Gamer Trash Talk Research Paper

1624 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of computer mediated communication

COMM 3P90 Essay
When does gamer trash talk go too far?
Taylor McLeod

Today, online video gaming consoles give participants the ability to not only virtually communicate with other players through text, but also verbally communicate through microphones. The limited amount of social cues and increased anonymity of computer-mediated communication results in the breaching of social boundaries. For as long as games have been around, trash talking is something that has always been involved. Whether you’re competing with other players for personal satisfaction, or attempting to move up leaderboard rankings, insults and put-downs are regular occurrences, and something online gamers deal with on a regular basis. This is especially truthful for female …show more content…

Although integrated voice chat is a neat feature intended to improve quality of online play, it is becoming more of a negative aspect as time advances. This gives virtual bullies the ability to call out female gamers in front of an audience, degrading them in little time. Another medium for online harassment is private messaging. This method was more popular when online gaming services were first introduced, as there was no integrated voice chat feature. Virtual bullies continually spam their target until they get a response back, sending explicit messages, pictures, and cruel messages. Ultimately, whether the abuse comes verbally, or through text, most abusers simply have nothing better to do, and they ensure that their message has been received one way or another. Muting players within game chatting, and blocking players are things female gamers can do to combat the abuse. In Kishonna Gray’s article, “Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Xbox Live: Examining Minority Gamers’ Responses and Rate of Adoption to Changes in Xbox Live” she examines the response of minority gamers as they adopt new changes to the Xbox Live service. Gray concludes that female participants are often forgotten when updates are released. Through virtual ethnography, observations, and interviews, she reveals Xbox live intentionally targets males as the default gamer using the service. In order for female gamers to successfully fit into the dynamic of the online gaming community, the developers ultimately need to make appropriate revisions to their services. Suspensions, termination of service, and warnings would all be welcomed changes to the online gaming community to ensure the decline of

Show More
Related

  • Gender Gap in Cyberspace

    2142 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cyberspace as a frontier is open to all comers, but currently the majority of explorers and accomplished users appear to be mostly white males. Deborah Tannen, in her article "Gender Gap in Cyberspace," discusses some of her experiences and conclusions regarding this difference in usage of computers by males and females.(The full name of the author and of the article need to appear in the first couple of sentences. . .) She sums up her main point (main claim)when she asserts, "Men want to force computers to submit. Women just want computers to work" (141). (Claim is locked to a concrete piece of text to help show how the analyst is working. . .)This claim of fact is blunt and simplistic but works very well to attract the attention of her audience.(Names the claim and transistions in to the next paragraph about audience.)

    Read More

  • Video Games Representation

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the humble origins of the video gaming industry, individuals used it as a challenge of their abilities. In modern day, this industry is just a popular as any other media which exists in the mainstream world. Video games reflect society’s changing views of the normalities of which individuals and/or groups must abide to. This is exemplified in the evolving representation of the queer individuals within the virtual world. As the video game industry came into focus, so did the LGBT rights movement. This illustrates that society’s views on the LGBT community were reflected in the video games made, however, it was rare that such characters existed as protagonists until the twenty first century. Due to the extreme lack of asexual and non-binary

    Read More

  • Hypersexualizing Female Characters in Video Games Should Be Discouraged

    1867 Words  | 4 Pages

    The sun, that shines ever so brightly, wakes you from your deep slumber. It is noon. Exhilarating dreams of being a secret agent illuminates your mind, but cannot be expressed in the real world, so you close your window blinds. As you walk away from reality, a light bulb then appears above your head. You have an epiphany. You realize you can be the crime fighting, devious, secret agent you always wanted to be, but you must do one thing first—turn on the game console. You are now channeling yourself into a different world, where every fantasy you have ever had is considered normal. As you continue to dwell in your fantasy, you encounter a very submissive woman with enormous sized breasts, and other curvy features to match—features that then become expected in the real world. Although, there are others that disagree, this hypersexualization of female characters in video games is taking a toll on gamers, by portraying fantasy to be something real. Gamers are becoming more prone to objectifying, and expecting women in the real world to have unrealistic bodily features. Also, based on the negative connotation that these video games entail, females are discouraged to play such video games, because it leads to negative self-perceptions. Consequently, hypersexualizing female characters in video games should be discouraged because it teaches gamers to accept stereotypical views of women, desensitize them to interpersonal violence, and, worst of all, it causes female gamers to have negative self-perceptions.

    Read More

  • Portrayal of Gender in Video Games and its Effects on Society

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the data presented by the Entertainment Software Association, roughly 58% of Americans play video games. Worth over 20 billion dollars, the video game industry is one of the fastest growing businesses for entertainment outlets in America. With growing influence on the public, more attention is being brought to the exact content of these games and whether they have any lasting effects on individuals outside their virtual walls. More specifically, gender representation of males and female in video games and their relationship to real societal gender roles has been a topic that has instigated considerable research by social scientists. Though, female gamers make-up over 45% of the gamer population, they are often underrepresented and sexually or stereotypically depicted as characters in games. (The Entertainment Software Association) These stereotypes create extremes for “what is feminine” and “what is masculine”, that as a result, present more rigid gender roles for players and their characters. (Behm-Morawitz & Mastro, 2009) Contemporary gender representations of men and women in video games have damaging effects on men’s treatment and opinion of women, women’s self-efficacy, and female gamers’ position in the gaming public.

    Read More

  • Video Games A Positive Resource Essay

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Video games have now become a social event and people are starting to play in groups and pairs. Henry Jenkins stated that “sixty percent of frequent gamers play with friends, thirty five percent play with siblings, and twenty five percent play with spouses and parents “(Jenkins, 451). Video games have become a middle ground for people to come together and enjoy each others company. In our society today, video games have brought people together through the internet. Gaming community has developed on chat sites, YouTube, and even Facebook.

    Read More

  • Social Media's Impact on Gender Roles: An Annotated Bibliography

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    This journal article is entirely credible and written by two women who know what they’re talking about. This article discusses how video games form stereotypes about both genders and that they impact both gamers and non-gamers. Men are portrayed as aggressive and women are unsurprisingly portrayed as sex objects. A main issue with this is that video games are mostly played by the younger generation meaning these are the ideas being imbedded into the youth of the world. The...

    Read More

  • The Sexism Within The Gaming World

    2265 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many video games portray women as objectified beings, purely used for sex appeal and to attract the larger male gamer population. We also see men idealised in a similar way as well – the males in video games are portrayed as muscly, brawny men. However, we rarely see a scantily clad man in a game, but there is a vast abundance of games which feature women wearing ‘sexy armour’, or a noticeable lack of substantial amount of clothing. This isn’t female-friendly as these games are made for men, causing women to feel alienated and uncomfortable.

    Read More

  • Do Video Games Promote Social Interactions?

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although video game interaction is boundless, gaming can't be referred to as the new way of socializing because it revolves around on the game itself. In the video game community, a player is assumed to have a neutral identity. Even though social interactions are present in MMORPG's, these interactions are not about the individual's traits, emotions, memories, or other personal characteristics; it is all about the game and the environment that surrounds it.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Video Games On Women 's Experience Of Self Objectification

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    The issue of sexism in video games has been going on for a long time. Similarly, Fox talks about how “Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by hypersexualized and unrealistic representations of women.” This shows how women have been sexualized in media which represent women as self-objective. Jess explained in his research that, “as a result of hypersexualization of women in videogames, it would lead to an increase in rape myth acceptance.” In one of Jess’ experiments, he focused on the effects of avatar features on women’s experience of self-objectification.

    Read More

  • Cyber Bullying In Video Games

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    Although video games have been around for many years, the fun seeming activities are enveloped in controversy. First person shooter games tend to give players the same visual perspective as the character in the game and award points for aggressive behavior, which some people see as an act of encouraging aggression. While there is always the chance of making new friends over public chats in video games, there is also the chance of encountering cyber bullying, which can be hard to handle as time goes on. Video games some sometimes used as a way for someone to escape what is going on around them, sometimes even making the player lose track of time spent playing and like any electronic device with a bright screen, video games can cause sleep loss

    Read More

  • Sexism In Video Games Essay

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gaming has long been considered a male-dominated activity. There have been numerous scientific studies conducted to analyze the impact video games have on an individual and vice versa, however one of the most common discussions concerning the gaming community is sexism. With today’s growing audience and the popularity of smart phone gaming, it is a mystery as to why gaming has managed to keep its male-minded stereotypes. Most games reflect the sexist gender roles imposed upon gamers by society, however today’s response is a heated protest, some more dramatic than others. Most gamers are demanding more female protagonists, and developers are listening, but it’s a slow climb to equality in the world of pixels and fantasy. Let us discuss the surrounding influences of the video game community, some setbacks and remarkable breakthroughs in diversifying, and the ways gamers shape the games they play.

    Read More

  • Is Social Media Making Me Miserable?

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Children are often bullied in school, but they can also be bullied online. Cyber-bullying is bullying over devices and often using social media to conduct it. It has become common due to the rapidly increasing use of social media. The bullying is done by sharing embarrassing or demeaning content of one another or writing cruel messages. Some take it a step further and create fake accounts to anonymously harass a person, or even use the fake account to impersonate that person. Due to social media, cyber-bullying is a harsh reality that children are being born

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    “YOU SUCK!” “I killed him!” “Head shot!” These are just a few examples of dialogue spoken by children while they are playing violent video games. These video games might seem like harmless fun, but what if the violence in these games is affecting the behavior of young players interacting with others?

    Read More

  • The Gaming World – Harmful or Helpful?

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    The video game market has shifted from being a predominantly male market to include the female population with games like The Sims, in which players build virtual worlds. Such games often result in online communities, where players build avatars and interact with others across the globe. My sister used to spend hours at the computer buildi...

    Read More

  • Cyber Bullying is a Crime

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most of us have heard the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. With today’s technology, that saying may no longer hold true. Studies show that in the past five years, online bullying has quadrupled (M. Ross, 3). The technology has given bullies a whole another proposal for their actions; virtual name-calling can have harsh effects on the security of kids and teens in today’s society. An online bully is someone who sends messages via technology, hides behind that keyboard and uses words or pictures to embarrass and bully their target.

    Read More

More about Gamer Trash Talk Research Paper

Open Document