Curious about the seething hatred for American players.

[November Tango]

I've played Xbox Live as well as a variety of PC games online with people from around the world. I always do my best to be curtious as well as generous towards all players that I encounter. I especially have a soft spot for European and Asian players who can't speak English but try to play on US servers for whatever reason (so long as they are polite by virtue of their actions if not words).

Having played on numerous "international" servers I can safely say that there are arsefaces in every country on Earth. Most countries are about even in terms of APC (arsefaces-per-capita). The players I've had the worst time with going by nationality are the Koreans. I've met many nice Korean players. However, the majority of them are shockingly rude for seemingly no reason, and in games like Diablo they are total loot-mongers almost without exception.

I'm wondering what gets your collective European goat about American players? Especially on Xbox Live.

[charlesr]

I presume you are American?
I've only had Live a short while, so I haven't had time to develop any seething hatred for anyone yet (give it time!), but so far my negative experiences (in moto gp) have been american kids screaming into the mic, another chanting devil worship stuff and another going round the wrong way in an otherwise serious race. I can only presume the reason that I haven't had similar problems with Euro and Asian players is that there are fewer of them so I just havent met the twats yet. If I accidentally knock someone off by braking slightly later than them, I apologise and most people say no problem. The only people who have replied otherwise (e.g. with swearing and attempts to "get me back") have been Americans. Again, I can only assume either I come across as a complete twat (possible, but unlikely) or that there are just more Americans to choose from. On the other side, a fair few Europeans I've met in Burnout are complete retards - nothing wrong with their manners, but just scarily stupid...

[revisedgenocide]

The one thing that gets me is annoying kids and there seems to be alot more annoying american kids on xbl than any other nationality. If theyre not singing the latest pop choon theyre squeling into the mic obscenely loud. All kids are annoying not just the american ones, but theres so much more of them its untrue.

[weightgain]

Yeah, it's the adolescent USA'ers man - they may totally rule with their skills but hell, talk about a bit of tact needed............(Maybe it's just my envy....bah)

[fragmast3r]

i think its to do with the time difference that we h8 (certain) american live users, i normaly play on live between 9pm and 1am (in america this works out at 3ish to 8ish (school kid time in america )


thankfully ive had live awhile so have a good friends list that play at same time and same games as me, so coming across yanks is not a problem now

[the shape]

It's the shrieking. They are louder than everyone else in your ear, and they have that shrill prepubescent squeal that goes through you like a cold blade.

And their unnatural ability to babble total ****e for as long as anyone will listen. Pumped full of sugar, Yu-Gi-Oh and MTV2. Absolutely nothing of any consequence in their head. If there's a pre-teen American in the game, nine times out of ten I've got them muted within three minutes.

Again, I think it's only because there are so many of them that they get this bad name, but they do share these characteristics.

I've met plenty of insufferable UK filth on Live as well, but they've all had their own unique brand of irritation.

[Leon Retro]

One thing I have learnt is that ' Ignorant Losers ' can be found all over the world.

I must say that the thing that pisses me off the most is the glut of Xenophobic Americans to be found on Live.

What the hell are these guys on? They take the piss-out of everyone foreign. From my experience they get particular pleasure from directing lame abuse at the English. I get the impression that their education system portrays the English in a negative light and Europe as an Alien home world.

I have met a lot of decent Americans though, but I get the impression that most people on Live like to stick to their own if given a choice. I guess this says a lot for the current state of the world, we still have petty misguided prejudices.

In a way Live looks to be positive. Hopefully it will gradually dispel people?s preconceptions and eventually bring people close together. I hope so!

[mid]

i think its to do with the time difference that we h8 (certain) american live users, i normaly play on live between 9pm and 1am (in america this works out at 3ish to 8ish (school kid time in america )

I'd definitely agree with that. When I've played online with fellow adults its usually fine; its just that most adult Americans are at work when I'm usually playing. Furthermore, UK kids are just as obnoxious as the US ones, just in different ways - they don't have the "your accent is funny" attack, so replace it with other random insults.

[hankwangford]

Equally, pre-teen UK kids piss me off. There was some young Scottish guy on Burnout 3 a month or so ago and his voice was so high I thought I was playing with Michael Jackson (if ANYONE makes a pun out of that I will rip off their face! :P).

[Valken]

I dislike playing *some* American players because they tend to boast when they're winning and scream at you when they lose.

I'm not a sensitive bloke but I find derogatory racist terms somewhat irritating too.

And also, they sing Limp Bizkit a lot and call me "fatsy".

[JibberX]

Since I am a Live virgin, can't you just make a complaint against the plebulons?

[John Beaulieu]

its not american players that people have a problem with ... its immature knobs who feel the need to tell you how high/drunk/stoned they are, have conversations with others in their bed/living room with the mic switched on ... too stupid to figure out that the red light on their xbox live dongle means they are muted ... abusive, ignorant, spoilt, sore losers, sore winners (i beat you by 29 seconds you lamer blah de ****ing blah) ..... the list can go on and on and on

if i am hosting and this type of Live gamer joins then they get booted asap - life is much too short to game against these idiots ..... if i join a game and these type of idiots are gaming in it then i will leave, its easy enough to find another game (except in the case of Burnout 3 )

an example of what i mean .... joined a rainbow six 3 BA game, team deathmatch was on-going and it got down to sudden death (1v1) .... the host (who falls under all the above) decided to kick the person from the opposing team rather than let his team lose ... he then kicked all the opposing team when they gave him abuse for his actions, and then he kicked me for saying he was out of order (or words to that effect)

[Pij]

Having only really played Burnout 3 online, i can say theres plenty of sore losers out there.

This one set of guys who were Red in Road Rage, didnt manage to catch a couple of us so the Blues won. So from then on he made it so the reds had special vehicles and unlimited boost, and the blues had to use the lowest class (coupe?)

This being such an unfair advantage he took us all out within a couple of bends, to which he would he would enjoy boasting about his victory and how were nooby lamers, even though he couldnt beat us on the same class.

He refused to change to a higher class and refused to play blue.

[superkully]

I used to play a lot of Ghost Recon and played against some really cool people from America... However, for every 1 nice American there were 4 others consumed by either xenophobia, immaturity or extreme stupidity.
This wasn't just kids either, I'd normally leave a game straight away if I heard the shrill tones of a boy playing online with wank withdrawal symptoms.

I don't know, people from Europe are (normally) much more laid back, friendly and don't feel the need to tell you of their wish to be sent to Iraq to "take a few rag-heads out". Saying that, England comes a close second to the US. Spanish and German games are where it's at for me.

[E. Randy Dupre]

As far as Xbox Live goes, isn't it just that there are more American users, so proportionally there are going to be more American idiots present than idiots from other countries?

Plus, people have an unfortunate tendency to think that it's alright to hold a stereotyped view of Americans and take more notice of it when they meet somebody who appears to be an example of that stereotype. It's that thing about how you tend to remember bad experiences more than good ones.