Trigger Warning: This post quotes some racist, sexist, homophobic and inappropriate language and behavior, and discusses general trolling in online games.
“WHAT THE HELL you got raped”
“Looking for a female healer and dps for a holy lesbian orgy”
“fag”
“if you liked sailor moon you also like anal penetration… and anal fisting”
“mah nigga mah nigga… mah muh fuckin nigga”
The above are just a few quotes from just one hour of chat in the game Rift. (The clips are from a Monday night, no less, when general chat is typically much quieter than it is on the weekends.) Most of the above quotes were ignored by players, but a few got responses that led to extended conversations. Responses, if there were any, ranged from egging each other on, to telling each other to shut the hell up. One player even responded with: “hey watch ur language young man how would u feel if ur mom was listening to how u were talking in this chat room?” But for the most part, it’s an “accepted” practice to see – and mostly ignore – these people, often referred to as attention-whores and trolls.
MMOs are notorious for trolls on general chat channels; it’s something that is just expected in the game. But in this post, I wanted to briefly discuss trolling and why it is that we put up with it in online spaces just to play some of our favorite games.
If you’re new to MMORPGS, general chat (also known as trade chat) is a chat box window – usually in the lower-left hand of the screen – where players can enter in chat to everyone who is currently subscribing to that channel (which typically includes all players in a given area of the game, unless they’ve turned off their chat). It’s often used when players want to sell items, group up for quests or dungeons, recruit players for guilds, or ask questions about the game. It’s also a way for players to joke with each other, talk about their lives, show off, and generally piss other people off.
Anyone who has ever played an MMORPG knows about the downside of general chat, and most players I’ve spoken with think that trade chat is useless. In fact, in most (if not all) games, it’s optional to just turn it off, and many players I game with do just that. However, when it is used responsibly, it can be a fun way to connect with other players, talk about the game, discuss current events, or help each other out. The problem is that the trolls often take over the channel, high-jacking conversations with goofy non sequiturs, song lyrics, or even racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs.
Some of it is all in good fun, or by way of n00b hazing and just messing around. For example:
“how do you take a screenshot?”
“delete system 34”
“dont listen to these trolls its alt f4”
“no”
“don’t do that”
“dont do it”
“that’s troll crap”
“you can always delete your system 32 folder”
“reformat your hard drive”
“ah fuck you guys I’ll google it”
“lol”
“LOL”
(Eventually, someone gave her a fair answer.)
Other trade chat comments and discussions are just downright silly. Here are just a few examples (from the same hour of general chat I’ve been discussing):
“I like wheat toast but I don’t like wheat does that make sense or sound right to u all?”
“My mother was a blacksmith and my father was a drunk”
“Scones are better than biscuits but sweeter than biscuits and different than brit biscuits”
These silly, nonsensical comments are often thrown in in the middle of a serious discussion or argument, likely to defuse a situation or just get attention. However, even though they’re distracting, they aren’t necessarily trigger-inducing, and most people either ignore them or jump right in and join them, like with this little discussion:
“im on a unicorn :D”
“but are you a banana?”
“Half a banana.”
“I am tomato”
“I am tomate’”
Yes, this can be annoying to anyone over the age of, oh I dunno 12, but it isn’t necessarily hurting anyone or spreading any type of hate or intolerance.
So what is to be done with the trolls that are out to wreak havoc upon our online chat channels? Anything at all? Should we just turn off trade chat and look the other way?
As far as I can see, the problem with simply turning off the chat channel and ignoring the trolls is that it’s similar to putting your head in the sand for any issue that makes you uncomfortable. Don’t like to hear about hate crimes in your neighborhood? You can ignore it, I suppose. But guess what? Turning off the local news doesn’t mean that the problem ceases to exist. Just because you choose not to see it doesn’t mean that it isn’t still there. And that’s what we’re doing when we simply pretend that ignorant, hateful chat doesn’t exist by just shutting it off. (Plus, shutting it off also means you’re missing out on the good parts of chat: the help, the jokes, the camaraderie that adds so much to the social game of MMOs.)
Furthermore, when we start talking about shutting off chat channels, it’s not only ignoring the problem but also contributing to a type of censorship, which can be dangerous. In fact, some people have argued that developers need to sanction players who speak out with certain language, by banning them from chat or from the game. But censorship can be a slippery slope – and it’s more likely than not that it wouldn’t solve the issue anyway. (Trolls would just find another way to piss people off in-game.)
One of the issues with all of this is that we can’t possibly know another person’s intent. Let’s just take the word “fuck” as an example. One person might use the word to express frustration, one player may use it in the context of a joke, while another may use it while referring to sex with an underage girl. Some ways to use it are clearly appropriate while others aren’t, and how would a person (much less a bot, which is likely what a game would employ to tackle censorship issues) determine someone’s intent? As it is, most MMO gamers agree that trolls have just one intent anyway: to irritate, annoy, or otherwise piss off other players, usually with the intent of starting an argument. (Hence the term: “Don’t feed the trolls,” which refers to the idea that if you don’t respond to the trolls, they won’t get any satisfaction and eventually will stop. So far, though, for many players, it’s proven to be an incredibly difficult rule to enforce; trolls are just too damn good at pushing people’s buttons.) But anyway, what I’m curious about is: Does intent matter and, if so, how could we possibly determine it?
I’m not sure what the answers are. However, let me tell you something. I can be as much of an activist as the next person, but if I were to report every single person that said something racist, homophobic, sexist, or just plain inappropriate on a chat channel, it’d be a full-time job.
But what else can we do? That is, assuming we want to keep playing (and we do) and assuming we don’t want to have every moment of our MMO playing experience ruined by a rage-fit (and we don’t). (Trust me, it doesn’t matter what your trigger is, you will eventually find it if you pay attention to any MMO chat channel long enough.) Do game developers need to step in and do something about these players that use chat channels as a means to promote hate speech and intolerance? Should players be more active in reporting players who inappropriately use chat? How should we address this issue – or should we just continue doing what we’re doing: turning it off, and pretending it doesn’t exist?
