4 ms·

Doing Something About the ‘Impossible Problem’ of Abuse in Online Games

9 points by vinnyglennon 11y ago

Vaskivo 11y ago
Automated moderators is a nice idea, but it has to be continually expanded, and with human help. If you start blanking out or replacing certain words (wordfiltering) the toxic users will quickly start transforming the existing slurs or even coming up with new ones. One thing that I find weird coming from someone working with online social systems is the notion that the cause for toxicity is homophobia, sexism and racism. The way I percieve it, those slurs are said with the purpose of berating, annoying and/or offending the other player, and put them "on tilt"[1]. The player says those things regardless of their gender, race, sexual preferences and personal opinions/beliefs. This means that calling someone and homosexual, the "N word" or saying they "did" their mom has exactly the same connotation and "mean" the same thing. Of course, there is also the way the recieving end percieves the insult. But most of them are gamers so I believe they know the insult is not an attack on their gender, race, etc. It's just a way to get them riled up. To sum up, the problem is not the content of the insult, is that there are insults. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28poker%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28poker%29
forgottenpass 11y ago
I find something deeply terrifying about implementing machine-learning controlled conditioning on humans, rather than treating people like people and communicating with them. It just takes all the problems with zero-tolerance policies, and removes human interaction from the loop even further. The obvious criticism to my point is that Riot can't scale personal processes for dealing with so many players. And I'd agree, because that just echos my impression game studios treat their user-bases as cattle they're just trying to keep under control and remain better-behaved business assets. Is it our responsibility to make online society a better place? Of course it is, for all of us. It is our society. As we collaborate with those outside of games, we are realizing that the concepts we’re using in games can apply in any online context. We are at a pivotal point in the timeline of online platforms and societies, and it is time to make a difference. "Our" is a striking word to use in an article is about exercising his machinery of control over the masses. It reads like the speech of a politician (complete with only describing the upside of policy, and "I got a letter from..." style soundbites), but one given a position by market forces rather than election. I already feel like society is a machine for delivering punishment to people more than +/- xσ from a social norm. This can be good in some circumstances (ex: harassment) but also has a hugely damaging failure mode, one that you can't prevent, only regret after your standards change (contemporary example we're in mid-change of: treatment of homosexuals). Automating the process makes my skin crawl.
Torgo 11y ago
For good or ill, online games are the laboratories for the future of controlling people outside of games as well.

9 points by vinnyglennon 11y ago

Automated moderators is a nice idea, but it has to be continually expanded, and with human help. If you start blanking out or replacing certain words (wordfiltering) the toxic users will quickly start transforming the existing slurs or even coming up with new ones. One thing that I find weird coming from someone working with online social systems is the notion that the cause for toxicity is homophobia, sexism and racism. The way I percieve it, those slurs are said with the purpose of berating, annoying and/or offending the other player, and put them "on tilt"[1]. The player says those things regardless of their gender, race, sexual preferences and personal opinions/beliefs. This means that calling someone and homosexual, the "N word" or saying they "did" their mom has exactly the same connotation and "mean" the same thing. Of course, there is also the way the recieving end percieves the insult. But most of them are gamers so I believe they know the insult is not an attack on their gender, race, etc. It's just a way to get them riled up. To sum up, the problem is not the content of the insult, is that there are insults. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28poker%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28poker%29

forgottenpass 11y ago

I find something deeply terrifying about implementing machine-learning controlled conditioning on humans, rather than treating people like people and communicating with them. It just takes all the problems with zero-tolerance policies, and removes human interaction from the loop even further. The obvious criticism to my point is that Riot can't scale personal processes for dealing with so many players. And I'd agree, because that just echos my impression game studios treat their user-bases as cattle they're just trying to keep under control and remain better-behaved business assets. Is it our responsibility to make online society a better place? Of course it is, for all of us. It is our society. As we collaborate with those outside of games, we are realizing that the concepts we’re using in games can apply in any online context. We are at a pivotal point in the timeline of online platforms and societies, and it is time to make a difference. "Our" is a striking word to use in an article is about exercising his machinery of control over the masses. It reads like the speech of a politician (complete with only describing the upside of policy, and "I got a letter from..." style soundbites), but one given a position by market forces rather than election. I already feel like society is a machine for delivering punishment to people more than +/- xσ from a social norm. This can be good in some circumstances (ex: harassment) but also has a hugely damaging failure mode, one that you can't prevent, only regret after your standards change (contemporary example we're in mid-change of: treatment of homosexuals). Automating the process makes my skin crawl.

Torgo 11y ago

For good or ill, online games are the laboratories for the future of controlling people outside of games as well.