Internet anonymity or mal-adjusted youth
Filed under Soapbox on July 22, 2004
Tagged: Tactics Arena Online
I’m hooked on a little Flash game called Tactics Arena Online. It’s a lot like FF Tactics (so I’m told), where you have a gameboard divided into squares and try to match your group of units, which have different ranges and attacks, against another player. I play on the Legends server as Loghan Shadowhand.
The game has a chat function, so you can talk to folks in the lobby while waiting for a match, or taunt your opponent as you kill off his or her pieces. Now, I’m all for a little trash talk, but I’m amazed at the level of rudeness and foul language that is used by the players. What’s worse is that I’m pretty sure most of these guys are under the age of 16.
For example, I challenged a guy last night. Each unit has a percentage chance to block, and he was beating up on my knights, which have the highest block percentage in the game. I mean, he hit them every time. So, it’s towards the end and I’m down two knights to his three. The odds are in his favor, slightly, and he wants me to surrender. I refuse and he starts talkin’ smack about stalling. His luck continues and he beats down my two knights with one of his (I think one of his other knights also got a hit in).
I head back to the lobby and he’s already sitting in an empty slot waiting for another match. So I challenge again. He starts in with the trash talk right away. I respond a couple times, but I prefer to let my units speak for me. Lo and behold, my units actually block this game and I start winning.
That’s when the whining begins. He starts complaining that I’m getting all the luck this time. Then he starts getting personal and insults my moves. I proceed to kick his butt something fierce, and by the end of the game, I’ve lost only one or two pieces (you can have a maximum of 10 to start).
Of course, he tries to pass it off as the luck pendulum swinging my way this time. I think he was just a sore loser, and not the first I’ve come across in this game. I’m looking forward to a tiebreaker match.
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