Get Off My Internet

I couldn't sleep tonight so I decided to switch on the Xbox and play a game until I got sleepy. I don't know why, but I found myself reaching for Halo 3 again.

I played a few rounds and discovered I was having a really good time. Halo really suits my play-style because those shields give you that extra second's reaction time instead of starting a round and just getting head blown off over and over again without ever knowing where the shot came from.

I had a moment where I started asking myself why I ever stopped playing. I definitely enjoy a sci-fi setting over WW2 and I also enjoy the more action based gameplay.

Then, in my third and fourth round, I remembered why I quit.

The third round was an awesome back-and-forth game where the lead was being taken and retaken every few seconds. I pulled off some spectacular kills and was killed in some spectacular way as well. The round ended and my team lost by 48 kills to 50. Just two kills in it. We get back out into the lobby and I'm just about to say "Hey, great game everyone!" when out of nowhere:

"Thanks for the game, blue team!" Said a red-team member. "You all fucking suck, you useless bitches."

"Yeah, we owned you, you fag mother-fuckers."

I got halfway through the fourth round listening to a bunch of idiot kids throwing around the usual racist and offensive bullshit before I turned off my Xbox in disgust.

I have to ask. Are you lives so pathetic, have you achieved so little that the only way you can feel good about yourselves is to let loose with a bunch of verbal abuse and disgusting racial epithets aimed at total strangers? Are you honestly that weak and small minded that you can only work out your aggression when you're safely hidden behind the anonymity of your screen name?

It's a fucking game. You don't need to gloat and try to rub it in when you score a kill against me (like you've actually achieved something gloat-worthy), and you don't need to literally scream into your headset when someone has the audacity to kill you. If you honestly can't handle competition like a real person, you've no business being online.

Yeah, it's true, I could always just mute my headset, but my point is, I shouldn't have to.