(Anti) Social gaming

Originally posted as (Anti) Social Gaming on Technorati

I was rooting around YouTube the other night looking for old Tech TV clips and somehow I ended up looking at a video captured by an unfortunate female Call of Duty Player. 

What was unfortunate wasn't her performance in the game.  No, what made this video unique had nothing to do with capturing a spectacular moment of victory.  Rather, it was a disturbing example of social harassment. 

I've included a link to the video here.  Be warned that the content is offensive in spots.

With the advent of VOIP functionality as a core feature of PC and console games over the past few years it's no surprise to hear the occasional blizzard of off-color commentary over your headset.  As the experience moves ever closer to reality it's understandable to get caught up in the intensity.

What I'm talking about here, however, has nothing to do with gaming.  If you haven't viewed the video the short of it is that it's full of multiple examples of male players harassing a female player with actions that ranged from rude commentary to outright sexual harassment. 

All because the player on the receiving end of this barrage of vulgarity happened to be female and used a feminine player name. 

Some may argue it's all in good fun and nothing is really meant by it.  It's obvious from the voices captured that most of the offenders were likely minors  Neither condition is an excuse, in fact there's nothing about this kind of behavior that's acceptable in any context.

It's likely this is an extension of the sense of anonymity and lack of inhibition that the Internet allows.  You can be sure that if these players were in the same room with the female player they wouldn't dare behave this way.

Whether it's a case of raging hormones or an attempt to preserve the "all boys club" the result is the same.  A ruined experience for another player.   The Red Cross was concerned about violent depictions of human suffering possibly creating a generation of war criminals.  I'm far more concerned that this kind of behavior unchecked could create a generation of sexual predators.

I'm staunchly against the Nanny State but I'm strongly for personal responsibility.  It seems gaming platforms don't share my view when they allow this kind of abuse to go unchecked.

I've written before that the way I deal with offensive behavior is to ignore it or move on to another server if it's intolerable.  That's not really possible in this case, however, since the only recourse is to either stop playing the game or give no indication of one's gender or orientation.  Hiding one's gender can be difficult if you enjoy the VOIP features of a game. 

But why should anyone have to?  How is such an environment healthy for anyone involved in it?

What I'm not sure of is whether anything was done to punish the other players after the offenses depicted in the video sample. 

This kind of vulgarity shouldn't be tolerated on any gaming platform.  I'd hope there was some mechanism for recourse but it's likely there isn't.

 I'd suggest anyone suffering such an assault should do as the author of the video has done and collect video evidence as well as the usernames of the offenders when possible.  That information should then be passed on to the platform provider for action.  If no action is taken, the next logical step is to leverage the power of Internet activism.

 Enough negative PR can force the hand of a reluctant provider if their revenue stream is threatened. 

I would hope that at the least the offending players would have their accounts suspended indefinitely.  If a company like Microsoft, for example, will suspend an account just on the suspicion of cheating then  this kind of activity should at least rise to the same level.

While the video's author has seemingly shrugged off the abuse even starting a youtube video series with more examples, it's still a sad commentary.  Nobody should have to take up the banner of an activist just to play a game.