How to Deal With Unnecessary Talk of Garbage in Online Games
Online multiplayer games are fun to play with both friends and random players, but they can quickly get spoiled by players who can only tell you or your teammates negative things. These tips will help you deal with their silly conversations so you can focus on your precious playing time.
Develop a “focus guide”
Trash talkers are an unfortunate inevitability in the world of online gaming. You may not always be able to avoid them, so you need to develop a plan for how to deal with it when it happens to you. Often times, a bored child or troll causes problems, especially if that person is on your team, but sometimes empty talk is an attempt to gain a competitive advantage. As Drew Brannon of the University of Georgia’s Athletics and Sports Psychology Department of Athletics and Sports Psychology explains , “meaningless talk is an opponent’s attempt to focus your attention elsewhere.”
To keep them from pulling you down, Brannon encourages you to develop a “clue to focus,” or a reflexive mental response. If your opponent is telling you something, then you should already have a pre-planned routine – like a kind of mantra – when you think of something positive in order to maintain concentration and discard what they are saying. I have my own. Whenever someone is acting like a jerk, or when I run into teammates who want to screw things up, I tell myself, “Focus on the fun.” As long as I can stick to my goals for the fun aspects that I love about the game, people can tell me whatever they want.
Don’t invite people to your head
The trash talkers are trying to get under your skin and mess with you, so don’t give them anything to eat. As mental sports coach Dr. Patrick Cohn says , you shouldn’t invite them into your head. At first glance, this sounds like a fancy way of saying, “Just ignore them,” but there is a difference between the two. Ignoring them implies silence, and this can make things worse if the game you are playing requires communication. Not inviting them is more like not swallowing the bait. You know what they want in your head, so ignore their comments and ignore their negative behavior. Because the more you respond to their trash, the more fuel you put into the fire. Instead, let this fire go out.
And keep in mind that some talkers aren’t really trying to get in your head or make you feel bad. Sometimes they just try to play themselves or do it out of bad habit. Others are just insecure, so they look for others to join the hater chorus. The worse they can make you feel, and the more blame they can shift, the better they will feel about themselves. When you stop and realize how important meaningless conversations are to their experience, it will be much more enjoyable to end them. Enjoy the game, and if you are a competitive type, just focus and work at a higher level.
Play mind games with them
If you feel the need to chat with a chatterbox, I have a few guidelines you can try. First, laughter is a great way to blow the sail. This shows them that they don’t understand you at all and that you find it funny how serious they are. Or, if they’re trying to be funny, it gives them some of the attention they’re desperate for and puts you in their corner.
Or, if they call you a bad player or something, you can just go along with their accusations. There is nothing interesting for them in such a situation:
- Trash Talker : “You suck noob!”
- You : “Yes, I know.”
- Trash Talker : “…”
“You can also try and play them,” says Rick Knight of VentureBeat . He explains that his friend Troy is forcing the talkers to back off by telling them to stop being his friend or by saying things like “I don’t want to be your friend, sorry!” It’s a little weird, but it will definitely scare off someone who is clearly not trying to befriend you. Who has lost focus now? Of course, you can also just do what I sometimes do and laugh quickly and then tell them, “Nice try.”
Unplug and play without listening
Finally, if you play multiplayer games alone, you can enjoy the sound of silence. Disable chat or mute bullies during gameplay and avoid chatter problems altogether. It’s not ideal for competitive modes, so avoid completely shutting down when you get into these things (you need to be able to communicate), but otherwise your enjoyment and sanity are far more valuable than your rating in any video game. If you’re not having fun, then why all this?