This is not so much a rant but rather, an observation. And I'm also a Filipino, and being in many online communities, games in particular, where Filipinos abound has allowed me to witness these things unfold. So don't think I'm talking without purpose or evidence.

Filipinos are known world-wide, sadly, as being the worst kind of online-gamer, mainly because of a few internet habits they picked up and passed on to each other. I'm not sure from where this stems, if it's a lack of netiquette from only making internet games widespread so late (only began around 2003), or if it's really just a bunch of popular people in particular games that act so hideously that the new players think it's cool to act the same way.

I'd just come out of playing Rakion (SEA server), which is, as you can imagine, primarily Filipino in population. It's exactly what Filipinos want: mindless killing. And it's loads of fun. The only reason I think it isn't catching on too well and spreading like wildfire is that not a lot of Filipinos have good connections. And being a fighting game, speed and latency is of the utmost importance. So some Filipinos have 128 or 256 kbps connections, and can only connect to people within the same area or circuit (myself included).

Anyway, the last game I had was muchly enjoyable. This is the game I'd just finished. There were two people who were probably friends or acquaintances in-game and/or in real life. When I entered the room they decided to team up on me. That's completely fine by me, in reality. And it was lots of fun because even if it was two characters teaming up just on me (an archer and a ninja, while I used a ninja), they seemed to have a hard time killing me. And when they did kill me, I saw it as a challenge and tried even harder to not get killed the next time. They had their rants here and there, cusses and saying that I'm "weak" (a Filipino habit), and saying "asa" (literally means "hoping", but in-context it could mean something like "You WISH!"; another Filipino habit that I'll explain a bit more later), and saying "walang iyakan" ("don't cry [if you get killed]"). As usual, I try not to pay attention to anything, and just do my job of beating them up. But the archer kept making the mistake of doing the invincible attack, which, if it misses, leaves the character completely vulnerable to any kind of attack for two (2) whole seconds. And in reality, my play style is more of a punisher, that is, I like to punish missed attacks with a grab-attack, which is the ninja's specialty.

So anyway, it turns out the dude playing the archer really got pissed after I killed him repeatedly in that way. It's not like I was dominating or anything. I think the kills were still evenly matched. This even after some other dude came in and semi-teamed up with me. The archer dude likes to come up and do the invincible attack, which would've been devastating to everybody in the area, and is likely to hit because basically you run into the crowd while the crowd is fighting each other. However, I don't do crowds. And guess who was there to punish the archer after the attack? This really pissed him off, which was in no way my intention of course; it's really just how grab ninjas are played. So he started venting his anger directly at me, saying I was "sawsaw" (the word literally pertains to somebody dipping in the dip of other people. It literally means "to dip". Used in games, it pertains to kill-stealing, or joining in the fight of other people, including backstabbing like what I do). I acknowledge the fact that I did "sawsaw", but the game is free for all, and in reality the archer was the first to jump into that crowd and try to kill both other players first. I find it weird that somebody that is "sawsaw" would have the thinking that he can do it, but others mustn't do it to him.

And so, pointing that out to him, which was probably a mistake, possibly pissed him off even more. He and his partner, who was getting his ass kicked by the other player, started calling me weak, useless, etc. I didn't mind of course. The archer then switched characters to a warrior, which is, if you ask me, the weakness of ninjas, because of their fast, powerful and wide-sweeping regular attacks (their 3-hit regular attack combo , which is done by a simple triple-click, does even more damage than my much-more difficult to perform grabs). So he proceeded to kick my ass. I'm serious, he really handed me my ass there, and I even congratulated him. But even my complements made him angry. I tried not talking at all, except to say that I was getting sleepy since it was 3 AM, and everything I said made him angry, making him say stuff like "takot ka lang" ("You're just scared") or "weak ka kasi". Still, I chose not to let any of these things piss me off. Instead I said, "Siyempre takot ako, magaling ka e" ("Of course I'm scared, you're very good"), followed by a reassurance that I'm not saying that in a patronizing way, that I really found him to be a good player (because the majority of warriors I fight really suck so bad that I can poke them repeatedly and they wouldn't kill me, but I didn't state this to him).

Anyway to end that story, I left there feeling a little sad because they turned what could've been such an awesome game of kicking each others' asses into an insult-fest. I'm pretty sure they were waiting for me to return fire, lose my cool, or rant in front of them because they teamed up on me pretty much the whole way. They were probably waiting for me to start cussing them, or say that they're unfair or whatever. I admit the whole ordeal seriously hurt my pride, especially knowing how the old me would've reacted. If it were me 3 or 4 years ago, like back in the days of Philippine Ragnarok Online, where people knew me as being unforgiving, violent, and frightening, with my ability to type very quickly. And I could type entire sentences full of rants and cursing (not just cussing, actual curses like "I hope you die in your sleep tonight. You and your entire family" and other terrible things) before the object of my anger could even finish reading the last sentence I typed. But I'm actually surprised at myself now, for how well I kept my cool. I tried hard but it was worth it. If I'd pronounced a curse like that, and that guy and his family actually died, it would be on my hands. Instead, I tried to act friendly even in the face of hostility. And if the other guy who was playing with us found that to be admirable in the least, or if I continue doing that and people take notice, then maybe I can make a change in Philippine Online Gaming for the better. And maybe foreigners wouldn't hate us so much when we invade their games.

Side notes:
Asa
I have reason to believe that it was my friend Francis (a.k.a., Krelian, the ultra support priest in our guild back in Philippine Ragnarok Online) that first coined this term in online gaming back in 2003. They would say it in PVP after they kill somebody. It's somewhat degrading, but he always made it sound like a joke. In other words, he wasn't necessarily disrespecting his victims (if he said it to me the same way he said it before, I wouldn't have gotten offended). The term spread quickly in its proper usage, but now, almost four years later, the term is now being incorrectly used. Now even the people who lose say "asa", something which I don't understand. It's like saying... "YOU WISH YOU COULD KILL ME" when he's already standing on top of your corpse. Or saying "YOU WISH YOU COULD DEFEAT ME" when he obviously schooled you. I guess it's just so convenient to say, seeing how you only need one hand to type it, and in many cases, for the lazy typist (like 99.999% of all internet people), just one finger.

Sawsaw
I first heard of this term in Counter-Strike, another game that was (and still is) very popular in the Philippines. As I said it means kill-stealing. I'm not sure why this is an issue in CS except that a lot of players think of the game as a one-on-one kind of thing, where everybody is rambo, and he has to kill the guy right in front of him, and nobody will help him, nor the other guy. So they get pissed, and even kick you off servers sometimes when you "sawsaw".

Weak
The term is pretty literal. But people will say it as an insult even if it isn't true. Like people saying players that killed them are weak (similar to the case of "asa", which I don't fully understand myself).


One more thing I observed is that Filipinos like hogging or dominating a game. This doesn't necessarily mean they become the strongest. Just that many Filipinos will look for other Filipinos, band together, treat the game as if it's a Filipino server, by speaking in Filipino, and even insulting or cussing in Filipino, to people who don't speak the language. I find nothing wrong in it if they want to do it amongst themselves, but they have to realize that they're on international servers, and if they're going to communicate with somebody they don't know is a Filipino, they should do it in English. If they find out the person is a Filipino, then it's fine to speak in Filipino with him. They should be considerate of those who don't speak the language.

Lastly, I hope Filipinos outgrow this childish behavior. It's much more fun to make a lot of friends (I mean actual friends, like what happened to me and my guild from pRO; we still talk a lot even if it's been 4 years since we've played together), rather than people to say "asa" and "weak" and hurl insults at other people repeatedly with. Even more fun than making enemies.

I'll have to reread this for congruency. My apologies for anyone who reads this, because it's 4 AM by now, and I'm really sleepy. D: