Submitted by Allen Bradford
Video games are at the forefront of technology and media. The ever growing industry attracts people of all ages all around the world. Companies like Microsoft and Sony have integrated the internet more and more through their online services of Xbox Live and the Playstation Network respectively. The highest concentration of gamers online is concentrated in the Northeast of North America. Me being an avid gamer I am a member of both services so I connect to people of all ages from different backgrounds. Being from a major metropolis on the east coast, there has been a disturbing trend that has becoming more problematic. A letter I read in a magazine has pointed this trend out and the writer was correct. We can not help ourselves when it comes to teasing our competition that is not like us.
A perfect game to use as an example is Call of Duty: Black Ops. This is a hardcore shooting game which allows you to go online and take the fight to other people. Microsoft and Sony allow you to use microphone headsets to take the experience further and talk to everyone you are playing with. In the letter I read the guy was from the south and talks about how his southern accent is constantly made fun of, but at least Americans understand him. Reading this had me thinking about all the small kids I have made fun of for playing this mature rated game with their high pitched cries and squeals. Also, foreigners from all of Europe and Asia are constantly being harassed about their accent, they way they talk, even their slow internet connection.
I can’t help to think, “Damn, I’m guilty”, because I even have my moments, especially when I lose. The fact that the letter I read was published in a major gaming magazine means that this has really become a problem. In all honesty, it is wrong because I hear it every time I start to play and no one can like that. It takes away from the fun experience of the game. There is a difference between clean trash talk and harassment of others because of their culture. We as gamers here on the east coast need to learn to be more respectful toward others around the world so we can increase our player base and invite more friendly competition.
Phialy Noun
ReplyDeleteI agree to what you had wrote about in this blog post. I am also a gamer and I know what you mean by the hostile environment inside the cyber world of gaming. For some reason, North America lacks sportsmanship. When I play online, I find myself having to defend my actions in a game and argue with people I never met before.
Submitted by Marjorie Bartell
ReplyDeleteI have also spent a lot of time gaming online with my headset...sometimes turned off to stop hearing some six year old calling me a fag (I'm a female, but as other females I've known have pointed out, we apparently just sound like young boys).
I read an article about this a while ago, and a lot of the source came from an interesting point, there are no gaming super stars to lead by example of good sportsmanship. Well there are a few, but these gamers are not exposed to the average gamer.
For instance in South Korea, Starcraft players are celebrities. Their games are televised, they respect each other, and they lead the idea of sportsmanship by example.
Many E-sports leagues have come and gone in the US, none have really stuck around. We don't have moderators in game lobbies to make sure we're all being nice to each other or anything. There are no rules in the games to disqualify someone from screaming obscenities in every one's ears.
In regular sports, a player gets a penalty when they run all over the field calling all of the opposing team a bunch of fags, but no such rules exist in online gaming. In the leagues I have been in for E-sports, these rules do exist, there are penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct, but these leagues simply do not have enough support. The average person would simply just rather stay at home and play online, and the sponsors that support these leagues realize there's no money there, because people would rather stay at home.
My favorite experience ever, there was this crazy guy who used to play a game I did. I went to tournaments a lot in real life, he never had made it to one. He would literally go around to different lobbies talking about himself in the third person and calling every one trash. He finally showed up at a tournament a few times, every time he lost, and was either ignored by every one, or taunted by other people. No one respected this person, and he was treated like an outcast. Do you know why? Because he came to the tournament as the same person he was online. He didn't come as just a person who plays games. He came as is online idiot persona. That's the problem, on the internet, people think they can act like total idiots, and then show up in real life and find respect acting the same way. He was a rare case.
So yes, the answer to this problem? Show up for tournaments and involve yourself respectfully in the communities that your game has. Support E-sport leagues and the companies that support them. Start your own offline gatherings. That's how you create respect and sportsmanship, get to know these players face to face, instead of doing what they're doing, hiding at home behind a microphone. Pro-tip, that one guy I spoke of, was the only person I've ever met in real life that didn't drop their silly online persona. I've gone to 100's of tournaments. We're actually just normal awesome people in real life, with lives and problems of our own.