A thought on the Dawn of War community from an average player

[Seithon]

People often say that the players supporting a game, its community, can make or break a game in its online form. I’ve read threads where people say that the community is small, and some complain about it or fret about it.
Personally I think that it’s not the volume, but rather the quality of the players, and by that I don’t mean how good they are at it, but rather how good they are to play with.

Just now I’ve finished a game with an Ork player, Yo-Jim-Boss, He rushed me early in the game and like a good Space Marine player, I said my prayers to the Emperor and sent my troops into combat. Now I was able to repel him through luck and a little skill and after things got a bit messy, but that is not what’s important.

What was important was that near the end to the match we got talking, since it was pretty once sided at that point, and unlike in many games he wasn’t whining or screaming about it, or even complaining, he was just talking about the game, and we were nice to each other…

In my experience with other games Warcraft immediately comes to mind, a lot of the players can be total and utter jerks, or otherwise fitting the description of what Penny Arcade came up with to describe what happens when a person has the anonymity to spew as much abuse as they want.

And while I know on the forums and in the game itself there is a number of players that fit the above description, god knows I have people already on my ignore list, but by and large the majority of people I meet or play with are very nice individuals.

Anyhow I didn’t set out to write a post this long but I thought that it needed to be said.

Seithon
Happy Space Marine player

:beer:

[Aliasalpha]

Nice to see a positive comment. I think that most people here are probably in it for the fun rather than the win, at least when I'm completely outclassed by a stylish move, I tend to appreciate the way it was done & try to figure out how to do it myself

[BeHe]

Heres a stylish move: STFU NOOB!

Im joking! :nana: yeah by and large this community isnt bad and the few games ive played online have been fairly well mannered affairs.

Of course if I played Eldar online it would most likely be a different matter.. :)

[Aliasalpha]

Some of us don't even use the seer council, I stopped making them when I noticed that a group of warlocks didn't get the entangle ability that single warlocks get (why??)

[Optimus Prime]

I have only found one player thats started to abuse me through the in-game chat. Some Captnetiski thug, I was loosing but didnt really care but it made the game less enjoyable by him calling me names and stuff. It would be good if you could block chat messages so i could turn his abuse off. Actually I just won't play him again!

[BeHe]

Mob mentality, I see alot of games where people flame/bash eldar as abuse when its not even going on and they dont understand what the issues are at the moment with eldar.

[Scalphunter]

omg you guyz are teh n00bs take teh STRATE POINTZZZ WTF U GUYZ DOIN?! FFS

yea i get that a lot :/

haha

[TheLoneKnight]

Y'know..I don't care if they're going to bitch or not.. For once I'd just like to play with someone that SAYS something. Heck, it's a whole other level of strategy that people ignore.

Actually, even I try to use it once and a while.. (Trying to distract people by striking up a conversation while you split their attention between a diversionary attack..and then trying to distract them even more as the actual attack moves in from the opposite side.. So fun..yet so useless if people don't talk.. ;-; )

[Evan_gelion]

...I tend to start screaming "FOR THE EMPEROR!" and start reciting litanies of fury and revenge. Does that count as having fun or being obnoxious? (Replace "Litanies of Fury" with cursing them to Chaos as needed).

[Hanna]

I *love* the Dawn of War community.

That is saying a lot, because I am *extremely* oversensitive and generally do not post on forums or play online with strangers. Yet here I am, posting and having conversations with people and playing online with complete strangers. And I am having a lot of fun and meeting some really nice people.

All of this was totally unexpected for me, because I thought, "oh this is such a violent game, it is going to attract some *real* jerks," but that hasn't been the case so far for me. I think it might be that a lot of people here also play the tabletop game and have more experience playing face to face with people and that generally makes for better manners than the anonymity of the internet which seems to encourage bad manners in people.

Welcome to the community. May your stay be long and pleasant. :)

Love,

Hanna

[Aliasalpha]

I could start being a real jerk if it'd help, you know give you what you expect & all...

I tend towards communication in games, giving advice & suggesting coordinated attacks. I also do tend towards war cries when attacking

[Thousand_Guns]

I love this community (I'm probably just expecting the worst as a warcraft player)

The worst treatment I had ever gotten was silence, which was okay with me, some folk don't want to be distracted.

"Good Luck, Have Fun, and kick enough ass to feed ten third world families!"

[Aliasalpha]

Makes you feel sorry for third world families, not only do they have to eat ass but one that's been kicked? I should be more grateful to be an Aussie...

[bigjangin]

this community has its ups and downs. Ive taught a few newbies how to play. Back when I didnt believe sc was bugged, I played a guy who totally kicked my ass as chaos. He was killing my base, so I retreated my seer council and let it reinforce to 6 or 7 members. I killed his entire army which was 4 or 5 squads. We were both like, WTF? I deleted my buildings and gave him the win.

However, there are definitely some jackasses. People that complain about everything, and non stop whine when they lose.

[J3p]

I like it when they say GG and mean it, and I've had a game where a guy actually gave me tips. TIPS!!! Sometimes I love the Homo Sapien race!!! :D. I played a game against your typical jerk and I pawned him by attacking him with 12 servitors. Then he made fun of me so I attacked him with 3 land raiders and FC + Termies, Librarian + Termies and Whacka Termies. Good times.

[$gtPopp3r]

So far, I ve only made good experiences with the community, apart from one guy who doesn't seem to read posts before replying to them. My one and only 1on1 automatch so far was against a guy that didn't say a word about me using eldar (no sc, no plasma nades), and that was a quite a relief. Afterwards we talked a little and I wrote something into his clan's guestbook. Now that makes me wanna come online again and play some more.

I guess many of the abusers and flamers are just nerdy kiddies that don't quite realise they re dealing with real people. People who ve been around a bit longer, and maybe have met someone in RL or talked on the phone or Teamspeak tend to have a better feeling for this.

[Evan_gelion]

I guess I have been unlucky; most people I ended up with were quite rude, dropping games early, being particularly haughty, stuff like that. Nice to hear some people having good experiences out there; might actually convince me to give it another shot.

[ZombyDog]

I cannot say I have had any problems with playing random games - I only had one guy call me a "spamming fuk" - I was playing Chaos vs orks and I had actually been beaten back pretty badly and began to counter attack with 2 Chaos marine squads and the Chaos lord when I killed the opposing player's big mek. I was still outnumbered and had lost a strat point to the orks - The guy called me a spamming fuk and then dropped. To say the least I was a little confused. I've actually had more victories with due to players disconnecting than otherwise ( I still suck ) and in some cases if my opponent kept playing instead of dropping because I killed their big mek/force commander/ chaos lord they would have realised that I had expended myself in trying to stop their rush.

[subtle_shade]

Haven't played online yet, as I'm on a 33.6 )0;
(anyone up for a game of Incubation PBM?)
lol

BUT, in general, my impression with this community is;
tolerance and enthusiasm.

YAY! -long live our freedom!

Keep your banner high and let your soul soar even higher!

[Marty]

I actually think that is the game that brings out the 'goodness' in people. Other MP games i have played the players rush, cheat, offensive in chat, stuff like that. but the thing in this game that brings it out is the morale. Morale forces a squad out of the battle (as most players would do) and the sounds like 'regroup!', 'fall back', and 'this is our end' affects the player that he/her has shown mercy, and as you show mercy you are nice. Every game i play people say gl, gg, nice game and so on. In othe MP games the units (as the troops) dont show mercy and they keep fighting untill they die, and also as archers are involved in CC they keep shooting their bows, this shows determination. If you think about this more you will understand.

As you should have guest im a 'mind doctor' who finds the problem in people and makes the patients adjust to it.

Happy gaming :D

[AlienHack]

Whao.. tis analization blew me away... :duck: :duck:

It is somethingt else to be a scientist!! (psychology in this matter) :argh:

[BloodAsp]

I've only played a few online games some players have been asse's most however are nice enough people, ohh sure they rape my ass prison style in game but are nice enough to give a few hints or tips after as to what i should have done differently.
Overall i'd say DoW has one of the better online communities on the intraweb....

[Aliasalpha]

ohh sure they rape my ass prison style in game but are nice enough to give a few hints or tips after as to what i should have done differently.

Tips like "Next time wear a blonde wig & milkmaid outfit if you know what's good for you"?

[Seithon]

Ohhh Milkmaids are cute.... :P But yeah some people are a bit weird when you play em, since I play during the EU times alot of people I say hello to probably dont know what I'm saying!
And Hanna I'd love to play you sometime, I used to play nwn myself, untill I started having to dl a gb of hak packs to play on substandard server's >.<

[AMDowns]

Played my first ever online game last night. The guy was a non stop smack talker. It's all good though. Spent so much time trying to come up with "creative" things to say, that I handed his ass to him. That in itself is sad because I am not so great a player.

[EzyKill]

just played yo-jim-boss tonite he seemed pretty manner, said gg before he lost unlike most players.

But about the topic, quality is all well and good but numbers are what will make relic keep supporting the community with patches and updates one day maybe an expansion and new maps etc.

Quality is all well and good, although it doesn't bring to the game much competition if there are only a few players...

[Dymo]

Had 1 strange one. Joined a server that had NO GAYS in the title. Now being old school and with meanings today sometimes different I clicked in and asked what that meant. It was literal according to the host who quickly added many more derogatory terms to assure I got the point. How can anyone know who and who isn't online? seemed kinda strange to me. I passed the screening test and went on to help win a 2x2. :werd:

Other than that it has been good. I too stay fairly quiet, to busy staying alive I guess. :D

[AMDowns]

Is it bad to stay silent? I don't mean to be rude just like to concentrate on what I am doing.

[Dooks Dizzo]

You know one thing about the TT game that I really love. you are standing right there with the guy. None of this anonomous I can get away with using the 'n' word or other rude names.

Even poor sports at the TT game complain loudly but don't throw insults.

I think that some of that comes over in DoW. A lot of us are used to having to look at our opponents. Might make a big difference.

That and on the whole the gaming community has grown up a bit.

[Fabes]

The community has generally been good and kind. No gaming community is without its black sheep of course, but yes, everyone's been cool.

I like it when people start a "WAAAGH!!" shouting gathering in the lobby. Some Ork player sorta just starts shouting, "WAAAAGH!!" and other Orkz join in. Once had someone shout, "For the Emperor!" midway in small caps, which was just hilarious.

Still, as this game's community grows, I anticipate more... black sheep as well. *readys Burna* ... BRING IT YOU LITTLE 'UMIES.

[Seithon]

Heh, thing is when you have a GOOD community and people are happy to play, it also means you get people like myself and some others who are willing to make mod's for the game! :) I'm building the website for a mod that adds the sisters of battle to the game at the moment, and heck, just look at how well HL has done with its mods :)