This article was inspired by Sargon of Akkad's conversation with Damion Rayne.
Are "gamers" as an identity dying?
In short, no. Gamers are gamers because they play games. There is no wiggle room. It's like stating you are not a hockey fan but you spend your free time watching hockey, learning hockey stats, building fantasy hockey teams, writing hockey blogs, and calling into local sports radio shows. There is a spectrum from casual gamers, who play games that require limited practice, research, and time to engage in (e.g., Clash of Clans), to hardcore gamers, that study their game(s) of choice, practice it near-daily, and immerse themselves in the culture that organically grows out of a hobby which consumes that degree of time (e.g., World of Tanks, League of Legends). As long as there are games, there will be gamers.
During Sargon's conversation with Damion and Veemonro, Damion makes the argument that the gaming community acts against itself when it uses inherently racist jokes or jokes about rape. Damion's states his concern comes from the perception that is generated by such actions: onlookers will see the language being used, devoid of context, to conclude gaming, as a culture, is racist, homophobic, misogynistic, or intolerant. It is a fair observation, but I think it takes some fleshing out to respond to properly.
Online gaming and online spaces are truly unique in human history. Prior to the internet, if a man wanted to go to KKK rally, he would have to dress appropriately and leave his house. Now, racist individuals can merely log onto a forum and join fellow racists in expressing their mutual hate for a particular dermal difference. Online spaces allow one to be anonymous. Our theoretical KKK member could vent for hours online before going into work where he shares his work space with blacks, Asians, and women--none of whom will believe our online KKK member holds these beliefs.
Online spaces provide an extreme amount of intellectual freedom. Not that it is all smart, but there are almost no constraints preventing people from saying whatever they want. For young men, who are in inundated with rules on language and acceptable speech, they take to online spaces to rebel against these strict codes of verbal conduct. It is no different from Muslim men or conservative Christians who are told by their imams and pastors that porn is evil searching for pornography at higher rates than the rest of the population. If it has been prohibited, it becomes desirable. These young loud mouths, who are often quoted as yelling either "nigger" or "bitch, make me a sandwich", likely do not hold some deep hatred of blacks or women. If so, why are women finding increasing parity in workplaces? Why is white on black violence at historic lows?
These internet tough guys would likely cower at any demand of hard work from them. Why? I think online spaces provide sanctuary from the harshness of reality. Personal control over an environment and zero accountability leads to humans acting in strange ways--but only sometimes. For most of us, GTA V was not Carmageddon or Bash a Bitch 2014. It was a story line set in a parody environment. The story line was played through, side missions done, and little care was given to what other people thought of us and our choices. People choose the dark side in many different StarWars games, only because of the unique abilities granted them, distinct from the light side abilities. Using "did you choose dark side in Knights of the Old Republic?" as a litmus test of anti-social personality disorder would be insane.
I make this point to illustrate the great freedom online spaces and gaming provides to people. Now we can talk about why real harassment, blatant racism, and sexist language persists in online spaces. I'm guessing most people have made an inappropriate joke at an inappropriate time. The social backlash from doing so we felt, likely discouraging us from conducting ourselves in a similar manner in the future. For kids in online spaces, there is little being done to stop the language. Direct calls from fellow players rarely silences these kids. This is likely because of the lack of social cues present, such as eye contact, perception of authority, physical size, and (in non-voice environments) a lack of tone. Core elements for understanding social dis/approval are lost in online spaces. Simply stating, "Hey stop that" isn't enough.
So, the pattern continues: kids are taught to not be racist, to not hate women, to be tolerant of others, but then go home and scream "nigger" on Xbox Live. Personally, I believe this is due to a lack of leadership. Sure, part of it is an element of being a rebellious youth; the exposure to "don't do this" entices obstinate kids to act out. The lack of leadership, however, is evident. Take comparing highly structured group games (e.g., World of Warcraft) to contest games (e.g., Counter-Strike). When in a guild, where social acceptance is needed in order to reap the rewards of community efforts in raiding, if players were to act in a socially unacceptable manner, they would be removed, and thus denied access to content and loot. Conversely, quick contests like Counter-Strike does not require team play per se, so being accepted by your team is irrelevant--one must perform well to be accepted.
Leadership for youth can help shape the language they use online. Focusing the play style, developing techniques to out-play (not out flame) others, and teaching about community can go a long way. All the while, not giving into ridiculous SJW demands around protected persons. It isn't an impossible goal by any stretch. The first step is teaching kids to be respectful from infancy. Second, let kids play!--indoor, outdoor, sports, video games, board games, anything! Just let kids play and learn from the natural consequences of poor behaviour. Third, and this one is for the people who tend to look down on kids acting... well, like kids, is to accept that kids are not adults and do not have 30+ years of life experience to draw from. Kids will learn if we let them learn. We cannot merely beat our youth smarter, more tolerant, or better behaved.
The future isn't changing any time soon. This brings me to a side point that I will write on in detail in the coming weeks: resiliency. This is directed to those on the receiving end of the poor behaviour. The world is not a nice place and it is doubtful it ever will be. That is by no means justification to give up or not attempt to make it better. Instead, I would say that we must look inward first to determine what we can do as individuals to improve the situation. If we choose to be resilient, to not be easily offended, to not have our fragile egos shaken, then the actions of obstinate children will not affect us. Don't touch the poop or don't feed the trolls comes to mind here. Practice not reacting. Practice not reinforcing the behaviour of petulant kids. Not only will it help you online, it will make all interactions with the world better. In other words, stop being so easily offended by the existence of other people.
Time to close out: kids will be shits. It is part of growing up. We can't beat, pray, buy, or ignore their shitty behaviour away. What we can do is be patient, look for teaching opportunities, and steel ourselves to their antics. The gaming community is rapidly moving away from an anonymous wall between real life and in-game. It will not be long before we are our real names in Call of Duty, World of Warcraft (somewhat already area with your Battle.net login name), or even League of Legends. Figuring out successful strategies now to guide the gaming community as a whole to a better place will be important to rearing well adjusted children. More importantly, being proactive means debasing the SJW attempts to tie online racist language to real world, lifelong consequences. A scary future may be upon if we fail to understand these simple points.
This has an unedited rant. @nrokchi
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