The anonymity afforded by the way gamers interact, through avatars profiles etc, can and does greatly affect how people conduct themselves in online spaces. Shooter games played online (Call of Duty/Halo) are filled with profane and tasteless remarks, petty fights and outrageous overreaction. A surprising amount of this behaviour is present in the gaming community as a whole, and I wonder what factors contributed to the proliferation and uptake of this attitude. Anonymity itself can affect the way we function in a social environment, but in the gaming world this is coupled with a suspension of reality and in quite a few cases violent and suggestive imagery. Does this give credence to groups decrying the influence of videogames in society? Is it just a userbase thing? Does there need to be more forceful moderation?
Some thoughts to jump off from, feel free to comment
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/02/05/internet-spaceships-super-drama/
ReplyDeleteThis is a rather brief explanation of quite possibly the largest backstabbing in MMO gaming, if not the greatest case of espionage in such an environment.
Being able to plan and execute something as complex as this is next to impossible in the real world I'd imagine. Have we witnessed such behaviour in the real world (whatever that means now) as a reflection of this kind of thing in-game? I don't believe so!
But just like video games causing rampant violence and murder at every opportunity, I'm sure someone will connect the dots eventually.
The notion of online anonymity contributing to this is neither positive nor negative.