Harassment in Gaming and Online

[Mayhem]

So, i´m trying to figure this one out. How does harassment in gaming and online work? Any examples?

I somehow haven´t come across any of this and i´m using this internet thing for quite a while now.

What are the problems and what can be done about it, not only against the ones that harass but also by the ones that get harassed?

[Deleted]

Superficial narcissists who want sympathy but have easy lives will find any reason to claim they are being hurt in order to get sympathy.

It's sort of like how alcoholics will use any excuse to take a drink.

[StayTuned]

How it works? Really? lol

Step 1: Right click on someone
Step 2: Click on "send private message"
Step 3: Write: "your mom sucks, l2p"; or: "I bet you suck irl as much as a paladin"
Step 4: Press the enter button



What can be done about it:

Step 1: Right click on the idiots name
Step 2: Click on the ignore button
Step 3: Move on with your life

[Independent voter]

[Revi]

Superficial narcissists who want sympathy but have easy lives will find any reason to claim they are being hurt in order to get sympathy.

It's sort of like how alcoholics will use any excuse to take a drink.

Yeah, that's the impression I get :/

Sure, nasty comments aren't fun, but they are easily ignored. You never see anyone who has actually lived a hard life engaged in this at all, only people with a complete lack of perspective.

[Mayhem]

How it works? Really? lol

Step 1: Right click on someone
Step 2: Click on "send private message"
Step 3: Write: "your mom sucks, l2p"; or: "I bet you suck irl as much as a paladin"
Step 4: Press the enter button



What can be done about it:

Step 1: Right click on the idiots name
Step 2: Click on the ignore button
Step 3: Move on with your life

Well if that´s harassment, i´ve come across it in every game ever played. Even the early nintendo ones when a friend was watching. Trash talk is harassment?

[Strangebrew]

Well if that´s harassment, i´ve come across it in every game ever played. Even the early nintendo ones when a friend was watching. Trash talk is harassment?

Criticizing certain someone's criticism is supposedly harassment, so why wouldn't this be?

[Graeham]

In my experience there's a lot of genuine harassment that occurs online. More often than not, however, the genuine cases of harassment are not taken seriously or are simply not reported/investigated whilst the very minor incidents are blown out of proportion instead. Back when I played WoW I had the unfortunate displease of being harassed and sent death threats. Friends and family members of mine were also harassed once their connection to me was revealed.

What was done about it when reported? Absolutely nothing - despite the disclaimer most sites have in regards to 'taking harassment extremely seriously'. It's just a stock phrase that seems to exist for legal purposes. Of course, someone losing their temper and using bad language when goaded on the official site will be banned for harassment. Priorities, eh?

[StayTuned]

Well if that´s harassment, i´ve come across it in every game ever played. Even the early nintendo ones when a friend was watching. Trash talk is harassment?

Yes, to some extent. Ok, let me be a bit more serious.

There's obviously a difference. Harassment in Games can have two faces:

1: Trash talk - and taking said trash talk way too personal. Ignoring the 12 yo. idiot is the best way to get rid of this problem. Maybe even report him
2: Guild intern mobbing - very close to actual, irl mobbing. People leave the TS3 room you are in, they mute you, shit talk you, don't want to raid with you, write you nasty messages. The best way to get rid of this problem is to freaking join a different guild and place all members who fucked you over on ignore.

Harassment online can be a bit more tricky, when you get mobbed by people who you could also meet irl. As in, people posting shit about you on Facebook, writing you horrible messages. One could argue that ignoring those people is also the best way (and I think it is) but it's harder when you have to meet these people either in school or work during the day.

In such a case I'd go as far as to contact the school or work, take proof of the harassment (unlike spoken harassment, written harassment can be screenshotted and presented) and get some disciplinary action going on against them. Meanwhile I'd start looking for another school/workplace, because really, you don't want to stay around shit people, even if they don't harass you anymore.

Or the good old beat your bully up method.

Video game harassment doesn't fucking exist in my opinion, everything can be solved by fucking ignoring the harasser.

[Calaba]

So, i´m trying to figure this one out. How does harassment in gaming and online work? Any examples?

I somehow haven´t come across any of this and i´m using this internet thing for quite a while now.

What are the problems and what can be done about it, not only against the ones that harass but also by the ones that get harassed?

It's almost entirely self-inflicted. Most games have features which allow you to block messages from other users, so it's hardly an issue.

Far more common is the vile elitist attitudes most commonly see in MOBA PUG games (playing with randoms in DOTA for instance). Be prepared for 50 minutes of abuse each game if you're a new player heading in that direction. For the vast majority, that's the worst it ever gets, and it's caused almost entirely by a combination of you not knowing what you're doing, and really bad manners on their part. LFR in WoW is toxic for a similar reason, but it's less of an issue as everything is faceroll - the noobs are catered to.

Almost all other abuse online is self-induced, and completely avoidable.

[Independent voter]

Yes, to some extent. Ok, let me be a bit more serious.

There's obviously a difference. Harassment in Games can have two faces:

1: Trash talk - and taking said trash talk way too personal. Ignoring the 12 yo. idiot is the best way to get rid of this problem. Maybe even report him
2: Guild intern mobbing - very close to actual, irl mobbing. People leave the TS3 room you are in, they mute you, shit talk you, don't want to raid with you, write you nasty messages. The best way to get rid of this problem is to freaking join a different guild and place all members who fucked you over on ignore.

When I think of gaming harassment I don't even think about guys. I guess it's the macho thing where you tell the dude who is being harassed to "man up".

To me it's harassment of girls. Girls aren't like boys, most of them don't like trash talking for example, that's just how they are built.

[StayTuned]

It's almost entirely self-inflicted. Most games have features which allow you to block messages from other users, so it's hardly an issue.

Far more common is the vile elitist attitudes most commonly see in MOBA PUG games (playing with randoms in DOTA for instance). Be prepared for 50 minutes of abuse each game if you're a new player heading in that direction. For the vast majority, that's the worst it ever gets, and it's caused almost entirely by a combination of you not knowing what you're doing, and really bad manners on their part. LFR in WoW is toxic for a similar reason, but it's less of an issue as everything is faceroll - the noobs are catered to.

Almost all other abuse online is self-induced, and completely avoidable.

I remember my first days of LoL. I was called a noob, they told me I suck hard, that I should uninstall the game and generally fucked my mom on a regular basis.
I was like... Yes, I truly do suck, sry. Case closed.

By now I should have had at least 15 siblings that's how often my mom got shagged by the random LoL or CoD dude.

[Deleted]

It's almost entirely self-inflicted. Most games have features which allow you to block messages from other users, so it's hardly an issue.

Far more common is the vile elitist attitudes most commonly see in MOBA PUG games (playing with randoms in DOTA for instance). Be prepared for 50 minutes of abuse each game if you're a new player heading in that direction. For the vast majority, that's the worst it ever gets, and it's caused almost entirely by a combination of you not knowing what you're doing, and really bad manners on their part. LFR in WoW is toxic for a similar reason, but it's less of an issue as everything is faceroll - the noobs are catered to.

Almost all other abuse online is self-induced, and completely avoidable.

I simply adore that people who are bad at multiplayer games have put so much effort into not being useful, that they would rather call better players stuff like "vile elitists". Actually it dosn't even have to be better players, it also extend to anyone even vaguely suggesting that they should put in minimum effort in multiplayer games if they want others to play with them.

I'm genuinly curious if it's the same form of denial that SJW's goes through?

[StayTuned]

When I think of gaming harassment I don't even think about guys. I guess it's the macho thing where you tell the dude who is being harassed to "man up".

To me it's harassment of girls. Girls aren't like boys, most of them don't like trash talking for example, that's just how they are built.

I understand that. When a guy writes a girl "you suck at gaming bitch" or "tits or gtfo", the easiest way is to ignore that person. If your ignore list is full just download a mod to extend that list

Games offer a ton of opportunities to punish the harasser. Be it the ignore function, or report button - which will get him banned, depending on the severity of the harassment maybe even permanent.

Also, there's is an unspoken etiquette in gaming, at least for me. If you start your sentence with "Hi, I'm a girl", I immediately think less of you because I assume you want to have something for free. I play video games for well over 20 years. Since I started playing online games, there have always been guys disguising themselves as girls to get free stuff. When was the last time you heard a guy start a random dungeon with "Hi, I'm a boy"? Probably never.

Your gender doesn't matter on the internet.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

People can just be way too sensitive. That's can happen when a species becomes weak-willed and complacent. Welcome to the new humanity.

[Deleted]

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry about this video. It's like men put in women's bodies and talking with female voices, with some topics swapped to accomodate gender.

Funny thing is, men truly believe this would be how female dominance would look like. You know what - this is ridiculous. Like not being able to think outside your limited box.

Anyway, there are more ways of harassment than pure verbal ones. And most of the time it is ignored, because people in anonymic settings are more often a$$holes than in face to face situations (at least as long as they know that they can get away with their behaviour) and mods simply seem to not care.

[Calaba]

I simply adore that people who are bad at multiplayer games have put so much effort into not being useful, that they would rather call better players stuff like "vile elitists". Actually it dosn't even have to be better players, it also extend to anyone even vaguely suggesting that they should put in minimum effort in multiplayer games if they want others to play with them.

I'm genuinly curious if it's the same form of denial that SJW's goes through?

Think you're missing the point a tad - EVERYONE is bad when they start playing these. Everyone starts out being a noob for the first few games. Like it or not, MOBAs are well-known for this sort of abuse.

[Faenskap]

Harassment is a very real thing, and I've experienced it. Sexual harassment to be precise. It didn't give me STDs or whatever (I'm not a SJW), but were I a guy, I wouldn't have dealt with it

If some female made it to Blizzcon 3v3 Championship, I can't even imagine what she would experience. If she is a bit on the heavy side, she's a fat whale who should kill herself. If she's superhot model, dream-GF, weighing 40 kgs with DD boob size, she's a slut who exchanged blowjobs for rating. No one will care about her skill, just her looks, which is sad. And sure, we women might not even be terrible supportive of her, either.

One of reasons I stopped with WoW PvP is this sewage you wade through as a female. It's a feeling of not being taken seriously, and all eyes are on you, really. If you screw up, it's because girls can't play, not because a person, regardless of gender, did a mistake.

It's like this:
I find a group
Join TS3
Say "hey"
Roll eyes and shake at "lol girl!" comments

I mean, just look at female streamers as opposed to the "lads". Even if they are showing some cleavage for extra attention, my brain cells commit suicide twice as fast when reading the "comments" as opposed to a guy's comment section.

At certain times, it just feels like being a woman playing PvP is rarer than a woman driving in Saudi Arabia, or having 2 PhDs in some very boring and narrow science stuff, like theoretical astrophysics. Yes, I think that's boring, and I would assume not many females venture this way.

What to do about it? Nothing. I just stopped with PvP, I couldn't be bothered anymore.

"But 'lol girls' comments aren't hurtful/bad,m just think about all the friendless guys that don't get this attention!"
I really don't care. I just want to play in peace. I've never been attention seeking, and certain comments just make me feel uneasy, as the feeling of being watched

[StayTuned]

Think you're missing the point a tad - EVERYONE is bad when they start playing these. Everyone starts out being a noob for the first few games. Like it or not, MOBAs are well-known for this sort of abuse.

Children are evil monsters.

Most MOBA players are 13 years old.

How people miss these facts is beyond me.

[twiddler]

Threads like these are always interesting. You always have that guy who spends his time on MMO-C triggered by a billion things suddenly trying to talk about toughness.