Rocket League and an American Problem

One of my favorite games to play is Rocket League. The game consists of controlling a high speed car with rocket boosters attached, flying around, blowing up other cars all the while trying to hit a large ball into a goal. Just imagine playing soccer with rocket propelled cars and that’s the game. Rocket League has servers spanning most of the world in order to maintain consistency with multiplayer connectivity. It is fun and addictive with each match being an action packed five minutes. Since multiplayer games are competitive, anger and rage among players is not far behind. Matches can quickly turn into an exchange of toxic slander, bigotry and bullying. I do not have a problem with this because I believe anybody can say what they want, and trash talking and competition go hand in hand. What does bother me is how often it happens when playing in American servers compared to European ones.

If I took the time to record how many times I have seen or been on the receiving end of abusive language in Rocket League, I can almost guarantee 4 out of 5 times I was playing on an American server. Rocket League does give you the option to block chat features from the team you are playing as well as your own team. But blocking chat with your own team only impedes communication you may need in order to win. If I am playing goalie and miss a save, odds are I am going to see a sarcastic “What a save!” spammed in chat from my own team. That is all good but where does criticizing your own teammates help you win? Odds are it will only piss them off and make them not try as hard. Part of playing on a team is boosting the morale of your teammates, not by hateful criticism but by creating support for them when they fail.

This is where I see the big difference in playing in American and European servers. When I or someone else on my team makes mistakes while playing in a European server, I almost never see any hostility. If I do it is most likely from an American player. So what is causing this contrast?

In my opinion, a large percentage of the gaming community in America believes they are the best. They think that everyone should be just as good as them so when someone makes a mistake or does not have as many points as they do, they feel the need to criticize. They come from a generation where their parents told them “how great they are!” and they received a trophy just for competing in little league sports even if they had a losing season. They are so full of themselves that they can’t possibly believe that others are not as good as they are. So when they see someone performing poorly they do not understand that the only way to improve their performance is to encourage them to do better, not by sending hateful messages in chat or sarcastic spams of “Nice shot!”

I can’t fully address why Europeans do not react the same way as Americans. But I think it has something to do with their long history of warfare. The generation of Europeans that have grown up gaming have not suffered the hardships of a continent torn by war like the previous generations have. They have learned that in order to work together, positive relations can only be created by communication that encourages, and not by hateful slander. This belief has helped them to form close knit relations with one another, and helped to form the European Union. I think this idea transfers over to their Rocket League matches. 

Rocket League is more than a fun and addicting game, it is a microcosm of 

human behavior and unfortunately, American behavior.