TheIneffableSwede commented on Gamer rage: can it be stopped, and should it be?
I've gotten abuse in online games because I'm a female gamer, but the men get it, too? Wow.
I used to be--emphasise used to be--an avid participant in a certain online game. I was a very good player of this game, but the majority of its players are guys. I'd say the ratio is about 80:20 male:female for this game. The game is MMORPG and has millions of active users from all over the planet.
Whenever I won against my opponents, which I did almost always, some male players would threaten to rape, mutilate, or even kill me (but rape was by far the most frequent threat). I reported these threats to the game operators, whose response was:
1. It's your fault for choosing a username that reflects your gender. You should change your name to something that is gender-neutral.
2. If you are concerned about this, report it to the police (how do you report someone you only know as "VikingKiller0912", especially when that player is in a different country from you???)
In other words, even though these personal threats were against the game rules, the game's staff assumed no responsibility for enforcing the rules, or else blamed me for "provoking" the male players. (One game operator did tell me that I "provoked" the threats by "playing too well" and suggested I deliberately lose more often so as not to bruise male egos. This game operator was, by the way, female.)
Eventually, I complained to the CEO himself of the gaming company and his response was to ban me from the game because he was "tired of hearing about this problem". The players who threatened me with rape, mutilation, and death are still active in the game and some of them have been given jobs as game operators (the referees of the game).
Before I was banned, one of the game operators, an employee of the company, released my real life details (full legal name, physical address, email, telephone number, link to my social media such as Facebook, etc.) to thousands of other players (I had given this information when I registered for the game) and encouraged people to harass me outside the game, which several of them did. I had to change my mobile number, cancel my Facebook, and even considered moving house at one point to escape the harassment.
All of this just to play a simple game online.
Well, could have been worse: I could have been a game designer.
I don't know if it's always been that way in the online gaming community. I don't have any perspective other than my two years of experience in my MMORPG.
Most online gamers don't behave this way. Most online gamers behave themselves. I'm not really interested in "understanding" the people who threaten death, rape, and other real life harm just because of a game that's supposed to be fun. I just want the gaming companies to make these people go away.