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The Washington Post Decries 'Toxicity' in Videogames (siliconvalley.com)
This week the Washington Post shared the story of 20-year-old Sam Haberern, who was playing Call of Duty on his Xbox when the other players "started asking him whether he had ever testified in court or murdered anyone."
"They said they were from Maryland and that they were going to come and kill me," he said. By then it was 3 a.m., and Haberern decided to quit. One of the gamers in the party then sent him a message via Xbox Live. It contained his home address. Next his house phone rang, then his mother's cellphone. A message appeared on his TV screen from one of the party members -- it was asking why he didn't answer... Haberern contacted Microsoft, which makes Xbox, via its website and reported what happened. Unsatisfied with that process, he then typed a Reddit post, which would go viral, asking what recourse was available to him. The varied and ultimately unsatisfying answers centered on a common theme: There was no good solution.
Toxic behavior in competitive activities is not a new development, nor is it exclusive to video gaming, as social media users can attest. But its persistence amid a rapidly rising medium -- both in terms of users and revenue -- spotlights the question of why undesirable or, in some cases, criminal interactions have been so difficult for the video-game industry or law enforcement to eliminate. Now, with technological advances in online multiplayer games and video gaming's increased prevalence worldwide, a growing percentage of the population is becoming unwittingly exposed to a slew of abusive acts that are only becoming more visible. While game publishers, console makers, online voice-chat applications and even the FBI are aware of these issues and working to confront them, complications stemming from modern technology and gaming practices, freedom of speech concerns, and a lack of chargeable offenses on the legal side make toxic elements a challenge to extinguish.... Ambiguities within the U.S. legal system have played a role in constraining the efforts of law enforcement during the era of online gaming.
After the death threats, Haberern didn't contact the police, but questioned whether Microsoft was creating a safe environment for kids.
The next day, he was back to playing videogames. "But I definitely don't accept invites from people."
Toxic behavior in competitive activities is not a new development, nor is it exclusive to video gaming, as social media users can attest. But its persistence amid a rapidly rising medium -- both in terms of users and revenue -- spotlights the question of why undesirable or, in some cases, criminal interactions have been so difficult for the video-game industry or law enforcement to eliminate. Now, with technological advances in online multiplayer games and video gaming's increased prevalence worldwide, a growing percentage of the population is becoming unwittingly exposed to a slew of abusive acts that are only becoming more visible. While game publishers, console makers, online voice-chat applications and even the FBI are aware of these issues and working to confront them, complications stemming from modern technology and gaming practices, freedom of speech concerns, and a lack of chargeable offenses on the legal side make toxic elements a challenge to extinguish.... Ambiguities within the U.S. legal system have played a role in constraining the efforts of law enforcement during the era of online gaming.
After the death threats, Haberern didn't contact the police, but questioned whether Microsoft was creating a safe environment for kids.
The next day, he was back to playing videogames. "But I definitely don't accept invites from people."
Yeah, random people are assholes.
Invite some random strangers from the street into your house to watch tv and lets see if half of them aren't assholes.
This has nothing to do with video games.
So a guy suffers harassment, doxxing, stalking and death threats but doesn't call the police.
The Washington Post meanwhile disregard entirely the illegality of all of those things, claim the law is lacking in this instance and blames video games?
I'm not sure who the biggest fucking idiots in this situation are. The guy that didn't call the police, the Washington Post or the antisocial people that would be antisocial malicious bullies in any environment.
MUH FREE SPEECH!!
a lack of chargeable offenses on the legal side
Phones are nothing new, we have offenses for people who call phones.
Well, that's not the criminal part, but yes the legal system is familiar with this "harassment" thing humans never had before.
I don't see any numerical data in TFA substantiating this. Is "toxicity" in video games more prevalent than elsewhere in life? It seems a simple enough question, and the fact that TFA doesn't answer it suggests the author simply has an axe to grind against video games, and is using the logical fallacy of a single example to promote his point. Usually people end up making this logical fallacy when they begin from a pre-determined conclusion, and work backwards to find supporting data. Rather than the opposite (look at the data first, then arrive at a conclusion.)
It's unsubstantiated journalism like this which leads to stupid things like parents pulling their kids out of school after a school shooting elsewhere in the country. Statistically, your kids are more likely to be shot outside of school than at school. So you're increasing their odds of being shot by pulling them out of school.
Bored teenagers (or close approximates) think this shit is hilarious. Yeah, online gaming is a toxic sludgefest. But (shocker), it's not really any part of "gaming". Hint: it's the "bored teenagers" part. Games are just where they hang out. Note this little detail:
“It was great,” said Haberern in an interview with The Washington Post. “I was talking [trash], they were talking [trash],” he said, adding that such antics are typical and understood to be part of the culture.
In other words, they were vigorously insulting each other, and he thought it was hilarious, and hand-waves it away as "part of the culture". Insulting strangers... what fun! Apparently, someone didn't appreciate his view of the "culture", and doxxed the dude (his gamertag was probably displayed on social media), then had some fun of their own. Hey, isn't this "part of the culture too?" "But... but... it happened to meeeeee!"
I'm not excusing any of this, especially when it's completely uncalled for by the victim, but I'm long past being surprised by any of it. And no, even this idiot doesn't deserve death threats. But now that our personal information is there for the entire world to see, anyone can probably get anyone's personal info from something as innocuous as a gametag.
I sure wish I had an answer, short of "changing human nature". Something something AI will surely solve this problem... *handwaves*
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Stop letting youtube and reddit raise your child.
It's not the videogames themselves that are "toxic", it's the players.
People can be assholes in multiplayer Solitaire, too.
There's a reason multiplayer games include a warning along the lines of "online interactions are not rated by ESRB".
That's because the interactions among players are not, and cannot, be under the control of the game publisher - and it's ridiculous to expect the game makers to be responsible for the actions of the players.
I wonder, do these same people blame the cell phone company when they get a rude phone call or a telemarketer?
... to create this mess by getting rid of game ownership and stealing control of software out from under gamers since the internet has made fraud and software theft easy as just keeping the software they've produced at their offices.
Dedicated servers and the lack of forced matchmaking would do wonders to de-toxify gaming instead of forcing everyone to play together without any admin tools or ability to run dedicated servers like ye good old days in the 90's.
So I will cry no tears for corporations and their idiot managers for creating this mess.
There is never enough censorship for those in the media, so long as it never touches them or those who share their ideology.
Everyone has a score, every time someone blocks a player (who they have interacted with), their score is reduced, every interaction they have that doesn't result in a block increases their score. The amounts that are raised and lowered would be subject to tweaking. All players are ranked in order, players can set a percentile cutoff for people who will be able to communicate with them.
My sig doesn't address Anons, sigs aren't visible to them.
of course. we just had Williams Classics when i was growing up. that was enough. Defender, Robotron, etc. the sort of cool ones were Food Fight, Asteroids, Galaga, Joust, DigDug, Donkey Kong, then C64 was LodeRunner, Stellar 7...
the 'Toxicity' of the Washington Post's ' contributions within the Main Stream Media! Oh My!
;)
Just my 2 cents
Threatening someone's life and then posting their address/calling their numbers to continue to harass them, that's actually prosecutable if there's a pattern. FYI that is beyond trash talking both literally and legally.
(a) this kind of toxicity is rare
(b) story sounds half made up
(c) if true, is very likely someone they know
Comment removed based on user account deletion
what about swatting how much flat does MS have? the EULA may save them from an $$$ civil payout the but there may be some criminal stuff.
But can you not 'block' people or something on them? Has the US gone all in with freeze peach into 'captive of hearing' territory?
He probably somehow linked whatever screen names he used to his real name via social media or something (Twitter, FaceBook, etc.). His harassers simply searched his screen name, found his name/location, and were able to pull home address and phone thanks to a bunch of online "people search" directories.
This isn't limited to gaming. This happens in online forums as well.
You can play lots of videogames that are not internet connected. No single player game has the kind of crap they are describing.
But anyone looking at chat websites knows that when you connect anonymous people on the internet you get a crap-storm.
The gaming aspect is not relevant, it is the anonymous, apparently temporary communication afforded by the internet that is the problem.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
People can only get what you give them:
1. Limit what you make available.
2. ALWAYS use a VPN, if not a multi-hop VPN.
3. RECOMMENDED use a TOR Bridge or Proxy.
4. NEVER post addresses, numbers, pictures or personal information online.
5. Get off social media and delete social media accounts.
6. Use a good Firewall / IPS IDS solution.
7. Monitor your logs continuously.
The XBOX sits inside your network, so if you're not monitoring it, you don't get to complain about what it's making available..
How did they get his information? One assumes he didn't just give it to them, but he must have. This is a lesson in privacy and why its important to law-abiding individuals who "have nothing to hide". Its a lesson in why you should be teaching your children not to reveal real-world information about themselves online... because it will come back to bite them in the ass later in life. They took the time to track this guy down, to harass and intimidate him. but how? Through posts he had made elsewhere. Through poor privacy controls by data-hungry social media corporations. Using the same "handle" from forum to forum leaves a trial you can follow through any search engine. Trusting your social media platforms to default your posts and such to private is just stupid because it goes against their interest in finding out more about you by connecting you to others, thus raising your value to them. That then ties to your family and friend's social media accounts as well. More information that can be used against you by malicious actors, not just the State.
But there is good news! Everything this Sam person had done to him was actually illegal under existing laws! Whats more, as it likely was across state lines, its a FEDERAL offense. Even if its not, that usually bumps this up to a Felony. For the guys who were "Just looking stuff and sharing it, I didn't call him or message him" there's even a charge most places, called "Conspiracy to Commit" that could round them up too! Harassment, intimidation and making death threats are all illegal.
But most police won't do much about it. Yet. They are slowly working towards being more active on these (cause slam-dunk arrest and prosecution numbers look great come re-election time for Sheriffs and Police Commissioners and District Attorneys.) So report it. With as much detail and screenshot as you can. And hope you are taken seriously. If your local police won't do anything, report it to your local branch office of the FBI. If that sounds too intimidating, or you think it won't do anything, talk to an attorney about it and get advice on what you should do. But don't let it slide. Its not up to tech companies to keep people from breaking the law, its up to YOU.
Counter example: Nintendo's online stuff. Seems very resilient to trolling. No idea how they do it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The largest ISP's go to great lengths to publish accurate information to geo IP services, like MaxMind. Because of the nature of online gaming, peer to peer, it's relatively easy to capture the IP address of the people in your game and then use a geo IP service to locate them down to the city block.
Games aren't the problem; gamers on the other hand.
No.
Is there a single reason why your game console, let alone random people on the Internet, should know your real name and home address?
I would not share such information with a toy. Heck, even the people with whom I play racket sports in real life don't know more than my first name, and there is no reason why they would need to know more.
...while TK'ing everyone and making Hitler jokes
This doesn't have much to do with video games but it does have to do with "online", as in you're interacting with strangers over the 'net. Think chat roulette only with less body language so there's more of an emotional distance. And then there's immature people desperately trying to cross that gap in inappropriate ways.
Turns out that it's really easy (if you know how) to dig up people's address and phone numbers and so on. So it's really easy to go stalker on them. Enabling these immature types. They might not even notice or understand they're being inappropriate, creepy, and even threatening.
So the long term solution other than expecting everyone to grow up just like that, would sooner be making it harder to dig up all that info. IOW, privacy.
Slow news day?
No police report, no proof, flimsy backstory, it's another Smollett story. There is no way to get an IP and fully doxxed in a matter of minutes from playing Xbox. All traffic travels through the server, P2P traffic is minimal if at all existent so most likely you have to hack Microsoft servers; then you have to hack the ISP, cross reference the address with various (hacking into) cell phone providers databases before making an untraceable phone call all in under ~10 minutes for some lulz? And no adult thinks this is illegal and highly concerning.
WaPo is getting played by their own side like a narrative fiddle in a desperate attempt to get a story out.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
You can play lots of videogames that are not internet connected. No single player game has the kind of crap they are describing.
Indeed there are. The last game I played was Rogue. No really, last week I was bored and found it online. I played it about 30 minutes before I was bored again.
I usually play much newer, but still single-player games.
I do play one MMORPG, but it's kind of a joke. Only about a dozen people still play down from a total membership (not active all at once) of about 12,000. I'm the highest level, but my rival has better stats. There's no point in me attacking any other active players (not worth my effort) and there's no point in them trying to attack me either (they can't beat me).
I guess that's an MORPG...nothing "massive" about it at all.
But it barely takes any time. It's really boring. It's all about not letting the other guy "win" now. We don't bother trash-talking. We just slog on.
The funny thing is if either of us quit the other one would enjoy a moment somewhat like Montresor did in The Cask of Amontillado.
I said, "for the love of God!" But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud -- "Fortunato!" No answer. I called again -- "Fortunato!" No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so.
Or rather the heart grows sick at the realization that you're now alone in the game and so what? Now you can have both the best stats and the highest level! Was it worth it? I'm sure the only reason he has better stats is because he pays for them.
But to really make that work, I would have to quit and NEVER login again, not even just to see if the other guy was still playing. Or he would.
"You can play lots of videogames that are not internet connected....
Not much that's been released within the past 10 years. Game publishers are putting out the same FPS or MMO over and over, and selling the user-generated "social experience" as the draw, instead of developing single player content. Artists and programmers are expensive, screaming preteens are not. Of the games that are still single-player, they are getting progressively more dumbed-down and not worth the time. See the Elder Scrolls for a perfect example encapsulated in one series. But the problem is industry-wide.
Bunch of dudes showed up to my sysop friend's house because he wouldn't give them "no ratio". Kept calling and threatening him. He called it quits and shut the whole thing down. It sucks but it was the right call. R.I.P. Burton BBS
Lolcow? Lollercoaster? Comedic gold here, folks! And he's got more life advice than Dr. Phil, to boot. Please, proceed with telling me that we have to accept death threats because anything else is censorship. Then we can add political philosophy to your list of accomplishments.
Something really stinks about this story - there's a lot of important missing details.
1. Most big ISPs use dynamic IP addresses, since the world ran out of IPV4 addresses long ago. Anybody with a static IP probably pays extra for it so they can run a server. As a consequence, knowing a user's IP address will generally only get you a real-world location associated with a facility of the ISP rather than the location of the user. This is likely to be miles away from the actual user's location in most cases. Without extra info, an IP address will simply not expose a user - something that has greatly frustrated the multi-billion-dollar music and movie empires in their anti-piracy fights; If the MPAA cannot easily locate a pirate with an IP address, how are we to believe a mad teenage gamer can do it, and why has the MPAA not hired this mythical teenageer who is so powerful in seeking revenge for events in a video game?
2. Even if the so-called victim is using a static IP address, that's not going to automatically expose his real world location, nor his name and phone number and certainly never going to also expose a cell phone number of a relative.
I therefore presume that, assuming the story is true, the so-called victim must be one of those complete morons who is all over social media with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and possibly other accounts and probably posted so much personal info on himself and his friends and his family that a typical angry teenager who hates him in a game could easily find all that stuff, in the short time that such an angry frustrated jerk might be willing to expend. Did this fool use a gaming ID that matched his social media ID? Does he also use the word "password" as his password on all his accounts and will we soon see a newspaper article that recounts his being the victim of identity theft?
And doesn't he do exactly the same things these other players do? Like tell you your real name, where you live and then tell you hes going to scoop your brains and use them in voodoo rituals.
How those vitriol spewing hacks can criticize others is beyond me.
When someone harasses you and sends you your home address, Microsoft absolutely should immediately suspend the person doing the harassment. Microsoft should also let them know that if anything happens to the person they were harassing, that Microsoft will turn the harasser's personal information over to the police. This was on XBox Live, which Microsoft has complete control over. For Microsoft to just ignore those incidents shows that Microsoft really is not doing much at all about online harassment.
Where is the Reddit post?
Linux is only free if your time has no value. Windows is only free if you threaten to use Linux.
it's the online effect, there will always be some rotten apples in the bunch.
there have been many small, great indie games that had to stop their online part because of abuse by a small part of gamers.
if you want to avoid that, play single player games.
but then people think they are boring, like rdr2.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
My first death threat on /. was from Creimer. I failed to take it seriously, as you claimed it never is followed up. I severely ridiculed him for making it to the point he informed me I was going to be sued and reported to the FBI for making fun of his threat. I thought it was funny someone threatening to kill me reporting me to the FBI for laughing about it.
Over the next couple of months, about 10 other people started making his life hell here and I'm told he quit. I've gotten multiple other death threats on /. (all from "tolerant" liberals), but none have ever showed up.
So you all are correct, it isn't a video game thing, its an online thing. Its also not "bored teenagers" its adults as well. It also doesn't result in actual murders either.
I post AC because of the multiple death threats I've gotten here on /. and none of the people making them have been banned/punished in the least for it. I deal with it by ridiculing them to the point they regret they did it, which seems to work out for the best. No bans needed, no murders happening.
I first read the Smollett story and thought it sounded like pure BS. He didn't call the cops for 45 minutes, his manager finally called them for him and when they showed up to his place, over an hour after the attack (remember he didn't want to call the police according to the story) he still had the rope noose around his neck. Pure BS. They should have known it and asked more questions before running the story right there.
The Coveington story sounded like pure BS to me too. They HAD the video to prove it was BS and ran the story anyways. Now they get sued for $250 million, they WILL lose that lawsuit, its only a question of how much money.
I am not a journalist. I have better journalism instincts than the WaPo? Nope. The WaPo has a narrative to meet and facts that might get in the way are just ignored as they go into print.
National Enquirer is more likely to print a truthful story than the WaPo at this point. Judge should just award the kids the full $250 million and cause the WaPo to shut down. Country will be better off then.
game on a pc, that way you prove you dont deserve to die
Now I'm curious. What game is that?
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Let me make this clear. My kid could care less if you came and killed ME. Shit, he'd probably be thrilled...
Personally, I know he's a shit-head. I'm sure he pisses others off, and is likely doing some of the bullying himself... although I
doubt he's ever threatened killing or taking it that far. There definitely needs to be serious criminal charges for such behavior.
But avoiding such behavior is as simple as not engaging. Look, if someone's an arse to you, don't respond. I've dealt with baby-momma's and angry people. The best response is not response. The worst thing you can do is engage an unruly person, specifically because it keeps things from escalating, but notably also will help with your own peace of mind. Learning to ignore the negatives in life is a most valuable lesson, and as a believer in karma, I have a feeling the kid who got the death threats to his phone, while I'm not excusing the behavior (see criminal repercussions comment in previous paragraph), I have a feeling he probably engages in negativity more often then the report leads on to.
tweens in the xbox live/PSN public areas and people who don't play games that complaining about the nonexstent toxicity in every other area of gaming. Raise your fucking kids and stop looking for a scapegoat.
How about not posting your real name or real details for public viewing in your gaming profile. That would be a start.
Or, for that matter, since he has no idea where they are, the FBI?
Instead, he just walks around them, leaving them to go after other people.
Uh, do you not understand sarcasm? Why else would I use so many memes in so few words?
I'm not actually in favor of bullying to any degree, but I do think we're over-sensitized to it these days, especially while enduring the current 'Administration' in this country (U.S.). Was there any actual credible evidence to these 'threats', or was it just a bunch of misbehaving kids online pretending to be all big-and-bad? I'm not 100% sure, how could anyone be sure?
Real sorry if anyone took what I posted too seriously, it really was just sarcasm. Guess I should have used "</sarcasm>" on it.
From Xbox -
Turn on the Share my real name option to select which friends you want to see your real name:
Press the Xbox button to open the guide.
Select System > Settings > Account > Privacy & online safety.
Select Xbox Live privacy > View details & customize.
Select Profile, and then scroll right to You can share your real name.
Idiot shared his real name on Xbox........
... it doesn't matter much.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Okay, but don't expect much. It's just clicking links.
http://wastelandwar.com/regist...
(If you use that link I get 2 fuel!)
It's a wasteland for sure. No https, but no ads either (well, 2 static images with links to "visit our sponsors").
If you do happen to sign up send me an e-mail in the game (player #7417) and I can hook you up with weapons and armor.
If you want to mess with them, script your gameplay and see if the admins are paying enough attention to ban you. I think there's only 1 left and I don't think he's paying much attention at all now.
Nintendo's online stuff. Seems very resilient to trolling. No idea how they do it.
No one uses it, that's why.
"One of the gamers in the party then sent him a message via Xbox Live. It contained his home address. Next his house phone rang, then his mother's cellphone. A message appeared on his TV screen from one of the party members -- it was asking why he didn't answer."
No shit it appeared on his TV if he was using Xbox Live. The way it's put here is trying to imply they hacked his TV moments after starting to harass but they clearly didn't.
Oh I agree! Nobody could define roulette satisfaction, but my husband says it is some, but I do understand that it isn't about it.