#4

[Necromancer1991]

Average WoW ganker:
Anonymity.....Confirmed
Inhibitors....Released
DOUCHE-BAG MODE ACTIVATE!!

As far as people in WoW are concerned I haven't run into any really nasty folks, most people just disregard your existence (Although those damn Twinks farming the starting areas for honor are a pain in the ass)

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Long story short: do a Google search for "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory."

 

[khaimera]

I agree with Root's theory.

The only thing I can add, which I hope he didn't and I forgot about it, is that much of the problem comes from immature adolescents who find it absolutely hilarious to behave antisocially since its so "taboo". That combined with general lack of the meaning of consequence becoming more common among youth (where I live).

What to do about it? Better age verification? Keyboards that refuse to type cursewords or leet cursewords? I'm not really sure.

This was my favorite Dr. Mark article yet.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

I agree with Root's theory.

The only thing I can add, which I hope he didn't and I forgot about it, is that much of the problem comes from immature adolescents who find it absolutely hilarious to behave antisocially since its so "taboo". That combined with general lack of the meaning of consequence becoming more common among youth (where I live).

What to do about it? Better age verification? Keyboards that refuse to type cursewords or leet cursewords? I'm not really sure.

This was my favorite Dr. Mark article yet.

Generals (a Comand & Conquer forerunner) will not type words deemed "offensive" in player chat. Now my group of friends are all extremely well-behaved individuals, but of course, once we realised this, all our time on chatr is spent trying to work out just how far the chat blank system worked. (It's pretty far. "God" and "shit" are out, but so is "bottom" and "boobies", "heck" and "satan".) From this I have concluded censoring is not the key.

I really enjoy these articles. Thanks very much, Herr Doctor!

 

[TheArma]

Doc... you ain't wrong about female players being able to be nasty over WoW, and it's funny how art mirrors life. I have found that in a guild setting there is a tendency for male players to get loud and abusive, much like many have a tendency to in real life. I've found the 'nasty' female players to be more underhanded and controlling, plotting guild politics and the like.

I think anonymity and the lack of consequence in a virtual world leads to an amplification of personalities, simple as that and the trend that I have seen in WoW is just an amplified version of what I see at work or in my personal life.

On the sexual harassment/sexuality in-game I think it is important to note that things go both ways. There are plenty of guys who behave like rabid dogs where even a sniff of a female player is enough to get 'em chasing some tail, but on the flipside I have seen my share of females who take advantage of it. I dread to think just how much gold a photo on the guild forums with a bit of cleavage on show can generate.

Although I hasten to add that in my time playing with my darling girlfriend she was never subject to any sexual harassment nor was she guilty of solicitation! In fact she was and still is (I don't play any more) one of the best and most respected players I know. I guess there are always exceptions.

 

[Twinmill5000]

I think it's more simple than that... even though part of this you mentioned.

People when acting anonymously have just another reason to let go and act absurdly. It's not that they can't control it, it's that they see no real consequences for their actions. Not all people do this however-- I mean, some people still care about how they're perceived on the internet. Additionally, there's no doubt that acting absurdly gives a somewhat reward feeling on the other end if the person isn't used to "being bad." It's also alot easier to do.

Then there's the issue of doing what it takes to fit in. I don't know. Some people pound fists; some people have a secret handshake; some people get together on a saturday night and brawl and DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT IT.

And there's a good portion of the internet population that troll. They use lewd behavior that nobody in their right mind would use to eachother and it works because it's taken with the lightest of heart. It's like a game, kinda, that never ends. And among trolls, the only way to lose the game with them is to react seriously. I guess that's why it's so popular; it's a judgment of social skills. It's the mentality that "if this person reacts seriously to me calling him a newfag, I don't want to hang out with him." In a sense, it's kind of sought as uncharismatic -or simply lacking of social skills- to not understand a troll is just trolling. And that's fine. It's harmless trolling until someone takes it too far and drags someone who isn't suspecting it into the game. Then again, most trolls exist in the 18-34 agerange, and I'd have to say the highest concentration of them are in the 16-22 age range. That. And they likely spend alot of time on the computer. As an example... I had a friend who was an awesome troll, lol. I didn't like it at first, but soon, we could carry an entire conversation off memes.

Likewise, when I say the population of trolls is small (it sure seems big on the internet, however), I mean it's small. Even people that know what the game is will usually call you a retard for bringing it up in real life, while probably 2 other people in a group of 30 (in this case, a classroom where the number should be none), will react with sarcastic frustration, deriving amusement from the old meme.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Read Full Article[/quote]

I have always wondered about this "Harassing women" is all about.

I am a guy myself, and I have several female friends in WoW, and yet I have hardly never heard them say they feel harassed in WoW. There might have been a few comments about how they sometime feel they get a lot of attention, but never have I felt they were uncomfortable.

So since I play on an European Role Playing server, I have to wonder these things:
-Do Europeans act different towards each otherP
-Do Europeans respond differently to "attention from others"?
-Is players on RP realms more polite than others?
-What exactly is it that girls feel to be harassment.


To me it seems that PvP realms, and people that mainly play PvP are the rudest people in wow. That is just how I feel, but I have a theory as of why this MIGHT be.

A PvPer generally likes to compete against other players, hence why he plays PvP. One reason for doing so is to feel superior to others. These people then feel the need to show their superiority, either through bad behavior towards others, or through the ancient art of ganking. They also seem to have a tendency towards being more egotistical and solo minded, something you can often see in Battle Grounds, where players run around alone and do not work together towards their goal. (Usually resulting in a loss )

In contrast Raiders seem more calm to me, and also more respectful. This I think has to do with the social aspect of being a Raider. You HAVE to play nice with others, or you will be kicked out of your group. But at the same time, people who like raiding seems to be more oriented around working WITH others towards a greater goal.

Of course NOT EVERY PvPer or Raider fit that description, but it does often seem that way.

 

[Superhyperactiveman]

I actually theorize that it is a form of bipolar disorder specific to gaming. The WOW universe encourages role-playing, the act of taking on a persona not your own and living it to the fullest. In these cases, the player subconsciously (or perhaps consciously) creates an alternate identity seperate from their own. There are, in fact, 2 different personalities within the same mind. This isn't limited to only the antagonistic personality. I theorize that there are a large number of people with this kind of selective bipolar disorder. It's just that the asshole-variety are the most well-known.

This is, of course, based on no research or any training in psychology. Just my overactive imagination.

 

[kingmob]

Go to any bar on a friday night and you'll see even more shitty people. I actually theorize that it is less frequent in online play, but more annoying. There is usually little you can do about it and the people that encounter it usually don't go to the places in real-life where they encounter this type of behaviour.
So the actual behaviour has more impact both due to the nature of the receiver and the higher impact of the actions on your current goals (playing the game). The most important part of this, is that the anti-social or downright sociopathic people get a freedom they normally don't get; they really can hardly be stopped. For these people it really is about society repressing there urges and the absence of consequences in the game. But the misanthropic view of "the greater fuckwad theory", where all people are supposed to be asses that are barely controlled by or social systems and laws, is hardly relevant I think. These people are still a vast minority, they're power of disrupting your pleasure has simply been increased. With this in mind, think about the male teen in a group of male teens that encounter one female and I think you get the point...

 

[Eri]

I have always wondered about this "Harassing women" is all about.

I am a guy myself, and I have several female friends in WoW, and yet I have hardly never heard them say they feel harassed in WoW. There might have been a few comments about how they sometime feel they get a lot of attention, but never have I felt they were uncomfortable.

So since I play on an European Role Playing server, I have to wonder these things:
-Do Europeans act different towards each otherP
-Do Europeans respond differently to "attention from others"?
-Is players on RP realms more polite than others?
-What exactly is it that girls feel to be harassment.


To me it seems that PvP realms, and people that mainly play PvP are the rudest people in wow. That is just how I feel, but I have a theory as of why this MIGHT be.

A PvPer generally likes to compete against other players, hence why he plays PvP. One reason for doing so is to feel superior to others. These people then feel the need to show their superiority, either through bad behavior towards others, or through the ancient art of ganking. They also seem to have a tendency towards being more egotistical and solo minded, something you can often see in Battle Grounds, where players run around alone and do not work together towards their goal. (Usually resulting in a loss )

In contrast Raiders seem more calm to me, and also more respectful. This I think has to do with the social aspect of being a Raider. You HAVE to play nice with others, or you will be kicked out of your group. But at the same time, people who like raiding seems to be more oriented around working WITH others towards a greater goal.

Of course NOT EVERY PvPer or Raider fit that description, but it does often seem that way.

I believe most of this harassing girl problem is due to the vocal minority effect. The few girls who do get harassed go on and on about it preaching everwhere, and a few white knight guys also jump at the chance to show their power and willingness to fight "unjust sexism". Because of all this, it seems like much more than actually is.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

Why this is a problem has a lot of potential answers, but for my money, social interaction in games is as dismal as it is due to the lack of tone in text.

Whether you're happy, sad, angry, patient, impatient, or the big trouble causer, sarcastic, it's very difficult to get these emotions across in a text based system, because all we see are the words, we can't differ the tone.

Emoticons help a little, but when they're not there then it's very difficult to tell whether somebody seriously means what they are saying, or if they're just saying it as a joke, or out of spite from having a bad day, and so on.

One of my favourite games to play online is Team Fortress 2, because more often than not, I can talk to people through the mic, and they can respond with theirs; we're more likely to enjoy talking to each other because we can hear with our own ears, the tone of voice used by the other person; if they're kidding, they'll laugh, if they're sarcastic, we can pick up on it, if they're frustrated we can calm them down, and so on.

Of course, that's just the PC version; I don't game online with my PS3 or my 360, because I don't have a mic for my PS3 and I don't want to pay-to-play on my 360, so I'm unsure if this rule holds up under the pressure of the masses.

 

[Naheal]

MMO and People...they are alright (Usually) when not put together...but, with anything, you give someone an avatar to hide behind, and they dont feel they need to take any recourse for the actions they commit.

I think its quite sad how some people just use the mask as an excuse to be total, and complete idiots...I would like to see how they act when face to face with some of the people they try to demeen.

Brilliant article, and great to see an experts point of view on it

Unfortunately, you can't have an MMO without people. Just doesn't work that way.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Another thing is people may just be frustrated. I don't play WoW, but if someone killed me ten times in a row, I might be more prone to go murder some little low-level players, just to relieve the frustration.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I have always wondered about this "Harassing women" is all about.

I am a guy myself, and I have several female friends in WoW, and yet I have hardly never heard them say they feel harassed in WoW. There might have been a few comments about how they sometime feel they get a lot of attention, but never have I felt they were uncomfortable.

So since I play on an European Role Playing server, I have to wonder these things:
-Do Europeans act different towards each otherP
-Do Europeans respond differently to "attention from others"?
-Is players on RP realms more polite than others?
-What exactly is it that girls feel to be harassment.


To me it seems that PvP realms, and people that mainly play PvP are the rudest people in wow. That is just how I feel, but I have a theory as of why this MIGHT be.

A PvPer generally likes to compete against other players, hence why he plays PvP. One reason for doing so is to feel superior to others. These people then feel the need to show their superiority, either through bad behavior towards others, or through the ancient art of ganking. They also seem to have a tendency towards being more egotistical and solo minded, something you can often see in Battle Grounds, where players run around alone and do not work together towards their goal. (Usually resulting in a loss )

In contrast Raiders seem more calm to me, and also more respectful. This I think has to do with the social aspect of being a Raider. You HAVE to play nice with others, or you will be kicked out of your group. But at the same time, people who like raiding seems to be more oriented around working WITH others towards a greater goal.

Of course NOT EVERY PvPer or Raider fit that description, but it does often seem that way.

I believe most of this harassing girl problem is due to the vocal minority effect. The few girls who do get harassed go on and on about it preaching everwhere, and a few white knight guys also jump at the chance to show their power and willingness to fight "unjust sexism". Because of all this, it seems like much more than actually is.

I guess you are right, I but I do wonder if there is also a cultural difference in this between the US and Europe.

I bet this is a fun case for them Social Anthopologists.

 

[scw55]

I have as much trouble with male players as I do with female. There have been a few female players I once knew who thought I was "sexist". I wasn't. I just treated them like I would anyone else. Oddly enough, when such accusations would arise, I would ask my female friends and they would say, "No, you don't come across sexist".

Do you think that such predatory nature of annonymous males on the internet to prey on females gamers have caused some female gamers to be over paranoid and protective?

A personal observation. All the female players who find that I came across "Sexist" would act very flirtatiously to any male player. They would subconsciously abuse their femininity to get their way. It's quite a negative act as it adds to the negative stereotyping of the female player in MMO games where they'd "use their sexiness" to climb the ranks of power.

But yes, everyone has the potential to be a douche online. I know a few people who were "alright" in real life but were complete dicks in cyberspace. Cyberspace allows the darkerside of someone's personality out.

 

[tharglet]

I've never had any issue about being openly female on WoW. Yeah, there were idiots, but they never bothered me for long at all, as they found it an unrewarding experience.
If people ask, or the fact becomes relevant to the conversation at hand, I will say I'm female. I don't really go out of my way to say "I'm female".

Most guild "wimminz" talk is done so in a joking fashion I found. Doesn't take long for it to die off, if you're not fussed over it. On the couple of guilds I used voicechat with, I've never had an issue with joining in the conversation. Had my fair share of ":O Didn't know you were a female". Probably something to do with my gaming habits and programming profession lol.

 

[Foolishman1776]

You want to know why people are "racist" online? Because in the real world we see the constant race baiting, the use of race and/or sex and/or ice cream flavor preference used to justify all kinds of stupid behavior. Because you're pretty much told all day long that you're racist/sexist, and that you're SO racist or sexist THAT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT. So, with that in mind, and also keeping in mind that the single easiest way to upset someone these days is to make a "racist" comment, and is it any wonder people would act this way? One way to stop it is to stop wringing your hands about it, and get over it.

On a related topic, I find that a majority of people act as reasonable online as they do in real life. Granted, there are exceptions, but one does not make rules based on exceptions. Obviously, there are places where people who are mean congregate, but if you don't want to be called names, don't go to 4chan. What really bothers me about all this panic is the fact that most of, if not ALL forums, online games, social networking sites etc. have an "ignore" function; if all else fails most have a "report" function. If you can't be bothered to push a few buttons to ignore/report someone, why should anyone else put effort and money into regulating these things?

 

[Smokescreen]

snip

Citation needed. Your post sounds more like an attempt to justify your own actions, especially since politeness has resulted in survival and being a dick often got you killed (one way or another).

I think Dr Mark has hit some excellent points, but I also this a critical one has been overlooked; how humans interact.

As a general rule, we pick up 80% or so communication from non-verbal signals. Now, I don't know how much is lost when you only have vocal inflection, but I imagine a great deal is still left behind when you can't see someone's facial expressions/body language. The kind of ticks that might let you know when your trash talk has gone too far and instead of being playful is actually just mean. People can dish out a hell of a lot of teasing and so long as it's kept on a certain level, nobody takes much offense-even when the language used is really offensive.

But you take away the ability for someone to clearly make a joke-and clearly take one (or misunderstand) and I think you lose a lot, which makes people more 'thin skinned' online than in real life.

Finally, I think that we're only starting to understand that 'Who you are online is who you are anywhere.' If you're a dick online, you are a dick. There isn't some kind of "get out of jail" card that the internet provides when it comes to behaving badly. There will always be assholes-but hopefully as we become more experienced in online behaviors, there will be less.

 

[LimeJester]

Games are often by nature places where behaviour of the player is disconnected from consequences. Where else could you drive a tank down Main St, or shoot a dozen people and get away with it? Trolling and griefing are only extensions of behaviours that are often rewarded in many types of games. Unfortunately I believe (and I am no expert) that some griefers go too far, and the harmless intention of these comments can become harmful to some player's emotional health. Online gaming can (as Dr. Mark pointed out with the females & sexual advances example) be several magnitudes worse than experiences in player's actual lives. If a person experiences bigotry, sexism, etc. in their daily lives and seeks escape from that reality in online environments, the sheer increased magnitude of it online could make the person's emotional health situation worse. What I worry about more than the victim being overwhelmed with hate-speech is the bystanders and neutral observers of this behaviour. Rarely do people stand up and put an end to this behaviour online, this is why it has proliferated to the status-quo today. I believe the repeated observation and inaction to this type of behaviour could set a precedence when dealing with examples of hate-speech in real life. I worry about a civilization of complacent observers, not unwilling but unmoving as violations of human decency are being enacted around them. Most of us can recognize the difference between reality and fantasy, this is why we don't go on rampages down the street but something so deeply implanted could slip by since it does not create issues but only permits them.

In a follow-up I'd like to hear Dr. Mark's opinion on the psychological roots of mic-spamming in PC games such as TF2.