I played Uno over Live last night, for the first time ever. I popped into a random player match, and immediately got booted! I'm guessing this was because I didn't have the camera running, since the 2 guys in there both did. (On reflection, it is probably for the best that I got booted...)
The interesting thing was in my third game. Now, I hadn't bothered wearing the headset, because it was 2am and I didn't want to wake my girlfriend or baby son. But, I could hear the other players over the TV speaker. By now, I had won 2 games. And, the guys at the table didn't like that. "He has no losses! Let's give him one."
And, they communicated with each other in order to try and give me my first loss. Seriously. "What colour do you want me to change it to?", in order to give the guy who just called UNO the best chance of beating me.
So, in PLAYER matches, a guy with a record stating 2 wins and 0 losses is suddenly an enemy?
Why is XBox Live so full of people who do this shit? I don't really want to get on some anti-American tirade here, but it amazes me how much stock Americans put in records. Records MAY count in ranked matches, but they have absolutely no meaning in player matches. Hell, they have precious little meaning in any matches.
Here is a true story, from back in the days of Quake 3 on the Dreamcast. Now, I had already played a LOT of Quake 3 on the PC before the DC release, so I was at an advantage to a lot of players anyway. I had the European and the US versions, so I could play a larger pool of players. I guess I just found the DC version to be more fun than the PC one.
So, it was about 4am, and the European servers were starting to thin out. So, I booted up the US version instead, and went looking for a decent challenge. I found a tournament server, and proceeded to hand the guy on it his own ass. I beat him 10-1, and he typed up "AGAIN."
I didn't really want to play him, since I prefer close games, but I figured I may as well try and show him some tricks, in the hopes that the playing field levelled out a little. So, I started rocket jumping to places he probably never thought to go to. I let him chase me round the map, in the hopes he would learn my pattern, and start using it himself.
I won this one 10-3. "AGAIN."
This time, at the start of the match I typed "Last game. Win or lose.", and decided to just play my game. 10-0.
"AGAIN"
"No. I'm going to bed."
"ALRIGHT THEN I WIN"
Yeah, whatever. I just battered the guy with a combined score of 30-4, 3 of which I practically handed to him, and yet because I didn't want to carry on, he won. Now, I didn't care, but it really did stick with me.
I'm not saying that there are no Brits who quit when losing, but they are definitely less plentiful in supply. The guys at the Uno table were Americans, too.
Mario Kart DS indicated which region players were from. I can honestly say that all the people who quit rather than give me wins were US players, and that I never once saw a JP player quit. I consider it honourable to finish the game no matter how outclassed you are, and that generally seems to be the way in the rest of the world. Americans are seemingly just obsessed with the wins, period.
Gah! I said I didn't want this to turn into an anti-American tirade, and it has done!
The ridiculous thing about it all is that Uno is a game based purely on luck. If you have a card you can play, you play it, otherwise you draw. This is not some strategic masterpiece here. No-one is 'better' at it than anyone else. You get a higher ranking by having more wins, which simply means you played more games than other people. Some you win, some you lose. None of them you control.
I actually lost the next 4 games I played, including a ranked one. Do I care? Of course I don't. One day I hope to win 10 games, for the achievment, but if it takes me months, then so be it. It's fucking UNO!
Just thought I'd share, since it amused me so much last night.
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honestgamer - June 01, 2007 (11:54 AM) As an American, I take no offense with anything you wrote because it's fair. There seems to be some sort of culture here where if you're not winning, you quit. It happens all the time. I figure that if someone is going to keep records, the least you can do is not try to cheat those records. I usually am ranked pretty shittily at any game I play (except Mario Kart, where I am lossless to date, after a few games). However, my shitty ranking is mine and it's genuine. If I'm losing and someone is mopping the floor with me, I don't pause just before they savor victory. Even in cases where ranking doesn't matter, I'm going to let my opponent have the satisfaction of a 'win' screen. They beat me, they earn it. I actually look for UK players when I have an option, just to get a fair match... Of course, most of them just quickly boot me because I'm American and they think I'll be an ass, but the games where they don't boot me everybody seems to have a great time. |
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Genj - June 01, 2007 (12:25 PM) I don't play many online multiplayer games, but I remember when Madden first went online there was so much bitching about screwed up records from people disconnecting when they're losing. We Americans are just EVIL when it comes to competition. P.S. - Yankees suck. |
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johnny_cairo - June 04, 2007 (04:42 AM) Cheating at facking UNO, that's hilarious. Sorry they gang-raped you like that. We're not all assholes over here. I've never spoken a word over Xbox Live and probably never will. |
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