I was a little pissed off last night when someone I was playing against online suddenly disconnected as the momentum swung in my favor. It could be that his/her Internet connection dropped, but it didn't seem like a coincidence considering what had just transpired in the game. I had just taken down his most powerful character and was moving in for the kill. It was irritating that I didn't get the satisfaction of finishing what I started, but I was even more aggravated by the fact that I had just sat there for 20 - 30 minutes trying to obtain that satisfaction of victory. If you were just going to quit, couldn't you have saved me some time and done it a lot earlier?

This quitting thing happens all too often. Somebody starts to lose and bolts out of the game. In a one-on-one game I can see this as a concession I suppose. When you think that you have no chance to win, generally you admit defeat vocally to the other player. For the game I was playing last night, that was impossible, but it generally doesn't matter what type of communication tools are available because people just disappear in a puff of smoke with no explanation.

What's more bothersome is when someone quits during a team-based game. If a person isn't doing well, he/she quits, leaving the rest of the team crippled and likely to lose because the team is missing a person. Even if a person is doing terrible, the team needs the extra man. Play it out, get the practice. Obviously that person needs it.

Not that I'm exempt from being a sore loser. I've done plenty of grumbling and have been unpleasant after a loss, but I never just got up and quit. I'll frequently restart a level or a race because I made a mistake, but that happens when I'm playing solo. It's not like the computer cares if it wins or loses; it is there to provide competition. When I know I have to do certain things in order to beat the computer, why waste time by continuing after I make a major mistake?

Sadly, I don't expect this type of activity to disappear. So many 15-25 year olds feel as if they are entitled to something. When they go to college, they expect a good grade regardless of how much effort they put into the assignment because someone paid tuition. That mentality bleeds over onto gaming for them. If they play a game, they think they should always win. When the game goes against them, they just walk away. When these people are in a real job, will they quit because they didn't get the raise they wanted? If a project isn't turning out like they expected, do they just throw away that work and do something else, leaving the rest of their team to pick up the slack? Sometimes in life you can't just quit when it looks like things aren't going your way.