Toxic Behavior.

Ethan Mermel

November 17, 2017

“Toxic Behaviors: The Learned Result of Video Game Playing”

            According to recent studies by social scientists, there is both an increase in toxic behavior from players of online gaming and a transfer of that behavior outside of the gaming environment. This is causing increasing concern both by makers of these games who are worried about losing players and bad press that can come from recorded incidents of racism, sexism, homophobia and threatened acts of violence.

According to Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, “If you repeatedly ‘practice’ various decisions and choices in games, this practice can influence your attitudes and behaviors outside of the gaming world” (Gentile, Science Daily). In his research, Gentile used the game ‘Grant Theft Auto’ as a reference point. He paid special attention to the sexism representation of female characters in the game and how these images informed player behavior. As he notes, “You can pay them [the characters] for sex, you can look at them or you can kill them,” Gentile said. “This is an extremely limited view of the value of women.” In this same paper, Gentile notes that more than 80% of the female characters in these games are typically attractive, wear little clothing, behave in sexually suggestive ways and have limited roles in the game itself all contributing to endorsed sexist views of women. His argument is that the games teach behavior that is then transferred outside the game to social interactions in the real world.

Brendan Maher, in his article “Can a video game company tame toxic behavior?” notes his own experience being called a “FA GO TT” for not picking a character fast enough on ‘League of Legends.’ He notes that while the games themselves often have a lot of violent and sexist behaviors embedded in them, it is the players themselves who behave in toxic ways to each other. He says, “Online players have a reputation for hostility. In a largely consequence-free environment inhabited mostly by anonymous and competitive young men, the antics can be downright nasty” (p 568). He notes instances of cheating, intentional sabotage of other players called “griefing”, racist, sexist and homophobic language and how “aggressors often threaten violence or urge a player to commit suicide . . .” (p 569).

In a study conducted by the makers of ‘League of Legends’ (LoL), they found that most of this behavior was being done by average people who had a bad day and used the game to lash out. One of the most significant of these situations is called “Gamergate” and occurred in 2014. In this situation women players were subject to harassment, invasions of privacy, and threats of death and rape (p 569). The company has experimented with “priming”, using a combination of tips and colors to influence gamers behavior. While they found this helpful, it was not enough so they formed the Tribunal where players serve as judge and jury to their peers. They review chat logs on players who were turned in for bad behavior and decide if the player deserves punishment. This, along with immediate feedback to the accused player, has reduced bad behavior by 70% in this experiment.

            I think it’s smart that the LoL company is trying to change the overall behavior of players so that situations like “Gamergate” do not repeat. Even though their experiments with priming and the Tribunal system were not 100% successful, they were still able to bring the negative player interaction down significantly and replace the negative interactions with ones that were more positive.  

            In my personal experience with video games, I’ve seen and heard the kinds of remarks mentioned in these articles and this can definitely change a person’s experience with the gaming world. These comments are often unexpected and extremely nasty. They can make a person who is younger and vulnerable feel unhappy with themselves, or it could teach them to mimic these behaviors and comments when they interact with others. In my experience, it was negative enough that I shut off the microphones when I played so I wasn’t tempted to respond and so I couldn’t hear the comments being made. If that wasn’t enough I stopped playing. I also think there is a reduction in kids playing these kinds of games because they know, and their parents know, that it stops being fun pretty fast. I think if companies don’t want to lost business and be accused of negative influences on society, then the changes made by the LoL manufacturers make sense.

            I think that the makers of these games need to rethink how women are represented so they are not so objectified. If a male character is strong and heroic, a female character ought to be equally that way. If the male character is fully clothed and not a sex object, the female character should not be either. Until both genders are represented in positive ways in these games, the games are encouraging sexism in players, including young girls. I started playing because I had older brothers who played and I wanted to keep up. That is true for other young players who see these images, do not understand the dangers of them and are unconsciously learning what to expect and how to treat women from these games.

            I think more games should be made that eliminate these qualities so companies can see that they don’t need violence and sexist images to make money. I also think the companies should do more discussion with the players themselves so they can get insight from them on how to change the culture and learn what players really want from these games. Finally, I think that companies that run online games should be willing and able to permanently ban players who repeatedly are reported for these behaviors so there is a consequence that might deter other people from doing the same thing.

            It is encouraging that people are studying the problem but there is so much more needs to be done to make gaming a safe, positive experience for all players.

Bibliography

Gentile, Douglas. “Video games influence sexist attitudes” in Science Daily. Iowa State University, March 28, 201 retrieved on November 17, 2017 from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170328105908.htm

Maher, Brendan. “Can a video game company tame toxic behavior?” Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science, Vol. 532, Issue 7596, pps 568-571, retrieved on November 17, 2017 from nature.com