Game BuzzardCyber Arcade

With the beginning of school here and my kids back in school, I can finally enjoy a quite game of COD4 downstairs in my game room without a lot of trash talking going on. Yes my kids are guilty of flexing their “internet muscles” as much as any other kid home for the summer. It really amazes me just how much trash talking goes on over Xbox Live. I don’t think many parents have any idea what their children’s ”virgin ears” are hearing and subjected to. It is funny but at the same time disturbing to hear a kid try and tell me off and how he is “gonna beat my ass” and how “I suck” when if that kid ever meet me in person he would probably shit his pants.

Trash talking is part of the game just like it is in any other game/sport. Football, soccer, baseball and many others all have rules of sportsmanship and that goes for the bystanders watching. Imagine little Johnny at the end of the ball game going “2,4,6,8 – who do we appreciate? TIGERS” and going over and shake the opponents hand in a game well played. Now Johnny goes home, in his room grabs a baloney sandwich and some Ore’s and a glass of milk. Sits on his bed turns on his 360 and plugs his headphones in. After his first loss in COD4 and Peter has just “t-bagged” him after a kill, Johnny is swearing up a storm like a veteran sailor just on leave. Mom calls from downstairs “Johnny is everything alright?” Johnny yells “yeah mom” and continues to his foe” yeah you fuck’in suck dude” “that’s bullshit, I shot you in the head man you should have died” “your a fuck’in cheater! “Mod – controller.” If you don’t think this happens just go on Xbox live a listen. You will be amazed both in what you see and what you hear. So what could the solution be for this epidemic? Xbox Live does have icons on the tool bar to report abusive language or cheaters but what happens after you file a compliant? I have done it several times on my own kids and they have done it to their brothers when they get mad at each other, just fabricating stuff up to get them in trouble. But I have never been contact by anyone from Xbox Live nor have my kids gotten any response, so where does this compliant go?

Just as we have evolved in other competitive sports to try and tame down the on/off the field antics so we should try online. I read several years ago that the average age of a gamer was 29 years old. Which I figured was accurate because a lot of gamers like me graduated from the Golden Age of gaming in the ’80’s and ’90’s. Now that I think about it back than we did a lot of trash talking to each other but it was kept in check because we said it face to face. I also remember seeing one or two arcade game screens get the worst of it from a gamer after a bad game. We used to play Asteroids and Defender for beers down at Bernie’s Hillside Lounge. We also gambled with each other to see who would win or get the highest score. The ’80’s and ’90’s where great years for gamers and only wish that every gamer could have experienced it. Yes gaming has come a long way from Ms.Pacman and Space Invaders but I’m not sure it’s all been for the good. But as long as there are guys and their games there will always be trash talking – now it just starts earlier as does everything else in life.