jdreyer wrote on Sep 11, 2024, 01:10:

Prez wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 13:01:

Sepharo wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 12:55:
Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

Wow that's a level of stalking that makes me seriously worry about someone's mental health. Jeezus.

"Emergent gameplay."

Maybe so but we have wandered into ARG territory I think.

Prez wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 13:01:

Sepharo wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 12:55:
Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

Wow that's a level of stalking that makes me seriously worry about someone's mental health. Jeezus.

"Emergent gameplay."

TBH Overwatch has been the most positive experience I've had in all my MP FPS years regarding the community...
but even it is not immune from this kind of stuff.

It's the apparent innocuousness of the griefing/harassment in my case that makes it so nothing can really be done about it.
These people (for the most part) aren't engaging me in chat, rather they're just going out of their way to personally ruin my session.

You know like, imagine a door-blocker or something in CS... but they're not doing it to the whole server, they're doing it to one specific player, and they're doing it every single day for hours until that person signs off.
It's textbook "griefing" and targeted.

I finally got a reprieve from one of these individuals upon just bringing it up to the rest of the players.
"Hey see this person <name>... see how they're not really playing the round? They just follow me around and grief me the entire time, that's how they spend their time here, trying to ruin my game."

I wasn't communicating with the person because I've always ignored these types, but man were they committed, so finally I just addressed everyone else and maybe they finally got a little self-conscious of their behavior.

I also want to make clear that this in barely comparable to sexual or gender-based harassment that female gamers can experience. Just wanted to add in my experience after the discussion had shifted to the more general idea of harassment in MP.
Also, while voice chat is available in deathmatch, we don't tend to use it.

I do remember a positive experience that I had in Overwatch. There used to be this dude who must have been very close in skill level to me because Blizzard's matchmaking used to pair us a lot. Either on the same team, or against each other. He would start every match with typing in the group text "The earth is flat. You have been and are being lied to." If he was on voice comms, he would say it. Every time. One day for whatever reason I requested that we team up. Or possibly he did; either way we ended up grouped together. While in a lobby waiting for teams to fill out one day I asked him something like "why do you say that every time?" or "are you trolling or do you actually believe that?" He said of course he didn't believe it, but if he managed to get a guy to bite on the other team we would almost always win. When I started paying attention, I will be damned if he wasn't right.

Deleted double post.

Riahderymnmaddog wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 13:46:

Sepharo wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 12:55:
Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

bRUH? for real? That's hardcore! What's that all about, and how would they know what you're playing, and what server your on? Bruh, I want to know more!

Overwatch Deathmatch
There aren't many games being formed, basically just has to leave one and will typically get me in the next if there are only two or three simultaneous matches.

Sepharo wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 12:55:
Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

bRUH? for real? That's hardcore! What's that all about, and how would they know what you're playing, and what server your on? Bruh, I want to know more!

Yeah, there aren't any screener questions before you get on a rando group. You might get people you vibe with, you might get someone that is trying to use chamomile instead of Phenobarbitol to treat their "condition". Personally, I run a discord server with a general chat and a bunch of voice channels that my social network can use to game with because in-game voice chat with randos is just not fun to me the overwhelming vast majority of the time. It can be, but it's rare. I did the same with a Teamspeak server back in the day, just let it run 24/7 so anybody from our groups in various games could log in. I am sure most of you did/do the same thing. My gaming time is just too rare these days to waste it with idiots.

Sepharo wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 12:55:
Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

Wow that's a level of stalking that makes me seriously worry about someone's mental health. Jeezus.

Multiple times I've had someone follow me around for weeks, leaving their own games until they get mine, targeting only me... just straight up griefing making it a mission to only ruin my time.
What a way to "play" a game, just harassing another person with all your free time.
People are crazy out there.

I would say that certain games cannot be played very effectively without voice comms. My example would be Overwatch. Unless you are in a very casual game with everyone just doing their own thing. There's nothing wrong with that mind you but I played Overwatch for a different reason, as the game relies heavily on team coordination, as I assume most hero shooters and MOBA's do. Still, I would be turning off voice comms in most sessions within 20 minutes.

I have comms disabled in any online multiplayer game I play with randos. I do not need to hear bullshit, I do not need to hear sound boards, I do not need to hear racist speech, and I do not need to hear children.

If the game is designed properly, and players are competent, there is no need for comms. Some games excel at this. Deep Rock Galactic for instance has a pointer. That's all you need. In Killing Floor 2 I have a few text macros for important things.

My crew and I have been having a great time playing Black Ops Cold War, and have had no need for comms with the other players. We just hang out on our own Discord.

Yes, if players think you're a woman, you're going to hear sexually suggestive shit, and harassment. It's unfortunate, but it's the way it is. The women gamers I know deal with it in one of two ways: Either they disable comms, or they just don't give a fuck.

Simon Says wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 09:35:
I can't say I've ever been "harassed" online.

Trolled, yes, hated on, yes, annoyed, yes, but harassed? Nah. I know harassment, I've lived it daily in grade school so I know what it is.

And even if I were harassed on the net, even back then ( mIRC days ) you could ignore/mute/block someone and just forget about it.

If you play online and don't need voice comms, there's usually an audio option for that, heck you can even mute particular people and not others in some games.

I'm not saying that to excuse the behavior, but it's not nearly as big a problem as some people portray it to be. Not with all the tools at your disposal to take care of it.

Trolling is a form of harassment. Even if it, "fails", the attempt itself was harassment. Similar to how assault is (was?) someone throwing a punch but missing. The intent to harm is still there. The fact that it's so common place and we've developed coping skills to mitigate the behavior doesn't make it any more acceptable.

I can't say I've ever been "harassed" online.

Trolled, yes, hated on, yes, annoyed, yes, but harassed? Nah. I know harassment, I've lived it daily in grade school so I know what it is.

And even if I were harassed on the net, even back then ( mIRC days ) you could ignore/mute/block someone and just forget about it.

If you play online and don't need voice comms, there's usually an audio option for that, heck you can even mute particular people and not others in some games.

I'm not saying that to excuse the behavior, but it's not nearly as big a problem as some people portray it to be. Not with all the tools at your disposal to take care of it.

This comment was edited on Sep 10, 2024, 09:59.

Riahderymnmaddog wrote on Sep 10, 2024, 00:04:
Did any of you listen/watch youtube video?

Yes. It's clearly a recreation, which is legally protected.

Did any of you listen/watch youtube video? Like why does that dude sound like an AI voice with Cuckold=1024, and chick is 100% AI voice, but with resting bitch face. "Why's that" lol, I know, I just opened pandoras box.... but is this interaction fake? I have heard a ton of toxic shit over the years, Toxic, woman hating, man hating, trans hating, racist shit.... and none of it sounds like this..... This has to be fake right? Like it reminds me of that time when Carlton showed up to Will Smiths hospital bed to show him that he gone hard... He found his way... He was strapped up, and ready to bust.... but nobody believed that shit. 0:53 Carlton wasn't no killer. Carlton was soft and fake, The Shit was fake, and that was the beginning of the end for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

"
"

Sounds good becuase 100% of make players get harassed online

Only 2/3rds?

And what, 100% of men?

Cool stats.

If you haven't been harassed when playing online your probably either new, or only play single player games.

Everyone gets harassed online, the difference is that women harass everyone equally in a variety of ways. Men on the other hand tend to harass men in a variety of ways but only harass women about their appearence or some sexual manner. Speaking in generalizations of course. Not everyone but it definitly feels that way. I think if I were a woman it would bother me more the sheer lack of originality would become nauseating, let alone the topic.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 9, 2024, 15:37:

Xeth Nyrrow wrote on Sep 9, 2024, 12:52:

As sad as it is, I am surprised it's only 2/3rds of females reporting harassment. I expected it to be even higher honestly.

Likely because the remaining third didn't bother to report since they know it is not going to change in their lifetimes.

That was my first thought but there's likely another large chunk in that remaining third which is even worse: those who have been harassed but don't realize it due to being socially conditioned to not recognize it as such. "That's just how men are, you should take it as a compliment that they like you". :insert barfing emoji: