Gamers Against Bigotry

[Dogstile]

I'll just stick to responding to bigots with bigotry. After all, I can be far more inventive than most of them on the occasions I can actually be bothered to plug in my microphone (not often).

Aside from that, surely the best response is silence, concentration and killing them over and over again while they rage. Far more satisfying.

 

[J-meMalone]

I don't see the point in this pledge. I'm obviously against bigotry, but how is signing it going to combat anything? Nobody is going to look at it and go "I won't be bigoted anymore", they likely know it's unpopular opinion but do it anyway.

 

[SuperNova221]

Biggest problem I can see with this is that the only people who would take part are people who aren't into bigotry in the first place. It's not going to change anybodies mind on whether or not it's acceptable.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The idea is to promote a more inclusive gaming community: one which doesn't resort to close-minded, offensive exchanges of bigoted insults; one which doesn't push people away because of their race or gender...

...or preference in games. ¬__¬

Anyway, this sounds like a cause I could get behind.

 

[NiPah]

I was advocating such tame language as cheese-jockey for fun, because it made me giggle at the time. Of course I don't actually expect people to call somebody cheese-jockey, it's bloody ridiculous. There are more alternatives than just racial slurs, though.

Actually you've stumbled on the age old tactic of being bloody ridiculous in order to throw off your enemy long enough for you to win. Call them a f*** head and they'll just get pissed, call them a fish and chips without the malt vinegar and they're spending 2 minutes trying to figure out what the hell you just said instead of dodging air born death metal.

I like this idea...

 

[Charli]

As hilarious as that sounds, I'm going to go no. There are times I wish the bar of intellectualism would be raised a little higher in online games, but really there is another option. Grow a thicker skin and remember to always imply that your opponents mother is waiting in your bedroom. Naked.

But do it so well worded that they barely even realize that's what you're saying.

Gamers will always eventually stoop to the lowest common denominator because there is no way to argue with it except to stoop to that level or not respond at all. You wait, they will wear a wise wo/man down.

If you stick to your own little group and stay strong it might work but... yeah.

Eventually I'd break.

I am weak.

 

[Batou667]

-snip-

It sounds like a nice idea, but crucially, one that will only work if everybody agrees to play ball. By politicising and trying to regulate how people choose to curse, you're in fact lending more weight to the coarse language of idiotic 13-year old boys (and with the best will in the world, no amount of brow-beating is going to stop them being 13-year old boys, or idiots, because the two terms may as well be interchangable).

Instead of setting up this lofty goal of inspiring a wholesale shift in the way we think about communication, why not just go through the usual channels of dick-avoidance? Play with trusted gamers on your friends lists. Use online communities to find like-minded people to game with. If somebody is a douche in-game, block them or send bad feedback. And if you think that some screaming adolescent might get a rise out of your gender or race... well, perhaps consider not telling them. Sometimes the mountain comes to Mohammed, other times Mohammed must walk to the mountain, or whatever the phrase is.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

so...the solution is for the gamer community to transplant itself back into the 1950's where people hide behind masks of false goodness? I am sorry, if given the choice between what we have now or vomiting rainbows all the time, I will take what we have now despite its obvious flaws. Being honest with oneself is more important to me than false sensitivity forced down from above.

I mean, dear lord your solution sounds like it was ripped straight from the Demolition Man script. going from one extreme to another extreme is not a solution. Punishing those who blatantly cross a line for purely malicious reasons would be a better course.

I agree. This sounds like it's just imposing restrictions by means of peer pressure, rather than actually educating ignorant people who have become bigots.

 

[Evan Waters]

All the people saying "Why do we need this, this is dishonest and it won't do anything and anyone offended by these words should just grow a thicker skin" need to tell me- what would be so horrible about people NOT using racial slurs in the course of videogame chat?

What would we lose? What specifically would signing up to this little pledge forbid you from doing that is so very important? You can still insult people. You can call them fuckfaces, assholes, human waste product, shitstains on the heel of society, you can imply that you're having sex with their mother right now, or that you did the night before, or possibly are going to in the future. You can ask spawn campers what they learned in the 3rd grade today. (Well, it's summer, but you get the idea.)

The range of personal insults is so vast that not using race, gender, sexuality, or disability doesn't even cut out 1% of what you can potentially say.

And if you're not using those words already, you lose even less. You lose nothing. Nobody's freedom of speech is being threatened, there's no great art being endangered by this.

Why do you panic so?

 

[Fuhjem]

Here, I'll sign the petition.
But...
1) I'm still going to cuss like a motherfuck
2) If I have to use bigotry words, I'll turn off my damn mic. (sometimes anger defeats reason, unfortunately)
3) I'll stay away from bigots in online games if I can.

 

[Nouw]

The solution to bigotry isn't a group.

The solution to bigotry isn't a set of rules.

The solution to bigotry is tolerance -- on all sides. That means tolerating that some people like to use words you don't like.

Dat avatar >.>. I also agree with you.

 

[Ghonzor]

Let it be known that I fucking loved Dodge Socks. How dare you slander such a wonderful game*

*Read with a joking tone

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

So your answer to speaking out against bigotry is to simply become the No-Cussing Club?

No, it isn't. I've clarified this already; you can swear as much as you like, but you should try not to be bigoted. If you were part of a marginalised group in society, would you like to be belittled every time you settled down for a "friendly" bit of computerised escapism? I wouldn't, so I wouldn't impose it on others.

Swearing and bigotry are mutually exclusive, and the latter is needlessly offensive.

So why are you advocating using such tame language as 'cheese-jockey'?

In fact what the flying fuck is a cheese-jockey?

well let me ask you this:
what do you do once you have the cheese?
mount the cheese.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

So your answer to speaking out against bigotry is to simply become the No-Cussing Club? Yeah, no fuck that shit, that's ridiculous.

If someone calls me a 'cheese-jockey' online then I reserve the right to call them an asshole.

Same. Swearing is not the same as being racist, sexist, or homophobic. I can call someone a dumbass ************ and not be a bigot, I'd just be pissed.

I mean, dear lord your solution sounds like it was ripped straight from the Demolition Man script. going from one extreme to another extreme is not a solution. Punishing those who blatantly cross a line for purely malicious reasons would be a better course.

As for that, yes, it does. The Seashell Scene was pretty epic too, with Stallone just rattling off swears so he has toilet paper. And since that isn't actually at all key to Demolition Mans plot, I'll live dangerously and not worry about spoilering that.

Now, going against bigotry is great. I love the general idea, after all, each and every human on this Earth is fundamentally the same, at least biologically, so the only way we should treat them differently is on a case-to-case basis on how they act. Sexism, Racism, and whatever -ism happens to be against those of 'alternative sexual preference' to use a technical term... All of it needs to stop.

... Just let us keep our creative, all-encompassing swears while we stop it.

 

[Hazy992]

well let me ask you this:
what do you do once you have the cheese?
mount the cheese.

Did you really have to use the word 'mount'? Such terrible images!

 

[theheroofaction]

Americans need to stop using bigoted go-to insults like "Fag" (homophobic), "******" (racist) and "*****" (sexist)

Use British/Australian ones instead! "****", "Wanker", "Tosser" "Bastard" and "Dickhead" are all fine to use because they aren't aimed at one group in particular, they're just general insults to use on undesirable people.

But if these twats think that we shouldn't be allowed to swear at all, they can go fuck themselves.

I dunno, I think that the bastards would be offended, and women, and wankers.

that covers just about everyone.

So yeah, even the proper English swears are super offensive.

 

[LookAtYouHacker]

And the word "rape" isn't involved because? I've already emailed them and posted on their blog.

 

[him over there]

Interesting, too bad it would never work in a million years and would at best serve as a hub for people who want to avoid this stuff.

See I have a friend like this who uses this language, one of my best actually. The thing is he throws around ******, ******, ****, Retard, or whatever else you can think of regardless of what the other person looks or sounds like. Doesn't matter what race or ethnicity or gender or sexuality they are he uses them all, even where they'd be mutually exclusive. It's never in hate, he's never angry. He's always got this fat grin on his face when people get mad or uncomfortable like "Can you believe this guy a million miles away actually cares what I say?" It's schaudenfreude plain and simple. He doesn't care about what you are he just wants to make you mad and using words that are instantly deemed evil and sanctioned off is the perfect ammo, guaranteeing a response.

Most people don't call each other slurs while gaming online because they're bigoted, they do it because it creates and guarantees the biggest response possible.

 

[Evan Waters]

Interesting, too bad it would never work in a million years and would at best serve as a hub for people who want to avoid this stuff.

See I have a friend like this who uses this language, one of my best actually. The thing is he throws around ******, ******, ****, Retard, or whatever else you can think of regardless of what the other person looks or sounds like. Doesn't matter what race or ethnicity or gender or sexuality they are he uses them all, even where they'd be mutually exclusive. It's never in hate, he's never angry. He's always got this fat grin on his face when people get mad or uncomfortable like "Can you believe this guy a million miles away actually cares what I say?" It's schaudenfreude plain and simple. He doesn't care about what you are he just wants to make you mad and using words that are instantly deemed evil and sanctioned off is the perfect ammo, guaranteeing a response.

Most people don't call each other slurs while gaming online because they're bigoted, they do it because it creates and guarantees the biggest response possible.

That's still bigotry. It's not okay because you don't mean it.

Your friend is an asshole.

 

[him over there]

Interesting, too bad it would never work in a million years and would at best serve as a hub for people who want to avoid this stuff.

See I have a friend like this who uses this language, one of my best actually. The thing is he throws around ******, ******, ****, Retard, or whatever else you can think of regardless of what the other person looks or sounds like. Doesn't matter what race or ethnicity or gender or sexuality they are he uses them all, even where they'd be mutually exclusive. It's never in hate, he's never angry. He's always got this fat grin on his face when people get mad or uncomfortable like "Can you believe this guy a million miles away actually cares what I say?" It's schaudenfreude plain and simple. He doesn't care about what you are he just wants to make you mad and using words that are instantly deemed evil and sanctioned off is the perfect ammo, guaranteeing a response.

Most people don't call each other slurs while gaming online because they're bigoted, they do it because it creates and guarantees the biggest response possible.

That's still bigotry. It's not okay because you don't mean it.

Your friend is an asshole.

Being a bigot and doing bigoted things are different. If he had feelings that minorities were inferior and immoral that would be being a bigot, while merely saying words that are deemed bigoted outside of a bigoted context is saying bigoted things without embracing the ideals. It's a dick thing to do but honestly the mentality comes down to "I want to offend this person and this word offends them most however I don't want to offend them based on their race/culture/sexuality/gender."