Isn't OW just more popular? All other things being equal, more people playing = more opportunities to see stuff like this.
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Mic: Female 'Overwatch' player harassed for 16 minutes uploads it all to YouTube
- Thread starter Gattsu25
- Start date
Sexism, racism and stupidity is a daily thing on multiplayer games, it's like an habit now, I'm French so everytime someone recognize my accent in competitive Overwatch, two things can happen, the first one is people saying how cool and funny my accent is and asking me if I live in Paris, the second one is stuff like: "Please don't surrender in the middle of the game" " Why didn't you vote Lepen for the second round you fucking piece of shit, "Shut the fuck up baguette, you're the worst people on this planet" "Why aren't you helping me killing the fucking Mercy you fucking Nazi surrender snails eater" etc...
It's probably 60/40 or something like this but honestly ? I don't give a single fuck, the wolf does not care about the opinion of the sheep.
It's probably 60/40 or something like this but honestly ? I don't give a single fuck, the wolf does not care about the opinion of the sheep.
YoRHa No.2 Type B
Banned
So, basically. The world is as shitty as it always was?
I'm shocked.
I'm shocked.
TyrantGuardian
Member
If only. Plenty of 30+ year olds doing shit like this on a daily basis.
n0razi
Member
Youre naive if you think its just Overwatch
Doesn't work for me, i'm too anxious about things like this and knowing that they are saying this shit actually upsets me. I very rarely play online anymore, and always have mic's muted, but i'm still really anxious about it and it takes away any enjoyment.
I hear this all the time - just mute offensive people and grow thicker skin. Well that's the reason these cancer kids are still around. Sure it's harder to post a video but that's the point. She is trying to fix the problem. I find it mildly offensive that you are criticizing someone who chose the active route and not the passive, lazy route.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Hardcore very single year since COD4 in addition to every Socom, Rainbow 6 and Battlefield.
COD you will get the occasional N-word or "Faggot" in the lobby but I have never seen it go on past a retort or two. or especially players on the same team(unless someone is blasting music on the mic).
Feel bad for people that do experience this, shit would infuriate me.
Messofanego
Banned
We wouldn't even be having this conversation if the woman just muted everyone and didn't do anything else.
ClosingADoor
Member
Yes, but now everyone is broadcasting their disgusting thoughts into the world, making others feel a ton worse and also influencing people and making them think this is a normal way to act.
Just mute them. Just ignore them. Just walk away. But by all means, don't confront assholes!
I swear, this line of though has been stamped into us way too much over the years giving free reign to the assholes to do what they want. Not just in multiplayer games like this, but wider society overall. World would be a much better place if when you spoke up, you could count on a dozen people around you to have your back about this.
Idk if you have ever heard the term 'victim blaming' or thought about why it's a bad thing but holy shit dude
Icedburden
Member
I don't have either. I guess that might be why I don't see it.
Wickerbasket
Member
Most guys don't realise/believe that stuff like this is the norm for women online.
My girlfriend gets harassed almost 1 out of every 3 games if she uses voice chat when she solo queues. I know, because I sit opposite her and can hear the vile shit they say.
It's a lot more likely to happen to girls who play alone because bullies like to pick on those they think are weak. She only plays in groups with her friends now, and I imagine that's what most women end up doing.
People pretending that this 'isn't the standard' are lying to themselves, the gaming community has had a problem with toxicity towards women for a long time. Some communities are worse than others, but all communities have it to some degree.
If you want some introspection, try and think of the last time someone harassed you for being a guy in an online game, then ask your female friends the last time they were harassed in an online game.
My girlfriend gets harassed almost 1 out of every 3 games if she uses voice chat when she solo queues. I know, because I sit opposite her and can hear the vile shit they say.
It's a lot more likely to happen to girls who play alone because bullies like to pick on those they think are weak. She only plays in groups with her friends now, and I imagine that's what most women end up doing.
People pretending that this 'isn't the standard' are lying to themselves, the gaming community has had a problem with toxicity towards women for a long time. Some communities are worse than others, but all communities have it to some degree.
If you want some introspection, try and think of the last time someone harassed you for being a guy in an online game, then ask your female friends the last time they were harassed in an online game.
A lot of gamers are to afraid to change the status quo imposed by their genre in gaming, hence for one part we have the hostility and on the other the lack of empaty towards the other genre (or race) being attacked.
They'll rather shut them off than try to change things in a medium that has been shaped exclusively from and for them.
Pantz
Member
Sorry if my post came off too strong. I agree that what they did to her was wrong and they should be banned and/or possibly face criminal charges.
I hope they all get banned for life.
It's better for the industry not to have these types of people infecting the online community. There's a huge market for female gamers in games like these but why play something regularly when all you get it is abuse. Turns the game into a downer not something fun.
It's better for the industry not to have these types of people infecting the online community. There's a huge market for female gamers in games like these but why play something regularly when all you get it is abuse. Turns the game into a downer not something fun.
rochellepaws
Member
This has been my experience using mics in virtually every shooter for the past 15 years, I found the video unremarkable since it felt like a typical gaming session with a mic rather than anything unexpected happening. I thought the must hurtful part were the times when they spoke and joked about her amongst themselves as if she wasn't there or worth addressing.
I don't think this is an issue with Overwatch specifically or gaming as a hobby in general due to many games and genres with much more civil and inclusive communities like MMOs, but it is certainly an issue for competitive games involving rankings as it seems to attract a certain kind of personality among the male audience.
I'm not really sure what, or if anything can be done about occurrences like this considering how long they've been happening for now without improvement. Communication decisions like Nintendo to avoid voice chat for Splatoon or Blizzard only allowing emotes in Hearthstone are an unfortunate necessity and maybe the way forward.
The issue is more the level of community acceptance rather than the abusive (we must accept that these people exist). In any other hobby if someone is deliberately being rude and offensive towards another participant they would be shown the door by the masses who would not wish to tolerate such behaviour. In gaming unfortunately the masses will stay silent and let the abuser say what he wishes to the lone female for fear of being labelled a "white knight" or however else having morals is being stigmatised these days.
I don't think this is an issue with Overwatch specifically or gaming as a hobby in general due to many games and genres with much more civil and inclusive communities like MMOs, but it is certainly an issue for competitive games involving rankings as it seems to attract a certain kind of personality among the male audience.
I'm not really sure what, or if anything can be done about occurrences like this considering how long they've been happening for now without improvement. Communication decisions like Nintendo to avoid voice chat for Splatoon or Blizzard only allowing emotes in Hearthstone are an unfortunate necessity and maybe the way forward.
The issue is more the level of community acceptance rather than the abusive (we must accept that these people exist). In any other hobby if someone is deliberately being rude and offensive towards another participant they would be shown the door by the masses who would not wish to tolerate such behaviour. In gaming unfortunately the masses will stay silent and let the abuser say what he wishes to the lone female for fear of being labelled a "white knight" or however else having morals is being stigmatised these days.
BlueLiquid
Member
I agree, but right now there's little evidence that Blizzard is doing anything about it, and it's disappointing. I know they recently updated the reporting system, but there's scant evidence of anybody being banned or otherwise punished.
Edit:
I agree. And I'll be honest: I get as frustrated with teammates as much as anybody. I'll yell about it off-mic to vent but never on mic. Life's too short to be rude.
FarmerGiles
Member
Reminds me of when people say "The world is so much more violent these days"
No.. no it isn't, it's always been violent; Nowadays it just get's reported more. Overwatch doesn't breed these kinds of people, nor does it have them anymore than any other game. These people have been in games long before it and will be around long after it.
It's far from the only one. Try going to a football match and listening to the people in there. The big difference is that FIFA/UEFA/national leagues are trying to fight the problem, with various degrees of success. Game companies are doing a lot less because they're afraid of losing customers.
DevilDog
Member
What is this change? How do you propose to solve this other than having a report system?
And who are these people (who are many according to you) that are so actively against it?
ClosingADoor
Member
Apparently the report systems don't work, since it still happens day in and day out. You'd think if they ban these assholes, one day you might run out of them or they'll smart up and have a private chat going to make their comments instead.
I really doubt many people being reported are banned. Or if the reports are even looked at.
Would be a good step forward if people who report someone get an automatic message back saying what has happened with it. "This player has been banned for X months from the service" or things like that. Shouldn't be that hard to make for tech companies like Blizzard and others you'd think.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Good post. The sad thing is we see two kinds of dismissal in these conversations:
a) This isn't the standard, this is just an extreme case, #notallOverwatchplayers, #notallmen, blah blah
or
b) Of course it's the standard, what did she expect? This is normal trash talk stuff. Just mute and grow thicker skin and move on ya big baby
Either way, it's dismissive and counter-productive. The first denies the reality, and the second doesn't but normalizes it.
Which is baffling, honestly. If you (generic "you" of course) went to a paintball match, for instance, and you saw someone hurl abuse at a female player on the opposite team or whatever, calling her a whore and making rape "jokes", would you stay silent? I'd hope people would say "dude what the fuck is wrong with you" or something. Normal trash talk would be normal game-related taunts about kicking your ass at the game or whatever, not gendered, ethnic, etc. slurs.
This is the part many don't get, too. They say "oh I've been harassed too and I'm a guy". Maybe, but you weren't harassed for being a guy. Not that it's OK to harass for any reason, but the gendered component can't be ignored in the slightly wider context of a gaming community that has trouble with including women, and in the much wider context of a society that still struggles with gender equality.
sturgboski
Member
There's also the technology question: you don't want to autoban because that can be abused. However, having someone manually review everything is costly. Maybe companies can come together to fund the development of a system to help with this. I wonder if also flagging an account with an icon of what you're of harassment the user was banned for would be good?
Roland1979
Junior Member
I just got a phone call from Africa, they can feel the cringe all the way over there.
What is significant about this besides them both being women? I hear stuff like this every other match on Overwatch.
Phoenix RISING
Banned
I could only tolerate the first 4 minutes when she actually had the will to speak and they trashed her immediately with rape jokes.
This is a great example as to why #45 is president. Folks who thought they just had to wait until old people died for progressiveness to take root are in for a rude awakening. These people are among the youth.
This is a great example as to why #45 is president. Folks who thought they just had to wait until old people died for progressiveness to take root are in for a rude awakening. These people are among the youth.
I think most of us kind of counted on that happening. I mean, it makes sense on paper, but turned out it just isn't the reality.
Gotta say I have no idea how to pragmatically prevent this. The only thing I can think of is manually reviewing every case which would propably cost more than maintaining or even making a game since for popular games the manpower needed for something like that is humongous.
I've been away from the public voice chat game for a few years, but I leave it on in Battlegrounds because of proximity chat, and holy shit. That is the worst of the worst. Literally (I'm not exaggerating) every one of the 200+ games I've played have had people screaming some racist shit or meme. The n word, China #1 shit etc. It just seems to exhausting honestly. Like what do you get out of it at this point even as a troll? No one responds to them really. The only response I have heard is a constant and quick shutup to each word.
Phoenix RISING
Banned
She was being sarcastic, not a provocateure (yes, with a feminine "E").
People who play OW are that vocal? Nobody even talks in my matches, lol.
El Sabroso
Member
Widowmaker players on Attack, I always end muting those, does not surprise me that he is an asshole just his voice irritates me, I am surprised more of the length of the match without any mute or block from the Mercy player, there is a reason for those options to exist on this game
CaptainCook
Member
They're obviously dipshits, I don't ever mic up online anymore cause people are usually pretty fucking awful . I stick to unranked matches when possible cause people aren't so damn invested. Being a female and using a mic is unfortunately like putting a target on yourself, which is completely fucked.
Phoenix RISING
Banned
How many players are on a team in OW?
How many players, minus the one girl, said "Hey guys, this isn't cool."
I'm never trusting the bystanders to collectively stand up to this behaviour, just like I don't trust bystanders to stand up to a school bully when they see a kid being bullied. I don't trust this aspect of human condition to change.
Foxy the Fox
Member
That sucks.
Somehow the Latin american server doesn't have that kind of stuff. It may be because nobody actually uses the mic, just chat.
But of course, they still give you shit if you are not playing "right".
Somehow the Latin american server doesn't have that kind of stuff. It may be because nobody actually uses the mic, just chat.
But of course, they still give you shit if you are not playing "right".
uomoartificiale
Member
Until companies won't take an active stance, the situation won't change.
By "active stance" I mean Blizzard banning those player forever, or forcing only female characters on these pieces of shit, maybe publicly outing the shitheads on their blog, etc...
Everything in the game or surrounding the game must scream "you're not welcome" if you engage in this kind of behaviour.
By "active stance" I mean Blizzard banning those player forever, or forcing only female characters on these pieces of shit, maybe publicly outing the shitheads on their blog, etc...
Everything in the game or surrounding the game must scream "you're not welcome" if you engage in this kind of behaviour.
Gaming is truly a prison of regression.
PAULINK
I microwave steaks.
this is comedy gold
Right. The people yelling at her to be quiet are actively trying not to have the conversation, of which they didn't even need to be part of - that it exists at all is a threat to them, which is the real reason they're expending the time to tell her to be quiet.
ClosingADoor
Member
The cost factor is just companies refusing to lessen profit. Activision Blizzard is making record profits, partly because of Overwatch. And then can't pay a 100 million or so for this?
They can make a system that combines automated stuff with manual review where necessary. Just off the top of my head you can set a few rules:
- In a match if 3 players that are not in each others friend list report another player, it gets flagged and audio is recorded and saved.
- Based on amount of reports during matches a certain player gets, you up the priority in the system to check.
- If among X amount of games X amount of different people that don't have each other in friends list report the same player, mute their mic automatically until manual review has been done.
- After action taken, sent automatic message to people that have reported it with a standard text telling them the action that has been taken.
- You can then have them punished by always muting their mic, ban them for X amount of time or put them together in their own matches, so the assholes can play among themselves.
For Activision you have a ton of online activity that they can combine for this. World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Destiny, Overwatch. If every games budget pays a part of such a system you have a ton of money for it. It just isn't a priority for them because not doing it doesn't hurt sales at the moment.
Have this stuff hit mainstream news for a good month with a few high profile stories like the Youtube ad stuff that The Wall Street Journal did and suddenly they'll listen.
Herr Schwarz
Banned
You know what, I'm trying to think and I honestly don't remember europeans harassing female players ever over voice chat or chat.
Maybe it's an American thing. The sad thing is you know those kids harassing her would love to be her friend and have a female player to follow around lol. Weirdos.
Maybe it's an American thing. The sad thing is you know those kids harassing her would love to be her friend and have a female player to follow around lol. Weirdos.
They would want to bang her, not be her friend.
ClosingADoor
Member
Don't know if this is really true. Would be interesting to see if there really is a culture difference there in online mentality. But it might also be even less visible due to the different languages. Someone shouting this stuff in Italian, Polish or Swedish might not really spread on forums like this.
Indeed it isn't. Back in the days of CS you had to basically rent your own servers. This led to clans running them and paying for them. I was contributing to my clans back then and usually had admin rights in the server I played in. Amazingly it is quite simple to keep a decent community spirit. You kick out the trash, and encourage a friendly, inclusive community. If anyone bad mouthed anyone else they were kicked, and if they continued, banned.
Again, agreed. It's like letting people shout at a cinema and reacting by leaving them to it and leaving yourself. Or allowing children at school to be disruptive and telling everyone else to deal with it, rather than dealing with the problem.
There should be better tools at the moment of play to deal with bad behavior, reporting has never been a good enough tool. Bringing back player admins in some capacity, and a zero tolerance approach to abuse will help. What won't help is the hand waving here. Stop the whataboutism and be part of the solution to this, instead of being an enabler to scum like this.