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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."
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.
Uh, wrong? MANY video games online are full of trollish teenager-tweens who try to out-edgy eachother and think/act like they're all gangsters. To pretend this isn't the case makes you a visible-on-map dumbass, nothing more.
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.
... 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.
Uh, wrong? MANY schools, theaters, parks, restaurants, malls, homes, outdoors, indoors are full of trollish teenager-tweens who try to out-edgy eachother and think/act like they're all gangsters. To pretend this isn't the case makes you a visible-on-map dumbass, nothing more.
Well...a murder simulator like COD is likely to draw a lot of toxic pricks. I don't think you could argue the game itself is completely neutral in this. I say that as someone who likes to play these multiplayer shooters. When I go to the opera, I don't run into a lot of jackoffs who want to talk shit and dox people. I don't find a lot of this toxic behavior at the handball court. Also, I've never had a telemarketer threaten to kill my family.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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
So it's like slashdot with graphics?
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.
I wonder, do these same people blame the cell phone company when they get a rude phone call or a telemarketer?
Actually, yes, I do. Most of the phone calls I get these days are spam calls that would be incredibly easy for the phone company to stop but they have zero incentive to actually fix because they make money for each of these spam calls.
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.
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When I go to the opera, I don't run into a lot of jackoffs who want to talk shit and dox people. I don't find a lot of this toxic behavior at the handball court. Also, I've never had a telemarketer threaten to kill my family.
Then your doing it all wrong...
Upon further reflection, I think I may have had a telemarketer threaten to kill my family once.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
More likely this brain trust blasts his gamertag all over social media so a simple FB search would give you everything you would need. My guess is this nitwit went full retard, spamming shit like "n*gger/faggot/filthy jew/etc" until people got tired of his shit and one simple FB search gave them everything they needed because dumb fucks like that? Yeah not the brightest bulbs in the box so his gamertag is probably on everything from FB to Instagram.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.