Online Games serve as a way to escape the realities of life and a way to form virtual bonds. However some have misused this platform by riddling it with problematic language and behaviors. For instance, discriminatory language is a common trend in the online gaming voice and type chats features. For instance, discriminatory language is a common trend in the online gaming voice and type chats features. More commonly are problematic behaviors such as doxxing, trolling as well swatting have been a recurring issue in online gaming culture. Ultimately, such speech and actions negatively impacts the user being met with such problems. When it comes to racism and online gaming men of color say that they have just become desensitized to such comments. Which is exactly what author Stephanie M. Ortiz suggests In the article “You Can Say I Got Desentized to it” she says that in order to cope with harsh racist remarks men of color choose to become desensitized or ignore the comments. Which is a discouraging truth, that those who choose to participate in the world of online gaming have a likelihood of being met with various issues. In The League of Legends survey it stated that 79% of women in league of legends have been sexually harassed. In the same survey it stated that 95% of players have experienced being flamed. Toxic speech in the online gaming industry is not a new concept and many companies have tried to combat this issue. However, this is still quite prevalent in today’s online gaming.
As hate speech and harassment have become an increasingly prominent issue in online gaming communities, a host of programs have been implemented to help battle the issue. Many of these programs have been mental health resource programs, crisis hotlines, social media campaigns and more. These have helped to provide players with a safe way to communicate about their experience, free from judgement. Other solutions have involved platforms implementing further content moderation in their games. For example, in October 2020, PlayStation announced that there would be an update allowing players to record and report voice chats. All of these resources have opened the doors for increased improvement in content moderation and created a voice around online harassment. Where we saw a room for further was between players and game producers. Within the online community, there are constant disputes over how much is too much content moderation. What we have done in our work interweaves many of the concepts of other programs, but combined them in a way to open the doorway for intercommunication between gamer and producer while also catering to players a safe space where they can discuss their experiences.
Our Work
DISCORD
We saw a lack for open discussion space outside of gameplay in the Online Gaming community, so we decided to make our own. Our Discord server has separate channels for discussions. One of these is for discussion on players views of content moderation and their suggestions to create a useful and effective form of moderation without limiting gameplay. Another channel is dedicated as a safe space to share experiences with online hate speech and harassment and find a community that is open and accepting of all.
PODCAST
Why? Harassment and hate speech become an increasingly large problem inn online gaming communities. In our podcast, we relate our research back to our own experiences, show the statistics behind online game harassment, and discuss ways we think would be most effective in eliminating hate speech, sexism, and bullying.
To Raise Awareness of Toxicity and Content Moderation and Create a Supportive Community for Victims
As we continually examined this problem that has left a stain on the gaming industry and community we also wanted to include a positive outlook on how we can move forward. By isolating things that are working, calling attention to them, and sharing that information with the community we can take further steps to fostering the community we see fit for the gaming world. e also want to encourage our followers to join roles in the workforce of content moderation, contact Discord servers you are members of to see the possibility of becoming a content moderator yourself. As we are to continue our work on the website and our Discord, we are going to provide helpful tips in content moderation as well as explain the process it takes to become a moderator. We encourage users to check out the resources we have on our website such as the “Games and Online Harassment Hotline” and links to “Guardians MH”, a non-profit “...that offers resources to gamers with the goal of promoting proper mental health.” However, these are just some framework resources, feel free to share more resources on our Discord server. In addition to the resources, in the future we will continually update our website with news articles from gaming outlets and new interventions that have been implemented into the community and field in general.