Not just geeks. I've been gaming since I was 5. I refuse to be identified as a gamer any more.
It's quite simply embarassing how so many gamers are stuck in the 1950s.
Maybe if they spoke with people outside of gaming and geek hobbies, they would meet normal people who don't get triggered over little things like women playing games
Not just geeks. I've been gaming since I was 5. I refuse to be identified as a gamer any more.
It's quite simply embarassing how so many gamers are stuck in the 1950s.
Maybe if they spoke with people outside of gaming and geek hobbies, they would meet normal people who don't get triggered over little things like women playing games
By removing so called "sexist" niche games you are doing theexact opposite. So who cares if something like Gun Gal exist? It sells like 20k copies world wide but you see journalists giving this shit so much attention because it fits their political agenda and they can use it to spread their lies how gaming is toxic. Who cares about a Dead or Alive game? No one should If you do not like it do not buy it.
And what you identify as I do not really care I identify as a Gamer because this is also what shaped my life and also helped while being bullied in school.
Typing up such a huge dialogue based upon the words of a few associate professors and tons of bloggers/critics/media people makes me roll my eyes at this kind of article. How about getting some real professors with well done studies on the subject? This seems like a whole bunch of armchair philosophizing about causes and effects. Some of it hits the mark, some of it doesn't, but the length and format for this kind of article is ridiculous considering the total lack of any data or studies or surveys, or say, anything other than subjective opinions about the psychological underpinnings of the species they outline as White Male Gamer.
That being said toxic online behavior is a problem, and most people would agree with that. It's literally why Nintendo refuses to do voice chat in a user-friendly way. If anything, gaming companies need to decide on their own what they want to allow based on the audience they want to maintain, and do strict enforcement of that through reporting systems and account bannings etc.
Not just geeks. I've been gaming since I was 5. I refuse to be identified as a gamer any more.
It's quite simply embarassing how so many gamers are stuck in the 1950s.
Maybe if they spoke with people outside of gaming and geek hobbies, they would meet normal people who don't get triggered over little things like women playing games
This sounds like a tangled misquote of 7 different posters.
Gaming belongs to anyone who wants to join, hyep! Who said otherwise?
"Not just geeks". Dude, gaming has been "mainstream" and "not just geeks" since the fucking early 80s. Arcade cabinets didn't start at Chuck E Cheese, they started at bars and bowling alleys. Adults bought the Game Boy to play Tetris.
How many is "so many gamers stuck in the 1950s"? How many people are stuck in their "geek hobbies", who have never met "normal people". Like, 10% of the total gaming population? 80%? 200 million gamers across all platforms? I mean, I cannot comprehend what you're attempting to say here. Do you have any quantifiable data? It's just generalization after generalization. Please back up what you say, otherwise it's incomprehensible.
I would agree with this part. Although from my experience/perspective, I'd say it's more recent in terms of gaming overall. Back when I played text MUDs in the 90s on PC and the early MMOs (Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot), the communities were actually pretty nice. You'd get the one-off assholes here and there, sure, but by and large people were nice, helpful, and I made lots of real life friends out of it. That's when it really was nothing but nerds (myself included).
Once gaming hit the "mainstream" in the PS3/360/WoW on PC era, things definitely changed. Once online gaming became readily accessible, that's when I noticed the downturn.
Now I do tend to avoid multiplayer games in certain aspects, or ignore the multiplayer portion of games due to the nature of people these days. I wouldn't lay that all on the feet of 'gamers' though. It's a symptom of something else. What that is, is not for me to say.
As it grew, we saw a migration of certain communities into Twitter, which was not interested in any form of moderation initially. That’s why I think we saw GamerGate explode the way it did. It was a natural evolution of small-network harassing communities from spaces that became more restrictive into the open space of Twitter, where it was more visible to the broader public. Now, of course, Twitter has to consider what that means. No moderation actually being a form of moderation.
The people who are upset about the new Star Trek: Discovery are the same kinds of people who were upset with Captain Sisko and Captain Janeway. For many years, people have been trying to limit the visibility of women and people of color in our media. But until they had access to social media and YouTube, their voices weren’t being amplified.
Ok this might not be the first thing I disagree with, but it's the first thing I think worthy of note. I don't recall anyone having a problem with Cpt. Janeway. Trekkies are not like Star Wars fans, lol. I do think there is something to be said of the sexualization of Seven of Nine, as referenced earlier in this piece.
I’ve researched toxic fan activity, which I call “protective fandom.” These groups are not merely forming around a particular text or a particular medium. They see themselves as the protector of it. They see themselves as the line between what they want it to be and what other people want it to be.
"Free Speech" advocates, particularly those in defense of the more unsavory topics, ironically keep me employed (as well as the contributors of this piece).
If I were to quantify it, I make about $2 (rounded up) for just about every time I read someone say "free speech" (I don't count) via freelance work.
Games have created a very distinctive fantasy where you, as the white dude, are the only person that can save the world. It’s always ‘you are the great, amazing person that will conquer all.’ So as a white man, you are always seeing that person reflected as you, and you’re always seeing yourself as the hero. This entitlement to a very specific type of identity, coupled with the challenge of voices asking for a change in that narrative, is such a huge part of why they feel like it’s OK to harass people.
I'll add some literary theory to this: the "tabula rasa," or "blank slate" plays into the idea of white males being the status quo, where a white male lead is considered the "everyman."
Only when you change the character's race/ethnicity or gender does the audience have to pause and think about overcoming obstacles. For example, if a man gets into a fight, we don't automatically assume that they will lose like we do with a woman, who is perceived to be weaker, more vulnerable. I remember playing as Lee in TWD, and it was like "Oh ****. Black people actually exist," which was different from playing as Louis in L4D in a way that I can't quite articulate.
And yet there is still this viewpoint that the individual nerd is a loser. That tends to set up a psychologically defensive mindset, particularly for those who use being a gamer or a nerd as their central identity touchstone.
Anything that challenges that key point of their identity becomes something to be fought back against.
I remember watching a YouTube documentary on incels, and this one dude was dead-set on talking about how he's ugly, and no woman will want him.
He wasn't actually hideous externally. A little slovenly, but nothing some sun and a lap around the block every day couldn't fix. It was his demeanor, his intentionally pretentious demeanor that makes him ugly. During one scene, he requests to re-do the take. The director asks why. He says because he messed up saying something, and he won't look smart if he doesn't talk fast while doing it.
I was like, BOY THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!
Ah, here it is:
Many of these YouTube personalities are older men. I think they are narcissists. They believe they are better than other people, and that maybe no one appreciates their genius.
And when they have a legion of loyal followers, it makes them feel really important. They use this power against the people they see as their enemies, who are often women.
Their followers are attracted to this power, which is missing from their own lives. When these older men call out women, they feel like they’ve been given permission to harass and to do violence.
This apotheosis is one that I hadn't considered, but it makes sense to me, why some folks favor certain personalities in apotheosis over others.
There’s a lot of money being made in conservative media. A lot of money being thrown at people who are shouting things that are not good. They pretend that this is conversation between equals, but one side is getting paid for spewing their vitriol, and the other side is just asking for a space to be heard.
We see people who are attracted to certain ideas — maybe because they have genuine beliefs — so they become followers. But they end up using the language of harassers to get their message out.
If they had real concerns, why would they align themselves with folks who are the worst of the worst? Like, why would you align yourself with people who don’t give a **** about you and will turn on you the second you turn your back on them?
This section is loaded. Let's take this one paragraph at a time.
Funding for propaganda aside, the "all sides hold equal weight" concept is one of the most disingenuous rhetorical strategies. AKA, the deployment of "both sides" while discussing Chancellorsville. Most of us wouldn't even know what ANTIFA was if Klansmen were not running around trying to protect their symbols of racism and discrimination.
Because the strategy of "anti-PC" seems to be effective, much to my personal chagrin, I am dismayed at the current aura of "**** civility." I prefer Michelle Obama's quote, "When they go low, we go high." Seems like there's currently a race to the botoom.
That last paragraph basically answers the question as to why I don't talk about non-political things on GAF. When I know I have, as the first paragraph in this section references, a "safe space" to talk about my existence as a whole, then I'll relax and joke and talk about play more.
Here, I gotta be on guard for the next time someone says "**** identity politics." Then it's TO ARMS!!!!
The internet is great for connecting people. So in the same way that a queer person in a rural area can find a community online where they can share and experience things together, so can these dudes who have internalized misogyny.
But the thing that’s really scary about that is that in these spaces where these men congregate, they are used as breeding grounds and recruitment grounds for white supremacists and men’s rights activists. They realize that there are all these boys who are disaffected by life.
And I understand why they are disaffected: Their lives aren’t great or where they want them to be. What they don’t understand is that we, feminists, are fighting for the liberation of everyone. We’re trying to solve the problems that make their lives so difficult. But instead they go right to ‘it’s all women’s fault.’
And these young men hear arguments that sound so right and so pure; they hear a lot of talk about freedom of speech. But it’s a straw man argument.
Look at GamerGate, the actual thing itself. Fighting against corruption and for ethics sounds great on the surface but that’s not what GamerGate was about at all. ‘Game Developer Zoe Quinn went and slept with a bunch of dudes to get a positive review of her free game.’
It took two seconds to do a Google search and see that there was no review on Kotaku for Depression Quest. But it didn’t matter. It sounded good to them, because it’s easy to hate women. There have been years of cultivation in this space for hating women.
Every...two months, there's a topic in OT about how "New GAF" is so much unlike the old one.....
That's another $2 for me.
The group is defined by by creating a persecution mindset. It’s the same argument used by Christian groups in America which say they are the most persecuted religion, when Christianity is clearly the dominant religion.
K, this is another weak argument. Christianity might be the most dominant religion now, but it is fading, and not just because of fedora-tippers who think religion is a pall, but from the rise of Islam. As the West becomes more accommodating toward other faith practices, such as Universalism, then yes, something as austere as Christianity will indeed be called into question, as it is one of the few faiths that declares that you can't get to heaven because of your merits (alone).
That's the antithesis of humanist practice where tolerance is a universal thing.
All of this is a digression from the main crux of the article. Just wanted to point out that this assertion is problematic.
You have individuals who feel insecure, even though they are actually part of a very powerful group.
Now this sentence does work in the piece's favor. The decline of hegemony is on the horizon.
Freedom of speech is always a hallmark of these spaces, but this tends to be a cover for both male privilege and white privilege.
It stems from a misunderstanding of what free speech means. Free speech doesn’t mean I can’t argue against what you’re saying. It’s about the right of every person to be represented and to have a voice. Their argument is less about free speech and more about trying to shut out other voices.
Hmm, this needs to be expanded. I don't think this contribution digs deeply enough into this loaded term, and the critique is weaker for it.
$2
A lot of these men, like [“Google bro” James] Damore, hide behind the language of science and logic. They’ll say there have been studies that prove that women are more emotional. These are the same tactics that were used to justify the scientific racism that gave us slavery.
No, I'm not using Google in an article that has already been linking to certain sources. So you're getting a CITATIONS NEEDED for this, even if I am familiar with tripe like phrenology that contributed to slavery. I wanna see the receipts.
Journalists often help perpetuate this by taking their arguments bit by bit and refuting them, as if the arguments that these men are putting forth are worthy of rational debate. But they’re not being rational; they’re using the language of rationality to put forth racist and sexist ideas.
It’s important to make people aware of these traps. They’ll just exhaust people who are trying to reason with them, because most of them aren’t interested in being persuaded.
I've actually said this out loud to a few folks here, instructing them not to play these games, and I got personally warned by the admin about "not disrupting discourse."
DISCOURSE IS NOT PROPAGANDA
I am grateful for three of those folks who have participated in the latest "how is GAF" thread in OT who have articulated things that I have....the catch-22 of "don't feed the troll," but wondering if someone will read their BS uncontested is exhausting, especially because I know that I probably won't enjoy the fruit that the work will bear, but the person after me will.
A lot of toxic people just want to be free to be toxic. I remember one time I asked a gamer — he sounded like a white dude and he was using the N-word towards another player who sounded black — so I asked him in a private chat, “Are you a racist?” He said, “No, I’m not racist. I’m just being funny. I just say that to get under people’s skin, to get a rise out of them. I’m really not being racist. My best friend is black.”
He was using all this language and really just being toxic online.
It didn’t matter to him that he harmed somebody. I don’t think he’s really focused on the real world around him, or the ramifications of what his speech is actually doing. He’s just having a good time.
I hate it when people say, “Oh it’s just some fat kids in their mama’s basement.” No. These are college students; these are people in the office. These are regular dudes that I would see at Applebee’s and Starbucks. I hate whenever we try to profile and label them so we can other them.
They are regular-assed average white dudes. I wish people would stop saying it’s just children. These are co-workers, these are people who make our coffee, people we go bowling with.
*switches to Crown Royal, and drinks the entire 8 oz in one gulb*
Black women get a lot of the harassment in video game spaces. There are multiple things for racists to try to pick at. How do you speak? How do you look? Not just the color of your skin, your hair. For women who are streaming, that is compounded tenfold. It happens all the time.
When I think about it, I have never *knowingly* encountered a black woman while playing online.
That's a problem, I think.
We have a double whammy with the millennial generation, because girls and women in this generation believe in egalitarian sex roles. That is not the case for boys and men. Their opinions about the gender roles are much more traditionalist.
Now we're back to my initial charge that "masculinity" needs a healthy re-definition if the mission of feminism is to destroy patriarchy.
(I do not agree with this mission in totality; I believe there are some fundamental benefits to patriarchy. Single parenthood, for example, effing sucks).
Because our culture is fundamentally racist and misogynist, it’s not that difficult for people who have had unfortunate personal experiences to extrapolate those feelings into bigotry. It’s easy to write these people off as racist misogynists and lay the blame on them individually, but the problem is much bigger and more societally based than that.
This is why I didn't put that dude who said BPP = KKK on ignore.
It's not their fault that they believe this, and I think there is genuine hope for them.
Like, there are a lot of folks out there who are genuinely good people but get swept up in the "men are toxic" argument, but get triggered and can't process why someone would say that, but instead, prepare for retaliatory action.
It’s common, especially for some younger men, to have this aggressive turn against whatever this thing is making them feel bad. You see it in reactions to authority figures, but you also see it in reactions to women. If a woman shows up and makes him feel bad, instead of going, “Yeah, that woman was a jerk,” they go, “All women are terrible.”
These men think of themselves as supporters of women’s rights. They call themselves feminists in person, right up until they proposition you and ask you out, and you say no. Then they suddenly revert into this whole other space.
I don’t shy away from calling myself a “social justice warrior,” whenever people use that as a negative. Like, what’s the opposite side of that? That you’re trying to champion social injustice?
This is why I always say "reactionaries and progressives" rather than "right and left," so that even people from other countries whose political axes differ from the US know precisely what I am talking about.
But then there are people who just say, “We don’t want to have any conversation about any of the subjects that you guys want to talk about. We don’t care about your intentions. We don’t care about your stories.” And that’s been mind-blowing to me, how folks won’t address what we see in games culture and what we see in fandom in general.
There are reporting and blocking systems in place. There have been for years. Report the person who hurt your fee fees, block them, and move on with your life like everyone has done for years and years before going to Twitter for a pity party/retaliation mob became trendy.
Really, what else can be done? People are assholes, news at 11:00. It’s not handwaving, it’s stating a universal truth. Racism, sexism...these things existed long before videogames came along and invented all the evils of the world.
Victims of racist abuse do not have "hurt fee fees." And yes, you are handwaving these problems away. Your snide little comments about pity parties and hurt fee fees are clear examples of someone who has had the luxury of never having to deal with people screeching racist/sexist abuse at them, because believe me, if you had had to deal with even 1/10 of what women and poc have been forced to put up with on a daily basis you would not be on here loftily downplaying these problems and telling the victims that they should just accept being abused and "move on. with their life."
Well, here's the thing, there is no moving on because the problems have not been dealt with. Right now at this moment I can guarantee that someone somewhere will be taking a ton of abuse from ignorant, uneducated scum, just because they dared to try and play a video game. These racist, sexist hateful scum who have infected gaming for years now have only gotten away with bullying, tormenting and ruining people's lives because of self satisfied, ignorant people like you who have satt back and told the victims to get over their hurt fee fees.
Do you play video games? Do you enjoy it? Did you apply to a video game focused website to talk about video games? Then you are a gamer. Get over it, mate.
Right now at this moment I can guarantee that someone somewhere will be taking a ton of abuse from ignorant, uneducated scum, just because they dared to try and play a video game.
If there ever was a time to be toxic, it was when the mainstream masses invaded gaming. It wasn't identity politics that brought us lootboxes, full-priced dlc and battle royale shit.
And even then I remember outlets like Polygon attacking regular ass gamers mad at the smartphone gamers because they wanted to encompass us all under one label, which is bad and it turned out really bad.
Just finished reading that article. And wow. I have never heard of Polygon until today. As someone who doesn't really care for multiplayer games, this is interesting. Playing with strangers online just doesn't have the same appeal as playing with your friends that you've met and spent time with in real life. Personally, I'm single-player all the way. My take from reading that article is that these people's lives and their readers' lives are heavily influenced by and dependent on their interactions in a virtual world (gaming or social media). The end result is what you see in that article. That's not healthy. For either side.
I don't want to read anything from Polygon, and to those who have is the article being fair or still heavily attacking male gamers for the sake of gender politics?
Victims of racist abuse do not have "hurt fee fees." And yes, you are handwaving these problems away. Your snide little comments about pity parties and hurt fee fees are clear examples of someone who has had the luxury of never having to deal with people screeching racist/sexist abuse at them, because believe me, if you had had to deal with even 1/10 of what women and poc have been forced to put up with on a daily basis you would not be on here loftily downplaying these problems and telling the victims that they should just accept being abused and "move on. with their life."
Well, here's the thing, there is no moving on because the problems have not been dealt with. Right now at this moment I can guarantee that someone somewhere will be taking a ton of abuse from ignorant, uneducated scum, just because they dared to try and play a video game. These racist, sexist hateful scum who have infected gaming for years now have only gotten away with bullying, tormenting and ruining people's lives because of self satisfied, ignorant people like you who have satt back and told the victims to get over their hurt fee fees.
You don’t know jack shit about me or my life, friend, so unless you have something of substance to say without resorting to personal attacks you can kindly fuck off with that mess.
Victims of racist abuse do not have "hurt fee fees." And yes, you are handwaving these problems away. Your snide little comments about pity parties and hurt fee fees are clear examples of someone who has had the luxury of never having to deal with people screeching racist/sexist abuse at them, because believe me, if you had had to deal with even 1/10 of what women and poc have been forced to put up with on a daily basis you would not be on here loftily downplaying these problems and telling the victims that they should just accept being abused and "move on. with their life."
Well, here's the thing, there is no moving on because the problems have not been dealt with. Right now at this moment I can guarantee that someone somewhere will be taking a ton of abuse from ignorant, uneducated scum, just because they dared to try and play a video game. These racist, sexist hateful scum who have infected gaming for years now have only gotten away with bullying, tormenting and ruining people's lives because of self satisfied, ignorant people like you who have satt back and told the victims to get over their hurt fee fees.
How we define what it means to be male--masculinity--is the subject of inquiry. The crux of feminism, is that we often do so in ways that have been counterproductive.
This thread is poised to go downhill very very quickly, and I would very much prefer to not see that happen. There clearly are not only some very polarizing opinions in this thread, but also those that can hit very close to the heart. Please take a deep breath and remember to address the points being made separately from direct and personal attacks.
Another quality thread full of zero effort hot takes, deperately trying to downplay very real problems that affect people who just want to do something as simple as play a video game. I'm lucky, I have a strong Scottish accent so nobody ever realizes I'm a black guy, but I can't count the number of times I've been playing online with friends who have taken storms of abuse the moment they've opened their mouths because they have Jamaican, or African or Middle Eastern accents.
People are people, have their own opinions, prejudice etc and there's nothing you can do about that. In fact it's what makes the world such a dynamic and interesting place. Not everybody will get along, never. Even playing online video games.
A lot of people don't even abide by that. I don't mean to virtue sig. but I do. We're all different yet the same with regards to our basic structural makeup. What's the fucking problem? Get the fuck a long! Unless you're a cunt. Then fuck right off. I know I am being vulgar, but it's extremely hot and my water intake has been less than optimal. I'm not excusing my behavior, mind you. I am just apologizing for my attitude whilst being an asshole.
This thread is poised to go downhill very very quickly, and I would very much prefer to not see that happen. There clearly are not only some very polarizing opinions in this thread, but also those that can hit very close to the heart. Please take a deep breath and remember to address the points being made separately from direct and personal attacks.
I was playing Third Strike on PS4 online (this last week) and I was fighting someone and we were 1-1 on the 3rd match. The 30th Anniversary is known for its disconnects. Lots of people know this, well it happened. The game gets disconnected. I get a message from the other player calling me the 3 letter word that begins with F.
This happens to me when I play fighting games. I haven't experienced it since Tekken Tag 2. It's been a while since I've had someone do anything and I know I'm a small case compared to what's out there.
But I felt like it was stupid for him to call me that and wrong. So I filed a complaint and I said it was because it was sexual harassment. I don't want my family or myself being called that. I remember playing Halo 2 and I had people in rooms shout racist words and all sorts of bad stuff.
I'm not the high schooler anymore who wants to shrug it off because all the dudes around me are white and don't care. I think that area of gaming is very toxic.
This was a long read. It covers some points that I have nothing to say about because a lot of those games that had sexist marketing are still classic games with people trying to iron out the bad lumps. I do see the stereotype of the Call of Duty existing and probably in Fortnite too. The angry teen who gets on Xbox Live to curse someone out and the guy I had to report are still an issue that the industry needs to fix. Those people need to fix their own problems. We just can't ignore their stupidity and arrogance.
I was playing Third Strike on PS4 online (this last week) and I was fighting someone and we were 1-1 on the 3rd match. The 30th Anniversary is known for its disconnects. Lots of people know this, well it happened. The game gets disconnected. I get a message from the other player calling me the 3 letter word that begins with F.
This happens to me when I play fighting games. I haven't experienced it since Tekken Tag 2. It's been a while since I've had someone do anything and I know I'm a small case compared to what's out there.
But I felt like it was stupid for him to call me that and wrong. So I filed a complaint and I said it was because it was sexual harassment. I don't want my family or myself being called that. I remember playing Halo 2 and I had people in rooms shout racist words and all sorts of bad stuff.
I'm not the high schooler anymore who wants to shrug it off because all the dudes around me are white and don't care. I think that area of gaming is very toxic.
This was a long read. It covers some points that I have nothing to say about because a lot of those games that had sexist marketing are still classic games with people trying to iron out the bad lumps. I do see the stereotype of the Call of Duty existing and probably in Fortnite too. The angry teen who gets on Xbox Live to curse someone out and the guy I had to report are still an issue that the industry needs to fix. Those people need to fix their own problems. We just can't ignore their stupidity and arrogance.
You did exactly what one is supposed to do in that sort of situation. You reported the offending individual and now it’s up to Sony (in your case) to do what they decide is appropriate to this person.
I’ll try to say again what I tried to say before, without sounding quite as dismissive this time hopefully: there is nothing more that can (or should) be done. There are already rules and systems in place to deal with that kind of offender - what more can Sony, or Microsoft, or hell, the US government do? You can’t legislate morality.
I’m not saying there isn’t a problem (though I wouldn’t say it’s unique to gaming, not by a longshot). I’m saying that, when it comes to the gaming community, what more can really be done?
Eh I don't get the point of this article. To me, whenever there is human interaction, there's a chance you'll experience shitty behavior. There's shit people at where I work, there's toxic people when you play football, there's a douchebag when you try to order food to eat a restaurant. It can come from any race and gender. If it bother's you enough, report that person and move on. These abusive trolls are obviously wrong, but to put a label on it to specifically "male gamers"....why try to create this misunderstanding?
I was playing Third Strike on PS4 online (this last week) and I was fighting someone and we were 1-1 on the 3rd match. The 30th Anniversary is known for its disconnects. Lots of people know this, well it happened. The game gets disconnected. I get a message from the other player calling me the 3 letter word that begins with F.
This happens to me when I play fighting games. I haven't experienced it since Tekken Tag 2. It's been a while since I've had someone do anything and I know I'm a small case compared to what's out there.
But I felt like it was stupid for him to call me that and wrong. So I filed a complaint and I said it was because it was sexual harassment. I don't want my family or myself being called that. I remember playing Halo 2 and I had people in rooms shout racist words and all sorts of bad stuff.
I'm not the high schooler anymore who wants to shrug it off because all the dudes around me are white and don't care. I think that area of gaming is very toxic.
This was a long read. It covers some points that I have nothing to say about because a lot of those games that had sexist marketing are still classic games with people trying to iron out the bad lumps. I do see the stereotype of the Call of Duty existing and probably in Fortnite too. The angry teen who gets on Xbox Live to curse someone out and the guy I had to report are still an issue that the industry needs to fix. Those people need to fix their own problems. We just can't ignore their stupidity and arrogance.
So, you had someone message you with an insult which resulted in you reporting them and moving on? What exactly is the issue here? Nothing more should be done. Now it is up to Sony to decide the punishment (if one is to be given) to the individual. You are told to report people for a reason, as that indicates they are breaking the rules that are already in place.
I used to moderate/administrate multiple servers from Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament 2004, to Team Fortress 2. I have been insulted and threatened by every walk of life. Men, women, children, young and old, american, british, german, you name it. I have been told to die, I have been doxxed, and more.
Hell, it isn't even a gaming issue. I go out driving and if I am going to fast - someone flips me off. If I am going to slow? I get screamed at by an irate driver. I go to a baseball game and I am insulted for supporting the wrong team. I accidentally bump into someone? I may run the risk of being told off or even threatened. These things happen and it is just a fact of life, a part of humanity as a whole.
Assholes exist. They always have and they always will. There is no way to get rid of them without removing the entirety of the human race. Rules are already in place to deal with toxic individuals and ways you can minimize your access/exposure to them.
Back in the days of the PF Xbox I used to play online. I'm Mexican and have a thick accent, plus I'm pretty bad at Halo so I used to get a lot of harassment but I don't know why it never really offended me.
Most of the times they were kids telling me to go back to my country. It was funny to me because they seemed not to understand how the internet worked. I was pretty far from them.
Later I played killzone 2, I was never insulted.
Nowadays I mostly play online with my PC (Bf1, PUBG and Squad). Zero insults.
I think it's not about gender but about the community. I'm sorry about the people that gets offended because they deserve a comfortable online experience but people say hurtful shit everyday and everywhere, I don't understand how they live.
Polygon EXPOSES the fact that people are assholes when they feel protected by relative anonymity. Gee this really is deep dive journalism, put in some great worldwide leaders in their fields experts people to tie this up beautiful and sell this one home. Bravissimo!
Fuck modern journalism, I'm so fucking tired of this shit.
The polygon article really sucks, but there is a problem no doubt about it. I dont think the problem lies in the oh its white straight people thinking they are loosing their privileges narrative. Its more about people being assholes because they feel safe being anonimous on the internet. I have seen whites, blacks, mexicans and even girls, altough more often than not they are the target, being abbusive.
And yes, to some people thats not a big deal and couldnt care less about what a random person says on a video game or the internet, but that doent mean its ok and that doesnt mean that others, and rightfully so, want to stop it and be able to game without being constantly abused.
And to reduce this kind of behaviour to a simple "just report him and block him" is really lame.
Yup, you're right. I was left with that exact feeling. That I did the right thing. Then I doubt myself. 1. Are the people monitoring these things just a bunch of kids getting paid $15 an hour to work tech support for PlayStation? or 2. Are there executives in the industry bad mouthing minorities and discriminating against same sex marriage?
After you hit submit you hope it goes to the right person. Maybe a soft ban? Maybe a warning? Something. Maybe this person will not get to play online for a while and think twice about what he's calling someone on the opposite end?
You're right. They give us the tools to report this and then their moral compass should be going to work.
I got banned from a Sega chat room on AOL for a few days for cursing many years ago. It made me think twice and it was the only tool AOL and their team of moderators had to stop it.
You know, the solution to all this would just be to not give a damn what some random, anonymous person on the internet says to you. Like, why do you even give a damn? As someone who largely doesn‘t care what people in real life say about me, this whole issue is a bit puzzling.
I think it’s laughable that people in here, in 2018, think this ISNT an issue. BUT this piece is unbalanced - spoke to the wrong people IMO. It’s not balanced in terms of journalism. They should have spoken to behavioural psychologists mainly
It never was an issue. It is only an issue if the game doesn't have mute feature, like I believe RS:Siege doesn't allow players to selectively mute, only all or nothing. But if you play something like League or WoW and someone calls you names, you can just mute it. And if you honest to god gonna tell me that you shouldn't do that in the first place, then I would tell you to grow up.
It never was an issue. It is only an issue if the game doesn't have mute feature, like I believe RS:Siege doesn't allow players to selectively mute, only all or nothing. But if you play something like League or WoW and someone calls you names, you can just mute it. And if you honest to god gonna tell me that you shouldn't do that in the first place, then I would tell you to grow up.
No one said it is no issue however it is almost impossible to control this with voicechat. Rainbow Six has now an automatic system that tries to ban people automatically for offensive words the problem here that this is also hitting a lot of innocent people who never said anything bad. If you are easily offended which varries between people than you also have to take prevention measures like muting mics of all people or certain people as an example.
the problem with games "journalism" or games blogging is that they are making this problem much much worse than it actually is and this also causes a very toxic atmosphere that makes it impossible to rationally talk about issues in online gaming.
If I choose to ignore sth, it's not an issue for me anymore. But again I'm far from supporting "white-knighting". Just don't be a pussy over everything, like my father says.
That's very interesting choice of experts to voice their opinion.
Kate Miltner (Miltner is a Ph.D. candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, specializing in technology and culture.): Anita Sarkeesian (Sarkeesian is head of Feminist Frequency and best known for Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, an examination of misogyny in games. She is a frequent target of harassment and abuse.): Dr. Kishonna Gray (Gray is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago): Soraya Chemaly (Chemaly is director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project and organizer of the Safety and Free Speech Coalition. She is a writer and activist whose work focuses on the role of gender in culture, politics, religion and media.): Mattie Brice (Brice is a game designer, writer and speaker whose work focuses on the central role of individual experience in art.): Bridget Blodgett (Blodgett is an associate professor at the University of Baltimore. Her recent publications include “Hypermasculinity & Dickwolves: The Invisibility of Women in the New Gaming Public.”): Thom Avella (Avella is a YouTube creator whose work focuses on the intersection between politics, games and online toxicity. As a teenager, Avella sympathized with GamerGate.): Carolyn Petit (Petit is a prominent transgender woman working in games journalism. She is managing editor at Feminist Frequency, where she offers an intersectional feminist view on games and gaming culture.): Kahlief Adams (Adams is the owner and producer at Spawn On Me, a popular podcast that investigates games culture, society and politics.): Jen Golbeck (Golbeck is an associate professor at the University of Maryland. Her books on internet and entertainment culture include Introduction to Social Media Investigation: A Hands-on Approach.): Paul Booth (Booth is an associate professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul Univesity. He researches fandom in new media and games. His books include Crossing Fandoms: SuperWhoLock and the Contemporary Fan Audience.):
No wonder people think games journalism is a joke - even political journalism is better at least you get someone to represent other side there.
