There's no "I" in "Team"
4/29/12 5:20pm
tl;dr
Be a member of the team, not a ranking on the leaderboard.
Passion unattended is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
~ Lucas Scott
There's no "I" in "team"
You step on to the basketball court, surrounded by your teammates. The cheer of the crowd echoes all around you. Your heart is racing in anticipation. The game is on. For that small time of the day, you are a part of something bigger. Together, you and your team tackle a great beast. Working together, you display a beautiful set of motions, that string together a play worthy of the hall of fame.
Teamwork can be a beautiful something, can't it? That sensation you get from being a part of a whole, making sure that you do more than your best. To go out there and to do that which you love. To know that, whatever happens, the others have your back. That is the reason why Multiplayer is so exiting for many of us.
Sure, you can have the biggest score on the board. You can be the one to have more Kills to his record than Deaths. For a short moment, you completely annihilate your enemies and blaze ahead of everyone. You stand alone at the top. But, then what? When you look back, do you see a career you can proudly claim as your own? Maybe ...
Games like Modern Warfare, don't exactly focus on the concept of teamwork. It tries to force people to do so, in modes where you need to capture certain spots in the game. But, in the end, that's only a pipe dream. All people want, is to get the points from capturing that spot, teamwork be damned.
Everyone knows about Counter-Strike. At one point or another, a great percent of gamers have sat down and have played a match in this more than excellent game. Objectives in this game were designed for the specific purpose of creating teamwork. As Counter Terrorists, you needed to work together to try and find the best route as possible. And to get rid of the Terrorists that might be lurking ahead.
As Terrorists, you needed to communicate in order to put up the best defense as possible. You needed to guard spots or go for the bomb, and you needed to watch each other's back.
There was a form of silent communication going on in this game. If a situation was starting to play out, you knew where you might be needed and you headed over there. That was Counter Strike, and it was an immense amount of fun.
What's the difference between these two games? Leaderboards. The problem with Leaderboards, is that they promote people to steal each other's kills, go off on their own or even disable their own teammates in order to get ahead on the rankings.
Getting people to work as a team, happened extremely rarely in Modern Warfare. Only times when people came together, was to push back a group of enemies that had clustered up. After that, everyone dispersed and went their own way.
Just remember: there is no "I" in "team". Work together with those in the same game, and make sure you got their back. And what you learn from in the game, take that to the outside world as well. Friends and family are your team, so are the colleagues at work. Have their backs, and they will have yours. Work as a team, and tackle that great beast.
» Source: http://greyarchentertainment.blogspot.com/2012/04/theres-no-i-in-team.html
» Tagged In: #community showcase, #Multiplayer, #Online, #PC, #PSN, #Puddle Jumper, #Team work, #XBLA
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
Sikkinixx
Camping makes you pretty damn unstoppable too.
Correctitude
Why I'm a fan of Team Fortress 2- Try to go all "lone wolf" and you're liable to get your ass killed. Most of the time anyway- it has it's Rambo moments occasionally too :)
ALLoY20
But there is an I in Meat Pie.
Tamerlein
The game that I've played that demands the most teamwork is League of Legends. I mean honestly, you and your teammates have to work really well together in order to win. A disorganized team focused on personal glory is ridiculously easy to take down.
MaDdOg99
But there is a me in it
bigjoe91
Good thinking. But I feel this is a very complex discussion. Two simple point though are the following: 1. Modern Warfare sets you in the mood for individuality in the singles campaign. And most teamwork are usually duo teamwork. 2, Have you been on Xbox Live? I challenge you to find a group of 8 people you would even want to collaborate with.
darkhyrulelord
Good thoughts, but I actually disagree enough to the point that I could put out a new blog.
Teamwork always has been an illusionary substance to me that never truly exists, and every time I ever search for it, I always get held back or get frustrated one way or another. There are three main reasons why I believe that teamwork is generally worse off than doing things alone. One of them is that other people can't cooperate and everyone has their own different ways of thinking. This wouldn't happen if people had instantaneous mind-reading skills, but humans don't. Instead, people only give vague clues of what to do next by saying them in speech while playing, and that's IF they have a microphone. Another reason why teamwork never truly works is that humans are individualistic. I mean, if humans weren't we would never have arguments. Other "team members" usually have their own way of playing, and you truly have no control over this. In some cases, they might not even be a part of the team any more due to their different ideas. The final reason why teamwork never works...or rather my opinion this time....is that having people do things alone will have better results than if everyone did something together. No one would get in way, no one would have to argue or talk to each other, etc. Also, "team members" generally aren't as good as you are in the game and they just sap your power, suck, and get in the way, or it's the other way around (but usually the first one but I admit that the second can occasionally apply to me). No one wants to win a "team award" anyways since people are generally greedy (such as me) and want all of the glory to themselves. Therefore, I always do far better in games such as Free for all in CoD than in "team" deathmatch and I always prefer to battle it out against people I know rather than to play with them.
Fandango
Good points. Though, I'd like to point out "Counter-Strike Syndrome". When players spend enough time on maps, they get to know it pretty damn well. It's in situations like this where teamwork makes you pretty damned unstoppable, as you get a feel of what everyone is doing just by your location. Valve games do it right, where you NEED to work as a team in order to win the game. Like CS and Team Fortress 2. Sure, you can go off on your own, but if you aren't in synch with the rest of your team, you won't make it far.
vaderfan360
Excellent Article On The Finer Side Of Online Gaming,Good Job!
Sol-Raith
There's no "I" in team, but there is "me" ... and "meat" and "mate" and "tame" and "at me" and... (I'm so clever)