I've noticed a trend in recent years that is pretty disturbing. In general its like the mentality, IQ, and general attitude of PC gamers you meet online is about 100x worse than it was 10 years ago. I can't quite figure out what would cause this, other than PC gaming is pretty mainstream now, and years ago it was mostly powerusers gaming. Becoming mainstream more seems to have brought in every childish brat or crybaby, hacker and poor sport in the world.
For example I got into the SWAT 4 beta test. Its a really cool game where the objective isn't to get a high killcount, its to escort a VIP or Hostages through a building (or similar missions). Very nice, tactical, and highly strategic gameplay is required and if you don't get 5 kills don't be surprised. The problem here is that out of the last 30 games i've played online only 3-4 of them have actually been played the proper way. The rest of them are usually some punk getting bored and teamkilling, or killing the VIP and Hostages for a good laugh. Finally, there have been clans already noticeably using cheats of some type to get invulnerability. Why is it so hard for these people to actually learn a game concept, play the game as its meant to be played, and enjoy the tactical gameplay? Why must they turn every game into a endless fragfest smack talking cesspool like Counterstrike or UT2004?
Unfortunately, the more I game online lately the more this kind of poor attitude is pervading the hobby. Its nearly impossible not to run into some degenerate idiot online in any given game anymore and i'm puzzled to find an answer. Increasingly i've gone back to single player games, but even then the limited AI programmed into games is quite limiting in its challenge. Especially nowadays when many development houses are "Skimping" on AI.. Heritage of Kings was released today and believe it or not, doesn't even include AI for Skirmish and Lan gaming - they just didn't even bother to program it. So getting high quality computer AI to avoid the punks and jackasses online is becoming a less viable option these days.
So what are we to do? For greater challenge, I go online to pit my skill against other people, but if I can't tolerate the gradeschool language and childish antics/cheating, then what does that leave me? Between that issue, and the general LACK of quality, intelligent and mentally stimulating games released lately, this hobby is becoming less and less interesting to me as the years progress. Its like the entire hobby is being "Stupidfied" and in the process its attracting the largest group of jackasses the world has ever known. Boy do I miss the old days of PC gaming.