74% Of Adults Have Been Harassed While Gaming Online, Study Says.

I remember being called once or twice a "noob" on a Counter Strike server in 2003.

WhoTF get harassed while playing games, just tick "mute all" and never think about it ever again.
 
As someone who plays a lot of DBD, the stats checks out. Never have I been insulted or told to die in such creative ways for playing a casual party game. Some people are sad little pricks who need therapy.
 
20cent said:
I remember being called once or twice a "noob" on a Counter Strike server in 2003.
Click to expand...
You're only a noob if you only got called a noob once or twice--This is the tell tell sign.

When I used to play Quake/duke Nukem 3D with buddies at school we trash talked so much, we were harassment… To be honest this was probably the part of the games I liked the most, guys bound this way.
 
Competitive online games are just like sports, there is going to be some trash talking. Trash talking to the other team is even a tactic, to get them all bent out of shape and off their game.
 
Way back, I remember sending a message to a bunch of guys who disconnected an online hockey game when their team was losing.

And then in Call of Duty, some people would send me messages for camping and using the same gun over and over again.

The world is coming to an end.
 
  • they reference race which wouldn't be a big factor given everyone online is a a random avatar
  • they don't link to the study
  • what's the age range?
  • gaming online and message boards being thrown together rather than addressing each point
  • lazy copy and paste article
  • glossing over people being jerks themselves
  • what about other games, given the vast number of titles and the industry being more profitable than hollywood
  • kotaku normalises poor writing masquerading as journalism
 
I once got a hatemail after invading a guy in Demon's Souls on PS3. Can I claim to have been harassed now?
He called all sorts of deogatory terms. I never fully recovered.
 
Depends on what's your definition of harassment. Some people think harassment is having something said to them that they do not like by an individual or group of people just once.

Me I define it by something disrespectful happening over and over again a majority of the time. As a black man(with a country accent) I don't think I've experienced anything perpetual from playing online but that's just my perspective.
 
Harassed? If you mean gamers trying to add me after I beat their asses online then yes. I rarely encounter shitty people, usually playing on EU and ME servers.
 
Mandatory:





Git gud and you won't be harassed, simple as it is. Also there's a mute button in every MP game out there, it's not really hard to use it, I personally always use "mute all except party" option whenever available.
 
Bo_Hazem said:
Harassed? If you mean gamers trying to add me after I beat their asses online then yes. I rarely encounter shitty people, usually playing on EU and ME servers.
Click to expand...
Exactly I think many times I am missing out, because not much people are talking or talking shit on EMEAA servers : (
 
Not surprising. How many adults have been harassed while engaged in social media? I'd wager the % and the total # is far higher.

Next study: 90% of adults have seen risque advertisements while browsing the internet. Shield your eyes!
 
I don't know, I usually only play offline games, but I have to say when I play Fall Guys I have found lovely people who are hugging me continually
 
Is this an American thing? Americans love using the "harassing" line in arguments. Along with "you're going to hear from my lawyer" and "your going to jail"............... that's the notion I get from a shit load of freak-out videos i've seen. My dogs harrassing me right now - jumping up my leg for attention.
 
ZywyPL said:
Mandatory:





Git gud and you won't be harassed, simple as it is. Also there's a mute button in every MP game out there, it's not really hard to use it, I personally always use "mute all except party" option whenever available.
Click to expand...

man i miss these days lol. halo lobbies werent quite as bad but there was still some good shit talkin and fun times. we need to bring this back...

fuck it, more harrassment! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Kev Kev said:
man i miss these days lol. halo lobbies werent quite as bad but there was still some good shit talkin and fun times. we need to bring this back...

fuck it, more harrassment! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Click to expand...
Tell your mom I'll be over to bang her again tonight. You're a noob you suck and your grandma's ugly.

That's 1999 in a nut shell for me. The best I ever saw was a guy I played tribes with sent me a script. It was probably over Aim. When I clicked on it it was a pop up spammer of a muscle guy in a Leppard speedo. It had a voice over that scream. I'm Looking at Gay Porn!! Over and over. Best part was we had one pc at the time and it was in the living room. This was like 2am. 🤣😅
 
Unpopular opinion: If you don't use "mute all" or talk in a private party then you're asking for it. There's a reason why both MS and Sony have a "wanker filter" settings.
 
It's likely if people understood or remembered what 'banter' is, that percentage would drop substantially. Cue, someone posting single posts showing assholes online. Before you do, I'm expecting 74 out of 100 to be 'harassment', so you should struggle to find friendly exchanges.
 
Harassment isn't defined well here, but what I have personally seen and heard quite a bit of is harassment of female gamers. The voice gives them away and there's a segment of losers out there who can't stop themselves from hurling non stop insults in their direction. The report is right that the majority of people will have positive interactions. Race isn't much of a factor, but I do believe if people did know others races, there would be more racial slurs tossed out. That's kind of the benefit of online gaming though, you're anonymous and it's one of the few spaces where most people are "equal" except when it comes to skill.
 
DeceptiveAlarm said:
Tell your mom I'll be over to bang her again tonight. You're a noob you suck and your grandma's ugly.

That's 1999 in a nut shell for me. The best I ever saw was a guy I played tribes with sent me a script. It was probably over Aim. When I clicked on it it was a pop up spammer of a muscle guy in a Leppard speedo. It had a voice over that scream. I'm Looking at Gay Porn!! Over and over. Best part was we had one pc at the time and it was in the living room. This was like 2am. 🤣😅
Click to expand...
bahahah omg thats fucking hilarious. also, fuck yeah tribes! i totally forgot about that game. me and my buddy used to get hammered and go ham on that. so much fun

darth.shrimp said:
"just plain rude name-calling" = "being harassed"?

74% of adults should get thicker skin
Click to expand...
Pants101 said:
The other 26% were also "harrassed", but were able to take it on the chin and dish it back equally as good/bad.
Click to expand...
lol exactly!

it's like, "this just in! 26% of gamers aren't pussy's!"
 
Last edited:
GreyHand23 said:
Harassment isn't defined well here, but what I have personally seen and heard quite a bit of is harassment of female gamers. The voice gives them away and there's a segment of losers out there who can't stop themselves from hurling non stop insults in their direction. The report is right that the majority of people will have positive interactions. Race isn't much of a factor, but I do believe if people did know others races, there would be more racial slurs tossed out. That's kind of the benefit of online gaming though, you're anonymous and it's one of the few spaces where most people are "equal" except when it comes to skill.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on how competitive the game is... I've seen a girl cry in a competitive match of CS GO, she was indeed making it hard for the team, so the team wasn't too kind...

The thing is, I've had the same pressure to perform well happen to me, and I've seen it happen countless times to a lot of people (usually males)... is this harassment or just the nature of a very competitive game?

I think it's the latter. If you can't deal with pressure you shouldn't be playing modes where the stakes are higher and where you can pottentially screw up the game for everyone else.

And if you do perform badly, I think you should understand what is your fault and what isn't, and respond accordingly.
 
And 26% of the population is disabled. Isn't maths fun!

.https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html
 
I know we're all taking the piss here but obviously online interaction of any kind can definitely have a negative impact on anyone, mentally. Let's not pretend that because it's under the guise of "videogame banter" it's not a legitimate issue. Obviously there are parties who instantly demonise the mere concept of verbal communication in online games (such as that lady on twitch who pretends to be a deer) which is throwing away the baby with the bathwater. I also don't feel like minorities, in the videogame space, are worse off either compared to our more standard white brethren. What I mean by that is as someone who, unfortunately, is a filthy cis white male I've been the recipient of plenty of online abuse myself And I'd be the first one to admit it's gotten to me in the past and sometimes still does.

So no matter what you're race, gender, sexual preference or religion is a big portion of online interactions can and at some point will go sour. Ultimately it's up to you to choose how to deal with that (ie: using that glorious mute button).
 
Last edited:
I play RDR:O with a group of about 50 people. RDR is pretty much staged in an entire PvP realm, you can enable defensive but you can be attacked at any time, though it is rare. So the group set up a grief channel for 'griefers/harassment'. And the distinction is always made before you send a flare up, just getting killed isn't 'griefing', and you're expected to change server before asking for clan help. Griefing is if the same player persistently follows your sessions to 'harass' you. This seems like the same shit.

After every kill in CS at one time you saw spam of fagg0t etc. WaW and MW2 were awful but par for the course. See on community servers this is what happens and they self regulate. You get to know the personnel and you grow out of it until more n00bs join the community. It's how it works. The system was fine. Like in everything you have positive and negative interactions. Also pretty much everyone has moved to private chat, or stopped using mics. I mean look at the games they've checked

CS
DOTA
LOL
..

They've always had 'toxic communities' by their standards. We were playing in them from age 13 onwards and others like Quake, UT getting told that our mums gave special mouth love and they had a fetish for ass sex. If you had a deep voice, you were a pedo. If you had a high/posh voice, you were gay. If you had a strong accent you were called stupid by way of being unintelligible.

Some people are soft and they are entering a domain where it's dog eat dog. Most of them just need to learn how to deeprate personal insults from insults just thrown around.
 
It all comes down to that classic saying that seems to have been lost to time:

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but shit talk from a random person online will never hurt me"

We aren't talking about people you know saying personally hurtful things, we're talking strangers winding people up for a laugh online. If you happen to be one of those people that decides that isn't for you, muting the offender will be adequate revenge because they can't get a rise out of you. They soon move on, because what else can they say? You're an random target they don't actually care about getting to.

And yet none of that common sense approaches the truth of it, which is the definition being some hippy tilted form of harassment which includes the the wind blowing too hard.

The worst part is I've fallen into the trap I so often point out to others of legitimising a nonsense piece of work that should be ignored until it disappears into obscurity by responding to it as if it's worthy of enough respect to warrant even a moment of anyone's time.
 
Is this supposed to mean shit talking? Lol.

Mr. Biggs had a line that once said "if a bitch talk shit, I talk shit back".

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Have online gaming communities broadened your gaming habits/genres?
17
562
cireza replied
Study Shows PlayStation Gamers Make the Most Money Out of All Console Players as Adults
3 4 5 6 7
331
13K
ap_puff replied
Bethesda says a remaster of Fallout 3 would have to improve the 'not good' gunplay
Opinion Game Dev  2
55
151
cinnamonandgravy replied
What would gaming have been like if Sega didn’t fail and Microsoft never entered the console space?
2
67
741
Laptop1991 replied
What are some games you remember enjoying, but have generally been forgotten to the sands of time?
2 3
143
4K
HenryJr replied
Top Bottom