Can't we all just get along?

Left 4 Dead Survival expansion is live! My usual partner in crime is unforgiveably on honeymoon this week, so I was forced back into the jungle of Xbox live random matches. I initially wasn't too unhappy about this. Back when the game had first come out I had a pretty good experience with just jumping into games - more so than I expected given the reputation of Xbox live players. In fact I made a few friends on L4D who I still meet up with now and again.

I played one round of survival and the potential is great - it's been a while since I played anything with such an arcade-y "hi-score" feel. However, my main interest was in the new versus maps so I jumped into a random game on Dead Air. No voice chat, I bumbled through a level (admittedly with little approaching competence) then a vote to kick me from the game. Vote failed but, taking the hint, I ducked out and tried another game. This time I was kicked before I could even spawn. Third time was better, but still the atmosphere was chilly and I quit again. In the last ten minutes I found a game with some pretty decent people but by then I was a bit sick of it all (and in any case was off to the pub).

This is a rambling whinge by a third-rate player I grant you, and it may just have been that I got unlucky. That said it seems a pretty silly state of affairs when a video game is rendered devoid of fun by the hostility of the human participants. It's a game with literally no repercussions - in a random match you're unlikely to ever see the other players again, and there are no permanent scoreboards or any other record.

There's a grim cynical edge to play at this level - abandon the slower players to their fate, rush to the safe-house, grind the game for any glitches to secure an advantage, no matter how joyless this renders the experience. Any error is greeted with abuse. Any perceived failure is unacceptable and means banishment. The fact that someone, at some point, has decided that this particular game should be open to everyone of any ability (by making it a "public" game) doesn't factor into it.

Maybe I'm naive (and also rubbish at video-games) but If having a choice between "friend" and "public" games isn't enough, perhaps there should be the option to label the game "assholes only" meaning no danger of useless players such as myself (who may be foolish enough to want to have some fun) interrupting the meaningless pissing contests that seem rife.