
BR?
GIBE MONI PLZ OR I REPORT U
GIBE MONI
BR?
HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE
Being brazilian, I must admit that unfortunately this is true.
…
Haeuhaeuaeaeah.
I laser you eyeball ?
I think silent players are concentrating more on the game at hand, when jabbering people think of more irrelevant topics. There’s nothing bad in talking, but sometimes it goes too far. If I want to talk to somebody I see in game, I add them as a steam-friend and chat later.
I reckon that the worst are Swedish. They are usually helium-voiced preteens, eager to be friends with you. No thanks (especially ’cause they’re Swedish, nearly every Finn hates them because of the spoilt Finnish Swede -minority). Usually they don’t care much ’bout teamwork nor other players, but hunt for frags. Finns are generally better in videogames :) We talk a lot (tactical stuff) with our teammates and rely on them. Maybe that’s because of sisu.
Elikkäs Suomi perkele.
Both finns I know are bald and drink alot. Therefore all finns are bald and drink alot.
aw, jeez…
I think it’s just that they don’t like talking to Americans. As what must be the only American non-talker, I played on a brit TF2 server for a while, and noticed them chattering away exactly like the kiddies here in the states. One of them even called me gay, but of course he did it in that ridiculous English voice so I had to switch on my mic and ask if that little girl just called me a fag. The server was dead silent for the next half hour. Fear of Americans! It’s been scientifically tested, sort of.
I’m American and I don’t talk. I bought a headset for TF2, but I just leave it unplugged.
So, you performed a Gaijin Smash on a bunch of kids playing a game, because they were acting idiotic as kids of every nation tends to do, and you feel proud of yourself for that?
Okay~! Good show. I’m sure no one else could do that to a bunch of kids playing an online game, and that that was a singular accomplishment, worthy of ballad and song!
9.9
Way to take me entirely too seriously. :P
That Gaijin Smash link is pretty hilarious though. Thank you for the chuckles.
I love chatting with eastern europeans and ex soviet bloc-ers. You are forced to figure out what your squad mates are talking about by observation and recall. That and it feels like stalker.
Agree. Also i much prefer their temperament. Interesting then the rest of us in the western world engulfed with a spoiled brat culture.
Of course we don’t talk to the US. We’re all in bed then.
I’ve never noticed a lack of voice chat being a issue on UK servers or with UK people. If I’m honest I think people in the US talk too much, but that’s just the culture thing. Different people mean different talky talks.
I know exactly what you mean Heliocentric. I normally play with the name Serondal online and I've played on servers where everyone is speaking russian or what have you. I go about my way until I hear "Surondale! <russian russian russian screaming russian cursing> And I'm like "WHAT?!?!" And they're like "<russian russian screaming cursing spitting BAN> And I have no idea what I did wrong :P
The guy I used to play Arm-A with could get to talking at certain times but when the game was afoot he was all business. I really loved him though because I liked to talk tactics with him and that is a subject he was fully intersted in. I'm also the kind of guy that can make friends with anyone so it generally doesn't matter if a guy is British or French or Canadian I'm very nice to people on the internet now a day and people seem to respond to that. (I'm also very interested in other countries cultures and what not and that seems to make people from other countries like you more when you find interest in their life and how it is diffrent from yours) I've gotten the "You're one of the good ones" From Brits quiet a few times :P
Shadowcat “It hammers at my retinas like an evil woodpecker of pure energy”
I’m an american and the places I enjoy playing most are usually French and Prussian servers. I also play on brit servers all the time. I haven’t really noticed any difference in British or american voice spam- but I do know a couple Swedish players who never stop talking and it is HILARIOUS. I always seek out their game if I see them playing SO I would say I haven’t really noticed a difference- there’s always two or three talkers on every time. But I really don’t play much L4D just TF2 so maybe there’s a difference in the crowd that plays each game.
Its also fun to try to pay a game where you don’t know any of the language except for merci. It’s an enjoyable change of pace
Prussian Servers! This man has a TIME MACHINE
Yeah, I also wasn’t sure if you, Mitthrawn, were honestly talking about “Preußen”!? Yep, that state stopped existing many, many years ago. Before you were born, presumably.
I really think it just depends on how comfortable they are with their environment (aka server). I’m an American who regulars on a certain pair of TF2 servers. Most of the people who play on this server are Brits, and I’m always joking around with them/abusing them (in a friendly manner, of course…) over mic chat. So, I dunno, I guess the moral of the story is that I’ve spotted talkative Brits.
I don’t find US peoples to be too annoying on any of the games I play (on PC), but the epitome of annoying yank brats calling everyone ghei has to be Halo 3. There’s just something about consoles that seems to bring out the lowest common denominator.
(PS American people, we don’t hate all of you, just the lolfag 14 year olds with potty mouths)
I choose death!
Or I talk already. Quite a lot. But I mostly play with friends anyway. Whatever.
Talking lots and being articulate are not the same thing. Quite often they are oppesites.
Strange. This American seems to constantly hear British accents in games. Most of the pre-pubescent voices I hear seem to be my fellow countrymen, though. Unfortunately.
It should be noted that I've been reading RPS so long and playing with British people for so long that I'm starting to pick up some of their linguistic habits (not a lot, but some)
Now I say "I think I'll give it a miss" "It seems a bit rubbish" I use the word "Mate" a lot and call bars pubs. There are probably other little things I don't think about as well.
I’m a taciturn, laconic Brit, so I endorse this stereotype :-)
“You guys are notorious non-talkers on both 360 and PC. Americans are just chattering away, working together as a team. If you want to work together as a team you’ve got to talk!”
Pfft. If you want to work together as a team, you need to not alienate everyone who isn’t part of your club by blathering on constantly about nothing at all. I only wish TF2 had an ‘automatically mute all’ option.
Bah. They should take the opposite tack.
TALK IN L4D AND THE ZOMBIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU. YOU DO ANYTHING BUT WHISPER INTO THE MIC AND THE WITCH WILL EAT YOUR FACE.
That would be awesome…
I prefer our friends across the ocean to my countrymen by a mile. Playing with most Brits is a fun, laid-back, and ultimately less confrontational experience than with Americans. Playing left4dead with brits and blowing my chance with the tank might result in a few laughs but try pulling that stuff with Americans around and you get “YOU DUMB F***ING F***** CANT YOU DO ANYTHING”
I’m sorry America but most of our countrymen SUCK to play videogames with.
Too loud, too serious, too enraged, too quick to lay blame on someone else. My heart sinks when I hear an American accent on my team in L4D because I know that the concept of fun will be ground under the military boot of competition the second we are out of the saferoom.
I feel bad coming out with a stereotype but it just seems so ubiquitous in online gaming that heart sinkage has become a conditioned response. I played Dark Age of Camelot for years on a US server and the community was fantastic. There has definitely been a big change in gaming populations over the past decade.
L4D’s user community is absolutely awful, please don’t judge all of us by that standard. Speaking as an American myself, I never play L4D with the wider community for exactly that reason.
@Haircute
Based on the comments here, it appears that the brits are the Stop Having Fun Guys.
So far my few experiences playing online have been very positive.
I played with 2 friends and we let some other guy join the game. It was a Swede and he only wrote per text. But man, he was awesome! We tried the rooftop exploit in the boathouse level of Death Toll. He was so patient until we made it. And it was great fun to chat with him while the lone survivor continued to fight the zombies for 23 minutes after the rest of died. Best experience in L4D so far. :D
it was on survival, btw.
I agree with you Haircute I end up muting most American players 9 out of 10 times in TF 2 or DoD but I've never had to mute a brit in my life.
I recall very well a long time ago I was playing Count Strike against a Swedish guy. He would NOT shut up about how much better Sweddish people are at playing CS than Americans because we're just not dedicated enough and not smart enough ect. It didn't help matters that he really was a lot better than me and I don't think I managed to kill him once :P But in my defense it was literally the first time I played the game.
Shadowcat “It hammers at my retinas like an evil woodpecker of pure energy”
I think the general consensus is that loud, obnoxious douches tend to populate the airwaves in pretty much any server, regardless of country. There’s just a whoooooooooole lot more Americans than Brits on, likely, and if you do the math that even 25% of that amount are whooping retards, that’s still a LOT of them, and likely as a result, 25% of people often TRY to talk against the flow of stupid, but 50% just clam up and forget it. I hate playing online because invariably, there’s some screaming twit on there (and don’t even get me started on the morons who start hooting at the fact that I’m female. OH WOW A GIRL PLAYING GAMES, WHAT A REVELATION! Stupid stupid stupids). Just like every single time I go into the women’s locker room at my gym, there’s always some scary old woman there who is topless and doing something gross like clipping her nails. I’m not kidding, it’s terrible. EVERY! TIME!
(AHAHAHA I threw that last line in so you would be so horrified and distracted that I could steal all your tea! I’m not a coffee fan and British tea is the best. Your tea will be mine, all mine, not this horrible Lipton decaf shit! BWAHAHAHA TWINNINGS YOU ARE ALL MINE NOW! TRY AND STOP ME, LIMEYS! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
I’m sorry, but a girl playing multiplayer games is still too much of a rarity to get any other reaction. My wife loves gaming but generally isn’t into the sort of online multiplayer ones likely to have or use voice comms. I did get her to play Battlefield 1942 for a while but it generally isn’t her thing.
O.o @ Blue
I think Blue has it. Except for the schizophrenic parts – sorry about that, hard luck there.
Sri Lankan tea is the best, though. This is not a thing to be questioned.
“Sri Lankan tea is the best, though. This is not a thing to be questioned.”
Indeed. In order to truly appreciate this fact, though, it’s necessary to find a direct source.
And now I need to go brew some, damn you all.
IMHO Tea is disgusting and I can't drink any of it. I have no idea what anyone sees in it. Coffee on the other hand well, I think the Turks had the right idea with that one and Europeans were right to steal the idea :P Nothing hits the spot for me like a cup of steaming hot espresso
I’m a west-coast Canadian so it’s more likely I’ll end up playing with folks from Australia than from Europe. I generally don’t talk in FPSs except for communication about what’s going on in the game, but haven’t noticed any particular race to be more chatty than another. I also drink tea, but not while I play (because sucking hot drinks through a straw just hurts).
@Howl – It is a sterotype that is obviously not true for all American gamers, maybe it is just more so with L4D ? I've never been like that I'm always in the "Losing is fun" frame of mind and normally have the highest death count on my team for my random acts of silly heroics.
Live in California and can’t stand most random American players, from cocky assholes to constant whiners to outright ignorant (and often racist) bastards. That’s why I play around 2 AM my time so I can run around with better company and just call it a night when you chaps head off for tea and higher pursuits.
In a level-headed American’s defense: Does the UK have anything even close to USA’s South and Midwest population where a lot of the loud mouthed, close minded shit is coming from? Or to rephrase, anywhere in the UK where stupid people are having a stupid amount of stupid children?
@Erik J – Yup. It’s called England ;-)
No, I don’t think there are any specific regions where we have anything like red-necks. As a gross generalisation I would say the northerners tend to be more vocal, but that is about as close as it gets.
I'm the south :P Then again I'm from Louisville which is like a light in the darkness of eastern kentucky. (for example Louisville voted for Obama but the rest of the state voted the other way) I guess that is why Frankfort is the capital when it's like 1% the size of Louisville.
Let’s give a little credit to Lexington, which is the other blue dot in a red state.
And I think you mean “light in the darkness of western KY,” eastern KY is pretty lightless.
Yah you're right I meant Western (really north western) Still I've been to Lexington and the only thing good about it is there is a freaking castle there O.o Other than that I don't think you could really call it is a city as much as a large village :P lol Also UokK is there and I'm a UofL Fan so BLLELEHHH
But yes I meant Western I’m just at work right now and easily confused :P plus never been good with cardinal directions to begin with.
Java server speaks too much if anything.
If I’m playing with randoms I almost always disable voice chat anyway. Take that internet! I can’t even hear you!
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Yanks may think Brits don’t talk a lot but as Swede I’m used to communicate exclusively with my keyboard, if I have to. Swedes are the worse… and the best, because in 80% of all cases someone do talk it’s just some annoying European don’t know any English (read: russians), preteen or seldom female with really fucking annoying voice or some American type that just talk and talk and talk but nothing gets said.
Brits however have found the perfect balance, I enjoy playing at those server the most and the ping is good.
Brits were less likely to cheat than others in the Counter-strike days. Basically i couldn’t get a proper game at one point outside of my (british) clan. They are also less likely to openly criticize a teammate and i do feel that over the years they considered me too direct if not rude when it comes to pointing out someone else’s mistakes, but thats dutchmen for ya. I love the Brits, just stay away from me while you’re on holiday :S
The French are great men for the ould chat in online games.
As a British gamer, the only response I have to this is “meh”.
We hate them too. So how can there be so many? It keeps me up at night. The folks I play with usually immediately kick anyone whose voice pitch is too high.
Slightly off-topic, but a fun story: a couple nights back, while a buddy and I were waiting for a lobby to fill up to start a L4D match, a kid joined. Squeaky voice, so my buddy asked his age. Kid said he was 12, so my friend asked if his mom or dad was home, and if so, to put them on the mic. The kid put a gal on who said she was his mother, and my buddy proceeded to tell her that the lobby was full of adults, and there was likely to be a lot of vulgar lanquage and profanity, and we needed her permission to allow the 12 year old to play with us. I had to mute my mic, I was laughing so hard.
She granted permission, but the kid quit almost right away. Thank goodness, as he could only blame lag for his shortcomings.
true Brits are also overeducated and pedantic, and so would know that taciturn and laconic are almost synonymous, and thus using both is redundant. turn in your card please.
on-topic, i’ve found that if you communicate tactical info and don’t prate about what a colossal fart you just ripped, people will communicate back just fine regardless of nationality. (is prate a word? some educated Brit help me out.)
Remember there likely much fewer brits playing than americans. Also brits are in the curious place of being able to play on european (lots of languages/nationalities) and east coast US servers (almost all Americans).
I’d love to play up to the reserved brit stereotype (you’d I probably think I do in face to face contact) and make all the brits and angophiles happy but I think the issue is 50% the situation most brits are playing in as opposed to an entirely cultural issue.
I will also go out on a limb with a few giant stereotypes and generalisations myself and say American kids are on average probably slightly more privaledged than brits, and there are probably more kids towards the working class end of the spectrum playing than in the UK. Awful thing to say but I have a feeling it’s true. Sorry.
I don’t know, I seem to have to mute annoying talky island morons all the time.
Hm, I’ve had mixed results with brits on the mic. Most wont say much at all, but I’ve gotten a few who don’t shut the hell up. Though I must say I’ll take the bad team with all the talkies over the pro team in silence.
All studies conducted in TF2
As an Australian I may be somewhere in the middle. If it’s my friends I’ll yabber.
If it’s strangers I’ll make pertinent tactical comments and also the occasional comment appropriate to OMG or LOL moments.
But yes, I very much dislike people who talk constantly (mike-spammers) and they tend to make me go into shock and clam up.
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