So what's the deal with 'Outrage Culture' in Gaming?

[Dusk Golem]

So one of gaming communities more interesting developments within the last 4-5 years is a growing voice of judgmental accusations and something that's been dubbed as 'outrage culture'. I think the time when it really started coming to the forefront of attention was in 2012, around the time there was mass disagreements with Mass Effect 3's ending, the Kickstarter scene with Double Fine, Phil Fish's opinions on the gaming industry... Ever since then there's been a kind of growing trend that's kind of split into multiple different faucets.

I was thinking about this recently due to how often certain issues get overblown. The recent minor case which got me thinking about it a bit more is the case of the Tales of Berseria 'censorship'. It's such a minor, non-consequential issue, basically a single scene in the game was changed for the game not to get an 18+ rating with certain rating boards as a kid gets impaled in the game, they changed it to him being slashed instead. It is the only change in the game, in a scene that's like 5 seconds long, but now if you go to any place that allows comments for Tales of Berseria, you'll see people coming out of the woodwork telling people to not suppose 'Shamco' or something and preaching to not support censorship and how important this scene was to change and why it's a big deal and people shouldn't let it lie and stuff like that. But it all it is happens to be a super minor change to work in conjunction with rating boards while keeping everything else in the game contact, when do we step over the line of reasonable line of thought and step into malicious mob mentality?

And what I just named is an incredibly minor case of this. Even without naming any cases, I'm sure most of you can think of enough cases of similar and much worse things happening over the last few years, more than you could probably count on both your hands. Probably the most vocally loud case this year was with Hello Games and No Man's Sky. Now there was indeed something for consumers to be upset about in this case, but it snowball'd way out of control, Multiple people I can only assume took a stand with the game to simply be outraged. No Man's Sky had a lot of detractors before it even released and discussion on the game was mostly already either skeptical, reasonable, or simply with a look and see approach, but then with some people's disappointment suddenly everyone acted like their feelings were personally hurt and it devolved into a witch hunt for the company and going as far to try and imprint the developers with labels of scam artists, the worst of the worst, despicable business people taking advantage of these poor consumers, when that's honestly a pretty radical recoloring of history. It's not what transpired, yet this angle and take for this caught on like wildfire.

And this is not the first time something like this has happened, and almost certainly won't be the last. Now I have a number of thoughts on some of what may have lead to this, but I have to ask GAF:

What's the deal with outrage culture?

I'm not blind to all of it, I have some thoughts and observed some things, but I want to hear what you think GAF? Try to be respectful and not turn this into just a shit-tossing competition, I think there's some serious discussion that needs to be had by communities about communities. It's been talked about before, but I think not nearly enough. What happened, why did it happen, why does it continue to happen, and what can be done about it?

 

[Breads]

What's the deal with outrage at outrage culture culture?

 

[liquidtmd]

Alas it's not limited to gaming, it's the way the world is going

'People are outraged on Twitter' has descended into such trivial shit it's lost all meaning. Gaming culture is just caught up in the mess.

The crazies will always shout louder so will get heard more as it drives click bait news pieces. That's not to say Gaming Culture doesn't have legitimate issues, it's just driven many sensible voices away because arguing with the outraged in a logical fashion is often a futile exercise.

 

[Cave Johnson]

So one of gaming communities more interesting developments within the last 4-5 years is a growing voice of judgmental accusations and something that's been dubbed as 'outrage culture'. I think the time when it really started coming to the forefront of attention was in 2012, around the time there was mass disagreements with Mass Effect 3's ending, the Kickstarter scene with Double Fine, Phil Fish's opinions on the gaming industry... Ever since then there's been a kind of growing trend that's kind of split into multiple different faucets.

I was thinking about this recently due to how often certain issues get overblown. The recent minor case which got me thinking about it a bit more is the case of the Tales of Berseria 'censorship'. It's such a minor, non-consequential issue, basically a single scene in the game was changed for the game not to get an 18+ rating with certain rating boards as a kid gets impaled in the game, they changed it to him being slashed instead. It is the only change in the game, in a scene that's like 5 seconds long, but now if you go to any place that allows comments for Tales of Berseria, you'll see people coming out of the woodwork telling people to not suppose 'Shamco' or something and preaching to not support censorship and how important this scene was to change and why it's a big deal and people shouldn't let it lie and stuff like that. But it all it is happens to be a super minor change to work in conjunction with rating boards while keeping everything else in the game contact, when do we step over the line of reasonable line of thought and step into malicious mob mentality?

And what I just named is an incredibly minor case of this. Even without naming any cases, I'm sure most of you can think of enough cases of similar and much worse things happening over the last few years, more than you could probably count on both your hands. Probably the most vocally loud case this year was with Hello Games and No Man's Sky. Now there was indeed something for consumers to be upset about in this case, but it snowball'd way out of control, Multiple people I can only assume took a stand with the game to simply be outraged. No Man's Sky had a lot of detractors before it even released and discussion on the game was mostly already either skeptical, reasonable, or simply with a look and see approach, but then with some people's disappointment suddenly everyone acted like their feelings were personally hurt and it devolved into a witch hunt for the company and going as far to try and imprint the developers with labels of scam artists, the worst of the worst, despicable business people taking advantage of these poor consumers, when that's honestly a pretty radical recoloring of history. It's not what happened, and this angle for this cause on like wildfire.

And this is not the first time something like this has happened, and almost certainly won't be the last. Now I have a number of thoughts on some of what may have lead to this, but I have to ask GAF:

What's the deal with outrage culture?

I'm not blind to all of it, I have some thoughts and observed some things, but I want to hear what you think GAF? Try to be respectful and not turn this into just a shit-tossing competition, I think there's some serious discussion that needs to be had by communities about communities. It's been talked about before, but I think not nearly enough. What happened, why did it happen, why does it continue to happen, and what can be done about it?

Internet. Internet and Internet.

 

[Stevey]

I imagine as it's on the internet most of it is made up

 

[Phil Fish]

It's such a minor, non-consequential issue

Keep thinking like this and you'll promote behaviour like this.

 

[ThePeoplesBureau]

Internet. Internet and Internet.

 

[evanmisha]

Really? The Tales of Berseria thing is recent? I can remember people being pissed about almost exactly that kind of thing throughout the past 20 odd years.

 

[Kyzon]

Gotta love that faux offended culture

 

[SomTervo]

Picture it like this (made up numbers ahoy)

0.1% of people on the planet play games

80% of those people are active online

1% of those people make up hard core communities like GAF

"outrage culture" is always in the minority, it's just loud af thanks to the Internet

 

[Dusk Golem]

What's the deal with outrage at outrage culture culture?

I think in response to a vocal conversation, especially a loud one, people take notice and when it keeps reoccurring, people begin to question or get tired of it. For the record, I'm not upset about it, but I think it's something that does need to be talked about more directly than it is.

Alas it's not limited to gaming, it's the way the world is going

'People are outraged on Twitter' has descended into such trivial shit it's lost all meaning. Gaming culture is just caught up in the mess.

The crazies will always shout louder so will get heard more as it drives click bait news pieces.

I excluded this from the OP on purpose, but it's definitely not limited to gaming. There's a broader picture, but I think gaming is a bit interesting of a side for it since it's entertainment media, and how people get so worked up over it apparently at least in a vocal online sort of way. It's also a bit interesting as how 'the angry gamer' stereotype was forged online way back a while ago and almost seems to be coming full circle within the last few years.

What happened, why did it happen, why does it continue to happen, and what can be done about it?

Internet. Internet and Internet.

Internet bringing all sorts of people wanting an echo chamber does definitely play a part into it.

I imagine as it's on the internet most of it is made up

I don't believe it's made up, feelings are legitimate, but the key to feelings is to dig deeper to understand them.

Keep thinking like this and you'll promote behaviour like this.

This is fair, my intent isn't to downplay people's feelings, I do think they're legitimate, but to ask questions and hopefully strike discussion. Things are worthy to be upset over, but I think there's a certain line that is something of a balancing act where it crosses from being productive to malicious.

 

[liquidtmd]

Gotta love that faux offended culture

The frame drops in The Last Guardian is insulting to me personally, Sony did this intentionally!!!!

WHAT THE FUCK CAPCOM CHANGING RE7 TO FPS, THOSE FUCKING HACK FRAUDS JUST PRESSED A FUCKING BUTTON AND OUT POPPED AN AMNESIA CLONE FUCKITY FUCK

 

[depths20XX]

Sometimes you gotta distance yourself from forums and just play shit.

 

[funking giblet]

People like to build things up to disproportionate levels, and that either fosters disappointment, or delusion. The internet then acts like an echo chamber for these opinions, or forces them to collide which builds up a level of hysteria about trivial things.

 

[GeoNeo]

SOME gamers are bitter cunts that don't want to accept that maybe they should move on if every little thing about gaming gets 'em upset. If you the type of person that is getting mad about a everything in gaming I'm sorry to offend you please exit stage left.

 

[justsomeguy]

So many gamers seem to hate gaming.

 

[thesonovabeach]

Hyperbole and outrage culture are the worst thing ever in this media.

 

[liquidtmd]

So many gamers seem to hate gaming.

I'd pay good money to know a ratio of the time people spend on GAF moaning about their issues with certain things / titles versus time actually spent playing them.

Good. Money.

 

[Donniewahlberg]

Alas it's not limited to gaming, it's the way the world is going

'People are outraged on Twitter' has descended into such trivial shit it's lost all meaning. Gaming culture is just caught up in the mess.

The crazies will always shout louder so will get heard more as it drives click bait news pieces. That's not to say Gaming Culture doesn't have legitimate issues, it's just driven many sensible voices away because arguing with the outraged in a logical fashion is often a futile exercise.

My first thought. Totally agree. Gaming has it's specific traits, but outrage culture is much larger than gaming. It's the whole world of general culture & society grappling with it's new found voice on the internet and what to do with it. Not that there isn't things to be genuinely outraged about of course, but for the sake of the thread, assuming case in point is unnecessary outrage.

 

[BigTnaples]

I don't know but it drives me insane.

 

[ugly]

Outrage culture is fucking bullshit

 

[GeNoMe]

This outrage culture isn't reserved just for the game biz. It happens all around you, it's a natural progression sadly enough. This is due to people having the means (INTERNET!) to voice (or shout) their opinions. Creating their own little bubbles in which they can invite other like minded people.

 

[slyfox]

People like to argue. The internet with its anonymity allows people to reveal their true selves instead of bottling it up and this how the outrage culture begins.

 

[Drayco21]

So many gamers seem to hate gaming.

I feel like a lot of people who are deeply passionate about a thing are more likely to seem to hate it. It's why a lot of the most vocal critics of big, popular games like Destiny often are the people several hundred hours into it. It's not just video games- I don't think anyone hates comics more than comic fans. I don't think anyone hates sports more than sports fans.

It's just the other side of the coin of the same passion that makes them care about the hobby so much to begin with.

 

[redcrayon]

Broadly, people living in their own little bubbles on social media means that anything that isn't 100% completely to their taste is the worst thing ever and should not exist. Some gamers have also been playing long enough to develop the most niche possible tastes in a genre over thirty years, and expect stuff to conform to them as they mix up their preferences with best practice or creative license.

I feel like a lot of people who are deeply passionate about a thing are more likely to seem to hate it. It's why a lot of the most vocal critics of big, popular games like Destiny often are the people several hundred hours into it. It's not just video games- I don't think anyone hates comics more than comic fans. I don't think anyone hates sports more than sports fans.

It's just the other side of the coin of the same passion that makes them care about the hobby so much to begin with.

Good point. I think a lot of fans write good criticism too, the stuff that drives discussion, as they tend to understand the material enough to draw comparisons. When they rage though, that same knowledge means there's nobody better at screaming about it either, it's possible to make anything sound like a piece of shit if you fudge enough comparisons and season it with a few reasonable points to add a veneer of respectability to a proper rant.

 

[Staf]

I blame the internet. We should burn it down.

 

[kromeo]

I'd pay good money to know a ratio of the time people spend on GAF moaning about their issues with certain things / titles versus time actually spent playing them.

Good. Money.

I'm stuck on a computer at work most of the day, moaning about things I don;t like is a good way to pass the time

 

[Donniewahlberg]

People like to argue. The internet with its anonymity allows people to reveal their true selves instead of bottling it up and this how the outrage culture begins.

Potentially. They may reveal their true selves, or simply argue a point they wouldn't irl because they have no actual accountability to how much they actually thinking it, mean it, support it etc. I catch myself writing posts sometimes out of being contrary rather than genuinely thinking the thing and delete before posting haha. It's very easy when you can have an easy knee jerk reaction at the keyboard, oppose to a real life response with a person where you still need to use real world manners & conduct etc. (I suppose this behaviour could be our true selves haha now that I think about it like that)

 

[Metal Gear?!]

http://www.ftrain.com/wwic.html

 

[liquidtmd]

I'm stuck on a computer at work most of the day, moaning about things I don;t like is a good way to pass the time

And that's exactly the crux of an issue - would the negative issues surrounding games (like framedrops et al) get so much time and energy of people moaning about them and publicising them on GAF if gamers as a whole weren't typically be likely away from their consoles for most of their day due to work / responsibilities etc.

Is it truly as big an issue as a 30 or 40 page thread may suggest or are people just killing time by adding to echo chambers whilst at their office in a 9-5pm job?

 

[redcrayon]

People like to argue. The internet with its anonymity allows people to reveal their true selves instead of bottling it up and this how the outrage culture begins.

Sometimes people cultivate an internet persona that is quite a few degrees more touchy, snarky and impatient than their true self too.

There's also a degree of anonymous willy-waving when people continually try to reply with a post one degree more snarky than the last post in a conversation, which can lead to threads gradually circling the drain.

Nothing wrong with robust criticism, it drives discussion, it's just the endless rudeness and hyperbole that I find a bit tedious sometimes.

 

[Spman2099]

What's the deal with outrage at outrage culture culture?

So true... I think I see people being mad at people being mad at things more often. It is pretty ironic, really.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

"Outrage culture" is primarily driven by the people who are angry at the outrage. It seems, if someone so even as criticizes something they're jumped on and ridiculed, which causes arguments back and forth. One Switch thread recently had people criticizing the bezel and you'd swear people were saying Nintendo was dead because of it. You can't have "outrage culture" without the OTT response to "outrage". People are even calling standard criticism "outrage" now.

 

[duckroll]

The deal isn't with "outrage culture" but with why people seem so bothered or insecure about other people having an issue about something and wanting to voice it out. Trivializing it as something that is no big deal because you don't care about it, and calling it "outrage culture" says more about you as a person than anything else imo.

 

[Fahzgoolin]

Sometimes you gotta distance yourself from forums and just play shit.

yup. I have decided to just play a game if it looks interesting to me and form my own opinion. Reading forums don't necessarily spoil the game, but it can make you go into a new experience with preconceived notions and cause you to not enjoy it like you might otherwise have.

 

[TemplaerDude]

People overreact to things. When a bunch of people get together to overreact to the same thing it creates an avalanche of people who are all feeding off of each other's irrational overreaction into a veritable feeding frenzy of illogical nonsense, snowballing in a blizzard of the right ingredients. The internet has made it easier for overreacting people to find each other and get angry together.

Basically, everyone needs to calm down. Step back, rationally examine what it is that is bothering you and react appropriately, with much less hyperbole and internet rage. If people actually got as angry about the trivial rubbish they're reacting to in real life as they do on the internet they would probably realize how unbelievably ridiculous they're acting.

 

[liquidtmd]

People are even calling standard criticism "outrage" now.

This is also a good point.

 

[bounchfx]

some people really like attention
and others are offended to easily
and others, as pointed out, get outraged at 'outrage'.

some people need to just chill and stop taking certain things so seriously

People are even calling standard criticism "outrage" now.

this is a legitimate issue we face today

 

[Lanrutcon]

And that's exactly the crux of an issue - would the negative issues surrounding games (like framedrops et al) get so much time and energy of people moaning about them and publicising them on GAF if gamers as a whole weren't typically be likely away from their consoles for most of their day due to work / responsibilities etc.

Is it truly as big an issue as a 30 or 40 page thread may suggest or are people just killing time by adding to echo chambers whilst at their office in a 9-5pm job?

Wait. So you think when a game performs poorly people are complaining about it just because they're stuck at the office?

I think you used a terrible example there. Shitty performance definitely needs to be called out. The state some games are released in is downright embarrassing.

 

[Sanctuary]

It isn't just "in gaming". Outrage culture has been ubiquitous in just about anything online, related to communication for the last few years.

 

[capitalCORN]

Fuck outrage culture! Why are people getting offended? I'm not offended!

 

[liquidtmd]

Wait. So you think when a game performs poorly people are complaining about it just because they're stuck at the office?

I think you used a terrible example there. Shitty performance definitely needs to be called out. The state some games are released in is downright embarrassing.

Don't get me wrong, framedrops are a legitimate issue. Maybe a poor choice of words.

My broader point is that whilst some may genuinely find framedrops on something like TLG an issue (valid if youre sensitive to it), I wonder how many are just killing time to add 'oh yeah, I totally found it an issue' when if they weren't bored at work / out and about they wouldn't have made time to add fuel to the pile ons some games and issues get.

Some issues online have thousands upon thousands of people saying it 'affected them deeply' when I honestly believe it's more a desire to want to pick a side in an argument and be part of a movement more than the original grievance.

Hard to describe what I'm getting at. Its early

 

[maverick40]

I think its more the "Entitled gamer" that's the worst part of the industry.

"We deserve this" "Lazy developers" "PS+ is shit for 60 dollars"

We don't deserve shit of developers. Like every other industry, if you don't like something don't fucking buy it

 

[gelf]

"Outrage culture" is primarily driven by the people who are angry at the outrage. It seems, if someone so even as criticizes something they're jumped on and ridiculed, which causes arguments back and forth. One Switch thread recently had people criticizing the bezel and you'd swear people were saying Nintendo was dead because of it. You can't have "outrage culture" without the OTT response to "outrage". People are even calling standard criticism "outrage" now.

I blame hyperbole culture more then anything. It's very hard to have a reasonable debate because even if you try your post is more likely to be ignored over people wanting to dogpile the person screaming the same point in a exaggerated manner. This happens in both directions.

 

[hodgy100]

OP it's actually about ethics in games Journalism.



Nah people in general seem to have a real problem with expressing their criticisms in a level headed manner, these same people seem to also take criticism really badly or take criticism of the things they like really badly.

 

[GeordieMark]

To make themselves heard amongst all of the other opinions on the internet, sometimes people become overly dramatic.

Its all become a bit of a joke now. Inevitably this thread was going to attract the "outrage at outrage over outrage culture" counterpoint, but to pretend outrage culture doesn't exist is just wrong.

 

[Movalpolos]

Alas it's not limited to gaming, it's the way the world is going

'People are outraged on Twitter' has descended into such trivial shit it's lost all meaning. Gaming culture is just caught up in the mess.

The crazies will always shout louder so will get heard more as it drives click bait news pieces. That's not to say Gaming Culture doesn't have legitimate issues, it's just driven many sensible voices away because arguing with the outraged in a logical fashion is often a futile exercise.

Good post.

 

[Breads]

So true... I think I see people being mad at people being mad at things more often. It is pretty ironic, really.

It's reached the point to where people preemptively respond to criticism/ outrage from comments/twitter/reddit before it happens. For some people all they have to do is read a headline or watch a video about third hand outrage to set them off against outrage culture despite the fact that they didn't witness it first hand.

The lack of self awareness is sublime.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Can 0.0002% of gamers make a culture? Of course there are 4 or 5 people out there who get outraged when a publisher cut the option to put a childlike character in a sexy outfit, like in Xenoblade X, but they are a tiny minority.

The bad thing is that such a few people can make it look like it is a big thing, because it is easy on the internet if someone wants to invest time.

 

[Nocturno999]

The deal isn't with "outrage culture" but with why people seem so bothered or insecure about other people having an issue about something and wanting to voice it out. Trivializing it as something that is no big deal because you don't care about it, and calling it "outrage culture" says more about you as a person than anything else imo.

The key here is that "don't finding an issue" doesn't necessarily makes you indifferent to the whole.

Example: I got banned for not finding racist or discriminatory the cast of Red Dead Redemption 2.
That doesn't mean I am unaware or indifferent of the suffering and dissing of minorities by a large part of society. I'm not even Caucasian.

"Opinion suffocation" and quick assumptions is why Trump's victory took us all by surprise.