Video games are one item that can inspire a unique level of rage at times. I'm quite a laid back kind of guy but I've thrown my fair share of controllers (fuck you Alex the Kidd) and done a bit of shouting but there's one thing I've never done.
I've never sent disgruntled messages to someone who's just beaten me.
I've sent messages sure, but generally they say something along the lines of "good game" and "Your internet is really messed up you should have a look at that." It feels both courteous and helpful to say things like this. If a match of Street Fighter goes to 5 rounds and ends with both health bars close to depletion then that was a good game. If someone's internet is playing up then they're not getting the same experience with the game they might get if it was running smoothly, someone should inform them.
This phenomena of sending abusive messages to people you don't know over the internet is something rather different though. Something sinister, something personal and, at times, something hilarious.
Last night me and two of my friends decided we'd buck the Modern Warfare 3 trend and play some Halo Reach instead. A few games in my friend receives a message from someone we had just played with called 'Mobile Zombie' calling him a "P-P-P-PUSSY LOCKER" for using the armour lock. Now, my friends don't use armour lock, I do so this was rather confusing. In response I sent the young sir a message saying something along these lines:
"Actually bro that was me using armour lock. Don't send abusive messages to my mates."
I should have known better than to expect a measured response, here's what I was met with:
In this case it is fair to say that this person was 'totally mad' but why? Should we be so invested in these trivial pursuits that we let them really get to us?
Chances are good that Mobile Zombie is around the age of 12 (too young for Halo Reach) but is that really an excuse?
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