How do you play multiplayer?

[cybernettr]

I'm new to the concept of multiplayer – I never participated in it until I got my CV1 - so forgive me for any ignorance as to how it works, but I am curious as to how people use it.  Please participate in the following poll so I can tell whether my attitudes towards it / use of it are typical or not.  Not enough room to get into the reasons why people make each choice, but that might be an opportunity for a future poll (or polls). 

[BeastyBaiter]

I don't have a single friend in real life who has a VR headset. I have 1 friend who plays some of the games I do, though we haven't met up in a game yet for whatever reason. Should probably bring it up.

[Zenbane]

I've had memorable experiences in games like BattleField and Diablo with Friends. I've also had incredibly hilarious and awesome experiences in multiplayer games with total strangers. Most notably, wacky random matchups with StarCraft, and more recently with the Rift... a total stranger walked me through the entire campaign of BattleZone, and I laughed myself into submission with a total stranger in Dead & Buried:
https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/472819/#Comment_472819

The problem with public games and random matchups with strangers, is that there's always a high chance that the experience will be unpleasant if you end up playing with a human turd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCtQDfkTNN4

[BeastyBaiter]

That is always a possibility. I mostly play hardcore flight sims, a genre where the age tends to skew a bit older (30+ mostly). But hopping into a shooter is a great way to meet a 12 year old kid with an attitude problem.

[OpticKing]

I generally play a lot of overwatch, where it constantly matches me with strangers, one reason I don't jump into the voice channels is because of people who take the game too seriously. Then again I normally end up with 4/5 gold medals so at least that tells me even if we lose I did my part and then some, so I have no real reason to get mad. More times than once I've carried most of the team to victory, especially if someone on my team notices and becomes my pocket healer. 

Admittedly in my teens I did get a bit upset and would swear on occasion, but nothing like those in the gamer rage vids... that's next level, over 9000 sore loser power there lol. 

[nalex66]

I'm not a big MP player normally, but I've been enjoying player VR games with others. It's often random public matchmaking, but I've also had fun playing with forum friends.

I don't have any real-life friends who are gamers, let alone friends with VR headsets. 

[cybernettr]

nalex66 said:

I don't have any real-life friends who are gamers, let alone friends with VR headsets. 

Yeah, that's the case with me, and I figured it had to be pretty common since we're still in the relatively early days of VR. 

[Litespeed]

Language can be a great barrier if you're not a native English speaker.
Text chats are no problem for me at all. But in voice chats with multiple people speaking with strange accents and muffled voices I need to concentrate a lot to understand it all, which is hard when you have a game to play at the same time.
Unfortunately in VR text chats aren't really practical so most communication works over voice chat.

[isla9]

Usually, do not participate in multiplayer

[bigmike20vt]

I like MP, but for me it is a social thing and not competitive, I FAR prefer co-op as well, so for example gears of war horde mode or a game like dead island / L4D / payday 2, get friends on and then open up the missing slot for a random if they want.... (however usually i play on private chat as i tend to speak differently with friends than i perhaps do in public.)