The amount of NASCAR going on in Destiny 2's Iron Banner this week made me remember about my Mechwarrior Online days.
I wish the first MWO moment I could remember was a fun or cool story - and I have fun and cool stories - but unfortunately it's always gonna be the 100 ton mechdad who said, unsolicited, "It is my right of free speech to pretend the enemy team are Black Lives Matters supporters" and spent an entire 2 minutes elaborating. He had all that time, you see, because he was piloting a fucking snail
...That paragraph pretty much sums up much my time with MWO. I had some great times but wargames just attract absolute garbage people, and the people maintaining the game are just Okay With That. My playtime had already been sporadic because of those guys, but I haven't played since the Trans Rights/Trans Fights incident [link] [CEO being stupid] [shit apology] and I've since vowed that the only reason I would come back is if I was on a mission to get banned by literally just opening/closing every match with "trans rights"
mechwarrior online is a culmination of the good and bad ways that these communities intersect. It's an online videogame of an 80's scifi franchise with big warmachines based on a tabletop wargame.
every single one of these descriptors is a red flag.
and yeah - it creates a loud culture, where you'll at minimum have half decent comms every match, and see someone named after a nazi or - i dunno, concept of conservative ideology at least once a month. but 80's scifi attracts some real oddballs - it's about oddballs.
i'll never forget the time that i sneezed, and reflexively hit my Discord push to mute button... which happened to be my push to talk button on MWO. one person sounded almost betrayed when they said "why?"
i'll never forget the SRM Linebacker who, in four games in a row, dropped everything to hunt me down - the dude piloting a Raven I call the "ER Large Shithead." it started with them being the only person willing to turn around and fight the light mech melting their rear armour, but that night, we had a beautiful rivalry. I might have won 4-0, but it wasn't without losing any limbs.
i'll never forget joining the little stock Urbie that dared to cross frozen city's river; and our quest to have some fucking fun this match as the two or three fuckers without ER Larges/PPC/AC2/Gauss. it was the tensest i've ever been in MWO, creeping alongside the Urbie at like 37kph in my ECM Phoenix Hawk, hoping nobody sees us with their human eyeballs. in the end, we were the only fuckers with kills at all. we took down four of their rear guard, crippled two more, before the entire enemy team, who had the same idea except with mechs heavier than 50 tons, finally circled back on us.
i'll never forget that one dude who was going off about the good old "soy estrogen feminization" shit, and him getting quiet so fast when I said "it's true. as a chinese guy who eats soy products at least weekly i have massive enormous tits. just absolutely ridiculous milkers." he left the game.
i'll never forget that struggle to defend an out-of-position Dire Wolf on alpine peaks as it made its way up to the rest of us. i was shielding its ass with Urbie front armour and an AC/5. the relief i felt knowing i was the little trashcan that personally stopped them from becoming 100 tons of scrap.
that urbie build was fun - it was back when people underestimated a decent urbie's armour and agility. I think it was like a R60L with ER smalls and an AC/5?