... and not just because you're likely to get slaughtered by very experienced players.
I've been a big fan of Sins since it first came out, but only ever played MP with friends over LAN. Lately I've really gotten into Demigod MP, even with all the premade vs. pug stomping that goes on. I've enjoyed it so much that I thought I might give Sins a try online.
I've never ventured on to ICO for a real game before, perhaps cause I understood just how long the games can be, and that ICO is relatively unpopulated. Regardless, I wanted to give it a try. So I signed on, saw a game that had just been created that was 10-player on a huge map. I thought, awesome! The largest games I had ever played up to that point were with six players, and those were pretty epic.
I entered the lobby and started chatting with the two guys were were there, who were in the same clan apparently. Another guy comes in, asks if we can do a 2v2, the first two guys said no, they wanted to wait for more people. They seemed willing to wait a while, so I thought, yea I'll wait around too, if it means I can play a 10-player game.
Players started trickling in, and once there were about 7 or 8 of us, everyone started arguing about teams. The conversation got pretty confusing and hectic at that point -- but it slowly dawned on me that there were some very experienced players in there, with ridiculous win records. Soon the game filled up, and all of a sudden a few of the later entrants started clamoring for open slots for their friends waiting in the lobby who hadn't gotten in.
Yea so you can probably imagine what happened next -- everyone who the host hadn't played with before, or had shitty or nonexistent stats (me being the latter case) got BOOTED. Yes, everyone that had been waiting patiently for the game to start got booted cause some other guys showed up at the last minute and wanted in. I had been waiting patiently for 45 MINUTES before I was kicked!
To make things worse, some of the players (who had just joined and waited no longer than five minutes) were especially rude, telling me to gtfo, or accusing me of being a "smurf", whatever the hell that means. I tried rejoining a few times when they booted me and a slot opened, but kept getting kicked even after I explained my situation.
I know which players were in the lobby, and I know who hosted the game, but I won't name them here because I'm not interested in starting a flame war, but I think at least an apology would be in order. I also know the host is a well-known player in the community, and yet I received no acknowledgement or response from him addressing my grievance. If he had wanted to play an experts-only game from the start, why not say so in the game title at least? Kicking players that waited with you while the game slowly filled up is, to put it nicely, extremely rude. If the veteran players of the Sins community don't welcome eager new players, but instead slam the door in their face, how will the player base ever grow? Eventually it will dwindle as the the developers focus on new IP's and players jump ship. (For instance: no third micro-expansion? If this game had a roaring multiplayer scene maybe Ironclad wouldn't have canceled that particular plan)
Seriously.. people wonder why no one plays online in this game. I'm sure other first-time players have gone through similar situations. I may try my luck again on ICO, but I've already got a terrible taste in my mouth and I'm probably just going to resume my current Demigod addiction. Perhaps those of you who play regularly will at least read this and understand my concerns.
Thus: a word of warning for casual/first-time players on ICO: don't wait around in game lobbies for more than 10 minutes, especially if the host is a "pro" player. Just host your own game.
