After listening to the discussion of online communities at PAX one question in particular stuck in my head - that of 'minority groups' like women or gay people forming their own communities within gaming. Anyone who has spent any time in a multiplayer game with voice comms can appreciate why these particular groups may feel they want to seek out like-minded people to play online with, but is that really the right way to go about things? Will removing yourself from the community as a whole and restricting interactions for the most part to a smaller sub-group really ever change anything?



We've all heard those racial, gender or sexuality specific slurs flying around on LIVE. Some people say "Oh well, there's nothing you can do about it" or "That's just trash talking, if you don't like it stay off the internet". Those people are wrong. While I have no problem with trash talk, any time it enters into personal attacks you have crossed the line. Using race, gender or sexuality in any other environment as an insult would land you in big trouble so why is it accepted online? As we get older we should be showing a greater degree of maturity and responsibility in our online interactions as we undoubtedly do in every day life, but this doesn't seem to be the case. With younger people spending more and more time online this becomes ever more important but is largely ignored or laughed off. Children in any environment will take their cues on how to behave from their peers (us), by ignoring or laughing at their behaviour in games you are reinforcing the idea that while unacceptable in real life, it is okay or positively encouraged for them to be abusive in online communities.

So where do these groups come into it? For me, simply walling yourself off and not dealing with this disgusting behaviour is a cop out and does nothing to help the situation. How are we to expect this behaviour to change (and it can change) if nobody is willing to take steps to do anything about it? Like many others, I'm totally okay with someone insulting my game and my skills, that's trash talking and a part of any competitive activity. However, when the line is crossed and it degrades into personal attacks I make use of the report function. You may say so what? You'd be somewhat justified, because on my own I make very little difference, but if more people were to recognise offensive language for what it is those using it might start to think twice. When their reputation is seriously reduced and they are being habitually kicked or excluded from games and potentially facing repercussions from the network owner (i.e. Microsoft for LIVE), those people might start to realise they maybe shouldn't be yelling abusive garbage over their microphone.



For this to happen, groups like female gamers and gay gamers need to spend more time interacting with mixed audiences like Destructoid's or befriending the non-assholes they find on LIVE not less. For some, the behaviour that causes one person to avoid random matchups might be a little coarse sometimes, but it's always aimed at the other guy. Even when words like 'fag' are tossed around, it isn't the target who feels particularly insulted - it's the group of people who are 'fags' that are being told that they must be doing something bad or wrong in some way for labels to be attached to them that carry negative connotations. If that target regularly had some kind of interaction with those groups their reaction might be slightly different - wth people they know being insulted they may be more inclined to do something about it. By making it more personal, these attacks might be seen for what they are, rather than an acceptable part of online gaming.

Flynn mentioned that these types of communities are no different than sites like Go Nintendo but I would argue that point. GoNintendo.com or Xbox360fanboy are communities that are united by a common interest they want to discuss. GayGamer or GamerchiX, by contrast are no different to me saying I only want to discuss games with other heterosexual white males. In fact that last statement actually comes off as very negative, making me sound like a bigoted asshole doesn't it? In an ideal world such groups wouldn't be necessary. We may never live in an ideal world but by marginalising and segregating yourself voluntarily you are doing nothing to help.

A little long but hey, at least I included pictures!