4 ms·

Theory: gaming has turned from plaything to a sport. Most people don't play online games purely for the sake of fun or "killing" spare time, but with a desire t

Theory: gaming has turned from plaything to a sport. Most people don't play online games purely for the sake of fun or "killing" spare time, but with a desire to become better, to become more like the youtubers and e-sport players they follow. I recently went back to CSGO after 5 years break. I'm terrible at it and I'm "stuck" in Silver II rank (second lowest out of 18), but I'm having the best time I ever had with this game. Just keep laughing when your teammates scream at each other in various Central & Eastern European languages and you will be fine.

zer8k 3y ago
> Just keep laughing when your teammates scream at each other in various Central & Eastern European languages and you will be fine. The people who want these rules are completely incapable of separating casual epithet throwing in a public lobby from assaults on their direct person. It's an extension of the "speech is violence" culture that pervades the west. It's cool to be not cool with people being assholes in game. You don't need Big Brother (TM) to police it. The community did just fine. I was called all manner of things playing CS 1.6. The things the internet claimed to have done with my mother was a quite extensive list. I never took any of it personally and half the time it was hilarious. The only difference now is I guess people are doxxing each other which is something I never experienced growing up. But then again, back then you didn't have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder driving you to keep your real life linked inextricably to your online one.
tekla 3y ago
I loved the shittalking in gaming. I got called every slur in the book constantly and it was so much fun laughing at people who were getting incredibly angry that I didn't give a shit.
- MBCook 3y ago
  So no one else should be able to choose anything different?
  - tekla 3y ago
    You can choose to not hear it by muting other people. I can choose to hear it and laugh. Maximum choice for all involved.
    - MBCook 3y ago
      Being forced to hear it until you smash mute is not a choice. Having to hear it should be opt-in.
  - ThrowawayR2 3y ago
    The deep, deep irony of the parent poster applauding platform-wide policing of language that offers no choice to opt out and at the same time attempting to cast aspersions on others about not wanting to allow choice should not be lost on us.
rcxdude 3y ago
Global ranked matchmaking is a cursed concept in videogames. I don't think it can be made non-toxic, TBH. You take basically everyone playing the game, for whatever reason they enjoy playing it (at any given time), and you chuck them all into a blender where the only metric is on average how good they are at winning the objective. On top of this, you're basically never going to be matched with the same people again, and no-one can really choose who they're matched with (blizzard has the concept but for some reason limits how many people you can avoid matching! And there's no 'match with this person again'). So you completely obliterate any idea of community or community norms around playing the game or acting, and chuck people wanting a serious game with lots of teamwork in with people who just want to fool around and not even play the objective, as well as people who just want to piss others off and will see basically no concequences for it. Even if you remove the really obviously bad actors who yell slurs and abuse at everyone it's not a recipe for people having a good time, because there's so many other ways you can get pissed off by someone else, and they might not even be in the wrong, they just want to play a different version of the game to you.

zer8k 3y ago

> Just keep laughing when your teammates scream at each other in various Central & Eastern European languages and you will be fine. The people who want these rules are completely incapable of separating casual epithet throwing in a public lobby from assaults on their direct person. It's an extension of the "speech is violence" culture that pervades the west. It's cool to be not cool with people being assholes in game. You don't need Big Brother (TM) to police it. The community did just fine. I was called all manner of things playing CS 1.6. The things the internet claimed to have done with my mother was a quite extensive list. I never took any of it personally and half the time it was hilarious. The only difference now is I guess people are doxxing each other which is something I never experienced growing up. But then again, back then you didn't have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder driving you to keep your real life linked inextricably to your online one.

tekla 3y ago

I loved the shittalking in gaming. I got called every slur in the book constantly and it was so much fun laughing at people who were getting incredibly angry that I didn't give a shit.

MBCook 3y ago
So no one else should be able to choose anything different?
- tekla 3y ago
  You can choose to not hear it by muting other people. I can choose to hear it and laugh. Maximum choice for all involved.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    Being forced to hear it until you smash mute is not a choice. Having to hear it should be opt-in.
- ThrowawayR2 3y ago
  The deep, deep irony of the parent poster applauding platform-wide policing of language that offers no choice to opt out and at the same time attempting to cast aspersions on others about not wanting to allow choice should not be lost on us.

rcxdude 3y ago

Global ranked matchmaking is a cursed concept in videogames. I don't think it can be made non-toxic, TBH. You take basically everyone playing the game, for whatever reason they enjoy playing it (at any given time), and you chuck them all into a blender where the only metric is on average how good they are at winning the objective. On top of this, you're basically never going to be matched with the same people again, and no-one can really choose who they're matched with (blizzard has the concept but for some reason limits how many people you can avoid matching! And there's no 'match with this person again'). So you completely obliterate any idea of community or community norms around playing the game or acting, and chuck people wanting a serious game with lots of teamwork in with people who just want to fool around and not even play the objective, as well as people who just want to piss others off and will see basically no concequences for it. Even if you remove the really obviously bad actors who yell slurs and abuse at everyone it's not a recipe for people having a good time, because there's so many other ways you can get pissed off by someone else, and they might not even be in the wrong, they just want to play a different version of the game to you.