Beastie's Babbles Topic#1
"Stop camping you ######got" "Put that ###### AWP away!" "Your whole clan is full of cocksuckers"
This seems like common speak in the online gaming world. Everyone has been called homosexual in some form at least a hundred times playing various Halflife mods and other games. It's a part of the gaming language that somehow became the norm, long ago even before we picked up our first mp5. It was waiting for you as you went 0/10 in your first time playing. And there was some 15 year old kid there to call you a '###### noob' for it. Is this kid really such a homophobe? Where did he learn this?
The language extends beyond online gaming. I play MagicTheGathering competitively and have for some time. I am ranked nationally for the Vintage format that I play each week, and have been around the block enough to see multiple magic communities. The game-speak is similar, as are the participants.
"Your deck is friggin ######" " I hate that ###### ass card" "Always playing red, you homo!"
I saw this in Wisconsin and I see it in Vegas. It's just an accepted part of the gaming culture that nobody questions. Nobody sits back and says... wow gamers are in some serious fear of homosexuality.
SO I will be the one to ask it here. I see one of two things going on:
Gamers are Blatent Homophobes.
Gamers are Latent Homosexuals.
I will begin by saying that I realize most of those that partake in the language are not doing so in hate. It has become so normal that we (even I have done it from time to time) just say this crap in habit.
Second I will point out that this language does not necessarily indicate that gamers are likely to go out and trash a ###### pride parade with awps and paras (or discs lol). Language does not always dicate behavior.
HOWEVER, though many of us can see that its all just game-speak, will younger players be able to do the same? Gamers are getting younger. I went into a 24 hour cyber cafe type place a few weeks ago and it looked like the cs players were as young as 9 and 10! I observed them for a bit and they were just as likely to scream out ######GOT as the older players. I wanted to pull one aside and ask him whether he knew exactly what that meant. I have a hunch they did not learn this at home from mom and dad. That swarthy kid in the corner screaming it every 40 seconds seems like a good candidate. I wanted to go over to him and ask him if HE has ever had a hetero date before. I decided against it. I didn't want to be that 26 year old guy who got into a fight with a 16 year old cs player.
SO, I am not saying this is going to have longterm impacts on anyone. But I am just wondering how it all came to be. So that is what I ask of all of you.
1. Is gaming (online and off) the most homophobic realn you partake in?
2. Do you think it is a problem?
3. Do you think it can be fixed?
I for one think I will add a new bind to my collection. Look for it on the servers. Grits does a pretty good job of filtering this all out anyway, but there are always some incredibly clever folks that get by the screening. These are the bright minds of tomorrow. I know when I see somone hack through for the soul purpose of calling somone a 'F_Cking Phag' I think to myself... maan I hope he puts that on his resume someday, what a genius!
"Stop camping you ######got" "Put that ###### AWP away!" "Your whole clan is full of cocksuckers"
This seems like common speak in the online gaming world. Everyone has been called homosexual in some form at least a hundred times playing various Halflife mods and other games. It's a part of the gaming language that somehow became the norm, long ago even before we picked up our first mp5. It was waiting for you as you went 0/10 in your first time playing. And there was some 15 year old kid there to call you a '###### noob' for it. Is this kid really such a homophobe? Where did he learn this?
The language extends beyond online gaming. I play MagicTheGathering competitively and have for some time. I am ranked nationally for the Vintage format that I play each week, and have been around the block enough to see multiple magic communities. The game-speak is similar, as are the participants.
"Your deck is friggin ######" " I hate that ###### ass card" "Always playing red, you homo!"
I saw this in Wisconsin and I see it in Vegas. It's just an accepted part of the gaming culture that nobody questions. Nobody sits back and says... wow gamers are in some serious fear of homosexuality.
SO I will be the one to ask it here. I see one of two things going on:
Gamers are Blatent Homophobes.
Gamers are Latent Homosexuals.
I will begin by saying that I realize most of those that partake in the language are not doing so in hate. It has become so normal that we (even I have done it from time to time) just say this crap in habit.
Second I will point out that this language does not necessarily indicate that gamers are likely to go out and trash a ###### pride parade with awps and paras (or discs lol). Language does not always dicate behavior.
HOWEVER, though many of us can see that its all just game-speak, will younger players be able to do the same? Gamers are getting younger. I went into a 24 hour cyber cafe type place a few weeks ago and it looked like the cs players were as young as 9 and 10! I observed them for a bit and they were just as likely to scream out ######GOT as the older players. I wanted to pull one aside and ask him whether he knew exactly what that meant. I have a hunch they did not learn this at home from mom and dad. That swarthy kid in the corner screaming it every 40 seconds seems like a good candidate. I wanted to go over to him and ask him if HE has ever had a hetero date before. I decided against it. I didn't want to be that 26 year old guy who got into a fight with a 16 year old cs player.
SO, I am not saying this is going to have longterm impacts on anyone. But I am just wondering how it all came to be. So that is what I ask of all of you.
1. Is gaming (online and off) the most homophobic realn you partake in?
2. Do you think it is a problem?
3. Do you think it can be fixed?
I for one think I will add a new bind to my collection. Look for it on the servers. Grits does a pretty good job of filtering this all out anyway, but there are always some incredibly clever folks that get by the screening. These are the bright minds of tomorrow. I know when I see somone hack through for the soul purpose of calling somone a 'F_Cking Phag' I think to myself... maan I hope he puts that on his resume someday, what a genius!