gaming post of the day Via Destroy All Monsters, here's a recent MSNBC commentary that points out one of the flaws in the online gaming feature of the Xbox: The ability to play with other people over the Internet means that you have to play with some of the people in the Internet. DAM editor-in-chief Musashi had a comment that also reflects some of my own online experiences:
I play videogames to escape from the cretins who infest my daily life, not to socialize with them. The internet has been struggling with this for years: most people have yet to understand that the wall of anonymity provided by online communication does not ipso facto grant one carte blanche to act like a total jackass, and for some reason, online games seemingly attract a higher percentage of jackasses than most other activities (save perhaps professional sporting events). Actually, the last game I played extensively online was Air Warrior II back in in the mid-'90s, and in that case, the online community was generally pretty polite. That probably had to do with the fact that the WWII combat flight sim's appeal was fairly selective, and that much of its audience was older.
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