8 ms·

DHS to Spend Almost $700k Investigating ‘Radicalization in Gaming’

26 points by hn2017 4y ago

jamal-kumar 4y ago
Yeah, that's not a surprise. I see a lot of goyper shit in online games. People logging on with names like ANNE FRANK with a badly veiled nazi profile pic going on who say racist shit at the end of every game so they don't get kicked and then they have like a bunch of impressionable kids who think hitler is funny in their nasty horrible racist groomer tow on discord. I'm not surprised this is getting investigated, those guys are the worst creeps, especially how they get kids involved.
- Test0129 4y ago
  There are mean people everywhere, especially when they can be anonymous. I've been on the internet long enough to remember when corporations weren't the arbiters of what can and can't be said in games. Back when servers were owned by players. The DHS has no responsibility to investigate what is most likely an edgy 14 year old saying edgy things in a game. The only thing that will come from this is, indeed people say mean things on the internet, therefore total censorship is the only answer. They will find a few real cases. Things like you pointed out. These will be use for a typical on-brand message about how widespread the phenomenon is. No one wants extremists in their country and all they will have to say is something like "first person shooters are a hot bed for white nationalists" and suddenly we are back to 1991 when we thought that first person shooters caused people to become violent killers. History repeating itself. This is basically a solution looking for a problem. The particular flavor of radicalization "white nationalism" or whatever is being spammed in the media ahead of an election because it's the current party's boogeyman. It's scary, it sells ad space, and it drives campaign speeches. I'm inclined to believe that the population of these alleged "white nationalists" is a lot smaller. At least until they arbitrarily extend the definition. I suspect the actual problem is rising inflation, lack of housing, lack of income to afford anything, and the 1000 mile wide chasm between the incomes of congress and the average citizen that are leading to the majority of radicalization. However, this will never be discussed because it implies the government is the problem. When the investigators investigate themselves they always find nothing wrong.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > I'm inclined to believe that the population of these alleged "white nationalists" is a lot smaller. At least until they arbitrarily extend the definition. Arbitrary extension of definitions is a big part of it. For instance the way the definition of violence has been extended to include silence. This is particularly chilling since "silence is violence" is a flagrant reformulation of "If you're not with us, you're against us." They also like to talk about hateful statements of opinion being violence too, under theory that hateful remarks cause stochastic terrorism. But by the same standard, "silence is violence" is a call to arms against people who are simply trying to live their lives peacefully and not get swept up in a political movement. If being silent is a form of violence, that suggests a justification of violent "self defense" against those who are merely keeping to themselves. Redefining violence is an implicit modification to the rules of engagement.
    - jamal-kumar 4y ago
      I just want people to have the ability to play video games once in a while without hearing some idiot autistically screeching the n word. It's a simple call to civility. Is that so hard to answer?
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    I'm specifically referring to the phenomenon of grown ass adults grooming impressionable kids into acting like this. It's a real problem and I'm not surprised it's being looked into, these guys need chris hansen showing up in their kitchen level.
    - Test0129 4y ago
      You imply they are allegedly grooming these kids to be white nationalists on discord. Discord is a monitored platform. Do you have any evidence of the FBI cracking down on these discords? Actual terrorism falls into the purview of the FBI and given the current administration you'd think they'd be all over using that honeypot as a way to find them. I have yet to see any evidence that the FBI has stopped a discord turning kids into white nationalists so I suspect the problem is not actually the problem you suppose it is, or you and I have very different definitions of what grooming means.
- scotty79 4y ago
  I thought hitler was funny when I was 12. Too bad some people stay mentally this age for most of their lives.
- fibonacc 4y ago
  Seems especially rampant on FPS games. Often I see swastikas in custom banners in games like Battlefield. Reporting results in no change. Many women for instance I know pretend to be men in these online games. Often the only people screaming and utilizing voice online seem to be of a specific demographic. You can go after the bad apples and hope things will change but racism and all sorts of hate based ideologies are constantly touted by what I presume individuals with a lot of idle time. I also see lots of talks of depression and mental health issues in the chats. I rather that they just remove the online chat feature and custom banners. Remove voice chat especially. Really miss the days before voice chat because now its the equivalent of giving a village idiot a megaphone.
  - Test0129 4y ago
    Is it really so much to ask for a player who doesn't want to listen to voice chat to click through a menu to turn off voice chat? Or click one or two buttons to mute a player in chat/voice? Do we really need a heavy handed approach like "remove online chat features and custom banners"? If the company provides no method to turn off chat/block/mute/etc then that's one thing. Ask for that. But I've yet to play a game where you can't do this.
    - notch656a 4y ago
      Best I can do is a vast government surveillance apparatus for identifying and targeting individuals and then tossing them in jail on questionable charges until they spend $20,000+ on a lawyer. Hard for them to make that hitler talk while in jail, check-mate. Since DHS is known to be the most honest and highest caliber agency of the US, we know this power will be used fully constitutionally, ethically, and impartially.
    - alphabettsy 4y ago
      Is it too much to ask to be able to use the game with voice chat and just been the people who are abusive? DHS doesn’t need to be involved but the answer shouldn’t be people who don’t want to be abused are the ones who have limits on what features they can use.
    - 4y ago
- jimbob45 4y ago
  There are documented cases of minors being offered DIY hormones by adults (thanks, KiwiFarms!) via Discord and online games. This seems more like Democrats are trying to equate silly screen names to the grooming and pedophilia taking place within their own transgender movement.
  - syeare 4y ago
    Between young impressionable children and vulnerable teenagers being groomed into mutilating their bodies or being "groomed" into a le funny epic hitler meme phase (which they soon grow out of in a few years), it should be quite obvious what the lesser evil is
- Trifectaffe6 4y ago
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
  A lot of those people with nasty names/pfps are the 12 year olds. I remember being that age in the gaming (and internet) communities. and all's sorts of rage bait go. There is even a well known word for this act: trolling. Let's not pretend it's all a bunch of 30 y/o racist groomers. The real issue is that these 12 year olds hold this mentality into their entire adult life.
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    Let's not pretend that the real issue isn't that these 12 year olds hold this mentality into their entire adult life, xboxnolifes.
orange_joe 4y ago
I think people need to accept that any form of communication will result in “radicalization”. This was true of the printing press, the radio, tv and the internet. If the government is concerned with these things, they’ll do better by fulfilling their basic duties. Radicalization tends to affect sick societies far more than healthy ones.
pstuart 4y ago
Terrorism is a real threat. Unfortunately, some terrorism is more acceptable than others.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Violence from governments is a greater threat than all other forms of violence combined. Governments murdered tens of millions in the 20th century, but now governments cite violence from nongovernmental sources, two or three orders of magnitude less bloody than government-directed violence, to justify giving governments more power.
  - pstuart 4y ago
    "Government" is like gravity -- it will always be there. It may come in the form of a democratically elected council, company town, the church, a warlord, etc. I'd rather it come in the first form.
    - MichaelCollins 4y ago
      I am not an anarchist, I know that nature abhors a vacuum. The inescapable nature of government is no reason to blind yourself to the risk posed by government. The dangerous nature of governments is the reason we're supposed to have power distributed among many, not concentrated to a few, with a complex system of checks and balances. But these hard-earned protections are being eroded. Federal judges rubberstamp every fishing expedition search warrant put before them, a handful of corporations concentrate the power to control public discourse, and common fools cheer the premise of the "Department of Homeland Security" (the very name of this organization is some sort of Orwellian joke) pursuing common bullies. Anyway, to loop this discussion back around to my point: > Terrorism is a real threat. It isn't. The threat of terrorism is massively exaggerated by the government, for the purpose of justifying the government acquiring even more power. You are many times more likely to be killed by the police than by terrorists. Government and the media want you to fear terrorism because that fear lets them control you.
prepend 4y ago
This seems like a dumb contract to a consulting company. A few interns will write a report. This is a tiny waste of money compared to everything else dhs wastes money on.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
MichaelCollins 4y ago
They're coming after in-game chat. Microsoft is already participating in this inevitable crackdown, with the recent snitchware changes they made to Minecraft. Microsoft is tight with the US federal government. I know some gamers wondered where Microsoft's firm insistence on chat reporting in Minecraft came from; the game became a runaway success without such a system and there were no major media scandals that seemed to prompt this change of attitude or priorities. I think this is the answer. There is a general push in the government and big tech corps (the line grows fuzzier by the year, a hallmark of fascism...) to consolidate and centralize control of digital discourse so it can be monitored and moderated by them.
- paulcole 4y ago
  > They're coming after in-game chat. Great! In my opinion, there should be no expectation that you can say whatever you want in in-game chat. Edit: I don’t understand the downvotes here.
  - alexvoda 4y ago
    In a private chat with a private group on a private server would you still not have that expectation? The change Microsoft made to Minecraft applies globally and once you are banned you are banned everywhere including all private servers.
    - paulcole 4y ago
      Yes, that’s still what I believe.
      - tastyfreeze 4y ago
        Do you not believe in your right to privacy? Or put another way, do you believe the government should know all your private conversations?
        paulcole 4y ago
colpabar 4y ago
Is there anywhere left on the internet where the general consensus on a three letter agency going after edgy children playing video games is that it’s a bad thing? Does anyone distrust the government by default anymore?
- hellojesus 4y ago
  ZeroHedge
- leereeves 4y ago
  > Does anyone distrust the government by default anymore? reddit - at least w.r.t police.
wwweston 4y ago
Nobody would pause for a moment on studies investigating the cultural impact of messaging in movies or TV; in fact we talk about it regularly. Games and the culture of discussion around them have started to have a huge impact. This is worth studying. The YouTube channel Innuendo Studios has done some interesting reflection on gaming in general (I really like "Adventure Games About Jesus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr5qgaasOYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr5qgaasOYY ) and some specific stuff on cultural conflict and radicalization in gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y8XgGhXkTQ&list=PLJA_jUddXvY62dhVThbeegLPpvQlR4CjF https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y8XgGhXkTQ&list=PLJA_jUddXv... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYWHpgIoIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYWHpgIoIw
thinkingemote 4y ago
The other 43 grants awarded with similar $ amounts (totalling $20 Million) are interesting to browse: https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants and address a range of different angles to prevention of targeted violence and terrorism prevention, from local to national. Some interesting "learn about propaganda" and critical thinking type of programs look good to me. Of particular note to NH readers with it's interest in surveillance, is that only one program has the word "monitoring" in it's brief, and that's the one mentioned in the article.
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mancerayder 4y ago
I grew up pre-commercial Internet in a computer age, with FIDONet, dial-up BBSes and whatnot. Message forums. Teenagers. Boys. Weirdos. Anonymity. I learned this: people have a mean streak that spills out, it's often teenage insecurity and anger. It was extremely common, borderline the norm for teenage boys who were spending their days in front of a computer screen instead of (in the U.S.) playing high school sport and doing the Proper Stuff. I never had any political memes, but I was angry just the same. I want to say that there's something that is psychologically so commonplace in this development that it is borderline possibly genetic. Either that or our societies are a bit broken that teenagers are so angry. Either way - the desire to censor and control, the calls for which appear to be coming from a mix of politicians and academics, I find "problematic" (an ironic technical term I've heard the academics use). No one seems to have studied history: WHO decides what ideas need to be policed, monitored and such. Today it's someone you agree with, tomorrow it might be someone you don't. I have a problem with people who call themselves ethicists who use studies to come up with correlations between ideas and behaviors, and then propose to tell us what laws or controls we need for a more just society. I call these people secular priests at best, and authoritarians at worst.
- bittercynic 4y ago
  I remember experiencing intense anger as a teenager also, but I think it was situational - the vast majority of my time I didn't feel like I could make any genuine contribution, and didn't feel like I had much control over my situation. It seems like many people get through their adolescence without that kind of trouble, but also many (at least in norcal) who go through a period of intense frustration.
  - mancerayder 4y ago
    IMO it's better to contribute in the form of messages online than criminality or worse in the real world. I know a lot of people who were kept from the streets thanks to the former.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
In several online games I've been playing the last few years, I've made in-game acquaintances, people I look to 'party' with. I've noticed a clear pattern with some people. It starts with a "light" "off-color" joke here and there to "test the waters." Over the period of a couple of gaming sessions, things get worse and worse until they're being openly bigoted, such as declaring a certain playable character in the game as "that dyke bitch". I've also had people get really mouthy about "illegals", stereotypes about welfare/crime and black people, and so on. If there are bigots specifically fishing around in gaming communities for like-minded individuals, from what I've seen, it's a target-rich environment, at least in first/third person shooting games.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

26 points by hn2017 4y ago

Yeah, that's not a surprise. I see a lot of goyper shit in online games. People logging on with names like ANNE FRANK with a badly veiled nazi profile pic going on who say racist shit at the end of every game so they don't get kicked and then they have like a bunch of impressionable kids who think hitler is funny in their nasty horrible racist groomer tow on discord. I'm not surprised this is getting investigated, those guys are the worst creeps, especially how they get kids involved.

Test0129 4y ago
There are mean people everywhere, especially when they can be anonymous. I've been on the internet long enough to remember when corporations weren't the arbiters of what can and can't be said in games. Back when servers were owned by players. The DHS has no responsibility to investigate what is most likely an edgy 14 year old saying edgy things in a game. The only thing that will come from this is, indeed people say mean things on the internet, therefore total censorship is the only answer. They will find a few real cases. Things like you pointed out. These will be use for a typical on-brand message about how widespread the phenomenon is. No one wants extremists in their country and all they will have to say is something like "first person shooters are a hot bed for white nationalists" and suddenly we are back to 1991 when we thought that first person shooters caused people to become violent killers. History repeating itself. This is basically a solution looking for a problem. The particular flavor of radicalization "white nationalism" or whatever is being spammed in the media ahead of an election because it's the current party's boogeyman. It's scary, it sells ad space, and it drives campaign speeches. I'm inclined to believe that the population of these alleged "white nationalists" is a lot smaller. At least until they arbitrarily extend the definition. I suspect the actual problem is rising inflation, lack of housing, lack of income to afford anything, and the 1000 mile wide chasm between the incomes of congress and the average citizen that are leading to the majority of radicalization. However, this will never be discussed because it implies the government is the problem. When the investigators investigate themselves they always find nothing wrong.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > I'm inclined to believe that the population of these alleged "white nationalists" is a lot smaller. At least until they arbitrarily extend the definition. Arbitrary extension of definitions is a big part of it. For instance the way the definition of violence has been extended to include silence. This is particularly chilling since "silence is violence" is a flagrant reformulation of "If you're not with us, you're against us." They also like to talk about hateful statements of opinion being violence too, under theory that hateful remarks cause stochastic terrorism. But by the same standard, "silence is violence" is a call to arms against people who are simply trying to live their lives peacefully and not get swept up in a political movement. If being silent is a form of violence, that suggests a justification of violent "self defense" against those who are merely keeping to themselves. Redefining violence is an implicit modification to the rules of engagement.
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    I just want people to have the ability to play video games once in a while without hearing some idiot autistically screeching the n word. It's a simple call to civility. Is that so hard to answer?
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  I'm specifically referring to the phenomenon of grown ass adults grooming impressionable kids into acting like this. It's a real problem and I'm not surprised it's being looked into, these guys need chris hansen showing up in their kitchen level.
  - Test0129 4y ago
    You imply they are allegedly grooming these kids to be white nationalists on discord. Discord is a monitored platform. Do you have any evidence of the FBI cracking down on these discords? Actual terrorism falls into the purview of the FBI and given the current administration you'd think they'd be all over using that honeypot as a way to find them. I have yet to see any evidence that the FBI has stopped a discord turning kids into white nationalists so I suspect the problem is not actually the problem you suppose it is, or you and I have very different definitions of what grooming means.
scotty79 4y ago
I thought hitler was funny when I was 12. Too bad some people stay mentally this age for most of their lives.
fibonacc 4y ago
Seems especially rampant on FPS games. Often I see swastikas in custom banners in games like Battlefield. Reporting results in no change. Many women for instance I know pretend to be men in these online games. Often the only people screaming and utilizing voice online seem to be of a specific demographic. You can go after the bad apples and hope things will change but racism and all sorts of hate based ideologies are constantly touted by what I presume individuals with a lot of idle time. I also see lots of talks of depression and mental health issues in the chats. I rather that they just remove the online chat feature and custom banners. Remove voice chat especially. Really miss the days before voice chat because now its the equivalent of giving a village idiot a megaphone.
- Test0129 4y ago
  Is it really so much to ask for a player who doesn't want to listen to voice chat to click through a menu to turn off voice chat? Or click one or two buttons to mute a player in chat/voice? Do we really need a heavy handed approach like "remove online chat features and custom banners"? If the company provides no method to turn off chat/block/mute/etc then that's one thing. Ask for that. But I've yet to play a game where you can't do this.
  - notch656a 4y ago
    Best I can do is a vast government surveillance apparatus for identifying and targeting individuals and then tossing them in jail on questionable charges until they spend $20,000+ on a lawyer. Hard for them to make that hitler talk while in jail, check-mate. Since DHS is known to be the most honest and highest caliber agency of the US, we know this power will be used fully constitutionally, ethically, and impartially.
  - alphabettsy 4y ago
    Is it too much to ask to be able to use the game with voice chat and just been the people who are abusive? DHS doesn’t need to be involved but the answer shouldn’t be people who don’t want to be abused are the ones who have limits on what features they can use.
  - 4y ago
jimbob45 4y ago
There are documented cases of minors being offered DIY hormones by adults (thanks, KiwiFarms!) via Discord and online games. This seems more like Democrats are trying to equate silly screen names to the grooming and pedophilia taking place within their own transgender movement.
- syeare 4y ago
  Between young impressionable children and vulnerable teenagers being groomed into mutilating their bodies or being "groomed" into a le funny epic hitler meme phase (which they soon grow out of in a few years), it should be quite obvious what the lesser evil is
Trifectaffe6 4y ago
xboxnolifes 4y ago
A lot of those people with nasty names/pfps are the 12 year olds. I remember being that age in the gaming (and internet) communities. and all's sorts of rage bait go. There is even a well known word for this act: trolling. Let's not pretend it's all a bunch of 30 y/o racist groomers. The real issue is that these 12 year olds hold this mentality into their entire adult life.
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  Let's not pretend that the real issue isn't that these 12 year olds hold this mentality into their entire adult life, xboxnolifes.

orange_joe 4y ago

I think people need to accept that any form of communication will result in “radicalization”. This was true of the printing press, the radio, tv and the internet. If the government is concerned with these things, they’ll do better by fulfilling their basic duties. Radicalization tends to affect sick societies far more than healthy ones.

pstuart 4y ago

Terrorism is a real threat. Unfortunately, some terrorism is more acceptable than others.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
Violence from governments is a greater threat than all other forms of violence combined. Governments murdered tens of millions in the 20th century, but now governments cite violence from nongovernmental sources, two or three orders of magnitude less bloody than government-directed violence, to justify giving governments more power.
- pstuart 4y ago
  "Government" is like gravity -- it will always be there. It may come in the form of a democratically elected council, company town, the church, a warlord, etc. I'd rather it come in the first form.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    I am not an anarchist, I know that nature abhors a vacuum. The inescapable nature of government is no reason to blind yourself to the risk posed by government. The dangerous nature of governments is the reason we're supposed to have power distributed among many, not concentrated to a few, with a complex system of checks and balances. But these hard-earned protections are being eroded. Federal judges rubberstamp every fishing expedition search warrant put before them, a handful of corporations concentrate the power to control public discourse, and common fools cheer the premise of the "Department of Homeland Security" (the very name of this organization is some sort of Orwellian joke) pursuing common bullies. Anyway, to loop this discussion back around to my point: > Terrorism is a real threat. It isn't. The threat of terrorism is massively exaggerated by the government, for the purpose of justifying the government acquiring even more power. You are many times more likely to be killed by the police than by terrorists. Government and the media want you to fear terrorism because that fear lets them control you.

prepend 4y ago

This seems like a dumb contract to a consulting company. A few interns will write a report. This is a tiny waste of money compared to everything else dhs wastes money on.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

MichaelCollins 4y ago

They're coming after in-game chat. Microsoft is already participating in this inevitable crackdown, with the recent snitchware changes they made to Minecraft. Microsoft is tight with the US federal government. I know some gamers wondered where Microsoft's firm insistence on chat reporting in Minecraft came from; the game became a runaway success without such a system and there were no major media scandals that seemed to prompt this change of attitude or priorities. I think this is the answer. There is a general push in the government and big tech corps (the line grows fuzzier by the year, a hallmark of fascism...) to consolidate and centralize control of digital discourse so it can be monitored and moderated by them.

paulcole 4y ago
> They're coming after in-game chat. Great! In my opinion, there should be no expectation that you can say whatever you want in in-game chat. Edit: I don’t understand the downvotes here.
- alexvoda 4y ago
  In a private chat with a private group on a private server would you still not have that expectation? The change Microsoft made to Minecraft applies globally and once you are banned you are banned everywhere including all private servers.
  - paulcole 4y ago
    Yes, that’s still what I believe.
    - tastyfreeze 4y ago
      Do you not believe in your right to privacy? Or put another way, do you believe the government should know all your private conversations?
      - paulcole 4y ago

colpabar 4y ago

Is there anywhere left on the internet where the general consensus on a three letter agency going after edgy children playing video games is that it’s a bad thing? Does anyone distrust the government by default anymore?

hellojesus 4y ago
ZeroHedge
leereeves 4y ago
> Does anyone distrust the government by default anymore? reddit - at least w.r.t police.

wwweston 4y ago

Nobody would pause for a moment on studies investigating the cultural impact of messaging in movies or TV; in fact we talk about it regularly. Games and the culture of discussion around them have started to have a huge impact. This is worth studying. The YouTube channel Innuendo Studios has done some interesting reflection on gaming in general (I really like "Adventure Games About Jesus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr5qgaasOYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr5qgaasOYY ) and some specific stuff on cultural conflict and radicalization in gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y8XgGhXkTQ&list=PLJA_jUddXvY62dhVThbeegLPpvQlR4CjF https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y8XgGhXkTQ&list=PLJA_jUddXv... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYWHpgIoIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYWHpgIoIw

thinkingemote 4y ago

The other 43 grants awarded with similar $ amounts (totalling $20 Million) are interesting to browse: https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants https://www.dhs.gov/tvtpgrants and address a range of different angles to prevention of targeted violence and terrorism prevention, from local to national. Some interesting "learn about propaganda" and critical thinking type of programs look good to me. Of particular note to NH readers with it's interest in surveillance, is that only one program has the word "monitoring" in it's brief, and that's the one mentioned in the article.

deleted 4y ago

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deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mancerayder 4y ago

I grew up pre-commercial Internet in a computer age, with FIDONet, dial-up BBSes and whatnot. Message forums. Teenagers. Boys. Weirdos. Anonymity. I learned this: people have a mean streak that spills out, it's often teenage insecurity and anger. It was extremely common, borderline the norm for teenage boys who were spending their days in front of a computer screen instead of (in the U.S.) playing high school sport and doing the Proper Stuff. I never had any political memes, but I was angry just the same. I want to say that there's something that is psychologically so commonplace in this development that it is borderline possibly genetic. Either that or our societies are a bit broken that teenagers are so angry. Either way - the desire to censor and control, the calls for which appear to be coming from a mix of politicians and academics, I find "problematic" (an ironic technical term I've heard the academics use). No one seems to have studied history: WHO decides what ideas need to be policed, monitored and such. Today it's someone you agree with, tomorrow it might be someone you don't. I have a problem with people who call themselves ethicists who use studies to come up with correlations between ideas and behaviors, and then propose to tell us what laws or controls we need for a more just society. I call these people secular priests at best, and authoritarians at worst.

bittercynic 4y ago
I remember experiencing intense anger as a teenager also, but I think it was situational - the vast majority of my time I didn't feel like I could make any genuine contribution, and didn't feel like I had much control over my situation. It seems like many people get through their adolescence without that kind of trouble, but also many (at least in norcal) who go through a period of intense frustration.
- mancerayder 4y ago
  IMO it's better to contribute in the form of messages online than criminality or worse in the real world. I know a lot of people who were kept from the streets thanks to the former.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

In several online games I've been playing the last few years, I've made in-game acquaintances, people I look to 'party' with. I've noticed a clear pattern with some people. It starts with a "light" "off-color" joke here and there to "test the waters." Over the period of a couple of gaming sessions, things get worse and worse until they're being openly bigoted, such as declaring a certain playable character in the game as "that dyke bitch". I've also had people get really mouthy about "illegals", stereotypes about welfare/crime and black people, and so on. If there are bigots specifically fishing around in gaming communities for like-minded individuals, from what I've seen, it's a target-rich environment, at least in first/third person shooting games.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]