Toxic Collaboration
I
remember the day I was first introduced to an online collaborative, but toxic community.
My dad had finally decided that I was old enough to play videogames. I was
thirteen and having played Halo at friends’ houses, I could not wait to have an
Xbox for myself. Halo 3 was the first online game that I could play with my
friends and communicate with strangers whom I would never meet in real life. It
was a time where gaming in an online social space was relatively new still;
toxicity amongst gamers was not a well-known issue in the gaming community. I
have fond memories of having my teammates swearing and vulgarity being
overheard on the speakers by my dad walking into the room. I can only imagine
him second-guessing his decision to buy me an Xbox. I have no doubt that online
gaming was where I first learned my extensive vocabulary of curse words. Only
in the recent years have I really noticed game developers trying to crack down
on the toxic side of their gaming communities. In our “Collaborating in Online
Communities” class, we read an article about what kinds of toxicity exist in
the gaming community of “League of Legends”, and how the developer is going
about to try and reduce it. Having read this article, I realized how much more
toxicity females have to put up with when they are playing online video games.
“Racist, sexist and homophobic language isrampant; aggressors often threaten violence or urge a player to commit suicide;and from time to time, the vitriol spills beyond the confines of the game. Inthe notorious 'gamerngate' controversy that erupted in late 2014, several womeninvolved in the gaming industry were subjected to a campaign of harassment,including invasions of privacy and threats of death and rape.” (Brendan Maher).
Not only did this article open up my eyes up to the toxicity that I probably
never had to deal with because I am a male, but it also made me wonder if an
online toxicity free environment was really feasible, and what mainly causes it.
Toxicity in gaming
is more prevalent then it ever has been. I believe that a lot of this has to do
with the fact that many of the people still playing online games today, grew up
playing online games since their inception and got used to the toxic
environment. Younger generations, who are just getting started in online
gaming, are thrown into the mix and learn very quickly how to behave online
from the excellent displays of maturity from others, for example, “I f**ked
your mom”, and so on. Another reason I believe that toxicity is so prevalent
today, mainly has to do with the type of game that you are playing. Toxicity
has existed in “Call of Duty” forever and will continue to do so, however the
nature of “Call of Duty” is a lone wolf play style. Rarely are players ever
collaborating together to achieve a main objective. Therefore, since players
are not forced to communicate with each other, toxicity levels relatively stay
at a minimum in that franchise in my opinion. Toxicity really takes a turn for
the worse when you are playing a game that requires communication and teamwork
to achieve a certain goal. Similar to the aspects of group work that we have
learn in our “Collaborating in Online Communities” class. Overwatch is a
relatively new game that has had major success, as it is thrilling to play, requires
strategy and first person game tracking (aiming). The game is built around how
your team of six works together to beat the enemy team of six in various game
types. If a single member of your team is slacking in decision-making, skill, etc.,
then your team will most likely lose. Essentially, I believe that toxicity
really prevails in games that require teamwork and communication.
In our “Collaborating in Online Communities”
class, we learned about Tuckman’s five stages of group development. These five
stages in order are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In
all the examples of this and practice we had in class whether it be us
discussing different scenarios or us being assigned group projects, none of
these stages were ever forced to occur in say a time span of 20 minutes. A game
of Overwatch can last from 15 minutes to even an hour. These five stages of
group development all take place in a single game of Overwatch, but at a much
quicker pace I am sure then of anything Tuckman ever thought of. A game of
Overwatch begins at the hero selection screen, 6 players have a selection of
20+ heroes but when choosing, they must all keep in mind what the team needs
and how the team synergizes with each other. Many times games are lost at the
hero selection screen because no one wants to play a support role for the team.
This very first part of the game is where the forming stage takes place. Not
only do teammates have about 40 seconds to choose a hero, but they quickly
discuss with each other who wants to play what. Following this stage, the team
will begin storming by setting up their positions and strategies awaiting the
enemy, just about a minute later, the game has begun, 2 stages down in 2
minutes. As the game gets going, communication is key, the team begins the
norming stage. Players now know what they must do and what their roles are.
Quickly after the game begins, the team is now at the performing stage,
hopefully easily pushing through the enemies’ defense, or stopping enemy
offensive plays. After a couple jaw dropping plays and fist clenching moments,
the game is over and hopefully your team won. The team laughs, or argues, about
some crazy moments that occurred, and go their separate ways into yet another
game. Even some team members will group up with others because they synergized
so well. Now for the most part, I just described a perfect game in Overwatch, a
team that collaboratively works through ever step of group development.
However, in a game that randomly places you with other random people, this is
bound to not happen every time. This I do believe is the root of toxicity at
least in video games. Being expected to collaborate and synergize online, while
on a time crunch gets players emotions all mixed up and can bring out the worst
in them. The developer of Overwatch, Blizzard has been very active in working
towards a toxic free environment by introducing reports and banning of players,
and other similar tactics that the article discusses with “League of Legends”,
but I am not sure that it is possible to fully eradicate it from the game.
Overall, I believe that toxicity has just become part of online games. If you
do not want to deal with toxicity, then you are better off playing some single
player game, or not playing videogames at all in my opinion.
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