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Comment by staticelf | Hacker News Reader

When I play online games, in this example PUBG, I think a part of the fun is to be rude and aggressive before the match starts. You're about to virtually shoot them in the head so saying something rude to random online gamers doesn't feel at all bad. Other people often respond back, just as rudely and I think it's hilarious.

It can't be just me who thinks and acts like this? Context matters a lot in my opinion.

Although, I am never rude to someone IRL or even on a more serious note outside of online gaming. It's nice to vent and I don't think other players in PUBG care at all.

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> You're about to virtually shoot them in the head so saying something rude to random online gamers doesn't feel at all bad. Other people often respond back, just as rudely and I think it's hilarious.

Examine what you're saying here. You're saying because YOU don't feel bad when you do it to others, it's okay. And because people retaliate, that makes your initial act of rudeness ok, as if that's what the other party wanted.

Just because someone returns your behavior doesn't mean they LIKE that sort of behavior, or are even okay with it.

> It's nice to vent and I don't think other players in PUBG care at all.

How would you know if they did care?

> Just because someone returns your behavior doesn't mean they LIKE that sort of behavior, or are even okay with it.

Trash talk has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash-talk

The whole point is for the other side not to like it and get knocked emotionally off-kilter and lose focus, giving you a competitive edge. It's part of the metagame.

It is also generally considered unsportsmanlike and in most cases does not contribute to the game or sport. It reduces the competition from, "Who is best at game strategy and mechanics?", to "Who is best at heckling away any real advantage their opponent actually had?"

For most online games I don't see how the latter could ever be considered an improvement to the game.

People have trash talked their way to millions of dollars in poker tournaments.[0]

You can "regulate" this away as a tournament organizer/gamedev company if you wanted to (i.e. allowing allied team only chat or allowing players to disable chat visibility altogether)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_gold

I know what trash talk is. The point is that not everyone welcomes that behavior.

It’s almost like there should be a flag where people could match-make into games with varying codes of conduct...

> And because people retaliate, that makes your initial act of rudeness ok, as if that's what the other party wanted.

This isn't what I said, you're putting meaning where there is none. I just think it's fun when people retaliate.

> How would you know if they did care?

I wouldn't, that's why I wrote "think".

Your comment and all the downvote tells me people at HN probably don't play PUBG that much.

If part of the fun for you is acting like a jerk to other people online, then it means you enjoy acting like a jerk to other people.

Context is interesting, but it just means that overall, you’re only sometimes acting like a jerk.

You might just be a jerk.

Most fun I ever had online shooters was Unreal on Wireplay. Everyone was respectful, complimented one another on shooting them in the head and got to know one another with time.

These days I don’t bother because everyone’s a jerk.

In some contexts competitive back-and-forth insulting is a baked in part of the culture, and is mutually enjoyable. You're only a jerk if you can see that the other person is no longer enjoying it and you continue anyway.

You cannot see the person you’re insulting in an online context so you cannot see if they are “no longer enjoying it”. Engaging in such behavior means you’re a jerk.

Trash talk is also not the same as engaging in trolling. Telling someone you’re going to kick their ass is perhaps reasonable trash talk in some cases. Calling someone racist or sexist epithets is not.

Even in text, it can be pretty clear when you've crossed the line and it's time to stop.

Please don't take my comments to mean that insulting/mean behavior is OK, though. IME many commenters across the web are far to quick to hurl insults in situations where they have no idea how they'll be received.

I was called racist, even in person. It was always for fun from both parts. So it might be ok, although in 99% of online "bad behavior" is actual bad behavior.

Yes I do enjoy it but it heavily depends on the game. In other games which has a more mature community I never trash talk.

I think its a delicate balance of one wants to be cocky and trashtalk before a game in a fun way, and vs being an obnoxious troll.

I see quite a lot of the latter, but I try to play on well moderated servers and servers with votebans.

Sure, but almost all games have the possibility to turn off voice chat for example so you can stop people from simply screaming in the microphone.

I'd never accept anyone being even mildly trashtalking or rude in voice. Being mildly trashtalking in chat is fine. I wouldnt' even switch someone off, I'd voteban immediately (and if the game/community/server is ok more people would).

In the game I play when someone joins who is annoying they are generally called out as "whoa did you just arrive from CoD?"...

Its because of people being rude and aggressive that I turn off chat in the multiplayer shooter games that I play.

When I see rude chat messages, I just instantly block that person.

Its not enjoyable and it makes it hard to use chat to coordinate the team.

I know what you mean, it's that dark kind of humor when you know the person you are directing it to thinks it's funny (because it's so obviously wrong). However I don't think that applies to these messages which just look like plain trolling to me.

Although this thread is so loaded it seems that any suggestion of the possibility of a benign explanation is met with being downvoted into oblivion like you... so let me finish with "this is terrible and all men are bad", there I think I've covered myself.

> When I play online games, in this example PUBG, I think a part of the fun is to be rude and aggressive before the match starts. You're about to virtually shoot them in the head so saying something rude to random online gamers doesn't feel at all bad.

You're right about how in some context trash talk is expected & part of the game, but maybe it'd be better to play games in which one doesn't practise insulting, mocking & killing others. Maybe it'd be better to play games which encourage our better virtues rather than our worse vices. Maybe the world would be a better place if we pretended to love one another rather than hate one another.

> it'd be better to play games in which one doesn't practise insulting, mocking & killing others

Sounds like very boring games. Being rude in PUBG helps me being nicer IRL. That is what matters to me.

When you're playing a competitive game, loving the opponent is counterproductive. A tribal mindset is useful in games that have tribes(teams).

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