bullies never fail me

i spend quite a lot of time on online games. they are free, they are simple and they are interactive. playing against other players instead of a computer makes even the simplest game a great fun.

and it has been quite a time since i first started to play online strategy games, more than 10 years. the evolution of such games is actually following the evolution of offline pc games. they were extremely simple in the beginning, and now you can see the graphics have evolved to a next level, with still a lot of room for improvement as long as your pc and the web browser in it allows.

and there is something never changes: the bullies. you can always find them, no matter what game you are playing. well now, even though most of the players i met are pretty cool and mature guys and gals, you can never expect everybody to behave. some are just immature bullies, who are either just some losers in real life, or just real kids who are still trying to find a way to deal with the society, or both.

org castle

nowadays i am playing this game called castle of heroes. it has been a while since a game captured my interest for more than a month, so i guess this game is really cool- of course, depending on what you expect from a game.

The basics of the game is quite easy and actually inituative. You make buildings, you make armies, and you attack other players or maybe the AI in the game to gather resources. It is pretty much the same for almost all such games. Now, of course the parameters differ from game to game so it may take a while to master it, but it is quite easy.

There is one thing though, which is not predictable, which makes such games so appealing, and that is the human factor. You play against other players not some computer.

But not all the players are so fun. I was attacked by another player some time ago.

undead castle

OK now, almost all of these games have some sort of a bashing control system. The game doesn't allow a powerful player to attack to a newbie. So there is a range system. No matter which parameter this range system considers, you have to be within the same range to attack another player. This means that if a guy has been playing this game for a year and if he has built an immerse army, he can't simply attack you and farm your resources. So this system provides some sort of a protection. 

But yet, it would be no fun if the range is too narrow. After all, these games are based on a combat concept, and if you can't attack anyone because of a very strict range system, then the game is no fun. Meaning that, a powerful player can still attack me especially if he is over the average and i am below the average.

And that's what happened with this guy. Just because we are in the same range doesn't automatically makes our armies equivalent. But that's OK, that's the part of the game. So I can live with that.

a typical war scene from the game

Now, one day when I woke up, I saw that this guy has attacked and sieged me. And I was still pretty new to the game so I couldn't figure how to attack back. For a friendly gesture, I asked him how I was supposed to attack back, because i simply didn't know how to do that. He replied me saying that he would not tell it to me. I guess he didn't get it that I was just trying to be friendly, and this information he was not going to tell me was not a rocket science after all. Well, this should have been my clue actually, and i should have really understood that this guy was nothing but a kid, a "behind the keyboard bully" as we say in turkish.

So, again for the sake of being friendly, i told him that maybe he would have wanted to play fair. He replied me saying that he was fair, or the game wouldn't allow him to attack me anyway. Now of course, this is just a silly excuse, because as i told you, just because we are in the same range doesn't mean that we are equal. no, he was much more powerful than me. but the thing is, i wasn't even talking about the army sizes. i was talking about the gameplay itself.

inside of an elf castle 

anyhow, i learnt how to do it and then i scouted his armies, and saw that it wouldn't be wise to attack him. and i told him that. i mind you, i was still trying to be friendly.

i got a very stupid message saying that i wouldn't dare to attack him, but he would keep attacking me until i would get angry and make the move. i told him that he was nothing but a bully and ended the conversation. i told him that i would not reply his messages any more. and i didn't.

last thing the guy said that i was a loser. and honestly, that was just the dumbest thing he could have ever said. i really doubt that the guy is older than 16.

he indeed kept attacking me.

well now, i was already in a guild, a very friendly and a powerful one. so i told the guild master about the guy, and they made him stop attacking me.  so simple and effective and in the very same language this keyboard bully understands. he didn't bother me anymore.

it really never fails. these bullies are eveywhere. and i guess i just have to consider it as the part of the fun.

if you like online and free strategy games as i do, just give it a try and join me in the castle of heroes before it is too late and i get tired of it.