Take a good look at XBox live. I mean, take a look and a listen. It kind of makes me sick. At any hour of the day, you can have verbal crap slung at you by 12 year olds. It's really bad behaviour - racist, homophobic, sexist (holy water drinking crap, it's like females only exist as objects for some gamers...), and religious slurs. You know what, those gamers make me physically sick. There is a reason why gamers are labelled collectively as asshats and people who aren't decent...
I was born in 1983. Multiplayer gaming then meant that we had to pick up our butts and head to someone's house - usually with some snacks on hand or some other housewarming gift in tow. We learned how to be guests in someone's house - it didn't matter if it was a relative (my cousins and I played way too many games of Ultimate MK3) or a school friend. It meant that we had our manners and we mostly lost or won matches gracefully. (Even though it meant cussing at home, and going - how the heck did I lose that match?) It meant that we are civil to people when we played with them on games - otherwise, you lost respect in the gaming circle and couldn't find a partner/bunch of friends to play with!
Fast forward to now: with several clicks of the mouse, you can get online and play a match. There's no consequence to bad language, or just treating people like crap. You didn't have to pack up, and go home feeling bad because you let some filthy stream of material pass your lips. Trash talk has always had it's place in competitive things...but...
See, trash talk is always great to annoy and make your competition uncomfortable. That's what it's used for - it's a mental distraction. It's great when you pull it out during a match, but their has to be limits to how foul your language is. I remember playing a game of Tetris with my friend on campus, and taunting her with the fact that I "had a stick" (the four block straight piece). I admit, the language got bad (we were swearing in both Cantonese and English), but it never got personal - it was just about your game playing skill. (Unlike the swearing on XBox Live which is all about "I'm going to **** your mother, or other sexist language.)
I was born in 1983. Multiplayer gaming then meant that we had to pick up our butts and head to someone's house - usually with some snacks on hand or some other housewarming gift in tow. We learned how to be guests in someone's house - it didn't matter if it was a relative (my cousins and I played way too many games of Ultimate MK3) or a school friend. It meant that we had our manners and we mostly lost or won matches gracefully. (Even though it meant cussing at home, and going - how the heck did I lose that match?) It meant that we are civil to people when we played with them on games - otherwise, you lost respect in the gaming circle and couldn't find a partner/bunch of friends to play with!
Fast forward to now: with several clicks of the mouse, you can get online and play a match. There's no consequence to bad language, or just treating people like crap. You didn't have to pack up, and go home feeling bad because you let some filthy stream of material pass your lips. Trash talk has always had it's place in competitive things...but...
See, trash talk is always great to annoy and make your competition uncomfortable. That's what it's used for - it's a mental distraction. It's great when you pull it out during a match, but their has to be limits to how foul your language is. I remember playing a game of Tetris with my friend on campus, and taunting her with the fact that I "had a stick" (the four block straight piece). I admit, the language got bad (we were swearing in both Cantonese and English), but it never got personal - it was just about your game playing skill. (Unlike the swearing on XBox Live which is all about "I'm going to **** your mother, or other sexist language.)
Edit: It also works better when it's unexpected! I basically go around in school and work and I don't swear at people, but when I play competitively, I unleash multiple cusses in one sitting.
What I'm saying is that some gamers need to clean up their act. Be courteous online and off to people. It gives everyone else a bad taste in their mouths and degrades the image of gamers as really STUPID, tacky people. (People like the Angry Video Game Nerd make money off of satirizing this tendency of gamers to swear/cuss, but it's a character - not a real person - real people don't abuse other people. And his online persona never brings out the multiple swears at any one person, just the games and developers!)
Some people are going to say: astrangeone - It's called being PC, and I don't like it. Well, would you ever treat your friends and family in real life to that stream of abuse on XBox Live? Here's a scenario - if your mother/girlfriend/significant other/important person cooked you a meal, and it was frankly, disgusting...would you ever think of spewing that abuse in her/his/it's direction? It's not being "politically correct" to stop yourself from being an assmunch to people in any setting, and this includes online competitive gaming.
Another argument is that you are going to give me is the "double standard". But, but, astrangeone, you say that some people can say the n-word, or words like queer and reclaim them? Yes, I'm a gay woman gamer myself. Yes, there is a double standard in the language we can use. No, I won't use this language with people who are uncomfortable with it - this includes online gaming and real life. There are very few people who I know who won't be offended by racist, homophobic, religious slurs - but I do use them in context with people who I know won't be offended. It also means that I refrain from using this language in situations where I don't know the other person - like online or other the phone. And no, hurling abuse and claiming it takes the power/hurt out of those words doesn't work. I call myself a dyke, and it's a form of reclaiming that word because it is meant in a positive light, not as a form of self-abuse.
[font=comic sans ms,cursive]So, what are your views on this aspect of gamer behaviour? I'm curious and I'm open to suggestions![/font]
The Difference:
- face-to-face communication
- huge prep time (games, hardware, cables, power supplies, your food)
- bad behaviour wasn't accepted then --> your gaming circle was smaller, and if you treated anyone like shit (consistently), yeah, nobody would play with you again!
- most games were easy to pick up and play, but hard to master (Fighting games, RPGs, puzzles..)
- veterans were willing to share secrets of gameplay with newbies.
- game genres were different --> most games back then could be played in a cooperative or competitive mode (eg. Double Dragon, Secret of Mana, etc...) Gamers were encouraged to cooperate more because there was less direct competition.
What I'm saying is that some gamers need to clean up their act. Be courteous online and off to people. It gives everyone else a bad taste in their mouths and degrades the image of gamers as really STUPID, tacky people. (People like the Angry Video Game Nerd make money off of satirizing this tendency of gamers to swear/cuss, but it's a character - not a real person - real people don't abuse other people. And his online persona never brings out the multiple swears at any one person, just the games and developers!)
Some people are going to say: astrangeone - It's called being PC, and I don't like it. Well, would you ever treat your friends and family in real life to that stream of abuse on XBox Live? Here's a scenario - if your mother/girlfriend/significant other/important person cooked you a meal, and it was frankly, disgusting...would you ever think of spewing that abuse in her/his/it's direction? It's not being "politically correct" to stop yourself from being an assmunch to people in any setting, and this includes online competitive gaming.
Another argument is that you are going to give me is the "double standard". But, but, astrangeone, you say that some people can say the n-word, or words like queer and reclaim them? Yes, I'm a gay woman gamer myself. Yes, there is a double standard in the language we can use. No, I won't use this language with people who are uncomfortable with it - this includes online gaming and real life. There are very few people who I know who won't be offended by racist, homophobic, religious slurs - but I do use them in context with people who I know won't be offended. It also means that I refrain from using this language in situations where I don't know the other person - like online or other the phone. And no, hurling abuse and claiming it takes the power/hurt out of those words doesn't work. I call myself a dyke, and it's a form of reclaiming that word because it is meant in a positive light, not as a form of self-abuse.
[font=comic sans ms,cursive]So, what are your views on this aspect of gamer behaviour? I'm curious and I'm open to suggestions![/font]
The Difference:
- face-to-face communication
- huge prep time (games, hardware, cables, power supplies, your food)
- bad behaviour wasn't accepted then --> your gaming circle was smaller, and if you treated anyone like shit (consistently), yeah, nobody would play with you again!
- most games were easy to pick up and play, but hard to master (Fighting games, RPGs, puzzles..)
- veterans were willing to share secrets of gameplay with newbies.
- game genres were different --> most games back then could be played in a cooperative or competitive mode (eg. Double Dragon, Secret of Mana, etc...) Gamers were encouraged to cooperate more because there was less direct competition.
