“Being an invisible minority, you are often times forgotten; your views, ideals, and concerns
are not perceived as legitimate,and are therefore not taken seriously”
Dear Reader,
Something is rotten in the gaming community and it’s only now that we as a community are beginning to realise what it is however some of us have been aware of the problem for a long time now but have not really spoken about it. I personally have always been aware of it and I know others who have been too.
Before I get into the main issue there are two things I would like you to know about and be mindful of:
2/ In any discussions that may ensue I ask that you be respectful of others opinions.
Last night after throwing a quick piece together about BioWare cranking down further on intolerance, I was reminded of another issue that popped up last week when the sexist and racist remarks of gamers in CapCom’s reality TV series were brought to light. In both these cases gamers stood up ready to fight…but not for the right reasons, gamers were arguing that this ‘trash talk’ was an inherent part of the culture, something ingrained into the heart of the community.
‘Trash talking’ or ‘flaming’ might seem harmless, admittedly I am guilty of bursting into tirades of rage when a game doesn’t go my way and I can’t excuse myself for that but I am still aware of what language I use and while an overuse of expletives and the word ‘noob’ isn’t exactly good sportsmanship I can say that I have never attacked someone based on their gender, religion, race or sexuality. Most of us will recognise these areas as something that can and will cause serious offence if they are mentioned but there are people among us who throw these words around like they have infinite ammo!
‘So what? I didn’t say anything offensive’, true, you might not have been the voice on the headset tearing a gay player to shreds, trash talking a girl for signing onto her online account or imitating/picking on someone with an accent or broken English – but did you call the perpetrator out? Did you ask them to stop? Did you report them or flag their behaviour with moderators?
Letting this behaviour slide by, claiming it’s just part of gaming culture, does nothing but send out the message that it is ok to bully and harass people. You might have a thick skin, words might simply bounce off you or fall mute when you disconnect from a game but what about the player who hears this kind of crap every day at school, home, work or on the street?
In another aspect of my life I have spoken often about my experience with bullies, for seven years of my school life I was bullied by people in my classes, picked on, beaten up and it only got worse as I got older because when I was 12yrs old I realised I was different to other people, I am gay. The names they called me every day only made me feel ashamed of what I was, it hammered home this idea that there was something wrong with me and for the most part I found myself alone so I retreated to another world and I found myself at my happiest when I was lost in the Mushroom Kingdom, rescuing Zelda or avenging Aerith – gaming became my escape for a while.
I’ve called people up on their language before but received a backlash or the excuse of ‘oh I didn’t mean it like that I meant…’ regardless of their true intent the words used can cause harm and people need to realise this. The world is becoming more open, diversified and connected and this isn’t going to suddenly stop one day and we’re all going to go back to our own isolated little bubbles – the connections have been made and can’t be broken now and the sooner we wake up and realise that there are people out there who share different values, customs, beliefs and cultures different to our own the quicker we can learn to understand and accept these differences.
I’m not just talking about the real world either, our online and gaming worlds are changing too, the characters we play and meet are becoming just diversified as real life people and with companies like BioWare standing by their decisions to include these characters we may just see a turning point in the gaming world but we can decide whether it is an easy transition or if we will have to constantly be reminded of this ugly side to the community.
This will not mean the end to competitive gaming, it won’t mean the sport loses it’s edge, it will mean we gain something! We will regain our dignity, pride and sportsmanship.
So really we have a choice to make, do we stand by and let these people have their few remaining days and allow them to trash talk and belittle others or do we stop it now? Today? It’s a simple as standing up for the guy who is being mocked, for sticking up for the girl being attacked, it is as simple as telling the bully to just stop!
You need to ask yourself, what kind of gamer are you?
Declan
Editor
Gamer for Life
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
