Top 10 Dick Moves While Playing Video Games

The popularity of survival games with creation and crafting elements has gone through the roof in recent years, and so they were always destined to become a target for ne’er-do-wells intent on destruction. This genre of game can be hard enough as it is, let alone with a group of griefers on your tail: they will use any means necessary to destroy everything you have grafted so long for. They might use fire, weapons or a selection of mods that are nearly impossible to combat when playing by the game’s rules. Bans and kicks do stop them temporarily but the free-for-all nature of survival titles makes these occasionally spiteful demolitions a difficult nuisance to prevent.

It might not be as malicious as other entries on this list but this horribly random method of desperately trying to get moves out quickly sure is annoying and no good whatsoever for the health of your controller. Generally a tactic employed by rookies of fighting and hack n’ slash games, it can be surprisingly effective against experienced players trying to link together advanced combos. We’ve all had a friend who might as well be playing with their feet, but don’t assign all the blame to these noobs: poor design and overpowered characters are just as responsible for legitimizing this god-awful approach and turning your favorite fighting title into an incoherent mess.

Every now and then you’re going to come up against someone who is better than you or has already ploughed hundreds of hours into online play: it’s just an unavoidable reality of gaming. What we could all do without however is that same superior player rubbing their supremacy in your face – literally. Sadly for those of us who don’t have the time to hone our skills, this belittling showing off will be a bugbear in numerous multiplayer games - until human nature ceases to exist that is. While we wait for that day we’ll have to endure an unrelenting supply of tea bags and cocky skill move spams, but don’t worry, every show-boater gets their comeuppance sooner or later.

Character selection in local multiplayer is always a tense process as each of you scramble to secure your favorite character. It gets truly contentious however when one sneaky friend starts to slide their selection towards the likes of Oddjob or Meta Knight. These picks will unanimously be met with outcries of dismay and often the unwillingness of others to begin the game until the offender backs down from their notoriously advantageous selection. If you’re really that desperate to get an upper hand then sure, go ahead. Just don’t be surprised if you have no friends by the end of what is guaranteed to be a particularly salty party game.

Just because you know about an exploit that will confuse, annoy and destroy players abiding by the rules, doesn’t mean you have to use it. Dramatically skewing online results, high-level exploiters might argue it’s a fair strategy due to the effort and skill it often takes to discover safe zones, hiding spots or buggy mechanics, but developers will be quick to denounce anything that degrades the experience for everyone else. Profiting from a specific bug in competitive shooters or arena games is a short-lived enterprise – they’re usually rapidly addressed – but with so much content available to modern gamers, it’s a constant battle to keep these cheaters away from online play.

A close relative of button-mashing, it’s again a strategy that many will argue is used by useless players whose only hope is to use the same, possibly powerful, move over and over. The common rebuttal to those bemoaning spammers is “if you were any good they wouldn’t beat you”, a fair enough argument when all you’re concerned about is winning, but when you care about how the game should be played, it becomes a more complex problem. Some strong characters – like Diddy Kong in Smash Bros. – do have movesets suited to repetitive strategies, but, just like real-world sport, they will always be viewed as a cheap option and never remembered as favorably as those that require real skill to master.

As much as gaming can be an escape from our day-to-day existence, it can also drive us up the wall and bring the very worst out of us. We have all had an off-day with controller in hand or a feeling that the game is screwing you over, and sometimes the only catharsis we have is this tried and tested method of swiftly bringing a game to a premature end. A similar move to restarting after a loss, it might come in the form of a quick Alt-F4 or even an expletive-filled throw of the controller. Whatever your chosen method of rage quit the end result is the same: you spoil everyone’s fun and realize you’ve made a huge mistake.

Okay, you’ve already proven you’re a comedy genius but could you possibly stop blasting grainy Rick Astley through your mic now please? As you might have gathered by now, online gaming can be an intimidating place to be at times and this audio invasion will take over your living room. Hearing other’s emotions and exasperations can be part of an immersive experience – that’s what let’s players are all about – but this form of noise pollution is guaranteed to force you into pursuing a kick. While you might get a quick giggle from an unusual soundboard app, it gets real tired, real fast.

While many annoyances on this list can be reasonably tolerated or countered, this team killing directly affects your ability to take part in the game. Many of us take pride in our serious video game accomplishments as titles like Rainbow Six Siege allow us to feel like true tactical operators. So when you get paired with a team-killing troll desperate for some cheap lols, you might find yourself asking why friendly fire is even possible. For some it does add a sense of realism but others will argue it gifts the griefers an easy tool to grind your gears. There have even been instances of a player you killed switching sides mid-game to get revenge. Nice work, douche.

Before we reveal our top pick, let’s take a look at some dishonorable mentions.

Ninja Looting in Raids

Spawn Camping

Kill Stealing

Smurfing

Intentional Feeding

The trolling community is generally a determined group, but none can match the perseverance and skill demonstrated by hackers who can alter the very mechanics of your virtual world. Mods are fair enough when it’s single player and only your game’s stability at risk but when random objects are spawned or attached to other players, it’s not only irksome but can tear the fabric of your server apart. These players will often be impossible to kill as they force their idea of fun upon gamers legitimately embracing the enormous challenge presented by AAA titles. We’ll end on a note of hope for all you honest gaming citizens however: revel in this virtual execution of a notorious Guild Wars 2 hacker. Justice.

Do you agree with our list? What type of gaming dickery do you dread falling victim to? For more gaming top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.