Have been playing a lot of HoN lately, trying to prepare for a tournament. I can see now why some people don't find it very fun. Usually I enjoy playing, even when we're losing, as I feel like I'm improving, but lately, it has just felt like we either completely destroy the other team, or we are crushed by the other team (though sometimes we are "winning" at the start). I've found that lately, I am getting more frustrated at the people I play with. I don't think it's because they're bad - on the most part, I am happy to play with people who are bad, except.... when I think they are a lost cause.
For instance, V was horrible when he first started. Reminded me of my first hundred or so games of DotA. Now I think he is better than Matti. I feel a bit bad for him, as he is copping a lot of abuse. Plus, I don't think it's entirely justified, especially considering the fact that when I had his level of experience, I was much, much worse - he has only had the game for a few months now.
My list of people I refuse to play with (not including randoms) has grown over the past couple of weeks (from zero to one). Despite everything I said above, I think my enjoyment has gone up after banning that person. I've been thinking maybe I should do it more often. There are others that I don't really enjoy playing with, and I'm not entirely sure why I even play with them in the first place. Maybe I just feel guilty telling them "no". So, I've come up with the idea of a "Baddies File". I'm going to list why I think these people are annoying to play with, and you will tell me whether you agree. If we come to an agreement, then ban hammer, otherwise, tell me why you disagree with me.
BADDIE #1:
The ultimate baddie. I could probably fit an entire blog post with his badness, but not all of it is HoN related. Actually, I don't care. I'm going to get all of this out of my system, because for some reason, I constantly forgive his badness and invite him to the group, only to be reminded in game why I don't like playing with him. Maybe if I write it all down, I will remember for next time.
So it all started back when SEE was still into DotA. The mode was apem, it was a 5v5 inhouse. The game started and I randomed my hero. I got sniper.
BADDIE 1>> lol, swap me sniper
ME>> no
BADDIE 1>> who do you want?
ME>> sniper
BADDIE 1>> if you don't swap me sniper i'm not playing
ME>> fine
ME>> don't play
I would much rather he left the game and gave us extra gold instead of sitting at the fountain, but he wouldn't even do that. I guess he wanted to teach me a lesson or something. We ended up winning anyway, so I didn't really care.
Fast forward to HoN. In all pick mode, he will always random, even though he is only "good" at maybe one or two heroes (and not even the HoN equivalent of Sniper) - where "good" is taken to mean "not absolutely terrible". Still, he randoms a hero every game. At first, I thought it was because he wanted to learn new heroes, but I asked him once and he said his reason was to get more starting gold. Fair enough, I sometimes random for the same reason. But I've found that almost every time he randoms, he will ask for a swap. If someone wants to take him up on it, he will always say, "Give me X", where X is one of two heroes.
OK, fine, that's pretty standard (although slightly unfair, as he gets both the hero he wants, and the extra starting gold). The problem arises when nobody wants his hero. Then he will start whining in chat, "By the way, guys, I should tell you, I'm pretty bad with Y." Which is occasionally accompanied by, "I've never played this hero before." If his pleading falls on deaf ears, he will play the game as the hero, and then feed. Inevitably, someone will call him a noob, in which case, he will say, "Well, I DID tell you at the start that I'm bad with this hero" like it's our fault he is feeding. So I've started translating his earlier disclaimer to mean: "If you don't swap me the hero I want, I will feed. And do nothing useful all game while I 'learn this hero'".
Although, to his benefit, he will use his extra gold to buy a courier, but I don't think the cost of his playing so badly outweights the benefit of having a courier. I'd much rather spend all of my starting gold on a courier and four wards AND donate it to the other team, than play with him when he randoms Moraxus.
A few months ago, I had the displeasure of playing Magicka with him (the one and only time I have played the game, and probably why I haven't gotten around to playing it since). Our party discovered some item near the start of the game, which he quickly picked up. He then said, "If I die and lose this item, I'm not playing." Of course, that made me want to kill him in the game. Except I died. And got ressed, and died again. In fact, I spent most of the game dead, and I couldn't work out why. I was shooting the monsters with ranged spells, and running away when they came near. But every now and again, there would be this flash, and then I'd be dead.
After I learned how to cast the magic shield, I found I wasn't dying as fast. Then I realised, it was BADDIE #1 casting this lightning attack, that was really strong, but had a bad side-effect of hitting EVERYTHING in a wide line, and he didn't seem all that fussed about aiming it very well. I asked him afterwards why he kept using that attack and he said it was because he plays multiplayer just like he plays singleplayer. I said that we would have died less if he hadn't used that spell so much, and he said, "But how is that a good thing for me?"
Although, I guess that is partly my fault. I mistook Magicka for a co-operative game, where in actual fact, it seems to be a PvP game disguised as a co-op game. When everyone died except me, and I refused to res them, the game became 100 times more fun. Mostly because it meant I didn't have to play with BADDIE #1.
I have to say, I find it extremely funny that he seems to think his threat of not playing with the rest of us is incentive to do what he says. Every time he says, "Blah blah blah, or I won't play", I think to myself, "GOOD! I don't even want to play with you anyway." So should I just save everyone the trouble, and stop playing with him?
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