Trash Talk = Poor Sportsmanship

I don't get the BGs sometimes. People will /spit /rude /lol you when they kill you, as if there was some personal vendetta between the two of you.

Or you kill someone so they come back for revenge and you kill them again, so they grab 3 friends, come back & destroy you, then /spit /lol on you as you get crushed into the dirt.

If I have a really good fight with another player and it's obvious I've been outclassed and am about to die, I will try to get off a /bow or /salute before I take a dirt nap, unless I see them /lol at me first, then forget it. Respect is a two-way street.

In Hellfire Peninsula while working on the PvP quests I once died to a Tauren Druid, several times. But I kept coming back and trying again. The final fight between us went on for quite some time as I kited him around the Tower, Freeze Trapping him (when it was up) to get some distance, Bandaging when I could, and it was a long, drawn out affair that still eventually resulted in my death. After that final death I let my PvP Flag wear off, Rez'd, and /saluted the Druid and he /saluted me right back. Through the limited communication offered by simple emotes we gave each other the respect we felt the other deserved. Then he did a /scare emote, and I'm not sure if it was meant to imply that I was scared of him (for waiting out my PvP flag while dead), but the emote came out that he was scared of me. I laughed and returned the /scared emote right back at him. Hell yeah, you scare me. You're a damn good player who knows his class! Well played, sir!

/spit? /rude?

Hell NO! This was a more-than-worthy opponent who'd earned my respect.

I recall one of the FPS games (either Unreal Tournament or Quake Arena) allowed you to taunt a fallen foe. When killing another player's avatar isn't enough, there's always post-mortem ridicule; it's Trash Talking to the extreme.

At my former place of employment we used to have a Foosball Table. I was pretty good at it and was one of the top players in the office. There was only one guy who was better than me, and it wasn't that he was a better player because we were about evenly matched. What he was better at, in fact what he did that gave him the edge, as did most of the other Foosball Players (with the exception of yours truly) was Trash Talked during the game. I hate Trash Talk, and it probably showed, and it did what my opponent intended; It got in my head, threw me off my game, and helped my opponent win.

I've posted before on what I consider poor sportsmanship: Pitchers deliberately walking a known power hitter; Quarterbacks taking a knee to run down the clock; Deliberately fouling a player because he can't shoot Free Throws. It's all within the rules, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's fair. Outplay the other team, yes, but to use the rules to deny your opponent any chance of winning? How can that be fair? And if it's not fair, it's poor sportsmanship.

JE has finally finished his second season of baseball. The difference between T-Ball and Prep Baseball is amazing, and horrific. T-Ball was all about having fun. Prep Baseball was supposed to be, too, and for the most part it was. The kids would cheer each other on, some teams would cheer louder, our kids were less enthusiastic than most. The kids on one team in particular would cheer loudly for their batters, right from the start of the innings, and they wouldn't let up until the 3rd Out. It was then, when they took to the field, that it got ugly; that's when they'd stop cheering for each other and start heckling our batters.

These were 7 and 8-year old kids, ridiculing each other; behavior which seemed not only tolerated by their coach, but encouraged. When the ugliness starts that early it gets deep inside and takes root, and the chances of dislodging it later are very slim.

I spoke to our Head Coach about it, saying I understood it was part of the game, but how I didn't agree with it. I said that as Assistant Coach I didn't think it was my part to say anything to the other team's Coach, but perhaps if he, as our Head Coach, could speak to them...

Coach looked at me and smiled sadly, and informed me that the other team's Coach was the man in charge of our League.

I see. Kind of nothing we can do then, is there. We continued with the game, and the other team continued heckling our kids. Very sad.

You can argue that the kids are only going to encounter this later anyway, so why not get them used to it at an early age, but I ask why should they have to encounter it later. Why does there need to be Trash Talk? Your argument is it's a skill/technique that lets you get inside your opponent's head and throw him off his game. I'd argue that insulting someone (or their mom) is not skillful, it's just rude and disrespectful. It takes no skill and shows a distinct lack of class.

If we stopped our little ones from trash talking and moved on up the ranks, cutting it out where ever we encountered it, then eventually there would be no trash talking, and we'd just have two teams relying on their skills and teamwork to defeat the other. We do everything we can to encourage our youngsters to participate in sports. We tell them it's not if they win or lose, we just want them to have fun. Meanwhile there are other parents who think "Cheat to win" is a perfectly good slogan. But this is not war, or a matter of life & death, where I wouldn't hesitate to shoot you in the back or run over you with a Tank; this is Baseball. It's a sport, and the natural compliment to sport is good sportsmanship. Unfortunately it looks like that baby got thrown out with the bath water.