Honour Among Quakers
I’ve been playing Quake III Arena for a long time now, since the game came out in 1999 or whatever. Chatting is a big part of Q3A, mainly in the form of trash talking, “gg” (good game), “n1” (nice one), and congratulating the winner. Every once in a while, though, you get into a more interesting exchange—today, for instance. I had a pretty good game and came in second in a group of about 10, and at the end this was part of the chatting:
Someone: cheats
Me: I never cheat, in any way, ever
Someone else: that's so honorable
In case you missed it, that last chatter’s comment was meant to be dripping with sarcasm. After that a new game started, but I was done so I exited.
After thinking about it in the shower later, I wished I’d said something in response to that (ain’t it always that way?). Something like, “Way to set the honourability bar really low, dude.” In my books, making a sacrifice to help someone else is honourable; not cheating is just the way everyone should be all the time.
Someone: cheats
Me: I never cheat, in any way, ever
Someone else: that's so honorable
In case you missed it, that last chatter’s comment was meant to be dripping with sarcasm. After that a new game started, but I was done so I exited.
After thinking about it in the shower later, I wished I’d said something in response to that (ain’t it always that way?). Something like, “Way to set the honourability bar really low, dude.” In my books, making a sacrifice to help someone else is honourable; not cheating is just the way everyone should be all the time.


