How you conduct yourself will go a long way towards determining how you are perceived and accepted in this game. I think, for the most part, we all want to feel accepted. I certainly do. I want to make friends. Friends will help. Goodness knows I need all the help I can get. With this in mind I'd like to throw out the following things. First and foremost, the biggest gripe I've seen on the DescentBB boards is, "DON'T WHINE" No one wants to hear, after you get killed, "Ohh, my ping is too high". Or" Ohh, I have too much net loss". Or, "Ohh, my video card sucks". Or "Ohh, I just can't fly well tonight". SHUT UP! Acknowledge the kill with a little humor. Something as simple as just, "Ouch, that hurt". Stick with it. If you can't stand the heat, get outta the kitchen. But, if you do, let those other pilots know why you're leaving. Say something like, "Hey, I'm kinda new and you guys are just too good for me. But thanks, I learned something here". It's not a lie. Trust me. Whether you realize it or not you will always learn something flying against a better pilot. Also, if others get to know you have the right attitude,you'll get more offers of help.

Next, never, ever accuse another pilot of cheating or hacking. Here's why. Let's say you're in a level with another pilot you don't know and he's whooping your butt big time.You may start to think that he's got some other advantage. What you don't know is that, for reasons that will become apparent later, he is one of those "Top Guns" flying under an alias. If you start crying "cheater, hacker" or anything else to suggest he has an advantage over you, YOU ARE A WHINER. Why? Because cheats don't work in multi-player. Sure, you can type one in but what happens? A voice comes on telling everone else in the game "so and so is tryingto cheat". You don't get the invulnerability or full weapons or what not and you're immediately targeted for annihilation. Hacks are modifications to the game files and will be discussed in another section. And the most important reason for keeping your mouth shut is that a good pilot doesn't need them. He's relied solely on his abilities to get him to the level of expertise he's at. SUCK IT UP, TAKE YOUR LUMPS, AND GET ON WITH IT.

Another thing I've heard complained about is barging into a game. Let's say you're surfing the games list and you see a 1 vs 1 game with only one player in it. You say, "Cool, I'll go have me a little 1 vs 1 match." so you jump in. What you don't know is two players have agreed to play this level and the other hasn't shown up yet. DON'T GO THERE! You could make yourself very unpopular. Another thing on the same subject. Look at game names, not just level, number of players and ping. If it's called something like "Clan so-and-so Only" stay away. You could find yourself the chicken at the coyote convention and you would be DEAD MEAT in no time. Hmmmm, where have I heard that before?

Next subject, language. First off, I'm no prude and I won't preach. Hell, I can curse with the best of them. However, some of the language I use at work is not appropriate with my neighbors. We don't know who's out there. Children play this game. Women play this game. Mothers play this game. People from cultures whose language contains no vulgarity play here. All I ask is that we all exercise a little decorum. A little cussing now and then is ok. But a constant stream of vulgarity is offensive, even to me. Now, I have noticed, as I'm sure have you, a small clique of pilots in chat who seem to feel this kind of behavior is cool. Some have offensive names. They use offensive language and talk dirty with each other. They use offensive taunts in the game. Whatever. It's their right. I'm not going to tell them to stop or even waste my breath trying. I will say, however, that if I'm hosting a game and someone gets too offensive they will get warned, then banned. A word on audio taunts. In a game they can be turned off. "Good, I don't have to listen to that idiot anymore". Unfortunately, it turns off all taunts and some pilots have some really good, funny ones. I have even had to stop flying and laugh. Course I got my rear end shot off. Hmmmmm, maybe that was his intent. And just so you don't think this is all my idea please read, the following from Suncho, who happens to be a very fine pilot. He expounds on the subject far better than I ever could. This, by the way, was sent to me unsolicited.

DON'T WHINE!

What's whining you ask? A lot of people have differing opinions. Here, let's use the broadest definition of whining possible so as to cover everything: Whining is doing or saying something that either discredits someone's skill or makes them feel bad about themselves. Always act as if the playing field is level. There may be ping spikes and packet loss and fishy stuff going on. Pretend like it's the other guy's skill. This makes life a heck of a lot simpler. If you believe in server problems you have to draw a line arbitrarily somewhere in the gray area as to when someone has an unfair advantage and who it is. This is a lot of work and can be highly frustrating if you're trying to argue your point when the guy you're arguing with has drawn his arbitrary line somewhere else. Anyway, life is simple, easy, and fun when you pretend that everyone's equal. And besides, it doesn't matter how good you "actually" are and people won't care if you start going on about it. All that matters is how well you can perform in the game after all the net-crap. NEVER, EVER say stuff like "I'm usually better than this" or "That shouldn't have hit me".

There's another aspect of whining which also involves discrediting your opponent's skills. NEVER, EVER give yourself credit in a game. ALWAYS give the other guy credit. Don't say "Oops", "Dang", "D'oh" or "Wow" after someone kills you because what you're implying is "It's my fault that I got killed by you. I shouldn't have gotten killed by the likes of you. What an idiot I am for getting killed by YOU!!!" Instead you should say" Nice Shot!" or"Way to anticipate" or something else along those lines. So the basic idea is that you shouldn't give net-crap the credit, and you shouldn't give yourself the credit. You should give the other guy the credit.

Another important aspect of not whining is to allow the opponent to whine, and to give himself credit for stuff.

Example: Otherguy: Man I can't hit anything today. You: Yeah I think you're off your game. Note that it is not ok for YOU to say "Man I can't hit anything today." Only the other guy can do that. If you get a kill and he says "D'oh", you don't dispute it. You say" Yeah you walked right into that, didn't ya?"

Don't leave a game. There's 2 types of newbies:

1. The kind that leaves a game.
2. The kind that doesn't.

Over the years I've observed an interesting phenomenon. An Anarchy game will fill up. Someone good will join. People will start leaving. Eventually it'll end up with the guy who's really good and another guy who's not as good. This guy gets all the attention and learns fast. This is the type 2 newbie and he does not remain a newbie for long. The type 1 newbie will leave games often, will never get any good and has a high probability of turning into a whiner. Note that leaving a game after you get killed is a form of whining. What I do is, when I want to leave a game, I say to myself "Ok, next kill I get, I'm leaving". I then kill someone and leave. Usually I don't leave the game though. Unfortunately sometimes it's necessary.

Spawn Killing

God gave you 2 seconds of invulerability for a reason. Use it. Often times I kill someone with blue lasers and concs right after I spawn. You should consider anyone whether just spawned or not armed and dangerous and treat them accordingly. NEVER complain when someone spawn kills you.

Type Killing

That keyboard is there for a reason. Don't go out of your way to avoid shooting it, but don't try to shoot it either. If you accidently type kill someone, apologize. If someone type kills you KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. It's part of the game so deal with it.

In Order to maximize learning rate, ALWAYS agree to play on your opponent's terms. If it's a level you've never played, suck it up and learn it on the spot.You learn a level faster when you're actually playing it rather than looking around by yourself. If he has half your ping deal with it. Assume it's even and try to win. I do this a lot. I have fun. And I learn how to deal with adverse situations, which is something any good pilot should know how to do. Make sure your configuration can use any combination of all 6 axis, afterburner, primaries, and secondaries at the same time. I can hook you up with a good config if you need it. Turn Auto-Leveling off. It impedes your learning. It's like training wheels on a bike. They just lengthen the learning period. I never used training wheels and I never used Auto-Leveling. -Suncho

Just remember. That NEWBIE may become your worst nightmare.