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Racial Slurs and Video Games - Page 3

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PresenceSc2
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia4032 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-09-24 13:24:24
September 24 2020 13:22 GMT
#41
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.
Stephano//HerO//TaeJa//Squirtle//Bomber
sonny42
Profile Joined July 2020
6 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-09-24 13:35:28
September 24 2020 13:35 GMT
#42


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.


maybe spend less time here, might be better for your health

User was banned for this post.
Pistolen-Luuk
Profile Joined August 2014
33 Posts
September 24 2020 13:53 GMT
#43
On September 24 2020 21:51 WeddingEpisode wrote:
But SC2 has EULA/policy. SC2 has the authority to take action. Suspending accounts (or even perma banning accounts) is perfect. Making the experience shitty? Go buy another copy of the game.


Banning / moderation / censoreship / turning off chat, seems to be the generally suggested method to counter online racist slur. Personally, I find it effective, but that is mainly I am selective in the kind of content I watch that exists around the game. Honestly, I experience most of it as bullshit. I would never take the kinds of discussions that are happening in and around the channels of many of the streamers (some names come to mind here) serious. But I am sure that for someone with kids its a different matter, as kids don't necessarily have the cultural flexibility to be selective (no kids are not inherently evil).

I find the Alphastar remark interesting as one of the reasons for playing online is that of actually playing with or against other people.
Slydie
Profile Joined August 2013
1927 Posts
September 24 2020 13:55 GMT
#44
Honestly, I think things like "die of cancer" and "I hope you and your whole family die horrible deaths" are much worse things to say than anything related to race, sexual orientation and genitals.

I would not be surprised if Covid-19 slurs have started to appear in the dark corners of gaming as well.
Buff the siegetank
Silvanel
Profile Blog Joined March 2003
Poland4736 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-09-24 15:08:47
September 24 2020 14:11 GMT
#45
On September 24 2020 19:45 WombaT wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 19:06 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Then Your perception is different than mine. I have been gaming online since around 1998 and in my opinion it hasn't changed much. There always was a lot of vitriol and offensive, racist and sexist talk in multiplayer games. In early BW days i think more than 50% of games on BN involved some heavy verbal attack. Especially if You played hunters
Pathetic Greta hater.
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland26224 Posts
September 24 2020 14:34 GMT
#46
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Dangermousecatdog
Profile Joined December 2010
United Kingdom7084 Posts
September 24 2020 14:35 GMT
#47
You are apparently 38 but suprised by the language in an anonymous communication that is part of any game system? Pull the other one. One can only wonder how you deal with other places of communication on the internet or real life issues. Do you or your kids not watch the news?

Doesn't SC2 automatically have word filter on? I remember back when WoL was released, there was some controversy when innoculous words like "homosexual" where automatically censored. You had to manually remove the word filter. Why did you remove the word filter? So you can make a post like this complaining about forcibly allowing yourself to be exposed to words that were originally be automatically censored?

Being a 38 year old, you don't know how to use block functionality?
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland26224 Posts
September 24 2020 14:36 GMT
#48
On September 24 2020 23:11 Silvanel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 19:45 WombaT wrote:
On September 24 2020 19:06 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Then Your perception is different than mine. I have been gaming online since around 1998 and in my opinion it hasn't changed much. There always was a lot of vitriol and offensive, racist and sexist talk in multiplayer games. In early BW days i thinkg more than 50% of games on BN involved some heavy verbal attack. Especially if You played hunters

Ah the good old days. I’m 24 years older and quite a different person, my tolerance has probably changed a lot over the years too.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Andi_Goldberger
Profile Joined July 2018
Germany1608 Posts
September 24 2020 14:37 GMT
#49
didnt we have this exact thread a couple months ago with the exact same replies? lmao

other than the removal of certain words (f word, r word etc) from the regular online chat rage vocabulary, not much has change and I doubt it will. Banning or restricting with word detectors isnt the solution because you can always find a way around it. either the culture changes in online gaming (which I doubt it will) or it will stay roughly the same imo. If you cant deal with it, disable chat. I for one just ignore it or get a bit of a chuckle from the screaming guy sitting in front of a screen somewhere.
~~~~~
PresenceSc2
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia4032 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-09-24 14:40:06
September 24 2020 14:39 GMT
#50
On September 24 2020 23:34 WombaT wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.

The word that was used was "systematic", as in it intentionally has built in racism in video games/esports.

People just like to throw around buzz words.
Stephano//HerO//TaeJa//Squirtle//Bomber
farvacola
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States18843 Posts
September 24 2020 14:45 GMT
#51
On September 24 2020 23:39 PresenceSc2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 23:34 WombaT wrote:
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.

The word that was used was "systematic", as in it intentionally has built in racism in video games/esports.

People just like to throw around buzz words.

That’s not what systematic means.
"when the Dead Kennedys found out they had skinhead fans, they literally wrote a song titled 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off'"
Pistolen-Luuk
Profile Joined August 2014
33 Posts
September 24 2020 14:50 GMT
#52
On September 24 2020 23:39 PresenceSc2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 23:34 WombaT wrote:
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.

The word that was used was "systematic", as in it intentionally has built in racism in video games/esports.

People just like to throw around buzz words.


I used the word 'systemic' (more of buzzword then systematic actually), that has nothing to do with intentionality.
In fact it is the opposite, racism is part of this world in the sense that it is (like sexism or gender roles) unintentionally part of the way we organise. Like a bias. Why is this the case? Well, that is because we are building a world on top of a history of colonalism and all the bad things that came with it. And sure it benefits certain people not to notice this.
Hence a number of people in this thread saying that racism is part of video games just like it is part of everything else (not meaning that the Blizzard game designers are all consciously racist).

So where to go is to identify what kinds of biasses are present in these games. What is ignored / facilitated.
PresenceSc2
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia4032 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-09-24 15:03:07
September 24 2020 15:01 GMT
#53
On September 24 2020 23:50 Pistolen-Luuk wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 23:39 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 23:34 WombaT wrote:
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.

The word that was used was "systematic", as in it intentionally has built in racism in video games/esports.

People just like to throw around buzz words.


I used the word 'systemic' (more of buzzword then systematic actually), that has nothing to do with intentionality.
In fact it is the opposite, racism is part of this world in the sense that it is (like sexism or gender roles) unintentionally part of the way we organise. Like a bias. Why is this the case? Well, that is because we are building a world on top of a history of colonalism and all the bad things that came with it. And sure it benefits certain people not to notice this.
Hence a number of people in this thread saying that racism is part of video games just like it is part of everything else (not meaning that the Blizzard game designers are all consciously racist).

So where to go is to identify what kinds of biasses are present in these games. What is ignored / facilitated.

The worlds gone nuts. I'm leaving the thread. Have fun.

This is where op's post should have gone. https://tl.net/forum/heroes/480795-qq-rage-thread
Stephano//HerO//TaeJa//Squirtle//Bomber
farvacola
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States18843 Posts
September 24 2020 15:03 GMT
#54
On September 25 2020 00:01 PresenceSc2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 24 2020 23:50 Pistolen-Luuk wrote:
On September 24 2020 23:39 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 23:34 WombaT wrote:
On September 24 2020 22:22 PresenceSc2 wrote:
On September 24 2020 21:33 StarStruck wrote:
On September 24 2020 20:38 pinky29 wrote:
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.


Systematic racism doesn't just exist online whether it be video games, social media, every State.

We're living in a God damn mad world right now and it's pretty sad.




You see systematic racism in video games?

The media is melting peoples minds.

The world is racist/sexist/homophobic to varying degrees, media will naturally reflect this intentionally or not, people aren’t magically different people when they sit down to queue ladder or whatever.

Gaming is quite an interesting aspect of this as it expanded rapidly beyond its historic core audience and you see quite the pushback against various groups involved in gaming, or attempts to branch out narratives to non-traditional fare.

The word that was used was "systematic", as in it intentionally has built in racism in video games/esports.

People just like to throw around buzz words.


I used the word 'systemic' (more of buzzword then systematic actually), that has nothing to do with intentionality.
In fact it is the opposite, racism is part of this world in the sense that it is (like sexism or gender roles) unintentionally part of the way we organise. Like a bias. Why is this the case? Well, that is because we are building a world on top of a history of colonalism and all the bad things that came with it. And sure it benefits certain people not to notice this.
Hence a number of people in this thread saying that racism is part of video games just like it is part of everything else (not meaning that the Blizzard game designers are all consciously racist).

So where to go is to identify what kinds of biasses are present in these games. What is ignored / facilitated.

The worlds gone nuts. I'm leaving the thread. Have fun.

This is where op's post should have gone. https://tl.net/forum/heroes/480795-qq-rage-thread

You've represented people who think like you well, bai bai
"when the Dead Kennedys found out they had skinhead fans, they literally wrote a song titled 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off'"
TentativePanda
Profile Joined August 2014
United States800 Posts
September 24 2020 15:20 GMT
#55
People not understanding nuance is the core issue of every discussion like this. I don’t even understand how we got to the topic of systemic racism though
RKC
Profile Joined June 2012
2848 Posts
September 24 2020 15:22 GMT
#56
On September 24 2020 22:55 Slydie wrote:
Honestly, I think things like "die of cancer" and "I hope you and your whole family die horrible deaths" are much worse things to say than anything related to race, sexual orientation and genitals.

I would not be surprised if Covid-19 slurs have started to appear in the dark corners of gaming as well.


So true. If I'm a kid and my opponent threatens to hunt me down and whoop my ass, I'll be scared af. Hate speech? Not so much.

One of the best feeling of gaming with friends (and also strangers) is the banter. We chat and joke about everything. Some thoughtless careless racist and sexist remark? Definitely. We get a good laugh over some random dude raging and calling us gay and whatever. We don't get PTSD or anything.

Will the random dude develop into a racist psychopathic killer? Doubt so. Even if he does, that's just his nature. Shutting him out from video games will not cure his hate. He'll channel his hate somewhere else, on the field or the alley.

Sports, physical or electronic, gets our emotions running. I've been in violent scraps before in football. The violence comes from the rush of the game. For 10-15 years of sports, I've never seen violence driven by hate (other than the usual team rivalry - school, neighbourhood, etc).

Of course, racism can be a real problem in high-level sports, such as European football. But I suppose that's quite a complex issue altogether...
gg no re thx
alpenrahm
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Germany629 Posts
September 24 2020 15:28 GMT
#57
Personally i feel great when my opponents bring the racial slurs and indiscriminate insults, to me it shows that i hurt their pride
Pistolen-Luuk
Profile Joined August 2014
33 Posts
September 24 2020 15:57 GMT
#58
On September 25 2020 00:20 TentativePanda wrote:
People not understanding nuance is the core issue of every discussion like this. I don’t even understand how we got to the topic of systemic racism though


After this long intro I'd like to request a poll: Is there inherent racism in video games, or is it more shock factor?


Well, this was the question the OP asked. Granted, systemic is not inherent but saying gaming is inherently racist is almost as bold no?

As I said earlier, I do think there are some inherent racist features in many games. Take as an example the races of SC2. And please don't be immediately offended, I am not saying everyone is purposely racist. This is about implicit undertones. The sexual/feminine undertones in Zerg and the Asian/Egyptian undertones in Protoss (i.e. the kind of zen-warrior, rebirth, pyramids, ancient knowledge). Of course these references come from somewhere. Honestly I wouldn't say its racist but there are defenitely some stereotypes going on here.

In the very least, there is nothing I ever see in the popular games (only in the shitty games made by sjw's) that challenges mysogynic / racist / homophobic attitutes!

And yes, I also take please in being ranted against when I win from someone, neither am I offended when some loser calls me the 'n' word in an online game. Can't care less. That is not what I mean with racism, I think cultural tropes are more important to think of.
AttackZerg
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States7465 Posts
September 24 2020 16:01 GMT
#59
I feel like this has gotten a lot better in the last years in both bw and sc2.

Way less personal attacks, way less random slurs.

In counterstrike a few weeks ago, someone dropped one of those n-bombs, and a 12-14 yr little guy said, "Woah, bruh your so toxic, shut the fuck up," the rest of the team agreed and we vote kicked. Turns out dude was showing the game to his black homie and that shit happened, his first time viewing the game. I see signs of hope growing in the cracks.

I agree with you op, it is a problem and I maybe wrong, but I feel like it is getting better.
NonY
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
8751 Posts
September 24 2020 16:32 GMT
#60
i voted "They want to say the most obscene thing that comes to their mind" because that's what it's been for me in the past. my mind would race to find the most hurtful / obscene thing to say. i didn't gravitate toward racial slurs personally, but it just as easily could have been that. certainly there are hateful people too but i think the majority of it is a result of people feeling emotions that they cant control and then lashing out

the more evil people are the ones who learned to control themselves but are amused by people who can't. and they use a loophole in the concept or personal responsibility that a person is always responsible for their own actions even though another person can influence those actions. so they provoke the upset person in order to deepen or prolong their negative emotions, just to laugh at them. and feel morally superior at the same time. if that's a habit of yours, start working on controlling it.

for a while i started visiting /r/starcraft again and there is a steady trickle of posts of screenshots of opponents saying awful things. and they get upvoted. so there are people who actually want to see that verbal abuse and share it with each other and want other people to see it. i dont get it. it made me stop visiting the subreddit again

i dont understand why there isn't a "turn off chat" option. why should we have to be reactive in controlling our experience by having to read and feel what people say and then go through the trouble of blocking them? i would love to just turn off chat. display an icon on the loading screen indicating that i have chat off so people dont write messages for no reason. the negative messages outnumber the positive messages by a lot. and while the positive messages are nice, they aren't important. there's no trouble laddering without speaking at all

off topic: + Show Spoiler +
and continuing with the philosophy of letting us control our own experience, an option to opt out of pausing and an option to set the skins of our opponents' units would be helpful. the response to the pausing issue is "well you can just resume it and they can pause it only 3 times" but in this paradigm, i'm the bad guy for resuming the game. i think people should have to opt in to pausing and if both players have opted in, then pausing is possible. if either player opts out, then pausing isn't possible. as for skins, why can't i control what i see on my own screen? this totally baffles me. i don't know why they want me to see what someone else prefers. they can't choose my console, they cant choose my announcer. it'd be so annoying if they could. why are skins an exception?
"Fucking up is part of it. If you can't fail, you have to always win. And I don't think you can always win." Elliott Smith ---------- Yet no sudden rage darkened his face, and his eyes were calm as they studied her. Then he smiled. 'Witness.'
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