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Well, I have tons of other things that I intend to write about, and I realize that I'm taking forever to actually get this blog going, but I decided that I wanted to write about something really quick, while it's fresh.
I just had my very first online multiplayer experience. I decided to jump on and play Skate earlier. I saw one guy jump on, we were skating around for a second, and then he hopped off. After a second, he came back. I had a headset on, but didn't know (the first time around) that I had to hit the button to activate chat ingame. I know, blah blah blah.
BUT, when he popped back in, I just hit the button on my earpiece (it's a bluetooth headset like you use for a cell phone). It took me a second to realize that what was happening in my ear was the sounds of this other guy playing the game. What a bizarre experience! We just sat there for almost 5 minutes before it was clear to me that there was someone there. It was this strange mix of the feeling you get when you pick up the phone (a land line, not a cell phone) and there's no dial tone. Like, if maybe you were picking up to dial at the exact time someone had called you. So, you don't say anything because you are wondering why there's no dial tone, and they're not saying anything because they're realizing that it's not ringing. Weird. Just...weird. It was a mix of that sort of thing and some crazy...I don't know, awkward.
So, I made a few audible responses to things I did in the game (like landing a trick or wiping out). Once he did too, I just decided to say something like,"What's up, man?" You know, casual. Well, casual in a situation where two people form a sort of unspoken agreement to ignore the fact that they just had a full 5 minutes of extremely awkward interaction.
You know what it was like? It was like trying to talk to a girl, back when you were in middle school. You simply couldn't trip over yourself worse, or make yourself more a fool, then when you completely lose control of that situation!
Well, anyways, all told it turned out to be very, very cool. We played for some 2 and 1/2 hours or something crazy like that. A couple of other guys came in, some dropped out, some new guys joined us. It just turned out that the two of us were the only ones with headsets, so we just ended up talking about all kinds of cool stuff - entirely about the game, of course. I mean, I will tell you now that I don't know shit about the etiquette of this whole online-gaming-interaction thing, but I can guess that there are some things that would just be retarded to talk about. So, I stayed clear. Mostly.
I just find it really trippy that there is an entire generation of kids for whom this sort of interactions is completely normal. That's just...really F'ed up. I mean, I don't think it's bad or anything, but how freakin' nuts is that? And here I am, this 30-year old guy who just played his very first online game. I was definitely a late bloomer. But, it's cool. Now I can say I've started. Before I know it, I'll have gathered the nerve up to join an online multiplayer, squad-based military game (I own Call of Duty 4, but haven't gone anywhere near playing it online). Soon, I'll be running and gunning and having the time of my life.
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The Totally Rad Show - Final Episode
11 years ago
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