Why are gamers so damn toxic

Post Reply New Topic

I was never a gamer but my little bro is, and every time I walk into the living room and hear the kinds of things others say on Xbox live I actually cringe and have to tell my brother to turn off the Xbox because this stuff is cancer.

Im talking about everything that made 4chan such cancer is literally heard whenever I hear my brother on Xbox live or other gaming streams.

I hear very sexist language and even pedophiliac language sexualizing minors, racist slurs all the time, death threats and just plain toxic behavior over a game. A piece of pixelated adventure somehow warrants telling someone to kill themselves?

The GamerGate scandal itself comes to mind whenever I picture gamers. If you want to know the truth even if I did like video games id shudder to ever associate myself with gamers.

Its not even just me saying this. I know so many people who are themselves gamers who admit that in many gaming streams and gaming communities the type of toxicity that is rampant ruins the experience

I've played basketball competitively at Lifetime for years, and as heated as things got during foul calls or disputed shots I don't ever remember having other members tell other members to kill themselves over a game. that stuff happens all the time and it makes me wonder how parents are raising these little sociopaths who tell others to commit suicide because during a Modern Warfare mission another player cost the game. OK a player cost the game, is it really worth telling them to kill themselves??

In case you're wondering why I'm posting this, my little bro is scared straight because he decided to troll on a gaming server and shot his own teammates. ok I admit thats annoying and wrong and not cool. However the response from the other guys on his team was downright depraved. some guy told my brother that he's going to track him down and rape him in the night anally with a knife and kill him and his family. I wouldn't have believed it had my brother not recorded the whole thing and shown it to me, in which case I was mortified that little kids can use such foul language over at worst a minor annoyance in a game

There are multiple reasons, some of which can intercept with each other. Some people have bad social abilities already, and games can be a platform they can be pulled to it, so you have already people with likely potential of toxicity. Levels of anonymity of game spaces can make people act out in ways that dehumanise other possible humans, and thus you have fostering toxic attitudes. And some people take games really seriously, as in it might be what they consider their one safe space, so people who invade that space, maybe seeing it as a joke or something, can be frustrating to them for either mocking them or what they enjoy, which leads to some toxic actions.

I won't say that it is all one way either, that gaming spaces are sometimes things needed for certain people, that stereotypes of all gamers being misanthropic can be a misdirected opinion, and people can put a lot of work into a game that can warrant being upset. The likes of GamerGate did show some sides of the communities that needed to be addressed and fixed. As it is, this sort of thing can range widely in certain demographics across different communities within gamers, with certain parts being more toxic than others.

Most games teach us not to trust. After all, if everything happened in a normal and predictable way, there'd be no game. For some players that taints their world view, and being cold, cynical or cruel are seen as badges of honour.

Games are also escapism but for some people that means escaping into a world where they act out all the nasty stuff they (hopefully) wouldn't consider doing in real life.

Plus of course it's really easy to issue unsettling death threats from behind a keyboard - there's virtually no accountability. The chances of actually suffering any consequences are pretty slim.

I can sympathize. Every time I play Co-op, I always end up with people who call me Jew or the N-word and I'm neither black nor Jewish. One time I made a friend while playing Serious Sam Fusion. We got along fine, but once Serious Sam got boring for him, I tried introducing him to other games. I introduced him to the Borderlands series and he took a liking to Borderlands 2. I taught him everything I knew about how to play the game. Over time, he changed. It started with him constantly mooching off me for weapons obtained from the chest unlocked by using Shift keys. I told him to set up his own damn Shift account, but it was apparently too complicated for him. Too complicated for a 40 year old living in Florida. We continued to play together but as he kept getting into Fight For Your Life, it didn't matter if I helped him or let him die, he kept telling me I suck at the game. Constantly, he kept telling me this. I got so tired of it that when he asked me to play Borderlands 2 with him, I let my brother play with him instead. My brother has higher skill level than me so I wondered if he would notice the difference. He just kept saying "Man, you suck at this game." When Borderlands 3 became Epic exclusive, he kept pestering me to buy it and I refused because I wanted to buy it on Steam. He said "A real fan wouldn't care." Oh really? I have every game, played them all including Tales From the Borderlands and I have Borderlands 2 VR on PS4. He gave up halfway through PreSequel and didn't even give the first game a chance and he thinks he's a real fan? As for me, I only have limited money and limited space on my computer. I'm not spending $120 for two copies through two launchers on one computer. He wouldn't listen to reason so he called ME toxic and unfriended me. Good riddance.

Clear distinctions must be made between on-line gamers and table-top gamers.

• The former rarely ever meet in person, while the latter almost always meet in person when playing their games. •

If an on-line gamer offends someone else with utterances of profanity, racism, or sexism, there is little or no risk of physical retaliation or loss of reputation in his (or her) local community.  Thus, an on-line gamer can be as toxic as he (or she) wants and still continue gaming.

However, if a table-top gamer is offensive, he (or she) will likely be requested to leave and "blacklisted" among members of the local gaming community.  Thus, a table-top gamer will soon be at a loss for in-person gaming opportunities, and will likely resort to on-line gaming instead.

Table-top gamers are generally more polite and respectful than on-line gamers, and will likely have more friends.

Also, free country, it's legal to play videogames all day with some ganja burning where I live, which really helps when the more serious gamers get into this kind of vulgar animosity.

When people take this kind of strutting too far, I tell them to their faces they don't know what they're talking about.

Truthfully I know more about how games are designed in 3D than how to play modern titles half decently, but some stuff is still really fun anyway. Pixelated adventures sums it up pretty nicely, I don't think the quality of a game, especially an online one, has anything to do with graphics anymore, it's about who's playing.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Eh, when I see blame shifting I call it out too.

Don't do one toxic thing a day before complaining about the other.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

So we shouldn't address how people in particular behave then?

We've gone down hill.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

It might be more a gender thing also. As a girl gamer I have to say I haven't experienced this often. That or I play with like minded people.

The Dunning-Kreuger effect is common in team-based games. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability.

Players believe they are above average, so if they lose games, they conclude that it must be their team mates holding them back rather than their own incompetence.

This results in players being toxic to team mates, since players tend to be more judgmental of their team mates mistakes, while more forgiving (or less aware) of their own.

That is why I prefer TTRPGs -- all the players are in the same room, and a dice roll determines success or failure.

However...