Looks like it's gonna be a good Weekend.

Hardware and the Languages of Gaming

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. but in fact, it's actually one of the first of the PS2's online games. it's a fully online explosion-a-thon, where you pick either a Tank or a Jeep and drive around one of about six arenas trying to blow the living snot out of each other with various weapons. It's fab. I haven't played it in ages, but last night I was on there with my clan buddy Urshulgi, and we had a blast. (No pun intended) Shame the turn out to last nights Clan Match was poor, but it was fun nonetheless. We had a load of Dutch guys join our room. They had superior skills to us, but we were in it for the fun factor.

And it actually got me thinking too. I started to compare the different sorts of people I've met online from around the globe. hmm, lemme see...

Americans- Fall into four categories.
1. Annoying 12 year old who won't shut up.
2. Annoying adult who swears a lot and won't shut up.
3. Adult gamer who talks a lot, but is actually cool.
4. As with all gamers, the quiet ones who just get on with it.
Of course, I generalise here. UK gamers could also be bunched into the above four two. Except No. #1. there's something about a high pitched 12 year old American voice that makes me insane. In fact, many is the time me and my clan buds have booted such a player.

Then there's the European players. For the most part, they can speak a little English and hang around in English speaking servers, possibly for a sense of community. Hardware is a good example here. Although there are several servers for English, Dutch, German and French speakers, they always gravitate to the English speaking server. Rightly so, they tend to hang out with those that can speak their own language so they can make themselves heard, but are not so language snobby that they won't play with an English chap. Some of my best Monster Hunter sessions have been with Spaniards, Germans and Frenchmen. Generally if I know there'll be European players on an online game my name will have the suffix _UK on it, so they instantly know where we stand. What does make me laugh is that when a European player feels the urge to swear, they always do it in English. I can't for the life of me see why, I'm sure their language has much better swearwords than ours. Ours are rubbish if you really think about them. But I digress a little.

Finally there's the Japanese players, who I've only really met on FFXI. They don't tend to associate with anyone else except other Japanese folk, which is fair enough, but this makes the American and European players consider them snobby. However, this is similar to the European play style- they stick to those who can speak their language. Time zones also make the difference too, which is why you don't see them with Europeans and Americans so much, but I have had the odd crazy Japanese chap who had stayed up til silly O Clock playing and had got a spot in my party. He had to speak to us using the Auto Translate feature so his conversation wasn't compelling, but he got on with his job like the rest of us and is therefore cool by me. Plus, extra points for being Hardcore and playing when everyone else in his time zone was in bed five hours ago.

Good grief, that was a bit of a digression wasn't it..? Hahaa!!

There's a Hairy Man in my house

This weekend me and Bexs are having one of my long standing friends Bob over for the weekend. He needs to 'get away from it all', so what better way to do that than to travel 40 miles away from where you live. He arrives tomorrow, so much fun and blokeyness to be had! man, it'll be just like when we lived together. Awesome!!! He's even staying until Sunday so he can see how our church gets on. Magic. ^^

Phantasy Star Universe

Oh yeah, I mentioned this one didn't I? hopefully Bexs will be able to nab our copies of it. Yeah, that's right. OUR copies. Bexs is also gonna join me on PSU. We plan to play it as a couple, so we can spend time together. Sweet, huh? Of course, with Bob being around we may not get a chance to play it, so I'm gonna need to have a lot of resistance.. nah, it'll be fine. I've waited this long and besides, it's not like it's going anywhere. But still, it's *very* exiting to get a new game. What with all my financial troubles this past year, new games are always welcome. ^^