RANTIFICATIONS

Ahh,the wonderfully friendly world of the internetz.The only place where winning at something makes you a no skill noob that does'nt know jack about the game that you are winning at.
I've been playing online games for a many years now,PC gaming for as long as I've had a computer,Xbox Live  for as long as it's been around and Playstation Network for almost as long as it's been around.Now out of those three online platforms Xbox Live is easily my favorite service and at the same time easily the most frustating.Now granted on PC I never used voice chat and on PSN I played Socom almost exclusively,but I never seemed to run up against the same level of childish ignorance as I did on Live.
So now I would like to talk about the term (I use term because it's not an actual word) "NOOB".Now we all know what noob means,it's a term derived from the term "newby" meaning that someone is new to a game.Over the years though,it has grown to become a term that 13 year olds and grown people that act like 13 year olds like to throw around when they are losing or just sucking in general.They usually roll it into phrases like "fucking noob" or "you suck noob" or from the more literate competitors "fucking noob fagit bitch motherfucking _____(insert racial slur here)".
Halo2 and Halo3 are by far the worst for this in my humble opinion.In the years (and I'm a HUGE Halo fan) that I've been playing Halo games online I have heard more degrading,obscene,slanderous,homophobic,bigotry than all the other online games I've played combined.The majority of that comes from the fact that the internet brings anonymity without consequence.People know that they can say whatever they want to whoever they want without ever meeting that person face-to-face,thus there are no consequences.Do you really think that if you were in an arcade playing a game against someone they would talk to you,with you standing right next to them,the same way they do online?Of course not.Online is an easy way to play the tough guy without having to actually back it up.
Now the reason I keep singling out Halo is because Halo is my favorite FPS and other games usually don't even come close to Halo in terms of the sheer hate and vitriole spewed during games.I have played lots of CoD4,Socom,GoW,RainbowSix and GhostRecon and while they do have their moments,it's never as much or as frequent as Halo.
Now I will give Bungie credit for the voice options given in Halo3.Bungie has always led the way in online features and this is no exception.The ability to "mute all" or only hear "friends and teammates" are great features that I wish other games would adopt.There is also the option to mute specific players quickly with the "X" button.
What can we do to fix all this hate and bigotry?As far as the people saying these things go,not much,that is something they need to change in themselves.All we can do is mute these people.Sounds simple but it's also effective.If you join a game and people on the other team start running off at the mouth,rather than argue with them just mute them,then they are left talking to themselves.