from Hacker News

Examining problematic speech and behavior in World of Warcraft (2022)

by felineflock on 5/8/25, 12:18 AM with 30 comments

  • by taggart on 5/8/25, 1:30 AM

  • by 9x39 on 5/8/25, 1:20 AM

    The essay was about 10 people who self-selected into an interview study based on online negativity and 'problematic' speech.

    Online spaces have always sort of transcended the filters that exist in person. The insulation from individuals' physical identities and body language enables or maybe even causes interesting behaviors that to occur that wouldn't otherwise. We saw this originally in "Deviance in the Dark" from the 70s, but anyone who's had experience with extremely online realms knows this to be the case as well. We even have pop TV shows exploring this phenomenon.

    I think what probably would be more interesting is an exploration to what clusters of personalities tend to develop or emerge in virtual worlds, across platforms, etc than attempting to make a research paper out of comments that escaped profanity filters. Come to think of it, a taxonomy of unfiltered speech and its source demographic might be interesting.

  • by atmavatar on 5/8/25, 5:26 AM

    I'm fascinated by the amount of abuse the study participants seem to take without doing anything about it (e.g., blocking people, leaving groups, etc.).

    Taking one example: were I a healer in a raid, especially one showing top healing numbers, and anyone started off on a slur-filled tantrum against me in voice chat, I'd immediately leave voice chat and the raid. If the response from guild mates was anything but disapproval of the tantrum, or it was allowed to happen more than once, I'd leave the guild.

    There are plenty of people/guilds who don't behave like complete assholes to choose from in any online game.

  • by carom on 5/8/25, 1:09 AM

    It is interesting because there are a large number of players who feel at home in the Call of Duty voice lobbies. Some people's banter and camaraderie is other people's toxicity.

  • by BuckRogers on 5/8/25, 8:28 PM

    I play VALORANT, and I have the microphone voice feature disabled for anyone that’s not in my personal group. So I usually listen to music and just enjoy myself. I’m not going to listen to some 21 year old boy attempt to berate me when I’m trying to unwind after a hard days work. They would never say those things to your face. If they did talk to people like that, their skull would be bounced off the pavement. I remember someone gave me the finger in traffic one day, and I thought oh this person thinks life is a game and you can do what you want and nothing will happen to you. So I chased him down and told him to pull over. He shrugged and acted like nothing happened. If you’re going to be a big man, you might get a follow up by another big man.

    These people think we live in a new age, or you can do and say whatever you want, and nothing will happen to you. Things can happen to you.

    For kids I’d disable it for them or put them in front of a Nintendo with no voice communication.

  • by paulryanrogers on 5/8/25, 12:46 AM

    Glad to see folks studying this. I had a friend who loved to gloat and since he always won, it became tiresome. I certainly have my own issues to work out. Yet there is something about bragging and celebrating a win that can feel like salt in the wound.

    Once games moved online behaviors like tea-bagging and racist rants really ruined it for me. With cheating and grieving I've just given up on all PvP games, unless I know the other players.

  • by frainfreeze on 5/8/25, 12:42 AM

  • by kesor on 5/8/25, 2:07 AM

    Abuse exists between humans, be it in game environments, or other places. What else is new? As-if such behavior as cherry-picked in this study is not prevalent at home with family members, or at work with colleagues.

    This is why you have free will and a choice. You don't like the place you're at and the toxic people yelling at you. Leave. If people stay and take the abuse, does that say something about humans in general or games in particular? Not really, happens everywhere, that is why you have Stockholm Syndrome explained back in the 70s.

  • by politician on 5/8/25, 12:42 AM

    It's good to see that the report identified raiding, and raid leaders in particular, as the principle origin and context of abuse.

    Raid leaders are symptomatic of broken game design.