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[LucidMomentum]

My favorite part of Overwatch is the diet racist callouts people use when referring to some of the characters. Like saying Sombra is easier than saying "The Mexican Bitch" so why the fuck do you feel the need to call her that constantly?

Last night I had a guy say something incredibly vulgar about my mother because I criticised his play. Like, worse than your usual banter and it really got to me.

I basically told the team I was done with the game and spent the rest of the round berating him until he apologized. Then I kept going off on him. I wasn't having any of it.

No I didn't throw we still won easily. But that's not the point. I'm a guy and the shit I've heard has been abhorrent. Can't imagine what women have to deal with.

 

[Muzicfreq]

I think the best moment was when I was plating Plants VS Zombies GardenWarfare and some guy was flying off the handle and all the kids that were playing told him to shut up and that it's just a game...

 

[King Tubby]

This is called the internet. Before games became more mainstream all people did in counter strike or Socom 2 or other early online games was talk shit to people, it's not a new phenomenon.

Why is that supposed to make it okay? This shit has ruined multiplayer for a lot of people. It's ruining the internet.

 

[ZangBa]

I can think of only one time running into a creeper with my friend, and she has a silver portrait, so that's a lot of games. I've gotten more hate mail it seems, lucky me.

 

[mullet2000]

Overwatch has been one of the most positive online experiences I've had, honestly. Not perfect but I don't encounter racist/sexist crab very often.

Now, battlefield 1, I can't go 30 seconds without seeing the N word typed into chat. Christ.

 

[Backlogger]

This is awful. What is wrong with people. I have never actually seen this happen myself as it may also happen in tells but if I ever do see it in party or voice chat I'll call out the guy and report them. They need to be banned faster than cheaters IMO

 

[Angry Fork]

Why is that supposed to make it okay? This shit has ruined multiplayer for a lot of people. It's ruining the internet.

Yes, it is okay, and no it's not ruining multiplayer/the internet.

 

[Syntax]

You don't even need to leave chat though. If the community is as toxic as you seem to think it is, all you need to do is just stick to your own group of friends and not even bother communicating with randoms. It's no different to any other time in life you meet some douchebag you want to avoid.

Firstly, I don't think the community is toxic. There are individuals who can be very abusive, hostile, and detrimental to the community.

Second, as I responded already, the go-to solution shouldn't be the person (a woman, minority, lgbt, etc) having to leave chat or the game in lieu of individuals being held accountable for their actions.

You seem to be fine with simply ignoring them as a solution. While I can understand the reasoning behind your suggestion - ignoring an individual is rather easy with the mute button - it does nothing to deter anyone from being a complete ass. Not to mention in-game behaviors outside of chat that can be considered harassment.

 

[dehydratedbabies]

The majority of "toxic" shit that I experience in Overwatch is team composition complaints (or just "everyone on this team sucks but me" complaints), not racism or other bigotry. There is some amount of bigotry (typically directed at Korean players), but less than I remember from the Halo 2 days.

 

[Izayoi]

The "worst" that happens to my wife (anecdotal, I know) is that her ability to play the game is called into question by teammates. I talked with her about it tonight and she's never had any really violent (sexual or otherwise) threats or targeted derogatory remarks, as far as she can remember.

I'm thankful that it's not worse, but the fact that just by virtue of being a woman your skill is called into question is pathetic. I can't even begin to imagine the kind of shit they put up with online... I'm sorry that gamers suck. :|

 

[Jasper Avenue]

Overwatch is all good if you just sit back and relax. i had a dude losing his shit in a match and the rest of the team just kept saying "Hello!" to him. He was going bananas.

 

[dehydratedbabies]

Overwatch is all good if you just sit back and relax. i had a dude losing his shit in a match and the rest of the team just kept saying "Hello!" to him. He was going bananas.

Lol this is true.

 

[Acerac]

The majority of "toxic" shit that I experience in Overwatch is team composition complaints (or just "everyone on this team sucks but me" complaints), not racism or other bigotry. There is some amount of bigotry (typically directed at Korean players), but less than I remember from the Halo 2 days.

Are you a woman?

Did you read the OP?

 

[dehydratedbabies]

Are you a woman?

Did you read the OP?

No and yeah. Sexism is bad. People utilize the anonymity of the Internet to be assholes.

 

[Crayon]

I don't play this game. I was listening to the transistor soundtrack a few months back and a woman stopped to ask about it. I told her it was from a videogame and she told me that she had just started playing videogames. She had started playing overwatch with her friends. Shortly, someone mentioned online chat. She said something like "I don't know why people would say things like that" and I could see that she was uncomfortable even thinking about it.

I told her it's been that way for a long time in a lot of games. I told her that I just use my phone these days. Open a google hangout and invite my friends. Her face lit up. She would obviously be enjoying the game more if she could find a way to cut out harassment.

I wish someone would do something. I don't believe for a second that it's impossible.

 

[Haly]

Expected. Outside of League, OW is the other big, multiplayer competitive game with such a broad appeal to both genders, and it's bringing out the sexism by the boatloads.

If people ever wonder why male gamers are painted as misogynistic, anti-social, no-lifers, it's because they act like this around the opposite sex.

 

[Acerac]

No and yeah. Sexism is bad. People utilize the anonymity of the Internet to be assholes.

Cool. Seeing as how you are a guy the fact that you didn't notice any change in "toxic shit" makes sense, given how much of it is directed towards women... the subject that the OP was talking about.

Not that your experience is invalid, it just seemed to be about a different subject.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Sadly expected. Not remotely acceptable, but expected. Fuck this kind of gross-ass harassment bullshit.

 

[Ryzaki009]

Thankfully I avoided most of that. (That said I don't bother getting into voice unless it seems the group is chill. No one has time to be arguing with idiots).

Most of the whining I've heard is the gtfo off Hanzo/widow cause you're useless (and most of the time it's actually true).

 

[Zen Aku]

The punishment should be permaban. I don't care if you spent $60 on the game. You sexually harassed anyone like that. No one wants to play with you.

 

[Blizzard]

Maybe it's because I chat squelch people if they start acting up that I don't see this stuff. I've definitely seem death threats or similar on multiple occasions in League of Legends, but never once in Overwatch that I recall.

There was one person spamming the N-word in chat who got muted a few days ago, though.

 

[Yeezus]

At a certain point an acceptance, that people are going to say crappy things and try to wind you up during video games, is sort of par for the course. Is getting a two-hour time out an adequate punishment for being a jerk? I'm inclined to say ”sure it is," but who decides the rules? Is it up to the Overwatch community, or Blizzard, to draw the line in the sand that decides what's acceptable trash talk and what isn't? What about typing truly toxic sentences, is that grounds for a lifetime ban? I imagine it falls in line with ”I'll know it when I see it" when it comes to how-far-is-too-far?, but therein lies the issue of subjectivity. I'm not going to defend adults, or even young teens, that act like idiots on the internet. I do not reflect upon my younger days through a lens of pride, but its those experiences that remind me to cut younger people some slack and to simultaneously show others more respect now that I'm a little wiser and more mature.

Someone in this thread has already said it—this sort of stuff comes with the territory, and its part of the trade off that you get with anonymity. Would a real ID system solve the problem? It might curb it, but I doubt it would eliminate it, and then we'd have to deal with a different set of problems. Would you rather have to quickly mute two or three idiots during respawns, or let them see your real name? It's a bit of a bummer to type this out, but you can't control what others do, only how you react. Party with your friends and keep warm together, it can get a little cold out there sometimes.

 

[Haly]

Yes, it is okay, and no it's not ruining multiplayer/the internet.

It kind of is. This is just a narrow instance of a broader trend of men pushing women out of tech and tech-related spaces, which has a wide, nigh mappable cultural impact because of how quickly we're becoming an interconnected society.

Like, this is a thing that goes beyond just games. Connectivity is another industrial revolution, except it's directed by only one half of the planet who, broadly speaking, doesn't want to share with the other half.

 

[zoku88]

How fucked up is it that it's been almost 20 years since counter strike and OG Starcraft started this shit and it's gotten literally no better. If anything it's gotten worse.

No way it's not worse. I used to play those games online all the time. Can hardly stand playing online nowadays.

 

[dehydratedbabies]

Cool. Given how you are a guy the fact that you didn't notice any change in "toxic shit" makes sense, given how much of it is directed towards women... the subject that the OP was talking about.

Not that your experience is invalid, it just seemed to be about a subject the thread wasn't about.

I encounter women w/ mics regularly but the worst I've heard directed at them is the "omg look a girl" bullshit. That alone is fucking annoying, and I don't doubt that women themselves experience much worse on a regular basis, but that's all I've heard. Otherwise, mostly people being racist toward Koreans and telling me to switch from Junkrat even though I have gold eliminations, damage, and objective kills.

 

[8byte]

Anonymity.

That sums it all up.

 

[SarusGray]

I demand online self defense classes need to be made to combat online harassment. "How to turn the troll into the trolled." I often have had success making the harasser get shamed back at them self when they decide to become prude and racist.

 

[Syder]

Overwatch, and competitive multiplayer games in general (I play a lot of DOTA 2), are toxic as fuck at a base level so I can only imagine how intimidating it is for women. I tried Overwatch competitive for the first time last week as the season was nearing it end and... Oh my God, for a game that's so much more laid back and simplistic compared to DOTA it's just as toxic. I was getting flamed to fuck and blamed for a loss playing Lúcio (22k healing and Gold medal on obj time btw) as the solo healer because the McCree or the Reaper didn't want to swap. Similar things happened in a couple of other games too and it really turned me off going back to it.

You can tell when a player is just frustrated with their own shitty playing decisions instead of understanding the game when they flame you during a losing game despite you playing out of your skin because they can't see the scoreboard for individuals.

 

[Alo0oy]

Can someone please explain why this game seems to be a constant source of drama?!

Some people don't like hearing this. But FPSs and MOBAs have the most toxic gaming communities and it's not even close. The genre attracts the racist and sexist shitbags.

I don't even touch games in those genres anymore.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Unfortunately assholes will be assholes, and the anonymity provided by the internet only further enhances that. I just don't pay any attention to them. Letting them get to you means they win.

 

[Kid Ying]

Yeah... Already got my chunk of embarrasment on competitive overwatch. Now i never play with voice chat and blocked messages from people outside my friends list.

 

[Mesoian]

This will never change and shouldn't surprise anyone by now.

Teenagers and college age kids being anonymous on a microphone are pieces of shit and some percentage of them always will be. It doesn't mean we accept it but acting like it's shocking in 2017 is a bit much.

Liberal use of the mute button and reporting tools is the only way to handle it. It will never stop happening.

Yup, on top of which, actually fixing the problem in any sort of meaningful way financially unsustainable. Nothing short of a full team culling and sorting every report to be filed and acted upon by hand is going to quell this, and that will be undermined by the fact that Blizzard would still rather you just buy another account to skirt the rules.

This problem cannot be fixed without the community coming together en-masse and agreeing to stop this terrible behavior, which, as the last 24 months have shown us, will never happen.

Honestly, reporting people on battlenet feels like pissing into the wind most days.

Yes, it is okay, and no it's not ruining multiplayer/the internet.

So basically, "Suck it up loser"?

Just because we can't stop it doesn't make it okay.

 

[Angry Fork]

It kind of is. This is just a narrow instance of a broader trend of men pushing women out of tech and tech-related spaces, which has a wide, nigh mappable cultural impact because of how quickly we're becoming an interconnected society.

Like, this is a thing that goes beyond just games. Connectivity is another industrial revolution, except it's directed by only one half of the planet who, broadly speaking, doesn't want to share with the other half.

Ok but there are 3 options:

1. Mute/block people who offend you. If this functionality isn't in the game then that's a dev problem as it should be a mandatory feature in all games now.
2. Grow thicker skin, fight back, stop taking anonymous people seriously.
3. Have games get rid of all forms of communication because all of them can be used to shit talk people.

The 3rd one is the Nintendo option. It sucks and shouldn't be done.

 

[cheez124]

this is pretty fucking disgusting. i've run into a few rude players before, but nothing on the level of some of the posts here. my condolences to anyone who's had to deal with nasty players like that before

people should keep pushing blizzard to crack down on behavior like that, but until then the best thing you can do is mute them and try to move on

 

[Angry Fork]

So basically, "Suck it up loser"?

Just because we can't stop it doesn't make it okay.

Yes. Mostly boys/men have been playing multiplayer since the mid-late 90s and nobody has complained until now. Going through shit talking is a rite of passage.

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

Personally I pretty much always party chat (Xbox One), but if you're in a game and you're hearing this sort of stuff if you aren't backing up the victim then there's something wrong with those people too.

Heh, I play Overwatch with my SO w/ private party chat on Xbox, but she has a gendered gamertag/gamerpic and Overwatch displays if you've entered a game grouped with someone, so she's gotten messages sent to her in the same vein as quoted in the OP, "Awe, little girl has to queue with her boyfriend." It's terrible. And that's just when someone makes it explicitly misogynistic. I hope there were consequences on the platform for the people we've reported. Being in a private party chat just minimizes an aspect of the potential nastiness. Muting and blocking messages from all strangers from the get-go shouldn't be the solution. While pragmatic, taking precautions by not expressing your gender the way you want to in your handle or avatar shouldn't be necessary.

I was saddened by many people just sending me messages telling me I was stupid (worse wording, of course) for picking Torbjorn in comp when I was LTTP on Overwatch and didn't know that there was a consensus - I can't imagine how I'd feel if I was harassed in Overwatch similar to the examples in OP. Well, I used to have people calling me a spic and such on Xbox because I chose to have my real name on there for the sake of my irl friends being able to better spot me - I think I shortened it to my initials during the 360 era after a certain number of incidents, which bummed me out to do. I don't remember 360 allowing for privacy settings on just your real name (it was bundled with hiding a bunch of other bio stuff that I wanted public iirc), but Xbox One definitely has that feature, so I can have my real name up for my friends without getting random racist messages.

 

[Mozendo]

The harassment is becoming an issue.
I've been reporting players for months, and now I'm starting to create tickets on the Blizzard's support page for them to realize how toxic this is.
A group of players went as far as to harass me outside the game all because they didn't like how I was playing.
I still get grouped up with players I've blocked.

 

[Mesoian]

Yes. Mostly boys/men have been playing multiplayer since the mid-late 90s and nobody has complained until now. Going through shit talking is a rite of passage.

Dude if you honestly believe that, you have not been paying attention.

That is some, "boys will be boys" garbage right there.

The harassment is becoming an issue.
I've been reporting players for months, and now I'm starting to create tickets on the Blizzard's support page for them to realize how toxic this is.
A group of players went as far as to harass me outside the game all because they didn't like how I was playing.
I still get grouped up with players I've blocked.

I am about 30% positive that both text chat reporting and game judging do literally nothing.

 

[Mephala]

What baffles me the most is that developers such as Blizzard have the means to implement a simple report feature that at the very least temporarily bars these two players from joining the same match again. It is a rudimentary and at best a bandaid solution but I feel it should have existed years ago. And you know what? If there is a hidden counter for how many times different individuals use this feature on this player maybe it could be a useful statistic for actual reporting.

 

[Angry Fork]

Dude if you honestly believe that, you have not been paying attention.

That is some, "boys will be boys" garbage right there.

I have no problem with girls/women shit talking, I would encourage them to do so. There's plenty of mean shit you can say to hurt a boy/guy's ego who's trying to insult you, it's up to them to think of it.

 

[ryechu]

Anonymity.

That sums it all up.

It's not just anonymity. There is a reason why there is more toxicity in team-based games, and why in those games, people flame more in ranked playlists.

 

[Dongs Macabre]

One time this guy on my team kept harassing another player then, even after everyone started telling him to stop and the player quit, kept trying to justify why that person deserved to be harassed. Some people are just so fucking toxic.

Yes. Mostly boys/men have been playing multiplayer since the mid-late 90s and nobody has complained until now. Going through shit talking is a rite of passage.

Fuck off with this bullshit. No one should have to be harassed.

 

[Haly]

Ok but there are 3 options:

The problem with this line of thinking is assuming all forms of online interactions are identical, and there isn't any additional malice in the sexist/racist comments in online gaming games, or that it isn't more hurtful than generic harassment.

There is. There is absolutely a difference between being insulted in the general and being insulted based on your identity. It's the difference between calling someone stupid and calling them a n*gger.

Yes. Mostly boys/men have been playing multiplayer since the mid-late 90s and nobody has complained until now. Going through shit talking is a rite of passage.

First of all, people complained. They just didn't do it openly because if you complained too much you were laughed at. And the only reason this was true was because gaming was dominated by a very strange offshoot of machismo where the seemingly social outcasts who didn't live up to mainstream society's standards of masculinity, in turn, decided to reinforce that same masculinity in the field where they dominated, aka video games.

Second of all, I loathe to use this phrase in this specific context but you're doing what is known as "victim blaming".

3. Have games get rid of all forms of communication because all of them can be used to shit talk people.

The 3rd one is the Nintendo option. It sucks and shouldn't be done.

1. People are being harassed online
2. Unable to adequately address the harassment issue, Nintendo cuts out communication options entirely (the Hearthstone method), creating a lower quality product for everyone
3a. The reasonable course of action would be to blame the harassers for being shitheads
3b. Your solution, of course, is to blame the harassed for taking their complaints to the people in charge, instead of accepting it "like a man"

Basically, you're for reinforcing the status quo where people get harassed and then eventually become harassers as they internalize this harassment as "normal". I shouldn't have to, nor want to, give a basic sociology lesson here but I hope you realize that this isn't how you solve social problems, never was, never will be.

All it does is sweep the nastiness under the rug where it festers and grows unchallenged, see: the current political landscape

 

[nikos]

That sucks. I find a lot of women play this game on PC and have never witnessed any harassment towards them. The community has been absolutely terrible at times though, so I don't doubt that this happens. And these kids wonder why they're forever alone.

 

[King Tubby]

I have no problem with girls/women shit talking, I would encourage them to do so. There's plenty of mean shit you can say to hurt a boy/guy's ego who's trying to insult you, it's up to them to think of it.

What if we tried taking steps away from being horrible to each other altogether?

 

[finalflame]

I encounter women w/ mics regularly but the worst I've heard directed at them is the "omg look a girl" bullshit. That alone is fucking annoying, and I don't doubt that women themselves experience much worse on a regular basis, but that's all I've heard. Otherwise, mostly people being racist toward Koreans and telling me to switch from Junkrat even though I have gold eliminations, damage, and objective kills.

Why is this every Junkrat main's defense? It doesn't mean shit. In most scenarios the issue is Junkrat cannot provide enough consistent sustained DPS to follow through with the critical elims that'll win a team fight. Overwatch will give you an "elimination" even if you just barely damage an enemy heroe before a killing blow. Having high damage doesn't mean shit if you're not able to consistenty get the necessary picks as one of the DPS heroes to win a team fight.

Unless your team is winning, your perceived individual contribution doesn't mean anything, and it's rare that a Junkrat is meaningfully contributing to a win outside of some very specific scenario or if the rest of your team is already carrying you.

What if we tried taking steps away from being horrible to each other altogether?

That'd be nice. It's never going to happen. When someone calls me a "faggot piece of shit cuck" and tells me I should've been aborted, I mute and report them and go on with my life.

 

[Frozenprince]

Ok but there are 3 options:

1. Mute/block people who offend you. If this functionality isn't in the game then that's a dev problem as it should be a mandatory feature in all games now.
2. Grow thicker skin, fight back, stop taking anonymous people seriously.
3. Have games get rid of all forms of communication because all of them can be used to shit talk people.

The 3rd one is the Nintendo option. It sucks and shouldn't be done.

What a horrible attitude to have.

This is exactly why this shit isn't better at all "get over it or mute them god stop being such a pansy". Jesus. I wish I was shocked there were people making excuses for this caustic nonsense but I'm really not anymore.

Harassment and constant insults and derogations are not acceptable, they are dehumanizing especially when you'd just like to play a god damn video game with some other people.

 

[Frozenprince]

What if we tried taking steps away from being horrible to each other altogether?

Nonsense that would actually accomplish something meaningful.

 

[King Tubby]

That'd be nice. It's never going to happen. When someone calls me a "faggot piece of shit cuck" and tells me I should've been aborted, I mute and report them and go on with my life.

It can happen if reporting actually does anything and people who engage in this sort of behavior are punished for it. That's what moderation does. That's the only way you have sections of the internet that aren't cesspools.

 

[finalflame]

It can happen if reporting actually does anything and people who engage in this sort of behavior are punished for it. That's what moderation does. That's the only way you have sections of the internet that aren't cesspools.

There's a report feature (I use it often) for abusive chat. I don't believe it's just for decoration. If someone exhibits a pattern of bad behavior/reports, they'll get some kind of punishment.

In the meantime, you can very easily just mute/block.