UKTerrorist

Save Our Newbies!

Before I go any further, I'm going to criticise myself for using the word "newbie" in the title. It may just be me being daft, but personally I think the word "newbie" is a bit harsh. It depends on what context it is being used, of course , but someone calling another person a newbie because they messed up in CS, that's wrong. In the case that someone asks "Are you a newbie?", meaning, "Are you new to CS?", that's okay, but I feel a great need to differentiate between the two...'newbie' is not an insult.

That's what I'm going to concetrate on in this article, people using the word "newbie" as an offensive word, something that is very naughty indeed.

• Newbie
• N00b
• Newb
• Noob etc

Various words to describe someone new to CS, but for some reason, also used as an insult to describe someone who isn't very good at CS:

"You F*****G n00b! can't u even aim properly?"
"OMG, you n00b, you're so crap"

For example.

The CS veterans of today are the parents of these new players. We must accept them into our home, and cherish them. Without our love and support they will wither and die. If you do not support these people when they are learning a skill, they will not be able to do it to their full potential, and if you insult them while they are doing it...How on earth are they going to give CS the future it deserves?

Thats right, those 'n00bs' are Counter-Strike's future, so if you want CS to succeed after 4Kings go to their Nursing Homes, then you'd better be nice to them, help them, give them advice. If you don't, how can you expect the community to grow and prosper? It won't, that's the simple answer, but still some people forget that we were all new to the game once.

I went out into the community and spoke to some of the more well known 'n00bs' among us:

Raider (Uninspired)
"Well, it's a very two sided story this, for us 'pros' having a newbie on the server can be immensely frustrating, as you are left waiting for 3 or so minutes which gets boring. But you have to look at it from the newbie's point of view...how are they gonna improve if everyone is nasty to them. They are not gonna think the community is very good, so I think newbie servers are a very good idea."

TheGenius (Four-Kings)
"The pleasant newbie who just wants a hand is ok, but when you get 20 a day emailing you for trials, or asking how they can be good in a week, and why 4K cheat....I think newbies should be playing newbie servers!"

ICEMAN (Uninspired)
"I think the new players get a lot harder time than they deserve sometimes. At the end of the day we all start at the beginning and go through the same things, but I think the newer players should stick to the newbie servers till they are well established at CS!"

Symposium (Fusion)
"Everyone had to start somewhere, we were all n00bies at one point, give 'em a break!"

Myers (UKT Staff)
"Well, we were all newbies at one time, but what really gets me, is when the 'l33t' consider anyone worse than them n00bs, n00b is a term for someone who is new to a computer game, when cs2 comes out, we will all be n00bs. Yet you will still find the better players insulting others after a month or so. In my opinion, it's one of the saddest insults in cs because 99% of the time the person you're applying that insult too is not a 'n00b' at all."

There you have it then, the opinions of some of our better known players on the subject of Newbie-Abuse. They show both positive and negative and negative tendencies towards newbies. Veteran players who have been around the scene for a while are generally quite tolerant towards newbies, as long as the newbies are simply looking for help. They don't however, want to get constantly nagged by newbies to be allowed into clans, for trials, tips and so on. Believe me, from past experiences on StarCraft, once you've annoyed people it's very hard to get back into their good books.

I think both sides need to give a little here....newbies can be a little over bearing, but 'veterans' also tend to be a bit harsh towards them, the balance is in the middle and I don't think it's much to ask. Especially not the people who make fun of newbies, and use the word n00b to insult people. That's not on in my opinion and to use the term 'n00b' to insult someone says alot more about you than it does about them.

When I ran a past gaming site, we had an article submitted that was also on the subject of newbies. He gives you advice about what and what not to do as newbie:

*The Following text is by "Pughey" I take no credit for it!*

"One thing you definitely shouldn’t do is be cocky. Don’t provoke someone into killing you by calling him/her a camper or crap; you’re the one that will pay. Just play the game, you are playing to enjoy not to get angry, the same as everyone else, make the game fun by doing as best as you can.

If you get a kill, whatever you do, don’t gloat, this goes back to the cockiness rule you will make new enemies – you want friends ;).

Follow these rules and you will over time get better. Then, one day, you will see a newbie and be able to kill him repeatedly just as you were and it is at this point you should try and join a clan, just ask clan members if they are recruiting or if you are noticed by a clan member, he or she will notify you how to join. Anyway, that’s enough from me, and remember; if you’re gonna play, play nice."

***End of "Pughey's" article***

As you may have guessed, I'm all against calling people 'n00bs' when they're obviously not. Somehow you get into an argument with someone, insults are flying high and low, and then one person calls the other a n00b...this is what really annoys me sometimes. It's a crap insult, yet it's the most commonly used one, it always aggravates me when I see people getting called n00bs, as most often, it is the n00bs themselves doing it!

If there's anything you should take away from this article, it's this:

1. Be nice to New-Players!
2. New-Players be nice to others, don't be annoying.
3. Don't use the word n00b as an insult, or, just don't use it!
4. Be nice, and have fun!