Tackling toxicity in the gaming community

Credits: @Nivz

The first game ever was made in the 1950s, and the gaming community is ever-growing since then. Today, the gaming industry is the biggest entertainment industry in the world, with a user base of 350 million users in India alone. But if you log in to any online game or popular stream anywhere in the world, you’ll most definitely run into hostility, trash talk, and aggression from strangers over voice or text chat.

According to a study of gaming toxicity from the Anti-Defamation League, over 80% of multiplayer gamers recently experienced some form of toxicity, with a majority of it related to gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or ability. Most players felt impacted by such toxicity, with over a tenth saying it resulted in depressive or suicidal thoughts, and over 20% said it caused them to quit playing. These negative effects are especially harmful to women, who are more likely than men to be victims of gaming toxicity. In addition to the psychological harm, studies suggest that such toxicity decreases women’s motivation to play video games in the future and pursue technical career fields.

This is certainly not an easy problem to solve, but at the same time, it’s not an unpreventable problem. We have to live with it. There’s a stubborn perception in the gaming community that online abuse is just a fact of life, or worse, that being toxic is an integral part of enjoying a game. Anyone bothered by it needs to grow a thicker skin or stop playing altogether. These assertions are constantly used to brush off those who want to speak out about their experiences, which only helps abusive players to be tolerated.

Despite the prevalence and harmful outcomes of gaming toxicity, only a minority of players report other player's toxic behaviours. Although the gaming industry is pursuing initiatives to address this problem (e.g., better moderation tools, more transparency in reporting systems), real change needs to happen from the bottom-up, from gamers themselves and parents to teachers and friends of gamers. Instead of silently normalizing the current bystander culture by ignoring toxicity, we must encourage an up stander culture of combating it. Toxicity in gaming is more rampant and psychologically harmful than most people might expect, so when you see it happening, say something to stop it. Saying something as simple as, “Don’t be toxic,” can be quite effective.

Furthermore, I believe, if and when game developers prioritize the issue, they can have a highly positive impact and solve the toxicity problem with ease. Prominent gaming companies like Blizzard and Riot have started creating systems to combat the hate speech rampant in gaming communities. Certain platforms temporarily mute players after instances of racist profanity. But in most cases, these measures work only on a case-to-case basis and are mostly ineffective. The punishment amounts to just a slap on the wrist, and players evade censors easily by omitting letters or adding numerals to ethnic slurs written in-game chats.

Toxicity is directly linked to the anonymity of the internet and the growing stakes of e-sports. By removing one of these variables, we can help nullify toxicity. By removing the anonymity of the internet (requiring players to provide identification, a phone number, etc.), they can no longer hide behind an alias. The online factor becomes irrelevant as there are now real-life punishments for their online actions. To nullify how the growing stakes of e-sports impact toxicity, developers should provide better systems to either punish toxicity or split competitive and casual players into separate pools. Improved casual matchmaking can also create this effect.

Gaming companies need to step up their efforts by punishing abusive players with meaningful competitive penalties. E-sports can look to an obvious model: real-world sports. Violence on the football field takes a player off for a critical game time. Tennis players can be given penalty points, games, or even matches for verbal abuse. In the world of e-sports, a similar dynamic might include lower maximum health, longer skill cool-down periods, or other in-game handicaps. Unless penalties come down in a manner meaningful to players, hate speech and toxicity will continue to flourish.

Another option is reward instead of punishment or simply put encouraging positive behaviour. League of Legends and Valorant developers – Riot games have conducted various studies to determine which measures can improve the situation and highlight the benefits of positive behaviour on the loading screen before the game begins. It actually led players to reduce their levels of toxicity.

Gaming toxicity is a boss-level challenge for us all. Like a virus, the more people are exposed to it, the more it spreads. But this cultural contagiousness might also be cause for optimism. Even small, incremental reductions in such toxicity will happen when you and the gamers you know act as upstanders can counteract the virality, reduce toxicity, and allow players to enjoy the multiple psychological, social, and cognitive benefits that video games provide.

- Azfar Faheem Mustafa, 2nd year CSE

#Gamers #ToxicGamers #Toxicity