6 Worst Things About Online Gaming

5. The Ass-Whuppin' Express

For those of you ladies and gentlemen who live across the pond, away from my wayward country of residence known as "America", the above is a final score in Madden, which concerns American football.

If you couldn't tell, the New Orleans Saints have THOROUGHLY beaten the Carolina Panthers.

Getting your behind kicked isn't necessarily (well... depending on your skill level) a rare occurrence, as nobody goes undefeated forever, but getting your ass absolutely handed to you is NOT a good feeling - and yes, I'm speaking from experience. From sports games, to First-Person Shooters, to third-person squad games - losing valiantly is something to live with. Getting ra - err, completely owned is another thing entirely.

As I've said before, skill-based matchmaking, regardless of what genre or type of game you're playing, can immensely improve the experience of virtually anyone who plays a game - the elite can wear on each other, the moderate players can duke it out, and the rookies, hell... even the dreaded n00bs can work each other over until they ascend from newbie status (that being said, n00b is forever, usually...).

"Totally fair, dude!"

In sports games, this can be outright infuriating - imagine playing FIFA and finding yourself in a ridiculous deficit in the neighborhood of 5 or more goals within the first few minutes. Or in something like Battlefield or Call of Duty, watching your teammates get mowed down by a focused, organized squad who is absolutely dominating you in every aspect of the game - being incidentally matched up with a player or player(s) of disproportionately higher skill isn't only annoying, it can ruin the game for you if it happens often enough - nobody, and I mean NOBODY, would consistently enjoy getting their rear end served to them. However...