BY ALLISON RUWALDT
Growing up, video games were incorporated into my entertainment, whether I was watching YouTubers play them or begging my parents to buy me a new game for the family Xbox 360.
However, as I got older, I became more afraid of trying online games. I was scared that others would notice I was new or bad at the game and make fun of me. I was aware of the more competitive and aggressive side of online games, and it felt intimidating to try and start a game others had been perfecting for years.
My fear did not completely stop me from trying games, but it limited me to mainly story-focused and cozy games, which I still love. I played games like Stardew Valley, Life is Strange, Red Dead Redemption and others, but I stayed away from any online game modes available because they were intimidating.
When I began dating my partner, he encouraged me to try to branch out and play some online games. It started with something simple: playing Fortnite or talking instead of him in the NBA 2K game chat, and then evolved to me playing things like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch.
None of these games are incredibly hard; however, for me, hearing people insult each other in game chat put immense pressure on me to be instantly good at the game. Of course, I was not immediately good at every game I tried, but the more I played, the less I cared about what others were putting in the game chat.
As I have played more, I have grown thicker skin, but I have also seen and heard people treat each other terribly just because of a video game. While many playing online games choose to silently be enraged at others, a loud minority finds it entertaining to degrade others and spread hate.
This group of people is a main reason many people find it hard to get into video games. Although gaming has become a mainstream hobby, there are still many people who do not grow up playing games and then are too intimidated to start. For many, their first exposure to gaming is videos on YouTube and TikTok, and seeing those in the videos talk about how bad others are can discourage them from even trying to start.
The issue goes even deeper when looking at how normalized sexism, racism and homophobia are in a lot of online games. In my personal experience, I have heard people using slurs in voice chat and complain when they hear a woman is on their team. Because players feel more anonymous in-game chat, they feel more comfortable being hateful.
This behavior is often encouraged by others in the game and not punished, and it can turn people away from a game in a second. Whether or not the game is good, if the player base is toxic, it’s bound to only entertain those who are okay with toxic behavior.
While some games are constantly updating their game chat rules to make it more inclusive, others have given up on trying to rein in the hateful behaviors that span across the fan base. However, hate always tends to be louder than positivity, so any improvements made to chat rules are often outshone by a new way people have found to be toxic in games.
Even though there are toxic people in game chats, it is important to remember that most people are just playing to have fun, and the clips of those being hateful online are posted for engagement, not to show what an average game is like. It is far more likely for a clip of people fighting to go viral than for a clip of people getting along. Most content creators do not post clips of the positive moments, and if they do, the clips are far less likely to get views.
In my opinion, these behaviors and posts only hurt the game itself by making it look bad. Of course, a post can help shed light on the issue, but it becomes a problem when only negative behaviors are posted. It makes the game seem like it is full of toxic players, which can discourage people from playing. However, these behaviors would not need to be posted if all players were respectful of one another.
Despite the hate posted online, many games can be a fun hobby and allow players to experience things and meet people they would have never known about before, and I believe it should become a more welcoming space overall.