Study finds that 74% have been harrassed in online muliplayer games.

[00nutzy]

Go to anywhere that loses power at any time in the winter and I think you'll find that meaningful social interaction is not included in discussions about the internet. Likewise, go to a person in sub saharan Africa and tell them that people are offing themselves in record numbers because someone was mean to them on a screen that they can't afford and I'm sure you'll get a compassionate yet confused answer. I'll say it again, instead of inviting big brother into our realm, spend more time educating people on how to control their experiences because whether or not you like it or even agree, the fact still remains that you have control over the content you consume. Don't like it? Walk away from your computer. Your continued interaction with that machine is voluntary. End of discussion, there's no details or wiggle room here. Your involvement is voluntary.

Spoken as someone completely out of touch with the reality of being a youth.
Just a heads up the internet (and games) are not only for the older generation. In fact I would think it was pretty obvious that those who are most affected by the abuse are the younger generation, you know the ones who the older generation were supposed to be keeping an eye on.
People are becoming more reliant upon the internet of things. Many are happy to see this come around others not so much.
Meaningful social interaction is very subjective what you may find meaningful others would find trivial, that should not diminish it in your eyes nor should your interpretation of others interaction diminish theirs. Believe me when the internet goes out it is very much talked about.
Still as stated above, my whole reason for posting at all is to call bullying/abuse as bad behavior regardless of media or form. It should be called out and those engaging in it should be called what they are.

 

[Glacieredapollo]

Spoken as someone completely out of touch with the reality of being a youth.
Just a heads up the internet (and games) are not only for the older generation. In fact I would think it was pretty obvious that those who are most affected by the abuse are the younger generation, you know the ones who the older generation were supposed to be keeping an eye on.
People are becoming more reliant upon the internet of things. Many are happy to see this come around others not so much.
Meaningful social interaction is very subjective what you may find meaningful others would find trivial, that should not diminish it in your eyes nor should your interpretation of others interaction diminish theirs. Believe me when the internet goes out it is very much talked about.
Still as stated above, my whole reason for posting at all is to call bullying/abuse as bad behavior regardless of media or form. It should be called out and those engaging in it should be called what they are.

You have no idea how old I am.
To a certain degree I almost agree with you about calling people out and I regularly do when it's a situation that would benefit from that. But on that same token I don't really like defending people who won't lift a finger to help themselves, even more so when they claim they're the victim. I was raised in such a manner that I have what's called an internal locus of control and expect others to, at the very least, protect themselves. This entire discussion can easily be drawn back to the age old "give a man a fish" argument. Nobody is doing anybody any favors if they live their lives putting out other people's (metaphorical) fires, but if they teach people how to put it out themselves, they create lasting change. I'd just like the world to be a better place, and we don't get there by feeding the trolls. To be perfectly blunt, the approach you're proposing actually hurts people. I posted a peer review study earlier in this same thread showing that psychologically, developing minds need a certain degree of conflict to raise their own resilience. If you are stepping in to 'save' them, you're robbing them of that conflict and ensuring they remain fragile and let's be real, you can't be there for them all the time. What happens when they are faced with bullying, and you, in your wisdom, 'preserved' them from the previous opportunity to build a healthy coping mechanism instead of educating them on how to take control?

 

[m0rl0ck]

I just wanted to mention that despite my earlier comment, i think that racist, sexist, homophobic or bigoted remarks or conduct should be immediately bannable offenses in online games and if repeated should result in permanent bans.
I cant however see how personal, spur of the moment, expressions of anger are even avoidable.

 

[00nutzy]

You have no idea how old I am. Frankly I kind of agree with you about calling people out and I regularly do. But on that same token I don't really like defending people who won't lift a finger to help themselves. Even more so when they claim they're the victim, sorry I was raised in such a manner that I have a powerful internal locus of control and expect others to at the very least, protect themselves, I guess it goes back to the age old "give a man a fish" argument. You're not doing anybody any favors if you live your life putting out other people's fires, but if you teach them how to put it out themselves, you create lasting change. I'd just like the world to be a better place, and you don't get there by feeding the trolls, to be perfectly honest, your approach actually hurts people. I posted a peer review study earlier in this same thread showing that psychologically, developing minds need a certain degree of conflict to raise their own resilience, if you are stepping in to 'save' them, you're robbing them of that conflict and ensuring they remain fragile, you can't be there for them all the time. What happens when they are faced with bullying, and you, in your wisdom, 'preserved' them from the previous opportunity to build a healthy coping mechanism instead of educating them on how to take control?

And you are perfectly welcome to your view on the matter, as am I.
Yes teach them how to take control but do it after the immediate threat is dealt with.
And dont excuse (this is my opinion) other peoples bad behavior due to someone elses lack of ability to handle the situation. Bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of who it is done against.
However, that is my personal code of conduct.

 

[Glacieredapollo]

And you are perfectly welcome to your view on the matter, as am I.
Yes teach them how to take control but do it after the immediate threat is dealt with.
And dont excuse (this is my opinion) other peoples bad behavior due to someone elses lack of ability to handle the situation. Bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of who it is done against.
However, that is my personal code of conduct.

Other people's bad behavior doesn't matter, It's entirely arbitrary, in fact getting a reaction of any sort is what many of these people are looking for. The approach of stepping in is very encouraging to the nasties, instead block them, show solidarity with the abused by blocking the nasty person at the same time as them. The way someone handles their own reaction and thus their experience, is the important part which they have actual control over, you have the power to help them take that control, please don't throw them under the bus by feeding a culture that doesn't understand the psychological and social cost of perpetuating victimhood.

 

[00nutzy]

Other people's bad behavior doesn't matter, It's entirely arbitrary, in fact getting a reaction of any sort is what many of these people are looking for. The approach of stepping in is very encouraging to the nasties, instead block them, show solidarity with the abused by blocking the nasty person at the same time as them. The way someone handles their own reaction and thus their experience, is the important part which they have actual control over, you have the power to help them take that control, please don't throw them under the bus by feeding a culture that doesn't understand the psychological and social cost of perpetuating victimhood.

You are free to do as you do.
We simply disagree.
I will continue to do as I do.

 

[Ian Phillips]

This thread is generating a number of complaints.

Please tone down the rhetoric or the thread will be closed.

Thank you.

 

[Chris Simon]

You are free to do as you do.
We simply disagree.
I will continue to do as I do.

See?
This is exactly the attitude he's trying to promote as a solution of the "problem".

(again, to prevent misundestanding, I'm not talking about real harrassment and abuse, which definitely needs addressing, but about the fabricated one that seems to be prevalent in online gaming)

 

[Maolagin]

I'm not talking about real harrassment and abuse, which definitely needs addressing, but about the fabricated one that seems to be prevalent in online gaming

You seem pretty deeply invested in this framing. I would really encourage you to consider the possibility that you are confusing "fabricated" with "not personally experienced by yourself". Other people have different experiences than yourself, and that doesn't actually make them worse people.

 

[Chris Simon]

You seem pretty deeply invested in this framing. I would really encourage you to consider the possibility that you are confusing "fabricated" with "not personally experienced by yourself". Other people have different experiences than yourself, and that doesn't actually make them worse people.

Did I say anything that would suggest I am trying to judge people's quality?

All I said was that 99% of the time, what people call harrassment is just stupid trash talk that can and should be simply ignored and if it's not, it's a bad thing, because it detracts from REAL abusive behaviour, which is (rarely but surely) happening and should be dealt with.

And what makes you think I wasn't subjected to it? The OP study is telling me that I have most certainly been a victim of such behaviour. But it also taught me that I'm just probably reacting to it differently than 74% of the people.
When somebody calls me an idiot because I pushed too far and died too soon, or starts telling stories about my mum because I accidentally killed him repeatedly, it's just worth a chuckle. These and similar things make 99% of what this study calls "harrassment and abuse", therefore yeah, you bet I'm hell-bent on debunking it as a complete bull.

We need victims of actual abuse to come forward so it can be dealt with (on case to case basis - you can't just globally ban bullying, it just doesn't work like that), but what will such victim think after seeing this or similar "study" or reading this thread? "Ah, so this is normal? Maybe I should bully somebody as well."

Fabricating fake issues to point to the real ones is despicable and counter-productive. Look at #metoo

 

[Zetta]

(again, to prevent misundestanding, I'm not talking about real harrassment and abuse, which definitely needs addressing, but about the fabricated one that seems to be prevalent in online gaming)

So all the evidence of people being racist or homophobic within games is fabricated? The numerous companies admitting there is a toxicity issue within their game are all part of this fabrication conspiracy? Every gamer knows that games like DoTA, LoL, Overwatch, WoW etc have toxicity/harrassment/abuse issues.

All I said was that 99% of the time, what people call harrassment is just stupid trash talk that can and should be simply ignored and if it's not, it's a bad thing, because it detracts from REAL abusive behaviour, which is (rarely but surely) happening and should be dealt with.

So what is the 1% of issues you find acceptable to be classed as harrassment and why is it that you get to decide what constitutes harrassment and what doesn't?

And what makes you think I wasn't subjected to it? The OP study is telling me that I have most certainly been a victim of such behaviour. But it also taught me that I'm just probably reacting to it differently than 74% of the people.
When somebody calls me an idiot because I pushed too far and died too soon, or starts telling stories about my mum because I accidentally killed him repeatedly, it's just worth a chuckle. These and similar things make 99% of what this study calls "harrassment and abuse", therefore yeah, you bet I'm hell-bent on debunking it as a complete bull.

Prove it. Prove that these cases account for 99% of the claims of harrassment.

We need victims of actual abuse to come forward so it can be dealt with (on case to case basis - you can't just globally ban bullying, it just doesn't work like that), but what will such victim think after seeing this or similar "study" or reading this thread? "Ah, so this is normal? Maybe I should bully somebody as well."

But only the sort of harrassment you approve of...

Fabricating fake issues to point to the real ones is despicable and counter-productive. Look at #metoo

And there we have it, bigotry at it's most obvious...

 

[Chris Simon]

Prove it. Prove that these cases account for 99% of the claims of harrassment.

Okay, I will address this part (the rest is drivel) before blocking you.

I don't have to prove anything. I am presenting my opinion and you are free to disagree if you want.
If I were, for example, presenting a study that will be picked up by media and acted upon despite claiming ridiculous findings, it would be nice to have some proofs and real data. But they don't do that.
Why should I?

 

[Zetta]

A thought I had earlier:
There are many people (dinosaurs) in this thread claiming that today's generation are too soft, too sensitive, too attention seeking etc. I don't know what age most of you people are but if you're anywhere close to my age (45) that means it is your kids generation you're talking about. And if that is the case then it is your generations parenting that plays a big part in the blame of people supposedly being too soft, too sensitive or too attention seeking. Food for thought.

I'd also highly recommend watching this video and see that there quite possibly a bit more to this than how you all grew up.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHzwMLx-rKc

 

[Jenner]

Closing under the forum's 'No Politics' rule.