A what again?
I was playing Team Fortress 2 this evening, and our team was losing. A couple of the more skilled players on the team chose to deal with this by openly insulting everyone else on the team, to the point where people were quitting. Finally, I responded with, "Dude, take it easy."
The reply of A**hole #1? "Shut up, b**ch. You're just a chicken-eating n***er."
I don't even have a real commentary on that. Anything I can think of to say seems painfully obvious to rational people.
Sigh for gamer-kind, for nerd-kind, and for male-kind in general. See this comic.
Comments
Well, first of all,
Well, first of all, rationality is highly overrated.
Second, yes, the fact that this is wrong, sad, and a bit dispecable might be painfully obvious. But it probably shouldn't be dismissed either. What is the connection between losing at play and resulting to sexism and racism-- what cultural factors make this the go-to response? It also brings up questions of online identity and what can and can not be said. Assuming this guy's not such a blatant racist/sexist in "real" life, what factors of avatar embodiment make such statements feel potentially less offfensive or hurtful (though they're clearly not)? How does this kind of talk, if widely used in online gaming, contribute to the shaping of, and access to, virtual community? Lots of questions come out of this. Quickly dismissing the action as clearly wrong or offensive can be a form of acceptance.
Okay, so now that I'm awake
Yeah, there's certainly something to say there. My entirely unacademic and amateur opinion, developed over years of gaming, is that when people want to belittle someone else online, they will literally reach for the most offensive thing they can think of, and throw it out there. Just like the old "bullies are cowards" thing, griefers are cowards. They're perfectly safe, so they speak their mind, nasty as it is.
The race issue is tough for me to address. The guy is obviously insensitive, but actively racist? I doubt it. Passive racism is unfortunately the norm among a huge number of young men - it's a joke, on the surface, if it comes up at all, but there's a seed of truth to it.
That's one of the reasons I find collegehumor.com so very offensive since they started allowing comments. Racism is rampant. It goes under the guise of comedy, but I'm calling bullshit on that. It's too bad, because it's otherwise a pretty good site.
I think that you both make
I think that you both make really good observations about insults in online contexts. One time on WoW (aka at band camp?), a round of racist jokes were going around. I took a similar rhetorical "let's all take a breath" route that may have been a bit more passive agressive "Aren't we here to play a game?" and the responses I received were an increase in racist jokes. When another player attempted to switch the flow of insults to white people (aka "Does anyone know any white jokes?"), the main instigator of the racist jokes replied that none existed. Being fed up, I typed, yes there is, just look at ________ (player's name). Yeah, not the nicest move, I know, but then it was amazing to see how many players started backing this guy up for his racist jokes with more racist jokes (btw, racist jokes are "banned" on WoW). My last option was to report the guy to the WoW General Manager, who ended up on probation and now his character no longer exists.
Both of these instances keep me thiniking about how we can address issues of race without devauling/ending the conversation. I mean, were teachers, right? Nakamura in her text "cybertypes" begins the book by reflecting on how people (scholars in her example) in online contexts don't want discussions about race brought online-it ruins the fantasy. In the same respect, many people may not react as negatively to "identity tourism," which reify racial stereotypes. How can we discuss race in online contexts without it being invisibilized or reduced? Further (I feel like a broken record by bringing this up), can these examples speak to the critique of the built-in whiteness (white perspective) of online spaces?