The dark side to online gaming

American-philosopher
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???

Oh no, I totally expect this sort of thing from GTA online. I used to play GTA IV online and spent quite a bit of time hunting people down for such things as scratching the paint on my freshly stolen banshee. The playing field was a lot more even back then though, you could pick up an RPG off the ground and just start blasting people. Nowadays you have to level up and earn the big guns, so there's a lot of potential for abuse by high-level players.

If you're in free mode with passive mode disabled, you're going to get attacked by random d-bags. I have accepted that. It just bothered me that he had to resort to homophobic slurs. So freakin' rude.

My theory is that the anonymity of the Internet lets people feel free to be precisely who they are inside, and there are a lot of ugly, ugly people out there. The rest of us likely realize that the Internet isn't exactly as victimless as we might like and hide it better.

reply to post by American-philosopher

For as long as I can remember I always tried to respect others because who knows who they're? They might be somebody important, right? Or they might be just like me? Even if they're a random person, they still deserve basic respect as a human being. In FPS games I sometimes would get mad at somebody who I thought was using a hack or aimbot, but I don't remember going far with that anger. I'm not trying to say I'm holier than thou or that I never said anything offensive because I'm sure I did. I just think I've met people much worse than myself. Maybe I'm in denial and really am a bad person? Who knows? Without a deep psychoanalysis, this question of whether I'm respectful of other gamers or not has to remain my own opinion.

I've played many games over the years and I've noticed that people make excuses for their bad behavior online. They'll say it's just a game or they'll say to /ignore them or they'll tell you to deal with it. You know what else? I see the same thing with people who exploit games or hack them. They'll hack and/or deceive others to make money in-game. These're the kind of people who will knowingly sell you something at a much higher price than it should be. They don't care because it's just a game, right? Are these the same kind of people that'll say abusive things to others or just in general not respect anybody unless they're part of their inner circle?

I have a theory. Want to hear it? I think there're closet sociopathic and psychopathic people who play games to express themselves without restraint. In real life - because of the consequences - they have to follow the rules more oftne, but in games nothing is real so they don't have to fake being empathic and can freely harm others without fear of hard hitting consequences. This is especially true with griefers, who I think are more sadist than the average sociopath or psychopath.

One last comment from me and it has to do with pvp. I played in a lot of pvp games because I liked the pressure and the genuineness of it. However, I did not like killing or griefing. I preferred to play a defensive role by either escaping or protecting, but I didn't want to entrench myself too deeply into pvp. In fact, I'm much more of a PvE player. One thing that has been on my mind in all these pvp games is how do people kill others without conscience? I've seen some very ugly things. For example, I recall when a couple people in my guild got together and rushed into a new player area to kill them. These were players who were part of the enemy faction. However, I decided in the end to not take part because it was too disgusting to me. I walked away from it. The worst thing I did in all the years was I snared a low level player, but I felt guilty about that - it was stupid. To make a long story short, I could probably never be a pkiller or take part heavily in pvp because there's something dirty about it. While I've always craved the intensity of pvp games, I don't like what's underneath. It's sort of a love-hate relationship. I'm a knight and I need a shadowknight to complete the game and yet I don't like the shadowknight and so it goes...

reply to post by jonnywhite


No, as much as I look for more challenge in my video games, I just don't like pvp either. I've had fun with it in the past, but there were specific circumstances involved. I was with a group who made it an arena style competitive thing. It was done in the spirit of friendly competition and not as a kill or be killed atmosphere. The games were broken done into a league like a sports league and had that feel, so it wasn't like we were gunning to kill each other. We were just playing games like basketball or something. I was an athlete and have no problem with that.

As for the rest, I will only play with others if I can do it coop, and I love playing with my husband, but I miss the challenge of matching against the reflexes and ability of other human opponents. But, the feel of regular online pvp just isn't worth it for the most part.

I used to play Call of Duty a lot before my wife had my daughter, now I dont have the time but I always went into it with the assumption theres a lot of idiots out there who like to run their mouths from the comfort of their own living rooms, comes with the territory.

They make the mute button for that very reason. I mean really who cares? If you're gonna get offended over what some random turd has to say while playing video games how do you get on in real life? You do have the option of shutting their audio off in most every online game ive ever played. Im not directing this at anyone in particular, just as a general statement

reply to post by ketsuko


Thats a good point

[I've played many games over the years and I've noticed that people make excuses for their bad behavior online. They'll say it's just a game or they'll say to /ignore them or they'll tell you to deal with it. You know what else? I see the same thing with people who exploit games or hack them. They'll hack and/or deceive others to make money in-game. These're the kind of people who will knowingly sell you something at a much higher price than it should be. They don't care because it's just a game, right? Are these the same kind of people that'll say abusive things to others or just in general not respect anybody unless they're part of their inner circle?


quote] jonnywhite
reply to post by American-philosopher



I think the people that you are describing as far as the hackers go are probbaly not the best of people and willdo whatever they can to make money. But the gamers who are abusive i think iof you put them in a different scenario of playing a game with soemone next to someone they wouldnt be abusive. Because like it or not when your playing a game together like that. your bonding in a way. Like people who go to football games to support there team. they dont know each other but they are bonding. So again I think the gamers put in a different situation might act differently

my son and I play. We like to go into game chat on xbox live and mess with the other folks. Basically you say something outrageous, that only an idiot would actually think you are not joking about, and see who takes the bait.

Like when we both come in dead last on the team, tell all the other team members that they need to quit slacking. Or that they suck. I mean, our names are right ther on the screen leaderboard in dead last place....right? But some moron will take offense, and give us entertainment.

Otherwise, and usually, the "room" just laughs about it and we go on with everyone cracking up and messing with each other. That is when it is the funnest. I made friends with a pretty good group of folks this way. My sons best friend is an xbox live hookup from Florida. I get it, too. The folks around here can be a little small minded and broader horizons are a nice respite.

American-philosopher
reply to post by Razmijix

 

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

I am not sure if that was intentionally meant to sound sarcastic, but I for one have made many friends through online gaming. Even though most of us have moved on to other games and some don't play anymore, we stay in touch through e-mail, texting and chat on the phone.

I met my soulmate through online gaming, so have several of my friends.

As far as bullying in game. It's easy to ignore. It's not like bullying in schools where you have to see the person everyday. Most games have an ignore player option and you can ignore chat if it doesn't have a filter.
In the game I play I can set up a filter so only the chat of the people I choose to talk to shows up.
I don't have to get on voice chat if I don't want to.

Mostly I ignore it. I have learned to filter it out. Being female I get a lot of crude comments, doesn't bother me because it is so easy to ignore.

reply to post by calstorm


NO i was agreeing and saying that the person is right you can make online friends by gaming

reply to post by American-philosopher


Kk, I wasn't sure, it was hard to tell.