GamerSushi Asks: When to Quit?

quitLast night, while playing a Civilization Revolution multiplayer team game with a friend, we got owned hardcore. It wasn’t entirely our fault, as we got a pretty terrible opening situation (each map is randomly generated). My teammate ended up with both of the enemies within about eight tiles of him, and they pretty much held him under siege as they explored his continent and found all the early bonuses.

There came a point when they took his city that had all of his main forces. Basically, at that point, they were within a couple of turns of taking his capital and winning the game, but they didn’t realize it. We knew the writing was on the wall and we were screwed. And then we argued about if we should quit.

After that, the two teams played it cautious, and then toyed with us for the next hour and a half while we were clearly beat. The whole time we debated about just quitting the game, but held onto a sliver of hope. When it was all said and done, we knew that we had just wasted a bunch of time.

So when is it appropriate to quit a multiplayer game? Do you guys ever do it? I never want to be “that guy” that quits and ruins a game, but in cases like last night, we really should have done it. What do you guys think?

GamerSushi Asks: Getting Robbed Online?

onlineWe all know the feeling. Placing the crosshairs on an enemy forehead, only to not score the kill. Getting assassinated from the front in Halo 3. Feeling like your head must be the size of a balloon in the rival teams’ sniper scopes. Experiencing these things online can be frustrating.

Just this evening, I was playing a match of versus in Left 4 Dead. We were on Blood Harvest, stage 4, the portion that ends with the long bridge to the caboose that acts as a safe room. As the zombies, we had weakened the team significantly, waiting for that home stretch when the tank would spawn on their final run. And that would be the end of it. Or rather, it should have been.

You see, even though they got a tank when they were zombies, we didn’t get a tank during our round. So, all 4 survivors ran, barely alive, down the bridge and to safety, putting them out of reach for the game. We got robbed.

I’m sure these kinds of things happen to you dudes game online too, no matter what the game is (though mine seem mostly to be in Halo 3). What are some of your worst “we got robbed” stories from online multiplayer? Answer away!