The dark side to online gaming

Alright maybe I am a little late to this topic. But I haven't heard this comparison drawn a lot. I was a never a person who bought into the horror stories of bullying online and people who were being bullied online. I always had the mind set that if your bullied online you can just stop going online, if it is hurting your feelings that bad and hurting you emotionally to just separate yourself from the bullying.

But with the rise of online gaming there is a tendency for some gamers to be abusive and use offensive language and or slur's. Now I am in no way saying that this is a high trend or even half of gamers do this. I don't know the numbers it is probably very small of gamer's who participate in this behavior. I was really made aware of this by my cousin who is a hardcore online gamer ( if he didn't have college that's all he would probably do is online gaming) but he was into a game called DOTA and is now into LOL league of Legends. I was reading an article that said that there is a lot of offensive stuff said by gamers when playing those games. And I think the same can carry to Call of Duty. But I mean with call of duty most people like to jump on at midnight and maybe you should expect to hear some offensive stuff.

But here is what I want to look at. I am a gamer when I am playing Madden or anything that is competitive I may say a joke about my other competitor or a taunt or something along those lines. But it is not abusive or anything like that it is taken as fun. Think of some old school examples of going to an arcade an there is a group of people watching others play an arcade game. There weren't really instance of offensiveness going on or anything like that. Playing the old school golden eye 007 (basically Call of duty now) I played that with groups of people. it was all fun know one ever got made to feel bad or anything like that. Even if you got picked on for being an easy kill.

So what's the difference. Well for me what I am thinking the difference is there is not that connection online to who your playing with. you don't know the person your playing against. so who cares right? as with most things people do or say online. there not really themselves. They don't have that human interaction with the person. your not sitting across from them. you don't have to see there face.

Oh I went longer then I wanted. thoughts anyone??

Yeah, some people are jerks, and some people are cowards.

A jerk to say something and a coward to say it online when you wouldn't to their face.

Sunrise, sunset.

reply to post by American-philosopher


The same can be said as far as making friends in online games. I myself have never been a victim of "bullying",maybe a few good natured taunts.
When I played Everquest a decade ago, I have friends that I still talk to that I met on the game.

well while technically its bullying, its not the new definition of "bullying" that the news is going on and on about.
in online games or most places on the net its disconnected people who will never see each other again, and there isnt really any following up on people or stalking.
and thats just the grain of salt it is. people disagree and they are verbal, both parties move on. whatever.

internet bullying now refers to social media stalking, real life drama of known people going back and forth in on/offline environments that cant be avoided.

reply to post by American-philosopher


Well written.

I find it hard to understand why some online players feel the urge to drop the N word when playing a game it just shows the intelligence of some of these kids but when it comes to trash talking /trolling I don't think it's anymore different then the trash talk you hear on the basketball court.

reply to post by American-philosopher


EDIT: First i should've said: Very good thread, nicely written, logged in just to post the crap below. I find it amusing and interesing to share views about (PC) gaming!

--

I had a glimpse of an interesting view about this while i was reading your post.

I agree, that "back then" gaming was more fun. All did have fun together, maybe true. I find the aspect of evilness that you speak of very general in FPS and massive multiplayer games.

Some part of me deems that it's OK to "play the game while you're playing the game". I explain myself it like this: in FPS, there is such competition going on, that i one expect other players not to take advantage of psychological aspects of faceless online gaming.

When you stay above the game, you know when they're weak.

One explanation could be, that the large part of gaming community is in such age whats promoting bad behaviour.

Also i want to add, that gentle trolling, teabagging and such activities in FPS is something that i truly value; it's the richness.

Everytime i laugh almost out of control when i manage shoot someone while teabagging other in Battlefield. And i'm a senior player, i think.

Hello,
was wondering about it too..

games are now more intensive - so is the gameplay, considering LOL - its like lots of people play just to have big amount of kills - not to have fun.. or its their only idea of having fun.. This was different before, it was more rare to play online games and maybe young people were more polite that time, now its getting very mainstream, widespread, simple. Sometimes it reminds me of slaughter house.

And if u put there other influences u mention, like the internet anonymity, .. this combined with state of mind of people playing.. u will get what u got now.

I sort of stoped playing for such reasons.

Normally the age is quite apparent in online games when something goes wrong...when i used to play wow and like all good things we wiped on something...it would be corpse run and get on with it but the younger the person the more likely it was to have some critical looking at why we failed and how it was never there fault even if they was afking with a /follow macro doing zero dps

of course i teabaged people before rezzing them..wiped raids when we was trying new stuff...hell we did the conga in BWL once

but once you know the great internet d--kwad theory it soon explains everything

reply to post by American-philosopher


In the immortal words of Bender Bending Rodriguez...

reply to post by Razmijix


Yeah for sure your right you can definitely make friends by online gaming

Ah yes, online gaming.

A place where you are threatened by murder and rape from 10-30 yr olds.

People think they are anonymous and like to act out things they could never do in public for fear of getting their asses handed to them.


It's like small fantasy world for some people where they live out twisted desires.


On the other hand I've been part of gaming groups that everything racial slurs, I wouldnt say they are racist per se but more like its part of this troll culture of the internet. To be offensive as possible.

There are psychos in every corner of the earth looking for thrills, looking for someone to offend or shock.

reply to post by thesaneone


But on the basketball court you trash talk during the game and all that. But after the game you slap hands and say good game. At least that's what happens to me when I am on the court. And when I am talking trash. But also on the flip side of that. there are people who for example if you make a shot in their face or score a good point on them while there defending you. They will give you a compliment saying good shot or good take.

but side not I think most funniest things I have ever seen when playing madden. These people that "rage quit" on you. Who will leave a game if there losing and not if losing big you could be just up a touchdown and rage quit out of the blue. It's so funny because they must not know football you can always come back.

< is amazed that #wits are so serious - its only game

reply to post by American-philosopher


If you are talking about a roleplaying game, you need to determine if they are speaking in character or out of character, because it does make a difference. Sometimes it can be fun to play a character who is a jerk. If it's out of character then it becomes offensive.
If it bothers you too much, politely ask them to tone it down. If that doesn't work, do everyone a favor and report them.


On a side note. Why is it that you can't indent on forums?

every time i play world of Warcraft i get asked out it's bizarre

yesterday i was shocked this person went

''show us you t*ts''
and i went
''no perv how old you that you think i would be sad enough to agree''
he answered
'''13''
i went
''thats disgusting im 24''
and he went
''mum says i can f**k anyone older then me''

what a bad mum he must have

American-philosopher

So what's the difference. Well for me what I am thinking the difference is there is not that connection online to who your playing with. you don't know the person your playing against. so who cares right? as with most things people do or say online. there not really themselves. They don't have that human interaction with the person. your not sitting across from them. you don't have to see there face.

I was playing GTA Online yesterday, cruising around in my bright purple Lampadati Felon just minding my own business, when some d**kwad crashes into me and detonates his car bomb and proceeds to snipe me 3 times as we respawned near each other. He called me a "f----t a-- b---h"

I'll admit it got my blood boiling and I wanted to not only kill him repeatedly but also get on the mic and hit him with some unpleasant racial slurs (he sounded black and played a black character), but he was camping a very defensible position near a store I wanted to rob. So I did what any sensible person would do: I joined a deathmatch and took out my rage on some other people

The sad thing is, because I'm transgender, if I met that person IRL they would probably say the same things to me. Maybe even actually try to harm me. Perhaps I should invest in a silenced MP5 for my protection

reply to post by Glass


im sorry a idiot did that to you hope he got insulted by another player

There's plenty of on line bullying. Not necessarily in gaming.
Fantom of things where these people meet, like bands or Cons, sometimes threats even become physical. I would know I've been subjected to it.
As for gaming, a friend of mine runs an online game, and he told me women get stalked.
Big time, so when I signed up he made me use a male persona.

Being a hockey fan, I play a lot of EA's NHL series. That game easily has the most verbally abusive community out of any that I've played. Blatant racism, sexism, and just all around harassment. It's not so bad if you find a good group of guys that you play co-operatively with on a regular basis, but drop in games are a nightmare. I'm 33 years old and I have thick skin so it doesn't bother me too much. I just beak back, but there is no way I'd let my kid play that game online.

reply to post by Glass


Well le tme ask you this is that not what you were expecting in a game like GTA. I mean this wa sone of the reason's why one of my other cousins was excited for GTA online for that very reason of stealing another players money and killing them. ( I may have the order wrong.) Again were you not expecting this kind of stuff from GTA online???