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74% Of Adults Have Been Harassed While Gaming Online, Study Says.

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
74 percent of adults who play games online have experienced some form of harassment, according to a new report released today.

The report, published Thursday by the century-old civil rights nonprofit organization Anti-Defamation League, offers some staggering statistics on the prevalence of trolling, threats, discrimination, and just plain rude name-calling in online gaming. Alongside a survey of over 1,000 people who play games, the ADL also looked at game publishers’ moderation of those spaces, and found them wanting.

“Large-scale commercial games have these aspects of their platform that are totally unmoderated spaces,” said Daniel Kelley, the associate director of ADL’s center for Technology and Society, to Kotaku. “We know from places like 4chan or 8chan that unmoderated spaces become toxic.”

How toxic? Some of the numbers that came from the study, conducted in April of this year, are mind-boggling. 65 percent of the players surveyed experienced “severe harassment,” which includes “physical threats, stalking and sustained harassment” while gaming online. 29 percent said that at some point, they had been “doxed” as a result of a game, which the study defines as a stranger publishing private information about them.

About a third of LGBTQ players believed that they were harassed because of their sexual orientation. A third of black or African-American people surveyed, as well as a quarter of Latinx and Asian-American people, say they think they were harassed because of their ethnicity. Women were the most-harassed demographic—probably because women’s voices can be identifying in games’ voice chats—with nearly 40 percent having reported harassment based on gender.

The Anti-Defamation League decided to investigate problem of online gaming harassment after noticing the relative lack of strong data on it, and similar organizations’ reluctance to tackle the topic, Kelley said. “There’s a sense that there’s a problem here. I’d read about it but hadn’t talked to the community. Is this something that had been hyped up in the media and was not real?”

Another thing the ADL found was that not all games are created equal when it comes to harassment in their social spaces. Among the top games that the ADL found to foster harassment were Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and League of Legends. Dota 2 was the top game players said they had stopped playing because they didn’t want to deal with others’ rude antics.

And while 80 percent of players said that they had, at some point, experienced positive social interactions in a game—with World of Warcraft, Minecraft and NBA 2K being the leaders in happy moments—that number dropped to just 37 percent when talking about Riot’s League of Legends.

Kelley said that games haven’t caught up with other online services in terms of their approach to dealing with harassment. Over the last decade, as social media has become a confluence of big business and mass culture, companies like Facebook and Twitter have begun outright denouncing hate speech and harassment on their platforms. “There’s an expectation that if you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, any text thing—there’s some form of moderation,” Kelley said. “I was looking at both Fortnite and League of Legends’ [current] policies around harassment and looking at Twitter’s in 2006 and they seem to be carbon copies of each other.” While games also include voice chat as well as text, Kelley said that harassment occurred pretty much equally between both methods of communication.

Of the game players surveyed, 35 percent admitted to doing the bad behavior themselves, whether it be simple trolling or calling other players offensive names.

Perhaps the most shocking revelation from the report was its findings about how often gamers encounter extremist or white supremacist talk in games. “Almost a quarter of online multiplayer gamers (23%) have been invited to discuss or have heard others discussing the ‘superiority of whites and inferiority of non-whites’ and/or ‘white identity/a home for the white race,’” the study reads. “While this result does not necessarily imply that players were being recruited to join a white supremacist organization in any online game, the prevalence of expressions of white supremacy in online games suggests that this hateful ideology may be normalized in some game subcultures.”

The ADL suggested that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the organization that puts age ratings on video games in the United States, reconsider its rating system. Kelley notes that, while the ESRB looks at the nudity in a game or the specific types of violence, they don’t take into account what players do online. “They pass the ball on, ‘What are the online interactions like?’ If you look at, for instance, Fortnite, that’s T-rated, but 70 percent of folks are experiencing harassment, according to our study,” he said. “You also need to look at stuff like, ‘How is the reporting system? Does it happen in-game or out of the game?’”

Gamers’ humor can be a bit extreme. We tend to take it for granted that someone might think it’s funny to type “kys,” or “kill yourself,” in an online game for laughs. But even if the behavior is done in a joking manner, Kelley said, it’s important to put a spotlight on it. “Games are mainstream,” he said. “It’s important to call that out, that it is not normal. It is not acceptable to tell someone to kill yourself. There’s a value in reflecting back to folks who may say this is normal. But as part of broader society, is that a part of the values we want to enshrine in this growing medium?”
 
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Mista

Banned
“Harassed”? Hahaha. Getting offended by trash talking from strangers online is so fucking dumb. Especially now with all the bans and all that people aren’t harsh as way back. Also most of the people cussing others online are 12-13 years old that wanna sound badass

65 percent of the players surveyed experienced “severe harassment,” which includes “physical threats, stalking and sustained harassment”
tenor.gif
 

Makariel

Member
I always get suspicious if the original source is not linked in the article. So I had a look, here it is:

And Kotaku doesn't even mention the actual title of the survey:
Free to Play? Hate, Harassment, and Positive Social Experiences in Online Games
Funny how they might have missed the bold bit?

From the report:
Anti-Deflamation League said:
The survey found that 88 percent of adults who play online multiplayer games in the US reported positive social experiences while playing games online. The most common experiences were making friends (51%) and helping other players (50%). The games in which players most reported positive social experiences were World of Warcraft (59%), Minecraft (55%), NBA 2k (51%), Overwatch (49%), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (48%), and Fortnite (47%).
While they also found evidence of harassment, the report paints online gaming in a much more positive light than the Kotaku-angle suggests.

Yeah, games "journalism" in action :p

edit: can we perhaps change the thread title to "88% of adults report positive social experiences when playing online"? ;)
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
Wait a second, this report is by ADL?
The same ADL that thinks Gamergate is on the same level as holocaust deniers,
EAUxvoeUcAEopx1.jpg
How does including a question about a gaming related conspiracy along with other prominent conspiracies put it on the same level as the broader subject that one of those conspiracies is about? It's not clear what the complete list is either these are all the ones that ~ 1 in 12 responders or more answered yes to.
 

TacosNSalsa

Member
I'm not going to lie I be wanting to send hate mail to some people on this spades app. How da hell you gonna bid nil and got the ace and king of spades in your hand?? Know what never mind . Harassment is bad . Don't do it.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
“Harassed”? Hahaha. Getting offended by trash talking from strangers online is so fucking dumb. Especially now with all the bans and all that people aren’t harsh as way back. Also most of the people cussing others online are 12-13 years old that wanna sound badass


tenor.gif

Here's a thing. It's strangers. In the old days you'd go to a server and get to know the people there and you'd get to know that if x is calling you a cunt it's not meant with any malice, it's just his way, or that y is easily put off his game if you point out the joy of fucking his sister, or whatever. However, since we lost that, since in the pursuit of the mighty dollar we got match-making and lost the private servers (so they could charge us for them and strictly police use of mods, pirate copies, etc) we lost that community spirit, the in-jokes, the knowledge of where each person's line was and the understanding that if the server owner got pissed you were gone, and that wasn't a big corporation kicking you, it was someone who was part of the community with you. That did tremendous harm in my opinion.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Wait a second, this report is by ADL?
The same ADL that thinks Gamergate is on the same level as holocaust deniers,
EAUxvoeUcAEopx1.jpg

Good to know there's a correct opinion to have.
 
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JCK75

Member
Yup been harassed a lot in games, when you're good and you keep killing toxic people they act out and try to get under your skin.. good thing as the OP states I am an adult and I ignore it and move on with my life.
 
Among the top games that the ADL found to foster harassment were Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and League of Legends. Dota 2 was the top game players said they had stopped playing because they didn’t want to deal with others’ rude antics.

And while 80 percent of players said that they had, at some point, experienced positive social interactions in a game—with World of Warcraft, Minecraft and NBA 2K being the leaders in happy moments—that number dropped to just 37 percent when talking about Riot’s League of Legends.
It's almost like maybe it's specifically competitive games that foster this kind of atmosphere...almost as if there's some kind of psychological edge the "harassers" are trying to gain and they actually don't give a crap that they're playing with x or y gender, sexual orientation or race...almost as if they're just latching onto anything to get under other's skin because they know people who are flustered are not on their A game, like they're just shit-talking each other, kind of like athletes often do in MMA, boxing, wrestling and a myriad other comptitive sports. Maybe, just maybe, the solution is not to visably appear flustered and make a huge fuss over it, indicating to the perp that it's working, but instead to either pay it no mind or mute and ignore it.

The ADL's complete lack of understanding of competitive culture really is astounding.
 

Skyr

Member
If you give a fuck about getting called names on the internet, that’s on you.

But then 30% have actually been doxxed? I have a hard time believing that.
 

waylo

Banned
I feel like I'm one of the only ones who actually enjoys trash talking. Gaming with friends when I was younger, growing up gaming online, trash talk was the foundation for this hobby. I'm 30 now, and trash talk still to this day does not bother me. It's some random idiot online, talk trash back or mute. It's not hard.

The fact even the most basic, non-hateful trash talk nowadays is "cause for concern" and sends someone off to complain to the Twitter mongoloids is really sad.
 
But then 30% have actually been doxxed? I have a hard time believing that.
I highly doubt it. We're all using pseudonyms and it's not like games have that information at hand for people to find...so you'd have to give it to them. How stupid do you have to be to hand over identifying information to someone you've never spoken to before who is telling you about how he fucked your mother? I try to have a little more faith in humanity than to believe people are that dumb.
 

Birdo

Banned
I once had a kid voice message me on XBL that he was going to kill me for real if he ever saw me playing COD again.

It was fucking hilarious. He was doing a "Tough guy" voice and everything.

Blocked him. Problem solved.
 

yuadesa

Member
If you give a fuck about getting called names on the internet, that’s on you.

But then 30% have actually been doxxed? I have a hard time believing that.

Gonna need to see the receipts for that one, if it was really that high a lot fewer people would be playing online.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I'd like to see what % of people have "harassed" someone in an online game in any way, shape or form. And by that I mean, been a dick in some capacity. I'd bet it's more than 74%.
 

radewagon

Member
"Harassed".

I have come across my share of rude people while playing online. But never have I encountered real harassment.

I'm sure it will sometimes happen, but 74%? No way.

My guess is that what you experienced could easily be considered harassment by someone else. One man's harassment could be another man's trash-talk bonding. Perceptions are wild. 74% seems like a fairly reasonable number. Gaf is, likely, far more tolerant of gamer trash-talk than the average individual.
 

Blancka

Member
Gonna need to see the receipts for that one, if it was really that high a lot fewer people would be playing online.
Seriously, that number is far too high to be real. I'm pretty sure I don't even know anybody who knows anybody who's been doxxed.

TBH my guess is that some people are dumb, thought doxxed meant DDOS'd and also get convinced they're being DDOS'd for being the best player in Wood 5 division every time they lag
 

Blancka

Member
"Harassed" means called "shit" or something? Because that's dumb
Good old PC culture, making everything, harassment, racism, sexism etc so that the words lose their impact and nobody takes actual cases seriously. The boy who cried wolf: Global edition
 

Cranberrys

Member
Actually the thing with vaccinations really happened to me. I don't consider I was harassed but the dude was totally crazy and told me that vaccines were in reality real time tracking devices and stuff like that. At first, I laughed at him but he was so far gone and so weird. I end up quiting the game.
 
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FranXico

Member
My guess is that what you experienced could easily be considered harassment by someone else. One man's harassment could be another man's trash-talk bonding. Perceptions are wild. 74% seems like a fairly reasonable number. Gaf is, likely, far more tolerant of gamer trash-talk than the average individual.
That's a fair assumption, yes.
 
One time I was playing Dark Souls and a guy invaded me, teleport backstab killed me, and then did the "well, what is it?" gesture.

He then messaged me, saying "lol gg"

Took me months of therapy to overcome the pain.

Reminds me of the time me and my friend played Broccoli men with a defense potion in Bloodborne. Knocked a guy off a ledge, had to walk back for 10 minutes to get to us and then I killed him. His rage still feeds my wicked soul to this day.
 
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