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Bad behaviour online isn’t a new thing by any means. It’s something we all have to deal with almost every day. It certainly isn’t restricted to only video games either, but we do see it here. For many it has just become a hazard that’s to be expected and comes with the territory. You’re going to step in goose poop while golfing, you’re going to sit next to a crying baby on a plane, and people are going to be vulgar and callous to you online. For the most part we’ve all become very adept at letting it roll off our shoulders, unfortunately sometimes we have perfect storm weeks like we’ve been having over the last few days that really push the limits of what we can take.
I won’t get too deep into any of these issues for all our sakes, but here’s a brief summary. First, we have the whole Zoe Quinn “scandal”. For those who are unaware, Zoe Quinn is a video game developer and journalist known for creating the indie game Depression Quest. I’m not going to get into the hairy details, but in a nutshell what happened is an ex-boyfriend of hers (not exactly a rock-solid source) made a blog post alleging she has slept with several figures in the video game industry to further her career. She has since been bombarded with quite a bit of hate, and in some cases may have let her emotions get the better of her in response to the criticism (beware, links are pretty NSFW).
Second, we have the ongoing saga that is the post-FEZ career of developer Phil Fish. From cancelling FEZ 2 development to quitting Twitter multiple times, Phil Fish has always had a tumultuous relationship with the video gaming fanbase. Most recently, he has announced his desire to sell the FEZ franchise to further distance himself from it, and the vitriol that comes with it.
Finally, there’s the massive DDos attacks against several services, primarily Blizzard servers and Sony’s Playstation Network. This culminated with bomb threats being made that caused a flight carrying the CEO of Sony to be grounded. All three of these incidents are examples of the type of behaviour we all deal with every day, but gone WAY too far.
Personally, I’ve always had an odd reaction to extreme behaviour. Whenever a person fails to give even the minimum amount of human compassion to another, I don’t usually get mad. I end up overcome with a compulsion to find out why. I need to know why that person acted in such a negative way, so I can better understand why these things happen. This pursuit of understanding has led me to write several papers on the subject, and I think some of the facts can hopefully make us all cope a little better.
Fundamentally, the reason people act badly online is because of a behaviour called online dis-inhibition. Basically what it means is that people don’t feel the same pressure to behave properly that they do in “real life”. This is because of a few factors, the primary one being anonymity. When people don’t know who you are, you’re obviously more free to misbehave. Another key inhibition is the reactions of others, and not just punishments. People are far less likely to misbehave if doing so will directly harm others in a way they can see. Humans at their core are compassionate people, and if you can see the anguish on another human’s face as you insult them you’ll be less likely to do so.
The Internet allows us to act anonymously and usually affords us the chance to act without having to witness the way it affects others. Many people take advantage of this by behaving badly. Why? It varies. Youths are always testing the limits of what they can get away with. In fact it’s an important and healthy part of growing up. That’s what causes many of them to misbehave. In adults, it can be anything from a release of stress to the desire to play a role other than their every day selves. In some cases, however, it’s important to note that a very small percentage of the population are just assholes, and nothing can be done about that.
What we can do is acknowledge that the percentage that are just pure balls of hatred is very VERY small. The vast majority of people online are good people, a small minority are good people behaving badly, and an even smaller minority are the ones who are just jerks. What we as a community can do is recognize that most of us are good people deserving of respect. We can look introspectively at our own behaviour and think about how it affects others. We can remember that those other lines in the comments section and in our Twitter feed are real people with feelings and emotions. Most importantly, we can realize that the awful, hate-filled comments are never going to stop coming from some people, and we can do our best to support the victims of online abuse, because we’ve all been there.
