It has been quite sometime since I have written a blog. I am not the best author in the world (so excuse the spelling and grammar
Sashamorning and
Big Ell), but in light of some recent events on TA, I felt it would be a good time to share some recent experiences.
I have been making a heavy push to work on some multiplayer achievements in racing games on the Xbox 360. I do enjoy chasing the leaderboards in completed racing games (pun intended), and have finally got to a place where I am going to put some time in on the MotoGP series. I am not particularly fond of motorcycle games (I should not have started knocking this one out first
Motorcycle Club Achievements) but I do know that the 20 player achievements existed in
MotoGP 09/10 Achievements and
MotoGP 10/11 Achievements. So let the games begin!
I happened to see there was a session up on TA for the
Now getting into a session as the 20th participant in a 20 player achievement is risky to say the least so it is definitely a gamble but one I am going to take. I do like to complete all the games I start so lets see where it goes. The session host
Psychotic Sully, seemed really prepared and more importantly down to earth (despite the misleading GT). We got the first session going and of course we had a disruptive person in the session (we all got repayed with retaliation feedback and some harassment) causing only 7 people to earn the achievement. Not to be deterred, the group said lets try again in two weeks.
Unfortunately Sully could not join us in the second session as he was away, but we got it off the ground due in large part to the fantastic community that is TA. We had people double boxing, we had people who had the achievement waiting in the wings to help out from the previous session. It really was a great session. 16 people earned the achievement in the second session, in two hours!! What a success.
During that session I mentioned MotoGP 10/11 to the group and if anyone was interested I would set up a session for 6 weeks from the day to earn:
Just about everyone was interested. We all put forth our efforts to acquire a copy of the game (it is region free but never released in the US), some of us even getting two copies of the game. Now time to sit and wait. Of course it is easy to ay six weeks from now we can plan on being in the session, but as every gamer knows, real life happens and it happens quick. During the six weeks we had a disruptive individual join the session. I do not generally like to do this but his reputation was not a good one. I had to unfortunately remove him from the session prior to it starting. It is never a pleasant thing to do, but it had to be done. I sent him a kindly worded PM after he asked why he was removed and he seemed content with the explanation.
As the session approached we had quite a few people drop due to their commitments in life, which should always be the first priority, after all these are just video games. We also had two people join the session at the last minute. Of course the GT's were very suspicious. They never joined the game. We managed to get the session going due to a monumental show of selflessness on the part of
Oriole2682,
Psychotic Sully and
Slim Panatella. None of who were in the session but answered the call for those that were!
These gamers in particular and the gamers in the MotoGP sessions reminded how great the community can be when it comes to a common goal. Despite running into two disruptive gamers we all managed to keep our cool and help each other out. Oriole, Slim and Sully never thought for a second "what's in it for me?" They saw fellow gamers that needed some assistance and they delivered. It is always great to see this and to anyone reading this on TA right now, don't ever ask yourself "what's in it for me?".
Pay it forward and respect one another. You could really be brightening someone's day and not even realize it. We live in a society that can be rough some days. People get bad news all the time. If someone needs some assistance, do not hesitate to offer it. These experiences through the MotoGP sessions have been tremendously uplifting. I love to see simple acts of kindness in this community. Even if it is help earning an achievement. You do not know what that person may have experienced that day, they may just need a small victory.
Thanks for taking the time to read. Stay awesome TA!!!