SSPWOLF
12-24-2007, 01:00 PM
Haven't seen anyone else start a full thread for this, so figured I would. Compiled from my personal experiences and what I've read from others.
This deals with "Band Quickplay: Player Match" mode and is specifically for the Xbox 360 but the general ideas would be the same for PS3.
(disclaimer: these are, of course, opinions. Certainly open to debate.. but I am by no means claiming that I'm *right* about everything. This is simply meant to be some advice for maximizing the enjoyment of everyone.)
Section 1: PRE-GAME
1) It's okay to wait for a full band. If you play during peak hours it's considered proper conduct for the band leader to wait a few moments for the band to fill up. If it's 5PM CST and you only give it 10 seconds before you start the game with just ONE other person don't be surprised when that person leaves.
2) If it's 2 AM don't wait five full minutes. The proper etiquette here is to wait 1 full minute then play a couple of songs then go back and search again for 1 full minute.
3) If you are using voice chat it's customary to greet people as soon as they enter the lobby. Not just to be friendly, but many people only want to play with someone who is talking. This will let them know you are.
4) Standard "don't be a jerk" conduct applies in the lobby. Don't be surprised when people leave when you start making fun of them. Not everyone likes "friendly trash talk"
SECTION 2: SONG SELECTION
1) Voice Chat comes in really handy here. The standard answer to "What do you guys wanna play" is usually "It doesn't matter." but sometimes you'll get someone who might say "anything but xxxx song" and that'll be enough to ensure you don't pick a song that'll make them leave.
2) Remember that on average people who play primarily as vocalists don't want to sing every Metallica song in row. If your setlist is Timmy, Run To The Hills, Blackened, And Justice For All, and Enter Sandman the two expert level guitar players might be having a blast. Your singer probably isn't. There are exceptions, but singers are harder to find and it's even less likely you'll get one who wants to do every metal song all the time.
3) Remember that your guitar/bass players probably don't want to do only first tier songs. If you are the singer and the band leader and you see your bandmates getting 100% on expert on every song you pick chances are they are going to get bored if you don't pick some songs that are more challenging for them.
4) Your drummer probably doesn't want to play Vasoline, GGaHT, or Run To The Hills. There are, of course, exceptions... but if you are picking songs like these three constantly.. you are increasing your chances of your drummer quitting.
5) You CAN send the band leader messages. Some people don't have voice chat capability, or don't want to use it. It only takes a few seconds to send a text message saying "I really don't feeling playing Welcome Home for the 20th time tonight. Kthxbye."
6) DO NOT scroll up and down the song list for three minutes at a time. If you can't think of a song to pick and nobody is offering suggestions then go to Random Selection. If a song comes up that you don't want to play, go back.. hit the "sort" button (yellow fret on guitar) and hit random selection again. Nothing is more annoying than watching you scroll up and down all night in between each song.
SECTION THREE: BEFORE THE SONG STARTS
1) The "unspoken" rule is that whoever is better should play guitar. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but if you are playing on medium and the other guy is on expert.. chances are they are going to get really annoyed if you pick guitar everytime. The other side to this is.. just because you are on expert and they are on medium doesn't mean you shouldn't trade off. If songs keep coming up with a repetitive bass line, imagine how much more repetitive it is for someone playing on medium. The best way to handle it is through voice chat and being polite. If there's no voice chat, then a great way to keep everyone happy is to switch off every other song.
2) WE CAN"T UNDERSTAND YOU DURING THE LOADING SCREEN. I don't know how many times I've had to say to the same person over and over "When the loading screen starts we can't understand you because your voice breaks up." So.. stop talking until the loading screen finishes.
3) DO NOT make fun of someone if the select an easier difficulty level. There is no leaderboard for Online Quickplay. You are going to hear the same thing whether they are on expert or easy so let them play on whatever difficulty they want.
4) Kicking someone for playing on a lower difficulty is just plain rude. There's no good reason for doing it. The scores aren't recorded.
5) If you are going to try a song on a difficulty level you aren't sure you can do, then warn the band ahead of time. Most people don't care if you have to get saved or if you only get a 60%. But if you keep trying every song on expert and causing the band to fail 75% through then you deserve to be kicked. It's understandable if you fail out from time to time, or if you mess up and cause the whole band to fail once.. maybe twice. The third time you try to play the drums on hard and cause the band to fail you are being annoying.
SECTION 4: DURING THE SONG
1) If you are the singer make sure you ASK before you hold your game chat button down while you are singing. Your vocals WILL come out lagged and will probably throw the rest of the band off. Some people like it when you do that, a lot of people don't like it. Don't be rude, ask them ahead of time.
2) Do not ***** at the singer for NOT holding down the chat button. The vocals are lagged due to bandwidth and they are compressed. No matter what they do it won't be on time with the song and it won't sound good. If they don't want to amuse you then don't ***** at them. It's not like there is a way to make it sound good, there isn't.
3) Constantly chattering while the song is playing can be very annoying to some people. If nobody is talking back to you, they probably don't want to hear you either.
4) Singing along with the song can be annoying, especially if the singer can hear you through thier t.v. speakers.
5) IF YOUR HEADSET IS MAKING OBNOXIOUS NOISE MUTE IT. If people are complaining about the noise then MUTE IT. I don't get what's so hard about this... but nobody wants to play with your static in thier ear.. or worse, coming through thier surround sound. The default in Rockband is that all voice chat comes through the t.v. speakers.
6) DRUMMERS mute your headset when you play. You are loud. What you are doing in your living doesn't sound anything like the actual song, plus it's gonna be slightly lagged through the headset. It's annoying. MUTE YOUR HEADSET.
7) If someone fails save them. Don't purposely not save them, that's just going to annoy everyone.
8) Don't quit in the middle of the song. Let me say that again DO NOT QUIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG. Just because you feel embarassed because you tried Run To The Hills on expert and failed doesn't mean the rest of the band should have to fail the song because you quit. It's EXTREMELY annoying when you quit in the middle of a song and we'd rather just not play with you in the first place.
SECTION 5: MISCELLANEOUS
1) Being polite goes a long way. Congratulating people will make them more comfortable.
2) Voice Chat goes a long way. Nobody says you have to be a chatterbox. Often simply saying "good job" after a song and "I don't care what you pick" before a song is enough to keep someone wanting to play with you.
3) Most people don't care about you. No offense, but going into long rants about random things isn't always interesting to everyone. If you are doing a lot of talking and nobody is really responding to you.. chances are you are annoying them.
4) Don't harrass the women. Not every woman wants to hear you compliment thier character's breasts. Quite a few women who play this game also have kids or significant others in the house, so you being a pervert isn't going to make them want to stay and play with you.
5) Don't harrass the kids.
6) While profanity is fairly status quo for online games... nobody wants to hear four letter words every other word out of your mouth.
7) Don't friend's list every single person you play with after you've played one song with them. It was cool the first day the game came out, we all wanted people to jam with. Now, it gets annoying to go through my inbox and see 20 friends requests from people whom I have no clue who they are. If you jam with a group for 2 hours.. by all means list them.
8) Harmonix didn't make this game for you. We all payed money for it. If you have a "me me me" attitude, you are annoying. It's okay to request a song.. but if everytime we're on the song selection screen you are yelling out "Pick this! Pick that! No don't pick that!" it's going to get annoying. Being polite goes a long way. "Hey, you guys mind playing Blitzkrieg Bop?" is a lot easier to deal with than "HEY PICK FOO FIGHTERS!".
9) Keep in mind that if you encounter someone with a guest playing on Xbox Live with them, Xbox Live disables thier chat communications. They can't send or recieve voice chat. They aren't ignoring you, they're just playing with a guest signed in.
More to come as need be, that's enough for now :)
questions? comments?
This deals with "Band Quickplay: Player Match" mode and is specifically for the Xbox 360 but the general ideas would be the same for PS3.
(disclaimer: these are, of course, opinions. Certainly open to debate.. but I am by no means claiming that I'm *right* about everything. This is simply meant to be some advice for maximizing the enjoyment of everyone.)
Section 1: PRE-GAME
1) It's okay to wait for a full band. If you play during peak hours it's considered proper conduct for the band leader to wait a few moments for the band to fill up. If it's 5PM CST and you only give it 10 seconds before you start the game with just ONE other person don't be surprised when that person leaves.
2) If it's 2 AM don't wait five full minutes. The proper etiquette here is to wait 1 full minute then play a couple of songs then go back and search again for 1 full minute.
3) If you are using voice chat it's customary to greet people as soon as they enter the lobby. Not just to be friendly, but many people only want to play with someone who is talking. This will let them know you are.
4) Standard "don't be a jerk" conduct applies in the lobby. Don't be surprised when people leave when you start making fun of them. Not everyone likes "friendly trash talk"
SECTION 2: SONG SELECTION
1) Voice Chat comes in really handy here. The standard answer to "What do you guys wanna play" is usually "It doesn't matter." but sometimes you'll get someone who might say "anything but xxxx song" and that'll be enough to ensure you don't pick a song that'll make them leave.
2) Remember that on average people who play primarily as vocalists don't want to sing every Metallica song in row. If your setlist is Timmy, Run To The Hills, Blackened, And Justice For All, and Enter Sandman the two expert level guitar players might be having a blast. Your singer probably isn't. There are exceptions, but singers are harder to find and it's even less likely you'll get one who wants to do every metal song all the time.
3) Remember that your guitar/bass players probably don't want to do only first tier songs. If you are the singer and the band leader and you see your bandmates getting 100% on expert on every song you pick chances are they are going to get bored if you don't pick some songs that are more challenging for them.
4) Your drummer probably doesn't want to play Vasoline, GGaHT, or Run To The Hills. There are, of course, exceptions... but if you are picking songs like these three constantly.. you are increasing your chances of your drummer quitting.
5) You CAN send the band leader messages. Some people don't have voice chat capability, or don't want to use it. It only takes a few seconds to send a text message saying "I really don't feeling playing Welcome Home for the 20th time tonight. Kthxbye."
6) DO NOT scroll up and down the song list for three minutes at a time. If you can't think of a song to pick and nobody is offering suggestions then go to Random Selection. If a song comes up that you don't want to play, go back.. hit the "sort" button (yellow fret on guitar) and hit random selection again. Nothing is more annoying than watching you scroll up and down all night in between each song.
SECTION THREE: BEFORE THE SONG STARTS
1) The "unspoken" rule is that whoever is better should play guitar. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but if you are playing on medium and the other guy is on expert.. chances are they are going to get really annoyed if you pick guitar everytime. The other side to this is.. just because you are on expert and they are on medium doesn't mean you shouldn't trade off. If songs keep coming up with a repetitive bass line, imagine how much more repetitive it is for someone playing on medium. The best way to handle it is through voice chat and being polite. If there's no voice chat, then a great way to keep everyone happy is to switch off every other song.
2) WE CAN"T UNDERSTAND YOU DURING THE LOADING SCREEN. I don't know how many times I've had to say to the same person over and over "When the loading screen starts we can't understand you because your voice breaks up." So.. stop talking until the loading screen finishes.
3) DO NOT make fun of someone if the select an easier difficulty level. There is no leaderboard for Online Quickplay. You are going to hear the same thing whether they are on expert or easy so let them play on whatever difficulty they want.
4) Kicking someone for playing on a lower difficulty is just plain rude. There's no good reason for doing it. The scores aren't recorded.
5) If you are going to try a song on a difficulty level you aren't sure you can do, then warn the band ahead of time. Most people don't care if you have to get saved or if you only get a 60%. But if you keep trying every song on expert and causing the band to fail 75% through then you deserve to be kicked. It's understandable if you fail out from time to time, or if you mess up and cause the whole band to fail once.. maybe twice. The third time you try to play the drums on hard and cause the band to fail you are being annoying.
SECTION 4: DURING THE SONG
1) If you are the singer make sure you ASK before you hold your game chat button down while you are singing. Your vocals WILL come out lagged and will probably throw the rest of the band off. Some people like it when you do that, a lot of people don't like it. Don't be rude, ask them ahead of time.
2) Do not ***** at the singer for NOT holding down the chat button. The vocals are lagged due to bandwidth and they are compressed. No matter what they do it won't be on time with the song and it won't sound good. If they don't want to amuse you then don't ***** at them. It's not like there is a way to make it sound good, there isn't.
3) Constantly chattering while the song is playing can be very annoying to some people. If nobody is talking back to you, they probably don't want to hear you either.
4) Singing along with the song can be annoying, especially if the singer can hear you through thier t.v. speakers.
5) IF YOUR HEADSET IS MAKING OBNOXIOUS NOISE MUTE IT. If people are complaining about the noise then MUTE IT. I don't get what's so hard about this... but nobody wants to play with your static in thier ear.. or worse, coming through thier surround sound. The default in Rockband is that all voice chat comes through the t.v. speakers.
6) DRUMMERS mute your headset when you play. You are loud. What you are doing in your living doesn't sound anything like the actual song, plus it's gonna be slightly lagged through the headset. It's annoying. MUTE YOUR HEADSET.
7) If someone fails save them. Don't purposely not save them, that's just going to annoy everyone.
8) Don't quit in the middle of the song. Let me say that again DO NOT QUIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG. Just because you feel embarassed because you tried Run To The Hills on expert and failed doesn't mean the rest of the band should have to fail the song because you quit. It's EXTREMELY annoying when you quit in the middle of a song and we'd rather just not play with you in the first place.
SECTION 5: MISCELLANEOUS
1) Being polite goes a long way. Congratulating people will make them more comfortable.
2) Voice Chat goes a long way. Nobody says you have to be a chatterbox. Often simply saying "good job" after a song and "I don't care what you pick" before a song is enough to keep someone wanting to play with you.
3) Most people don't care about you. No offense, but going into long rants about random things isn't always interesting to everyone. If you are doing a lot of talking and nobody is really responding to you.. chances are you are annoying them.
4) Don't harrass the women. Not every woman wants to hear you compliment thier character's breasts. Quite a few women who play this game also have kids or significant others in the house, so you being a pervert isn't going to make them want to stay and play with you.
5) Don't harrass the kids.
6) While profanity is fairly status quo for online games... nobody wants to hear four letter words every other word out of your mouth.
7) Don't friend's list every single person you play with after you've played one song with them. It was cool the first day the game came out, we all wanted people to jam with. Now, it gets annoying to go through my inbox and see 20 friends requests from people whom I have no clue who they are. If you jam with a group for 2 hours.. by all means list them.
8) Harmonix didn't make this game for you. We all payed money for it. If you have a "me me me" attitude, you are annoying. It's okay to request a song.. but if everytime we're on the song selection screen you are yelling out "Pick this! Pick that! No don't pick that!" it's going to get annoying. Being polite goes a long way. "Hey, you guys mind playing Blitzkrieg Bop?" is a lot easier to deal with than "HEY PICK FOO FIGHTERS!".
9) Keep in mind that if you encounter someone with a guest playing on Xbox Live with them, Xbox Live disables thier chat communications. They can't send or recieve voice chat. They aren't ignoring you, they're just playing with a guest signed in.
More to come as need be, that's enough for now :)
questions? comments?
