Online gaming and harrassment

[rslade]

This is only one of many reasons that I don't play computer games ...

Biggest target?  Female gamers.  (That's another ...)

[dcontesti]

What you mean you can play games online LOL

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@rslade wrote:

This is only one of many reasons that I don't play computer games ...

Biggest target?  Female gamers.  (That's another ...)

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It goes back to the mentality of anonymity......

Folks do all kinds of stupid things when they think they cannot be tracked or that there is no penalty for their actions.......but foolishly they forget or don't think that they can be tracked down.

And no I do not play online games.....

[MatthewSimon]

Having been a gamer my whole life and an online gamer since the 90s I would agree and disagree with the statistics in this article. A lot of it is subject to what online games you are playing. FPS and battle royale games are far more toxic than others. One does not need to look far in Youtube to find videos of gamers raging, breaking things and berating others in these games with insults, sexist comments and racial slurs. In other game types like MMO games that rely on their communities more the environments can be much friendlier. Its just part of what you come to expect from gaming. Generally it is up to the community to police itself and let the game runners know what is going on through functions like reporting which virtually every online game has nowadays.  

[Steve-Wilme]

I don't play on line games either.  It's nice to get away from the screen and keyboard outside work.

[rslade]

I read, in passing, about a psychological study looking at the current levels of incivility in politics. It might go some way to explaining the harrassment in online gaming, since it pointed out that rudeness, harrassment, and other verbal attacks do (briefly) supress general activity and competence, even in unrelated activities. (Possibly also explains trash talking in sports, as well.)