A study carried out by an anti-bullying charity found that 57% of the young people it surveyed had experienced bullying online when playing games.
In addition, 22% said they had stopped playing a game as a result.
Ditch the Label surveyed around 2,500 young members of the virtual hotel platform Habbo, aged between 12 and 25.
One 16-year-old gamer, Bailey Mitchell, told the BBC he had experienced bullying while playing online games since the age of 10.
"If you're going to school every day and you're being bullied in school you want to go home to your computer to escape," he said.
"So if you're getting more abuse thrown at you it's going to put you off doing anything social - it has for a lot of people I know, me included.
"It's regular, every other game you're in, there's always someone who has a mic or types in chat. They'll call you some random abusive thing they can think of."
Indeed, young gamers should stop bullying old people in online games.
Related Stories
Cyberbullying is now a crime in Michigan punishable by jail time
On Thursday, Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a bill sponsored by Rep. Pete Lucido, R-Shelby Township that formally defines cyberbullying as a misdemeanor. Public Act 457 of 2018 will take effect in March.
The law states cyberbullying is a crime punishable by 93 days in jail and a $500 fine. A "pattern of repeated harassment" is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Meanwhile, cyberbullying that is found to cause a victim's death is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
According to Lucido's bill, "cyberbullying" is defined by "posting a message or statement in a public media forum about any other person" if both "the message or statement is intended to place a person in fear of bodily harm or death and expresses an intent to commit violence against the person" and "the message or statement is posted with the intent to communicate a threat or with knowledge that it will be viewed as a threat."
A "pattern of harassing or intimidating behavior" means a series of two or more separate noncontinuous acts of harassing or intimidating behavior. And a "public media forum" refers to "the internet or any other medium designed or intended to be used to convey information to other individuals, regardless of whether a membership or password is required to view the information."
ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 5017 (other docs).
Related: Twitter Launches Trust And Safety Council To Help Put End To Trolling
'One in Two' Young Online Gamers Bullied, Report Finds
Aussie Parents Fear Social Media More Than Drugs, Alcohol or Smoking
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @01:26PM (5 children)
That's not bullying, that's just someone being an asshole.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 02 2017, @01:47PM
Not being a regular on online gaming (quite on the contrary), I need to ask - which one of the two is the asshole?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 02 2017, @02:25PM (3 children)
>>They'll call you some random abusive thing they can think of.
>That's not bullying, that's just someone being an asshole.
Part of growing up is learning to tell the difference.
Part of maturing is learning that not everyone knows the difference, and that "good-natured fun" really can hurt innocent people.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @08:01PM (2 children)
I think we all know that not everyone knows the difference, but that doesn't mean you have to care about their feelings. They can either toughen up or remain perpetually offended babies; 'offensive' things are not going to go away, so the former is preferable.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 02 2017, @08:53PM (1 child)
Yes, grow a skin.
Turn off or ignore the taunts, never respond, and just get really good at the game.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 02 2017, @09:34PM
>Yes, grow a skin.
Easy to say, probably appropriate/correct in 99%+ of cases, but you're going to interact with a lot of people in your life - every once in awhile you'll interact with an outlier where "grow a skin" really isn't the right answer. Do you really want to be the asshole who contributes to something tragic, when you could have just not been an asshole and helped this rare person grow through their problem rather than breaking?
Granted, "special flowers" have no place in online gaming, but I guarantee that they are still there, and it's even harder to tell in that kind of forum what you're really doing to the people on the other side of your abuse.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday June 02 2017, @01:30PM (11 children)
You know what you can do in an online game you can't do at school? Hit the damned mute button. PVP the dipshit and take him to school. You give a bully a black eye for harassing you at school, they give YOU detention. In a video game unlike real life, YOU ACTUALLY CAN IGNORE THEM AND THEY ACTUALLY GO AWAY!
But which fucking games are these? What are they? Cock of Duty? STOP PLAYING FUCKING COCK OF FUCKING DUTY!
Maybe I have a new proposal. I was inspired by the proposals out of feminism from 90 to require a birth certificate to prove that you're a womyn-born-womyn before using a female avatar. How about we just BAN womyn-born-womyn from online games since apparently having a vagina makes you too stupid to find the mute button?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday June 02 2017, @02:00PM (10 children)
Once - after that, the bully will let you alone, there will be other easier targets.
If it can be afforded, one may see the detention a good investment for the future.
Mate, remember Wheaton's Law [knowyourmeme.com] and stop GIFT-ing [knowyourmeme.com], will ye?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:31PM
There is that as most bullies tend to have glass jaws and too much ego to cry to their own mommas when someone hits back.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 02 2017, @02:41PM (5 children)
Wheaton's law is the most ironic meme I've ever seen. The guy is a colossal prick.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:46PM (4 children)
Somebody loves gratuitous oxymorons, I see.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 02 2017, @05:03PM (3 children)
Doctor Poole was right; you're an ox and a moron.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @05:27PM (1 child)
Still better than a narcissistic ugly bird.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 02 2017, @06:52PM
I find your lack of cinematic trivia disturbing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @01:02AM
I'm a figment of your mind, you're taking to yourself. Again.
But then, what's not to like? Perfection taking to perfection, what an uplifting conversation I and I both have.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday June 02 2017, @04:34PM (2 children)
Man...
If I have a serious regret about high school, it is that I did not just kick at least one pretty aggravating bully in the head. Just once.
Not like, beat him when he's down, just one really solid blow to the head, then deal with whatever the repercussions would have been. No guns or weapons or anything. Maybe I'd get detention, or suspension, or who knows what. But I'd have remembered that one time forever, and so will that guy, and possibly some witnesses, and probably nobody will have remembered the punishment or the retaliation or whatever.
But.
Not sure I'd have had the wisdom, in those days, to use it at precisely the right time.
So maybe it's best I never did.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @05:44PM
Bard's don't normally fare well in melee... probably wise you did not ;)
Some people go for +str some for +wis
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:43PM
Regrets are only useful as a way to change your future actions.
Forget that specific bully, but look around you and see if there is a present-day bully that needs to be retaliated against. If you find none, then let those memories because they only take away from your strengths.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Friday June 02 2017, @01:49PM
"Bullying" implies that the abuse is intentionally directed at you, as an individual. The toxic stuff that goes on in most online games is equal opportunity. Anyone who plays any of the real-time online games knows all about this.
TFA: "It's regular, every other game you're in, there's always someone who has a mic or types in chat. They'll call you some random abusive thing they can think of."
If they claim that only half of the gamers have experienced this, they are wrong. It's 100%. But it's not bullying, it's just The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory [knowyourmeme.com] in action.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 02 2017, @02:08PM (4 children)
As suggested above, just mute someone you don't want to hear from. What, you think he's going to reach through the intartubes and blacken your eye? Grow a pair. FFS, if you can't cope with a little pretend life in game, how in the HELL are you going to deal with real life? Pantywaist. Milksop. Candyass. Keep crying, I have a canoe.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Friday June 02 2017, @02:22PM (1 child)
In a world where doxxing exists, the threat of someone 'reaching through the intertubes to blacken your eye' is often possible, if people put too much information about themselves in their online profile.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday June 02 2017, @02:43PM
Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this!
Doctor: Don't do that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by driven on Friday June 02 2017, @03:57PM
Sure the mute button works fine when there's only one dickhead to block there's an endless supply of dickheads out there on the Internet.
Also I think telling a ten-year old they need to grow a pair is ridiculous - no child should have to endure bullying. Eventually we learn to toughen up but it takes time to develop that maturity and perspective of the world to see bullying for what it really is.
Bullying should not be tolerated online or in real life under any circumstances. I would support any company that bans repeat offenders.
I say repeat offenders because sometimes the bullies don't realize what they're doing and need to develop their own maturity and realize the damage they are doing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @04:04PM
Its called addressing cultural problems with education and outreach programs. Humanity has massively changed its cultural patterns over the years, I think its about time we addressed the nasty gamer talk and let the fuckwads know their behavior is not welcome. Of course they can still do so, but as the culture shifts those fuckwads will be less welcome. Thus they will adjust their behavior, or they can yell their bullshit to a room of people that have them muted.
Is someone proposing legislation to fine online bullys? No? Get with the times little snowflake.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:22PM (2 children)
The key line from the article:
A study across a bunch of popular online games would be interesting, but this study is relatively worthless unless you play Habbo Hotel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:28PM
Also happens to be a game that 4chan have trolled for over a decade. [youtube.com]
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday June 02 2017, @11:59PM
WTF. This is Habbo Hotel?! Didn't anyone get the fucking memo?! Can't you read the sign with well dressed African-American on it?! Pool's closed! AIDS! Jeezus!
Here's a documentary. [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday June 02 2017, @02:26PM (3 children)
Yes, and the other kids are escaping through playing an online game where they shit-talk. For some reason this one seems to have trouble with the concept?
You're not supposed to go cry and take a survey, you're supposed to shit talk back, and lob a grenade or whatever.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 02 2017, @03:17PM (2 children)
"and lob a grenade or whatever. "
Online gaming. You're supposed to kill stuff in most games. Killing opponents is what it's all about. So, I'm online to kill you, and you're online to kill me. I call you a pussy - and? You cry? Fek, while you're sniveling, I'm going to kill you, for damn sure!! (Or switch roles, you call me a pussy, I whine and cry, and you kill me while I'm preoccupied with sniveling - same-o, same-o)
Now, I understand that Bronies and other such creatures really can't stand to be called pussies. That's fine. If they stay on the other side of the rainbow, playing with their unicorns and whatever else amuses them, I'm not going over there to screw with them. Hell, I might catch the gay-tard if I went over there! (I presume it's contagious, most horrible things are!)
Maybe it's a good idea to segregate the internet? Gay-tard games can have their own TLD, ending in .qq. No real man (and few real women) will wander into it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @03:52PM (1 child)
The domain name system is not a content classification system. [rfc-editor.org] Still I think there's some merit in your idea, I propose .safespace, .snowflake or .narcissist because nobody else should give a shit about how easily "offended" some individuals are.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 02 2017, @11:20PM
You may not be aware that gamers are already familiar with qq - they use it already to designate people crying. The q's resemble a pair of eyes with tears below them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Friday June 02 2017, @02:34PM (8 children)
A couple of days ago, I made a comment that all the best video games were in the 80s and modern games were crap, and I got down-modded and ridiculed. Well here again, it's proven that the old-time games are better. You want to escape from the problems with socialization? You can't do it on a social game! People playing Ultima V never had trouble with some asshole calling them names or tormenting them.
All this "social" stuff is ruining what made computers fun in the first place: social games, social networks, online discussion sites, they're all havens for people to act their worst without suffering any real consequences for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:50PM
In my day, all we had was Death Race and we were thankful for it. It built character.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @02:57PM (1 child)
And yet you are here, on an online discussion site.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 02 2017, @03:02PM
Yeah, that's why you have to pick your online forums carefully. And I'm not a teenager any more so I don't have to worry about most of the other problems that come with this social crap, since I don't have to worry about meeting up with people from online in school the next day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @03:40PM (2 children)
And now you're back for more...? Admit it, you just like being ridiculed.
Well then, I have a simple suggestion: don't play a social game. I just checked, there are more than 30,000 games on Steam. When I filter for single-player, there are more than 26,000 games left. There must be at least a dozen decent modern games in there.
I play a lot of games. I never play multi-player. Not because people are assholes, but because I'm not "social". I still have hundreds of games on Steam and GOG (well, mostly on GOG, but DRM is a whole another story). There are good old games, there are good new games. Try to peek around your rose-colored-nostalgia glasses once in a while, you may find something worthwhile. Or not. Just stop dismissing everything you don't like as crap. It's infantile and sad.
Also, places for people to be social. Not fun for you and me, but fortunately the society is more diverse. As much as I like me, I really don't want too many of me around.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 02 2017, @05:01PM (1 child)
And now you're back for more...?
No, I'm back to point out that I was right all along.
Well then, I have a simple suggestion: don't play a social game.
Yeah, but it seems like all the games these days with the most hype are social/online ones.
When I filter for single-player, there are more than 26,000 games left. There must be at least a dozen decent modern games in there.
Yeah, but how many of those are top-billed titles, rather than tiny little indie games? Don't get me wrong, I think there's probably some great little single-player indie games in there that would be great fun, but those aren't the ones that get all the hype and marketing, and teenagers are much less likely to seek these out instead of the AAA social games that all their dumb friends are playing.
Just stop dismissing everything you don't like as crap
I'm not, I'm dismissing social games which seem to be all the rage these days among game-players, and I have good reason to dismiss them, as proven by this article: they're basically just like the 4chan crowd but in a game which you have to pay to use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:14PM
I'd like to point out that you were complaining about "best" games. "Most hyped" is an entirely different category. That also applies to movies, books, music, etc.
Sigh. First, don't forget that in the 80s, compared to today, the entire computer game industry was "indie". Second, AAA goes to the least common denominator. Those things are expensive as hell, and you don't get a lot of income with "good" games; for that you need flashy graphics and lots of marketing. Also see: Hollywood movies, pop music.
Also: "Tiny little indie games"? "Great little single-player indie games"? Off the top of my head, here are several quality single-player indie games that have enough content for several thousand hours of gameplay: Dwarf Fortress, Terraria, Star Ruler 2, Grim Dawn, Minecraft (before Microsoft bought it). Not to mention that with crowdfunding and early access even indie games can raise millions of dollars for development...
No, you've specifically stated that "modern games were crap", not that "social games were crap". Social games represent only a tiny percentage of all games. Not to mention that this is not a "these days" thing: social games have always been all the rage, especially before the computers. How many families have spent evenings playing that crappy AAA social game, Monopoly?
You know, between your complete dismissal of indie titles and your total focus on "social games which seem to be all the rage" to the exclusion of the overwhelming majority of other stuff out there, I wonder if I should just get off you lawn now :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:52PM
If you are a person who is into competitive games, then present-day games are a much better source of real competition. Computer AI is also much better and realistic (compared to identical aimbots on rails).
If you like immersive stories, then present-day games can actually have enough dialog for complex character development and establish a world that feels less full of NPCs that only are there for the sake of the player.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:45PM
Indeed after 1985 sprites began to swell and game studios thought that it was all about better graphics. Everything went downhill since except for simulation games where realism is indeed important and the mouse driven FPS which did not exist at the time.
Back to topic, being bullied is FUN! I used to duel with aliases, putting little effort until I get the asshole who makes either snide remarks or abuse, then i fake getting angry and steamrolled him, then leaving with "this game is easy". In the rare case the other guy was stronger I would troll him implying he was cheating and I had seen glitches in the game which proved just that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Friday June 02 2017, @02:59PM (1 child)
"Does Habbo have an age limit for players?
Yes. Habbo Hotel is meant for users 13 years old or above. Users under the age of 13 are not permitted to register an account on Habbo."
If you are an unsupervised 10 year old on the Internet, whether you're playing games or browsing Google, THAT'S the problem. Not the people saying rude words and telling you that you're crap at the game (which is entirely different to bullying which needs to be targeted against a particular person, or even attribute of a person).
I can't imagine my generation ever knowingly letting their kids talk to strangers - including adults - for hours on end, unmonitored, from the age of 10. We used to get told NOT to talk to such people. Especially if they were kids trying to bully you or people you didn't know.
Above about 14/15/16, when the child begins to mature, they can handle their own (or they still shouldn't be playing unsupervised). They can even report the other users if they so wish. Or mute. Or block. Or play elsewhere. Or set up a server. Or get a Steam group of friends going. Or all manner of ways to avoid it.
But, no, apparently, it's all the Internet's fault that you can just plug your kid into the wireless and have him run around blowing shit up with adult, children and teenagers chosen at random from around the world and you have no clue what he's doing or who he's doing it with, without any kind of control, monitor, maturity check for your child, etc.
"Hey, Internet. While completely unsupervised for hours on end when I had no clue what they were doing and never bothered to check, my child arranged to meet a lone 50-year-old man in the parking lot at 3am, lured by the prospect of a Pokemon card.... why don't you filter that, it's all your fault!"
Is this modern parenting?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 02 2017, @03:36PM
Hey!!! Whaddya think yo' doin'?
Teach kids deal with real life and stop bein' sheeple?
Next thing ye know, they'll stop being afraid of terrorists and decide to tune out, fight back or even immigrate outta 'Murika and TLA-s care. Can't have that, who's gonna pay taxes then, huh?
Desist immediately or you gonna be busted!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Friday June 02 2017, @03:10PM (1 child)
When my son was old enough to pass the PG rating hurdle (14 in this case) we played the same MMO together as a team for several years. There were lots of regular trolls, and plenty of grief to go around. He got bored with gaming in general. I still play, and nothing has changed.
Shouted spam insults. Training. Kill stealing. Camp wars. Ninja looting. All part of the day to day MMO experience.
Yeah, it sucks, but it's nothing a quick mute/block command, rage quit, or GM report can't remedy. Certainly nothing that would warrant comparison to real-world violence or threats of violence.
If a kid (or even a grown-up) is going to be incurably traumatized by pixels on a screen in an imaginary world, there are probably other, deeper issues at play here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @06:41PM
at play here
I saw what you did there...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @03:29PM (1 child)
You're supposed to ass-rape them back while they're typing. Or if you haven't re-spawned yet, you fill their screen with bull crap. This has been going on forever. Tapping your fingers on the table while playing chess is the exact same thing. Some people play that way, some don't. Switch servers or start your own if it bothers you. Can't do that? Stop buying games from overly controlling companies.
Can't handle any of that? You're too immature to be using the internet. Please limit yourself to static web pages without comments if you need to touch the web at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @05:50PM
Chess: sport with class
Online gaming: sport for hateful idiots apparently
Please, go to some large city and hang out by the public chess boards. Play a few games and distract people with your online gaming methods. Please.
Hate filled bigotry equated with finger tapping? Yeah, the culture needs to be reigned in. Thankfully I believe this will be a natural process as more gamers become parents and know to watch their kids and correct such aberrant behavior. Too bad you're probably too old for a time out, guess we'll have to wait for some 4channer to doxx you, then we can hear your praise for such mature people who can "handle" their internet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @04:18PM (6 children)
I have a strong suspicion, verified somewhat by the users who bothered to log in, that most of the "grow a pair and deal with the abuse" people are from the conservative / libertarian line. What is it that makes you all such sociopaths? There were no actions being advised by this article, just a rundown of how many kids experience online bullying. How can a community change when it doesn't even know what the problems are?
Obviously people feel free to shit talk and say things they wouldn't in real life due to the anonymity of the internet, but it is a trend we should be aware of and discourage.
To draw a ridiculous parallel, all you conservatives whining about immigrants raping and stealing just deal with it. Rape and theft is a part of life, been around since before we left the trees (sorry did I trigger you with that monkey comment?) so everyone should just grow a pair and deal. Don't like Sharia law? You can move to a different area, you can wear iron underpants, I mean c'mon the solutions are endless!! /SARCASM
Or we agree as a community on what behaviors are OK and we discourage the ones that are not. Hopefully without any laws that violate the constitution. Since I brought up the constitution, there are a dozen laws already on the books that we need to repeal so let's get started!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @04:58PM (1 child)
The amount of what you think are keywords with a high emotional response potential in your post... It shows what you think is provocative. And it is hilarious. May your life be infinite and have plenty of meaning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @05:11PM
May you grow beyond your narrow world view, even if it causes you to lose some of the meaning in your life. I wasn't going for emotional response, just making a valid comparison. Carry on you subtle edge lord!
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 02 2017, @05:18PM (2 children)
False equivalence. Rape and theft are things that we have police to (supposedly) protect us from (it doesn't work that well in practice, but the threat of punishment does help keep it down to some extent, esp. by locking up offenders so they can't do it again), and it's hard to just get away from people who would do these things to you. Not many people can afford to just buy a nice house in a remote place and still earn a living, plus not many people want to live a solitary life like that. People have a right to live in civil society without fearing for their safety. Moving to a different area isn't feasible for many; that takes money.
However, we're talking about online gaming here. The "community" there is whoever bothers to play that game. If the community in some particular game is toxic, the answer is simple: stop playing the game! This isn't like having the right to live in your neighborhood and go to work without being assaulted on the subway; games are a luxury, nothing more, so if playing a game (which, BTW, costs $$$ to play usually) is making you miserable, then just stop! Find another game to play. And since this seems to be a problem with these stupid "social" games, stop playing social games, and play single-player games instead. You don't have to worry about some NPC hurling obscenities at you in a single-player game usually.
The fundamental issue you're getting into here is public space vs. private space. Walking around on public streets, using public transit, going to work, going to restaurants, etc. are all public space, and it is the government's job to provide a level of safety and protection for us in these places, and that includes protection from harassment, discrimination, etc. Online games are not public, they're private. It's not the government's job to protect you from harassment or discrimination at a private club, and in fact many private clubs explicitly discriminate against people--many country clubs are infamous for refusing entry to black people for instance. If you don't like the way you're treated in a private club like the Elks or whatever, the correct course of action is to stop paying your dues there and leave. It's exactly the same here: these games are pay-to-play, they're private spaces owned and run by the game companies, so if they're doing a lousy job of policing their members, then the correct course of action is to stop paying and leave. In fact, the *only* truly effective way of dealing with a private business that provides a poor customer experience is to "vote with your feet", as the only thing that companies understand is the bottom line.
This isn't "conservative" or "libertarian", this is a philosophy that anyone who doesn't believe in authoritarian/totalitarian governments should agree with. That includes people normally called "liberals" (in the US), who believe in private enterprise and capitalism restrained by sensible government regulation and a certain amount of "socialistic" government services. When you have governments getting intimately involved in how private companies (and not utility companies which have government-granted monopolies) run their customer-service operations, now you're looking at fascism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)
It was a parallel, not an equal example. All your points are very valid, but what I was trying to highlight was the similarities. Lots of people chimed in with stuff like "grow a pair, learn to deal with assholes cause that's reality" etc. So I used a drastic example to illustrate the idea. People are treating this story like its advocating safe spaces, but there was nothing of the sort discussed.
There are lots of knee-jerk reactions from people who are probably shit talkers in games and think it is 100% always OK and fuck the whiners. The problem is games have a large range of player ages so swearing and hateful language can actually have seriously negative effects. You wouldn't go to a middle school and expect to hear death threats / racial slurs / sexist insults in the playground so why is it acceptable online culture? Anyone can do it, I'm not arguing for censorship, but the community should realize that the behavior is way out of line and should be reeled in to be more like amateur sports leagues. Some shit talk is OK, insane death threats and hateful garbage is not.
Again, the assholes can still be assholes, but if you in any way condone shitty behavior like this it just makes you one of the shitty people. "Grow a pair" is a stupid response that does not fix the actual problem. That is ancient male conditioning bullshit that causes a lot of mental health problems along with propagating the original problem. The unstated addition is "its ok to say hateful shit, if someone can't handle it that is their problem because they're just pussies".
"Vote with your feet" is also not a great response, it is a massive cultural problem that won't be solved by a few people boycotting some game. The only way for a culture shift to happen is for the community to advocate for a change. It is simple, you hear some asshole going overboard on being an asshole? Call them out, tell them to tone it down. "Hey I get you're frustrated by noobs but shit talking distracts the team and makes the noobs do worse." Stuff like that.
I still see the parallels between the political viewpoints held by users here and the support of gaming trash talk. It is interesting.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 02 2017, @08:31PM
I'm not condoning the behavior at all, what I'm pointing out is that there's no way you're going to change it without basically having the government police online gaming, which I hope is a ridiculous notion. The "community" isn't going to advocate for any change (this community is the one acting badly in the first place after all), and really has very little power: these games are run by *private companies*. It's up to them to police them, and they're unlikely to do so because that requires a lot of manpower which cuts into their profits. Therefore, the only sensible course of action is for anyone who doesn't like this behavior to vote with their feet, and for children, for parents to not let them play these games.
Your comparison with amateur sports leagues is bad: amateur sports leagues are not run by for-profit corporations, they're run by volunteers. Your "community" terminology actually makes sense there, because they're really quite "communistic" in practice, and I don't mean that in a bad way: they're non-profit, they're run by volunteers, they probably (I've never been in one so I'm just guessing) have a somewhat democratic process for deciding leadership, and on top of all that, they're composed of people from a particular locality who mostly all probably know each other anyway, not a bunch of strangers from across the planet. Online games are not like this; they're owned and operated by for-profit corporations, not any kind of "community", and there's certainly no democratically-elected leadership there that can police it and eject problem players. And don't forget, those bad actors are paid customers; they paid to use this service, so kicking people off for bad language or whatever isn't likely to look good for the company, taking peoples' money and then denying them use of the service they paid for.
Again, the only sensible way to deal with this is to vote with your feet. These are private corporations, not communities; if you don't like them, then leave. It's no different than the local private golf club that allows its members to use racial epithets against minority customers. There is no legal recourse for those customers than to leave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:48PM
> What is it that makes you all such sociopaths?
Because a world enforcing the right not to be offended is a world where you don't have the right to tell the truth.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday June 02 2017, @04:29PM (2 children)
It is a psychological fact that people who get crap don't grow up to realize the 'folly of the world' and become nice, they actually shovel that crap to someone else. A good bully is someone who has a bigger bully to take care of. This is the sad reality of this world. Children who see parental abuse are more likely to be abusive, men who get crap from boss are more likely to give crap to their wife and such mother is more likely to be abusive towards children.
Gaming is an escape of a lot of people who are going through deep stress. And stressed people are abusive. If some kid has some place else where it is the one abusing and not taking, then that is not a problem with gaming community, it is just how the world works. Good for the kid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @04:48PM (1 child)
Bullshit alert!
A vast majority of the griefer types I've known are actually the more "well adjusted" ones. They aren't really well adjusted, they just have a comfortable social sphere and supportive family, and they get kicks out of being tools in gaming because "its just a game bro". There are also the jerks who simply take the games too seriously, not out of some deep rooted childhood trauma, they just want to win and get angry when they don't. It is massively a gaming culture problem, not a real world problem inevitably stemming from abuse.
Not that your point is totally wrong, you are just claiming way too much responsibility for it.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday June 03 2017, @01:13AM
Maybe I wasn't clear. I am not saying the abuse in gaming happens because of child abuse trauma etc. That was just an example to show how abuse travels. I am saying that if you have a community of users who encounter abuse regularly, they will push it down into the community.
Also, I don't think anyone can say with surety if the griefers are themselves highly stressed or not. Science says they have a good chance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @06:33PM (5 children)
Maybe someone should design a game to be significantly virtuous and grief-free. You know, boss mobs with names like Bierce and Mencken. Participation raid drops. Androgynous character genders. Rangers that throw rainbow snowballs that only score from behind, and bards that sing Woodie Guthrie songs. That sort of thing.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @06:37PM (4 children)
WHOOOSH goes the plane filled with clues
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @06:47PM (3 children)
Aw, poor snowflake. I forgot the unicorn mounts.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:39PM (2 children)
You know the snowflake is the one who can't handle criticism, given your sarcasm it looks like you melted and are just a regular old drip.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:48PM (1 child)
Of course, there can be no white unicorns. And there must be fairies. Lots and lots of swishing fairies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @08:31PM
Annnd QED :D