Online pc gaming - soooo boring now!

[Blitzen]

I used to play a few games at a good level, and went to Quakecon a good few years back to represent the UK. Those were the days.

I am now 40, and to prevent me from spending my life in the pub, and to keep the Mrs happy, I have started playing again. Alliance of Valiant Arms, BF3, and COD.
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!

Main problems:
- Skilless people
- Text spammers
- High pingers
- Boring teamplay
- Tacticless gaming

There will be many that deny this, but they are wrong wrong wrong.
The level of play has declined 100000 fold in 15 years, and the amount of snotty nosed little teenagers that are out to spoil it for everyone else makes my blood boil.

Why the game makers cannot put an age limit on the server settings is beyond me.

I'm glad i had the best years of online gaming fps, so the kids can now keep it.

Back to the StrongBow.

[GeorgeStorm]

You tried any other games?
COD is well known for being full of kids online, not sure why you expected anything different on that front. If you're half decent though, why not look at the competitive side? Tends to get rid of a lot of the annoying kids, although not all of them since some are crazy good

Team play will be relatively weak on the average public server, I'd look at groups/clubs kinda things of dedicated players or competitive, will give you a higher skill level, less mucking about, more teamplay etc.

[Phage]

You need to Admin the server.
It is poor out there, but when you get a good game it's very very good. Scan servers are worth a try.
I'll happily admit I have no skills at all, but It's still fun. Although I do miss Q2 and its mods the most.

[jimbouk]

- High pingers

Well I started PC gaming all those years ago I either got 300 ping on the 28k modem or 200-220 on the 56k modem!

Sounds like you just need to find yourself a clan and stay away from the public games.

[Flibb]

I sort of agree with you, especially about lack of tactics and team play. Have you considered something like ARMA 2? I played a lot of DoD when OWP was up and running, still think that combo gave the best online experience I have had (oooerrrr). PR was also very good. IMHO the problem is that many games are designed to allow the sale of map packs, so user created content and mods are vanishing. A lot of the mods promoted team play and tactics.

[Phage]

I notice the KoG server is mostly free. All we have to is ask.

[kalniel]

Tf2!

[GeorgeStorm]

Ooh another TF2 player?

Me and a couple of friends entered a team into the ETF2L last season, we got destroyed Yet most of us would consider ourselves fairly decent on public servers, seriously Blitzen, if you can find some people who play competitive that should solve most of your issues

[Zak33]

Tempted to shout "NO You are WRONG" but ive had the same experience too on many occassions. But you are suffering from a lack of online mates. (don't mean us) and i'm gonna blame the penchant for developers to dis allow dedicated servers in no small part. Luckily CoD W@W is different. Arma2 was too. You're craving team play but you're being denied it.
You need a tactical server, possibly a Crouch only server. It slows the game right down, drops the scores ang makes people team up more

[Iron Sights]

yeah you just need to find a good server tbh,

Also if you want skill based shooter, you should wait for the new counter strike: global offensive. (currently in beta)

[Hicks12]

You're doing it wrong... play ESL in CSS and you will find its much better ... or play a proper rts game like starcraft 2 competitively and see how hard it is then!. COD is a terrible kids game and id avoid like the plague , BF3 i really enjoy but i agree the players are terrible... CSS and sc2 are my most played games now!

[KeyboardDemon]

@Blitzen: I think you are overlooking something that has changed the face of the online gaming scene that has been happening over the last 15 years, so I'll point them out in brief:

1997 - 70 million people connected to the web (1.7% world population)
2012 - 2,280 million people connected to the web (32.7% world population)

Internet connections are getting faster, cheaper and easier for people to access, in 1997 only people with a real interest in online gaming would have been bothered enough to go to the trouble and expense of getting themselves online to meet and play with like minded people. Now more or less anyone with a £500 to £600 PC and basic broadband connection can get a steam account and get online to play or get a PC for their kids to go online and play. I don't think the issue is so much that the standard of play has dropped, I think there are many hardcore players out there, but they are just lost in a crowd of n00bs (including me, I might add so sorry about that) who are not that good but do have time to enjoy gaming online, and often frequently do.

If you want to find some more really good hardened players that play games to compete against good squads at a similar level then I would suggest you find yourself a good squad, join that and take part in some serious team based gameplay that way. You could start by looking at the Scan BF3 server and find out when the Scan players are online to see if they are what you were looking for when you returned to online gaming after your break. It might take some looking around until you find what you are looking for but I'm certain that it's out there and you will eventually find it if you look.

For other games, join the official game forums and look for the squad invite pages to join those squads and get playing with the better players that way.

[charlieegan3]

Tacticless gaming

Frozen synapse is keeping me satisfied atm.

[razer121]

CoD can be ok but only if you have a good team, hench clan is the choice always AKA FTW! (pimping my clan XD) but honestly it can be fun when we face anouther decent clan...just not the hackers XD

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Tf2!

[jim]

I used to enjoy BF2 back in the day, but then I was a server admin so I could kick anyone that was being an arse. CoD has always been full of idiots unless you're clanning.

Online gaming has become so much more popular in the last few years, so it's not a huge surprise that the general 'calibre' has dropped. Mind you, you'd think that consoles would help with that.