Hitting the Mute Button
Some ugly people are playing video games online. They sound ugly, anyway. I was playing a shooting game the other day, and several players did the usual trash talking.
“How do you make a Jewish-black guy?” one racist “joked.” Another uncreative bigot said, “I’m running like a (racial slur).”
These Klan types are rare but vocal — hiding faceless, behind “gamertag” nicknames — and they try to get under players’ skins. Not just Jews and blacks, but women, homosexuals, Hispanics, Asians and, yes, whites.
It’s one thing for these race-baiters to spew bile. It’s almost kind of worse that they’re so uncreative. They garble such pronouncements as, “I hate white people,” and “What good have Jews ever done?”
Really? That’s all ya got, stupidheads?
If I’m feeling charitable, I’ll listen to someone defame, say, Jews while realizing he — it’s always a he — is on my team.
The other day, a dumb guy said something nasty about Jews without knowing I have Jewish heritage. He then used his character’s magical powers to resurrect me after I died. What a moron. He doesn’t even know he’s saving the Jews he hates.
If you don’t play games online, this is probably pretty shocking. But to longtime gamers, it’s old news.
Fortunately, video games are getting good at letting us mute undesirables. This doesn’t quash Free Speech. Dummies can keep talking. But I press a few buttons to quiet them in my home, and they can go on talking to themselves like crazy people all night long.
I have tried playing games online without my ear piece. But for a lot of team-based games, it helps to hear your teammates devise strategy. And in shooters, it helps to listen in stereo to where gunshots are coming from.
Outright racists — a very small percentage of gamers — aren’t the only noisy players. But other loudmouths can actually be entertaining, either on purpose or accidentally.
There’s the Borat gamer (“Very niiiice!”); the whiners (“I shot that guy a million times and he didn’t die!”); the constant cursers (mothers and female dogs are referenced a lot); and competitive go-getters (“Let’s stay tight. Let’s go, let’s go!”).
A couple of months ago, I listened to two dudes talk about carburetors. It was confusingly fascinating.
All these talky types are always online, and once again they chatted in abundance while I tested “Shadowrun” for the Xbox 360.
“Shadowrun” itself has been unfairly maligned by some critics who don’t think it’s a great shooter. Purists are disappointed “Shadowrun” isn’t the role-playing game it was first for PC gaming.
Whatever. It’s very addictive online. You play on teams and race across battlefields that are ornate, fantasy temple grounds, archaeological dig sites and seven other maps. You kill using guns and magic (like summoning a gust of wind).
Oddly, there are but four characters you can portray: a very white man; a tall, tanner elf; a white-ish troll; and a white-ish dwarf. They all need sun. And they are powerful. But I swear they’re not into white power.
(“Shadowrun” retails for $60 for Xbox 360 — Plays addictive, online especially. Looks very good. Challenging. Rated “M” for blood, intense violence. Three and one-half stars out of four.)
DOUG ELFMANMORE COLUMNS NEW IN STORES
“Resident Evil 4” was, on several game systems, one of the Top 10 masterpieces in the history of gaming. Now it comes to the Nintendo Wii. You make your way through a very challenging horror-adventure of shooting satanic types and the rural townies under their evil spells. It retails for $30 for Wii and is rated “M” for blood, gore, intense violence and language.
“Dirt” lets gamers drive 850 horsepower muscle cars across dirt tracks. It retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and is rated “E” for alcohol reference, mild language and mild violence.
— By DOUG ELFMAN
