The "all for myself" sorta mentality that we see in online games, expressed quite often in this topic, is something wholely unique under the umbrella of anonymity offered by the internet. If players actually had to sit down in a room with 11 other players - computers arrainged in a circle so they could look other players in the eye - noone would be arguing that "I play how I want for my own enjoyment." The reason, simply put, is that if forced into a room with other people, these will be treated as real human beings, and all social norms will be followed. When these "people" are just random names on a screen... no more important or influential than a pre-programmed AI teammate, and under the cover of full anonymity and without any real social consequences... it's very easy to break from social norms and go rogue for the sake of one's own enjoyment.
I'd say this would be akin to registering for a pick-up hockey league, where you specify your desired role as a goalie... but when your turn to play comes up, you show up without a goalie's kit... no goalie pads, no goalie stick... not even skates. You show up with a baseball catcher's mitt and a cricket bat... you run out onto the ice, smack the puck from end to end any time if comes near you, and yell "STEPHAN CURRY, BI***ES!" You don't understand why everyone is mad. It's just a game, and you came here to have fun. Smacking hockey pucks across the ice with a cricket bat is how you like to have fun, and goalie is the only position on a hockey team you even know the name of, so that's what you registered as. You payed your money, same as everyone else, so why shouldn't you get to play however you want?
Things like this never happen in the real world... but under the anonymity of the interwebs, we should expect this as a purely acceptable norm? I think not.
And why WOULD it be acceptable here? The argument has been that this is a video game. It's just for fun. Well, I'd say that, technically yes, this IS a video game. But more accurately, it's a sport.
As defined in Wikipedia:
Sports are "forms of usually competitive physical activity or games which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators. Usually the contest or game is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other."
Now, we know that the defining characteristic of "sports" is moving away from the purely physical to include any such competitions that pit groups or individuals against each other in skill-based activities. Competitive multiplayer online games like MWO define their entire model on the concept of sport. In fact, in MWO there is no such thing as a non-competitive mode or game type. Every single mode is sport... 2 teams pitted against each other in organized competition to use, maintain, or improve ability and skill while providing entertainment to participants, with each of two sides attempting to exceed each other. There isn't a single "just for the lulz and my personal enjoyment" game mode in MWO.
By electing to register yourself for a match in a competitive game, you are signing yourself in to compete. You should expect to do so and equip yourself accordingly. And each member of a team should be able to expect that the other 11 players he's matched with are also there to compete, and are equipped accordingly. By clicking that match button, you're saying that you're ready to be an equal member of a 12-person team. 12 real, flesh and blood human beings who came to try to out-play the other team. By all means, have fun with it. It's a game after all. Football is a game, as seriously as people take that. You don't have to take it so seriously that you can't enjoy yourself. But at least take it seriously enough so that you're able to contribute in the way you've billed yourself as being able to do so.
How is it fair to anyone if you're that one guy out on the ice with a cricket bat, leaving the team missing the goalie you said you were going to be? You wouldn't be that guy in real life... nor would you expect society would ever allow you to attempt to be that guy in real life. So why is it somehow acceptable HERE?
Edited by ScarecrowES, 15 February 2016 - 04:39 PM.