On Video Game Civility, and Being a Kinder Gamer

I am a gamer, as poor a descriptor as that is - do we call people who watch movies 'moviers'? Is that the sole descriptor that should be applied, when it encompasses a variety of genres? - I have grown up playing games from cheap shareware games on my old Macintosh IIci, to The Legend of Zelda on a console rented from Blockbuster, to playing Halo: Combat Evolved on a brand new Xbox; many great moments from my life are studded by games. But like many gamers, I hold a secret shame: other gamers. Not the ones I know personally; not the guys I play at LANs. No, these are the worst kind of gamers: the ones I only ever see--or mostly hear--on the internet.

The internet is, to quote Obi-Wan, "a wretched hive of scum and villainy". For some reason people who can be perfectly reasonable, even nice, in real life take the cloak of internet anonymity to become people you would never ever want to meet; game designer Cliff Bleszinski terms it the "Beavis effect". In normal speak, they are often referred to as "that jerk who insulted and griefed me for twenty minutes straight". Either way, they are the biggest problem with gaming: it's not greedy publishers or digital rights management or a perceived decline in quality. The enemy is us.

This is a huge problem for several reasons. For one, gaming is by and large a diversion. Unless you are a pro-league player making thousands off your StarCraft II skills, you should take every loss with a grain of salt. It's about friendly competition, not deciding if your man/womanhood is on the line with every kill or death. But these gamers that spout abuses over microphones or profanity-laden text kill much of the appeal. Over the past decade, more and more games are about social experiences--multiplayer games in Call of Duty or Halo, connecting with someone online to play cooperatively through a game like Portal 2. But when the actual social experiences are so poor, it can put people off the games completely. I know many who have sworn off playing the aforementioned shooters, which are legendary for their vitriolic communities. There is no one who plays these games who isn't aware of the problem; the ones who keep playing are those who take the abuse, tune it out, or just mute everyone in the lobby.

Game developers can police their communities--ban repeat offenders, moderate trolling posts, etc.--but they are simply too few to turn the tide. It's unfortunate that millions of dollars of game development goes into making an experience fun, but can be undone by those shouting insults about whatever strikes their fancy--gender, sexual orientation, politics, race, linguistic accent.

The worst part of this culture is two-fold: one, it discourages some from playing altogether, or forcing them to hide who they are. The statistics bear out that women gamers are a growing demographic, even online (1), but many choose to mute themselves rather than sustain a barrage of sexual comments as soon as they say a word. Others simply decide to stay away from those games altogether.

The second problem is the kids. I am constantly shocked and amazed when I play games with younger children. A month ago I hopped into an Uncharted 2 deathmatch game and was immediately pelted with insults by a party of prepubescent children on one team who had mastered uses of the f-bomb faster than algebra. I was treated to the horror of one of the children angrily berating his grandmother for suggesting he stop playing. After sustaining twenty minutes of this, the rest of the players took a stand; even the kids' own teammates took to killing them immediately so they left the game.

What happened to these kids? Many of them might have learned the language at home, but it's horrible to think that some might have picked it up from the game themselves. Poor parenting is a possible factor, but what about the responsible gamer moms and dads who want to enjoy themselves with their kids, yet can't without worrying junior might hear explicit depictions of someone else's genitals? What are these people going to be like when they grow up--more foul-mouthed gamers to continue the trend?

Finally, for every jerk with a microphone, gamers lose a little more respect in the court of public opinion. The majority of the population might be middle-aged gamers these days, but the media still represents us as immature teens--and who can blame them based on the sterling examples provided.

The question of what can be done is almost unanswerable. Some games, like StarCraft II, are lucky in that they seem to attract a less violent crowd, but it's not as if the problem is only limited to some games. One solution has been to form clans and communities around respecting each other, building interactions outside the games and hopefully making the insults less frequent. But the best solution I can think of like recycling--you do your part. Everyone needs to blow off steam sometimes, but when players step out of line, speak up, explain politely that it's not acceptable, and refuse to be baited. If even a small collection of gamers make a conscientious effort to watch what they say and call others out, it can make a difference.

We may want to blow each others' avatars into oblivion with plasma and bullets, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends.

References & Further Reading
* (1) " Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry ". Electronic Software Association. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
* (2) Andy McNamara (July 12, 2011). "LFTE The Highest Court". Game Informer. Retrieved September 30, 2011.

Read more gaming stories by David Fuchs: "Dota 2 and the IceFrog Success Story" / "Play Legacy Games on Modern Macs" / "Perils and Profits of the Video Game Trailer" / "Great Overshadowed Video Games"