Post by: poogles on January 13, 2005, 05:18:00 AM
Anyway, the first game I played on Live was counter-strike not an amazing experience but fun none-the-less. I was pleased that I could search for games under a lot of criteria so that I didn't end up playing a map or people that I didn't want to.
Next up was Halo 2. We-hey, much better a game I'm actually good at. The experience was initially great, but before long I started noticing that the people I were playing against were either American, and or, pre-teen-screamers.
Before I get flamed for being anti-American, I'm not - nor to I dislike the angelic cry of pre-teen voices. It's just that when Live advertised 1million online gamers, I was kinda hoping that I would have the option to play against people of the same Country... not because I'm some aspiring Nationalist, but getting on with people of your own origins, dialect and sense of humour makes Live a much more enjoyable experience.
I'm aware that this could be solved by forming a group of friends and travelling as a gamer party, or similarly, hosting one's own game. But just as a casual gaming experience I would have hoped that MS/Bungie could have introduced some additional match-making elements that took into consideration country of origin and therefore matched players with a similar background and playing skill. The only annoyance on Bungie's part - that I can see - is that it could bias their o-so democratic rating system, or make it longer to match players.
I guess what I was also looking forward to was a PC counterstrike interface for one to manually select a game. This way I can make my decision based on lots of lovely games instead of being placed in one automatically.
Please do not get me wrong. Im not a raciest/nationalist/whining-chav, but sometimes it's nice to play with people from your own country after all, Live is supposed to be a social experience, and sometimes it's much easier to get on with someone from your own country as you share a lot of common personality traits with one and another. And yes, you can counter that and say that Live is a social experience and should be enjoyed with people of other countries - yes, but there should be an option to play otherwise.
So please, if there is this option, or match-making does take this into account (in which case then it is shit), please let me know.
Post by: bluvasa on January 13, 2005, 08:13:00 AM
My suggestion is to go to bungie.net and look at the groups page. You can join a group and play with those guys instead.There are tons of groups and you should be able to find one that suits you.
As for whiners, cheaters and racists, you are always going to find them in match made games, so get used to it. Don't forget, you can mute anyone's voice by going to the players Tab.