I'm 38 with 2 kids (one of which is pre-teen at 11). I only mention my age because I've played SC a very long time and I see some opponents using very inflammatory words outside the typical "go kill yourself". I made a thread about some of the "self hurt" language that's used and shouldn't be tolerated, but most of the feedback was apathetic and "that is part of gaming" overran the thread.
If telling someone to kill themselves appears common these days. What about racial slurs? Technically, I'm part of the tail end of the millennials I grew up with many ethnicities in high school. To be fair, it was mostly White and Asians in an affluent community but race was never an issue. My children don't understand why it is an issue. I try to explain that there were grievances close to 200 years ago, but it is difficult to articulate why there is even problems today.
Remember, children are born without a racist bone in their body. So it saddens me when I play people on SC2 that have this kind of language (and name).
After this long intro I'd like to request a poll: Is there inherent racism in video games, or is it more shock factor?
There are also additional, public, situations where top streamers utilize racial slurs. Do we think this is someone truly being racist or more inflammatory?
Poll: People Using Racist Language in Video Games
They want to say the most obscene thing that comes to their mind (98)
73%
They're racists, screw them (32)
24%
They know the bad words but feel like stringing them all together (aka non-intellectual) (5)
4%
They don't know what the word is but they know it is bad (0)
0%
135 total votes
Your vote: People Using Racist Language in Video Games
(Vote): They're racists, screw them (Vote): They want to say the most obscene thing that comes to their mind (Vote): They don't know what the word is but they know it is bad (Vote): They know the bad words but feel like stringing them all together (aka non-intellectual)
I reported you to the ADL and SPLC for posting an image with that word in it, your social credit score will now prevent you from boarding buses, planes and trains. Enjoy.
On September 24 2020 18:37 VonComet wrote: I reported you to the ADL and SPLC for posting an image with that word in it, your social credit score will now prevent you from boarding buses, planes and trains. Enjoy.
I guess youtube better remove the video with 7.7M views I posted with one of the top streamers in the world saying the N-word. I think Blizzard/Activision should also ban the person I just played online that used that offensive word. I think you should also look at the "confusion/funny BM" comments that reference that word on TL. And I think you should stop being a troll with 23 posts. Good day.
30 with a 7 year old myself. I guess it’s the shock factor/a go-to weapon for people with issues with anger.
I have limited experience with playing games with voice chat recently, what I do recall from doing so a lot back in the day was that while abuse was as bad, racial slurs were less prevalent. As if having to actually say them vs typing them was an impediment for some people.
On September 24 2020 19:00 WombaT wrote: 30 with a 7 year old myself. I guess it’s the shock factor/a go-to weapon for people with issues with anger.
I have limited experience with playing games with voice chat recently, what I do recall from doing so a lot back in the day was that while abuse was as bad, racial slurs were less prevalent. As if having to actually say them vs typing them was an impediment for some people.
Good call. I think voice over chat is different (worse, as if that is any different) than typing it in. Maybe technology has changed for the worse.
Stupid people being stupid. Personally, I don't really care what language people use in their fits of nerd rage. It bothers me more that they can't control their emotions for the most trivial reasons in the first place.
I agree with the previous poster that most people just try to think of the most offensive thing to say and what that is depends on the culture they live in and what's currently being discussed in public the most.
"Cunt" or "nigger" does not really make a difference in this context, what matters is the thought behind the word rather than the word itself.
On September 24 2020 19:08 True_Spike wrote: Stupid people being stupid. Personally, I don't really care what language people use in their fits of nerd rage. It bothers me more that they can't control their emotions for the most trivial reasons in the first place.
I agree with the previous poster that most people just try to think of the most offensive thing to say and what that is depends on the culture they live in and what's currently being discussed in public the most.
"Cunt" or "nigger" does not really make a difference in this context, what matters is the thought behind the word rather than the word itself.
Good points. I wonder how we come to the point that these words mean nothing. For instance, I'm Irish...you could call me a "Mic" all day long and I would laugh at you. I want to get to a point where racial slurs mean nothing. I think it will happen in the next 50 years when all of us are so blended it doesn't matter - somehow it seems politics makes it matter.
Working a lot with kids gives me a perspective to this. I can't speak for the young adults or for any other group.
Children learn bad words. The meaning doesn't matter much, as long as they are bad. Using bad words gets a reaction, which makes them effective. Using these words a lot makes them part of your active vocabulary. These words are then used as empowering words, similar to very and a bunch of adjectives and adverbs, e.t. "I'm fucking great". Kids will be equipped with 3 uses of each bad word: 1. As the literal meaning. 2. As a bad word in a provocation or emotional outburst. 3. As an adjective or adverb to empower the meaning of another word.
The bad words that children use can change very quickly, but words that devalue and degrade others are always there.
Education about empathy has shown to be about the only thing that consistently work as a means to reduce the use of bad words.
(Side note) Generally speaking, girls are measurably better at empathy than boys. As preteens the difference is similar to having been educated about empathy on a beginners level or not.
On September 24 2020 19:00 WombaT wrote: 30 with a 7 year old myself. I guess it’s the shock factor/a go-to weapon for people with issues with anger.
I have limited experience with playing games with voice chat recently, what I do recall from doing so a lot back in the day was that while abuse was as bad, racial slurs were less prevalent. As if having to actually say them vs typing them was an impediment for some people.
Good call. I think voice over chat is different (worse, as if that is any different) than typing it in. Maybe technology has changed for the worse.
It’s, different. You’re a bit older than me again but going from me to the next generation I was gaming online since 1996 and have observed quite a lot of changes! I was very young but I don’t recall the kind of ‘accepted’ level of abuse being a thing in my first forays.
Voice is considerably worse for general annoyance than typing in a game like SC because you can’t play SC well and give up your keyboard, so people aren’t spamming you the whole game with annoying noises etc.
But I do find the vitriol of abuse is slightly less bad, as if the mere act of saying something out of your mouth gives pause.
On September 24 2020 19:45 Drfilip wrote: Working a lot with kids gives me a perspective to this. I can't speak for the young adults or for any other group.
Children learn bad words. The meaning doesn't matter much, as long as they are bad. Using bad words gets a reaction, which makes them effective. Using these words a lot makes them part of your active vocabulary. These words are then used as empowering words, similar to very and a bunch of adjectives and adverbs, e.t. "I'm fucking great". Kids will be equipped with 3 uses of each bad word: 1. As the literal meaning. 2. As a bad word in a provocation or emotional outburst. 3. As an adjective or adverb to empower the meaning of another word.
The bad words that children use can change very quickly, but words that devalue and degrade others are always there.
Education about empathy has shown to be about the only thing that consistently work as a means to reduce the use of bad words.
(Side note) Generally speaking, girls are measurably better at empathy than boys. As preteens the difference is similar to having been educated about empathy on a beginners level or not.
Good comments. I think your response can be summed up by what I tell my kids "Any time you use a bad word means you don't know how to express yourself". But that is just me who uses "shit" and "fuck" all the time...the hypocrisy
On September 24 2020 20:15 WombaT wrote: What freedom of speech? To just say whatever one wants without consequence in game lobbies, or to not censure people for political positions?
This person (whom I'm speculating is someone related to my screenshot on the OP) is trolling this thread. Can a mod please remove this person from commenting.
I have a funny and related story. For the launch of Heart of the Swam there was a big esport event on the Blizzard campus, which at the time was a big deal because the SC2 develops were pretty closely guarded at that time so as TL we didn't really get to interact with them much. While we were there Mike Morhaime invited me and HotBid to his office just to do introductions, chat a bit because we had never really met before. We didn't discuss anything serious but were ribbing one another and sharing memories, and one thing that came up was we mentioned we liked how the old system on Battlenet 1.0 worked with chat channels taking more precedent and having game names in the lobbies of custom games.
Mike's response was "It's nice but people really just use those to say racist things. Why let them?" and told us that's why all of it was removed in SC2.
As to your original question I don't know, but that's a concrete example of how us allowing all of this directly makes the gaming experience worse for everyone. We really should be striving to do better in our communities, which is one thing I'm generally proud of in SC2 that much less is tolerated than in some places. And I mean, you don't need to tell your kids racism was something that happened 200 years ago - it's very alive in the USA today and you can find all kinds of examples every day of how it has an effect on lives of people today.
And VonComet hate speech isn't tolerated as a part of freedom of speech so your edgy teenager point is irrelevant. Try harder next time.
This person (whom I'm speculating is someone related to my screenshot on the OP) is trolling this thread. Can a mod please remove this person from commenting.
Do you always try to shut down people you disagree with? I have nothing to do with your low-level matches, i'm here to make sure someone with the power to make changes does not think the majority are in agreement with authoritarian control-freak people like you.
On September 24 2020 20:30 Heyoka wrote: I have a funny and related story. For the launch of Heart of the Swam there was a big esport event on the Blizzard campus, which at the time was a big deal because the SC2 develops were pretty closely guarded at that time so as TL we didn't really get to interact with them much. While we were there Mike Morhaime invited me and HotBid to his office just to do introductions, chat a bit because we had never really met before. We didn't discuss anything serious but were ribbing one another and sharing memories, and one thing that came up was we mentioned we liked how the old system on Battlenet 1.0 worked with chat channels taking more precedent and having game names in the lobbies of custom games.
Mike's response was "It's nice but people really just use those to say racist things. Why let them?" and told us that's why all of it was removed in SC2.
As to your original question I don't know, but that's a concrete example of how us allowing all of this directly makes the gaming experience worse for everyone. We really should be striving to do better in our communities, which is one thing I'm generally proud of in SC2 that much less is tolerated than in some places. And I mean, you don't need to tell your kids racism was something that happened 200 years ago - it's very alive in the USA today and you can find all kinds of examples every day of how it has an effect on lives of people today.
And VonComet hate speech isn't tolerated as a part of freedom of speech so your edgy teenager point is irrelevant. Try harder next time.
Great story @Heyoka. I actually remember that when I searched for "BGH" games in SC1. It's sad that only a small few can ruin the experience for the rest; however, I would challenge you when you say "racism is alive in the USA" I would ask to what degree. I would argue it is a very small percent; similar to what you see when you could make random game names in SC1 - 99.9% didn't say the N-word in their title to join. I feel that politics and this nature to "throw the worst slur possible" has polluted our mindset. A vast majority, I would say, cannot appreciate what those words really mean.
On September 24 2020 19:00 WombaT wrote: 30 with a 7 year old myself. I guess it’s the shock factor/a go-to weapon for people with issues with anger.
I have limited experience with playing games with voice chat recently, what I do recall from doing so a lot back in the day was that while abuse was as bad, racial slurs were less prevalent. As if having to actually say them vs typing them was an impediment for some people.
Good call. I think voice over chat is different (worse, as if that is any different) than typing it in. Maybe technology has changed for the worse.
There is always the option to mute if you don't want to get insulted in different languages, say russian for example
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/5fuVozT.jpg)
- somehow it seems politics makes it matter.
