* It’s difficult to be polite whilst blowing someone’s head off with a shotgun or when the conversation turns ugly.
Posted on March 25th, 2008 by The Shop Keeper. Filed under The Kaiser.
I know it’s all about the context, I know it’s a “war game” but playing call of duty 4 on xbox live can be a bit of a shocking experience. Honestly, I know it’s difficult to be polite whilst blowing someone’s head of with a shotgun, or stabbing them, or blowing them up with a landmine but is there really any need for that kind of language? I mean, it’s only a game isn’t it?
The amount of racial hatred, homophobia, xenophobia, bigotry and downright stupidity that I’ve encountered playing the online version of this game is frankly quite shocking. It would appear that a degree of anonymity coupled with a game of extreme violence does tend to bring out the worst in some people or the worst kind of people simply thrive in that environment. UPDATE: Kris Hoet has just sent me this; The Internet Fuckwad theory.
Advice on how to combat these attacks on my left of liberal sensibilities have ranged from turning the sound down (or off) to only playing with those I trust. True, there are ways of “punishing” these idiots (down ranking them, throwing them off the game, or reporting them) but these are rather cumbersome and don’t really solve the problem. It has also surprised me how meek grown men (and women) can be in the face of a loud mouthed bore who constantly proclaims to have had relations with your mother or your dog.
This is probably going to be a real problem for Xbox Live (and any other online gaming platform). I’m sure that somewhere in their general terms and agreements they have covered themselves legally with regard to “user comment” but the question does remain who is responsible for the up-keep and general “tone” of such an online environment? We’ve already seen the beginnings of such a debate regarding anonymous commenting on blogs; this seems to be becoming a serious issue not only in the U.S. but also in Germany (google makes a right pig’s ear of the translation of that post - apologies to Don Alphonso). At some point this is all going to go legal but the question is; when 12 people are playing together, with 6 in America, 4 in the United Kingdom and 2 in Germany which law comes into action?
So what happens when the conversation turns ugly and who, at the end of the day, is responsible? Xbox Live? Infinity Ward? Activision? Or the people who play the game – people like me and you?
Get these stories in you RSS feeder or have them delivered per Email
11 Responses to “It’s difficult to be polite whilst blowing someone’s head off with a shotgun or when the conversation turns ugly.”
Leave a Reply
Follow
Recent Posts
- Public Service: Trying to cheer John Dodds up.
- the internet is starting to feel right again.
- And as if by magic.
- I’m shit, and I know it.
- Mint sauce anyone?
Categories
- AMPSR
- beverage
- Black Ops
- Charles Stab Podcasts
- Content
- If I were a client today
- Interviews
- jobs
- Marcus Brown
- Sacrum
- Saligia
- The Dead Artist
- The Kaiser
- The Lord God Almighty
March 25th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
after some discussion about public art today and the idea of public space, this post is very interesting to me.
i think online gaming interfaces are, in fact, public spaces, with the same dynamics to similar publically ‘anonymous’ spaces (like public toilets, darkened cinemas and die platz at 3am).
which means that a similar dynamic to the old fashion idea of the politik/citizen plus a bit of delegated law and order is probably appropriate online too. although to which end, i’m not sure.
it will be interesting to see if the weight of the delegated law and order, ie, reporting abuse links and negative feedback, will shift towards user-generated policy as the maturity and sense of ownership about the ‘place’ of xbox live increases.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Ah, the democratisation of digital space – and all the pros and cons that go with it. Excellent point Lauren.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
For the hardcore gamer this has been an issue for some time. Indeed I believe the current ‘tosser aids’ were introduced because of the trouble caused in older xbox live iterations.
To their credit MS are supposedly very quick to deal with these problems, but when its more subtle or implied its very hard to do.
Being similarly left of left in much of my thinking I agree that its shocking; seeing ‘white power’ car designs in Forza 2 was frankly a disgusting experience. Sadly, as with the internet, any space open to all will have tossers, but how we can deal with them will influence how many more we will get in the future.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Rob - I’ve been thinking about this all afternoon and I’m planning a post in my head that goes along the lines of; we were all wrong about the so called “age of conversation”, that we expected to path the way for a broader “public” that would behave in a similar manner to us. Which I think isn’t the case.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Sounds like a good post. Remember though that the ignorant minority are generally louder than the majority.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Just in case someone around here doesn’t understand the german insults:
http://uploads.ungrounded.net/151000/151783_german.swf
March 26th, 2008 at 3:58 am
This sounds awfully like the argument my old man used to defend Ozzy when he was accused of driving 2 kids to suicide thanks to his ’song’, “Suicide Solution”.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Rob C - maybe it’s my age, although I’m not quite sure what you mean. You’re dad saw a correlation. I haven’t really said as much here; I’m just making an observation about what’s it like playing this game online.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
It’s hardly surprising though is it? The public is not that pleasant a bunch and giving everyone an equal voice is fraught with problems.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I was recently having a conversation about this exact topic some days ago. You’ve inspired me to write a post about it… thanks Marcus.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:04 pm
[...] sure where to start but this game has definitely got my mind buzzing and buzzing in a way that blowing somebodies head off with a shot gun never [...]