Social Gamers

OK, This post is concerning a friend of mine that has no life. Well, thats being a bit too cruel. He has almost as much of a social life as me. That may be a bit too cruel too, but I'm already stretching the honesty barrier a bit.
I observed my friend Andy play a video game called Halo 3 on his Xbox 360. His living room is set up with chairs cluttering every space available, each one poised and ready to be sat in by an observer or player of the game in progress. Beer cans and pizza boxes litter the floor. The only time the gameplay breaks is to obtain another beer from the fridge. I'm sure if they could move it, the fridge would be in the middle of their living room. Andy and his roommates are gamers down to the very atom.
Halo 3 is a unique game because it allows one to play online against people all over the world. The game is a first person shooter that requires a lot of concentration and skill to survive, let alone win a game as a team. Andy's roommates are all a team fighting people online as a group. One of Andy's roommates named Sonic (short for Sonnenberg) has a headset that allows players to vocally communicate throughout the game. The majority of the time, the headset is not used because the only communication happening is a litany of cuss words and insults and certain comments about someone's mother's late-night activity. Although fun to listen to, it is much less fun to sit and observe rather than play the game. (I'm terrible at it)
After a few hours of gameplay, Andy's roommates lumbered off to bed (ROTC makes them wake up early) so Andy and I wander down to the local pub to continue drinking into the night. I pulled out my notebook and started the interview.
When asked about the social practices happening in the game, he responded by telling me that there are a few things that are taboo in Halo 3. the first is team-killing, which is when a player accidentally or intentionally kills a member of their own team. You can get banned from games for doing that. The second is 'nade spamming. This is when a player camps next to a gernade spawn area and chucks hand-gernades constantly at a major intersection of the map. This causes the players immense frustration and irritation as they can't get anywhere without getting blown up. It makes the game dull and boring. The third taboo is camping. Camping is not neccissarily illegal or taboo, only when used in excess. Camping is where a person sits with a one-hit-kill weapon around a blind corner on the other team's path. They wait for an opposing player to pass them and then kill them from behind. It is essentially a sucker-punch cheap-shot. It is looked down upon as unskillful and lame, but it is not a bannable offence.
When asked about any other social interactions the game requires, Andy responded with a series of verbal insults that I am not going to post on my blog. He described the insults as being their main form of communication. The game is usually silent when the team is doing well, but when they are doing poorly, the neighbors across the street could be woken up by the epic vulgarity of the room. As a whole the game allows for some interaction and bonding between individuals (even though Andy doesn't think so) and the game attempts to get the room to work as a team. This rarely happens and then the shouting continues. All in all, the game is a good social venue not only for the people in the room, but the people across the globe with their headsets. A general respect of the game is adhered to through the written and unwritten laws of gaming. Andy plays that game for several hours a week so it must be doing something good.

-TheStevo