{"id":6920,"date":"2011-08-16T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=6920"},"modified":"2011-08-16T09:00:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T08:00:31","slug":"gamer-diary-the-case-of-the-mmos-boisterous-behaviour-abounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2011\/08\/16\/gamer-diary-the-case-of-the-mmos-boisterous-behaviour-abounds\/","title":{"rendered":"[Gamer Diary] The Case of the MMOs – Boisterous Behaviour Abounds!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I readily admit that I am not the most social of gamers. I don\u2019t go on many MMOs, but after some of the behaviour I\u2019ve seen I am most definitely on a break for the foreseeable future. I used to play a fairly popular \u2018free-to-play\u2019 space MMO (in reality you still have to cough up some dough to get the \u2018elite\u2019 stuff and not get utterly trounced). I started up my account in August 2009, almost exactly two years ago, and I am still only level 15 (to be considered \u201cfully elite\u201d one must be at least L16 or above). I picked it because it was \u2018free\u2019 and I like space, sci-fi and shooting aliens – I thought it\u2019d be a good introduction to the MMO world. <\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>For a while it was. Then, when I started to pay attention to the chat, I started noticing some of the childish bravado, the internet tough-guys, mouthing off constantly. To them everyone is a \u201cnoob\u201d or a \u201cfag\u201d or a \u201cgay\u201d; despite the chat admins and the auto-kick on certain buzzwords, people always managed to get the insults into the chat. Being called a \u201cnoob\u201d for months on end gets tedious, especially when it is meant with such malice, said specifically to twist the knife and offend. Although I was never called any other<\/em> heinous insults, I saw them all the time and it just made me sick with rage constantly. If I spoke up, I would receive a barrage of hatred poured in my face and most likely be targeted to be shot out of the sky. <\/p>\n

Regrettably the disparities didn\u2019t end there; female players had it pretty tough too. Despite the fact one of the top three players was a woman, the only thing anyone focussed on was the fact she is an exotic dancer in the real world. Automatically she was a \u201cbitch\u201d or a \u201cslut\u201d or a \u201cslag\u201d. Because obviously<\/em> no woman could ever<\/em> be legitimately better than her male counterparts without having done something deceptive or untoward, right? Ugh.<\/strong> What was the point in this sort of behaviour? <\/p>\n

Occasionally, people defended themselves claiming it was \u201cjust banter\u201d between the different \u2018companies\u2019 (of which there are three) or \u2018clans\u2019. More often than not it was just cruel, over-the-top and downright pathetic. Never before have I seen so many keyboard hard-nuts, of all ages, just ejaculating hatred everywhere. <\/p>\n

The worst is yet to come though! Now we get to the issue of race. A friend of mine also plays this game. He\u2019s a lot more into it and is a higher level than me and is pretty well-known on the server. Back in March this year he decided to change his name, and pretend he was retiring his account so he could have a bit of anonymous play. His new name was in Arabic characters. He played the game in the same fashion he had done before. Suddenly, just because he had an Arabic name, he was the most reviled player on the server. <\/p>\n

I dare not repeat some of the insults that he got (that the chat admins allowed<\/em>) because they were quite disgusting and appalling. He was at war with half his home Company within three days just trying to teach his attackers a lesson. His ex-clan mates insulted him, his friends made racist remarks; it was the worst case of inherent racism in Brits I have ever seen outside of an EDL rally. <\/p>\n

A few weeks later, he revealed himself under his original name combined with his Arabic name. Just as miraculously as the rate they turned on him, wave upon wave of apologies came pouring through. <\/p>\n

Now not all MMOs are like this, but as I said, I\u2019m pretty reticent towards social gaming and this is just my experience of one. Unfortunately it was the first one I played, so I\u2019ve been put off again! I am not sure if there are any conclusions we can draw from this, though. Perhaps that competition breeds a culture of anonymous internet bullying? Do people think they can get away with it just because they\u2019re behind a computer? Are these the sort of opinions people really<\/em> have but they censor themselves in real life? Either way, in some cases at least, the ideal of equality is pretty distant in the \u2018social\u2019 aspect of some MMOs, I fear. And that is not an easy medium to break into in order to educate. So for now, I suspect those of us who believe in equality might have to do a bit of MMO-hopping to find a community that isn\u2019t full of bigots. My motto: don\u2019t get comfortable until you\u2019ve met the neighbours! Next time, I\u2019ll talk about something more positive \u2013 I promise! <\/p>\n