We all know what trolls are, those mythical ugly dwarfs who dwell under a bridge preventing passersby from crossing. However, in the real world there exists a similar creature called the internet troll. We’ve all encountered these beings that love to harass and mess with the citizens of the interwebs in whatever way they could. The question is why? Why do these people decide to cause such havoc and negativity in this digital world? This question was explored during the second week of class where we analyzed the research article “Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context” by Christine Cook, Juliette Schaafsma, and Marjolijn Antheunis.

                My first personal encounter with trolls was in middle school when I began playing the multiplayer online battle area (MOBA) game League of Legends. In League the objective of the game is to protect your base from the enemy team and at the same time destroy the enemy’s base in order to secure victory. However, one of my teammates decided it was a good idea to intentionally feed (give kills to) the enemy champion making the character unbelievably powerful. At that time, I didn’t know what trolling was and just thought my teammate was “dumb” for playing the game wrong and costing us the game. I was confused what my teammate’s motivation was for ruining the game for me and the rest of my team.

According to Cook et. al, “[trolling] can be generally split into three categories… attack, sensation seeking, and interaction seeking.” (3328) My teammate’s decision to feed falls into two of the three categories: attack and sensation seeking. Cook describes attack as anti-social and antagonistic which perfectly describes my teammate whose goal was to ruin the game of my team. At the same time, my teammate also was sensation seeking or trying to create drama and get a reaction from my team (3328). Although these things paint a picture of someone who possess components of the Dark Tetrad, not all trolling is bad. Let me explain.

After years of playing games I found myself delving into interaction seeking trolling with my friends in a game called Combat Arms. Combat Arms is a first person shooter game that my friends and I found to be extremely fun and a good way to blow off steam after school. We used to play custom matches splitting the friend group into two teams at war with each other. After a while, the game got stale and we began walking down the road of interaction seeking trolling. Since Combat Arms was a fairly old game, it was full of glitches and insane things you could do. One of these ridiculous things was jumping on a teammate who was squatting and completely immobilizing them as well as body blocking. This behavior can be seen as antagonistic but also helped enhance turn the game into something new.

Today trolling become ingrained in internet culture as an evil since trolling can lead to harassment and cyber bullying. Thankfully however, there are resources online that can help combat harassment such as the Center for Solutions and the Crash Override Network. Although evil, trolling can also (at times) enhance gameplay. For example, the game Dead by Daylight focuses on four survivors trying to escape from a killer by repairing generators and opening the gate out. The concept of the game is extremely simple and if played strictly with the objective in mind, it can get pretty boring. However, trolling has become ingrained in the culture of the game and has become an unwritten rule. Often times, players are seen taunting the killer to catch his attention or shining a flashlight in the killer’s face. All of these things are done for fun and to enhance the gameplay.

As Cook says “Trolling appears to breed trolling” (3331) and in order to combat this, we should all learn to be respectful and not overstep boundaries.

Center for Solutions to Online Violence: http://femtechnet.org/csov/

Crash Override Network: http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com/

This weeks chapter in How to Play Video Games on World Building mentions Bioshock’s map layout and how it helps build the world. Wolf mentions that the map is fairly linear in the sense that the player will have an entrance to a part of the map and then an exit when they have progressed though that section. The player is never given a full idea of what the map looks like. Wolf claims this helps build out the world. Two other games that also use map layout to help build out their worlds is Pokemon Platinum and Gris.

Pokemon Platinum (and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl if we are going to get specific) is set in the Sinnoh region of the Pokemon world. A large part of this region is the giant mountain, Mt. Coronet. This mountain cuts through the middle of the map with many entrances and obstacles. Throughout the story the player will enter the mountain from different angles and see different parts. There are also obstacles such as walls that can only be climbed with the HM Rock Climb and people blocking paths and refusing to move. These help with the world building and progression of the game. The player gets a sense of the mountain’s importance to the Sinnoh region through talking to NPC’s who live near the mountain and how a lot of Sinnoh Mythology is linked to the mysterious mountain (Dialga and Palkia). When the player enters the mountain for each part of the story they uncover new parts and go into places they have not seem yet. This gives the mountain a large feel to it and makes the navigation of the game more interesting through reusing the same location but with a different layout. This makes the mountain feel very large and like a huge division in the region, giving the region a distinct feeling.

Gris is a platforming game where the player is a girl who is working through some hardship. The player navigates a broken building that can be some what reminiscent of some sort of palace that has broken states of the same girl (assumed to be you) scattered throughout. As the game progresses the player moves from area to areas, though there is no map ever given so it is unclear of whether or not the player is actually entering a new place each time. Especially since part of the progression in the game involves more colors being added and the environment changing. Certain maps seem to almost mirror a more complete version of previous maps. In the end the player gets a view of an entire palace like structure and it is assumed that is the area that you visited, but it is not clear if this is so because some parts seem to be missing. This use of a confusing layout is interesting because it forces the player to reflect on the progress they made and how it led to their final destination.

During the second week of this course, I really enjoyed our class conversation about trolling. The article that most of our discussions were based upon was “Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context”. This article gave the different perspectives and viewpoints that one can have towards trolling. Before reading this article, I thought about all of the times that I trolled my friends and even the random strangers online. I also thought about my reasons behind these acts. I came to the conclusion that most of my actions were carried out because I wanted to annoy and get a funny reaction out of the targets. However, after reading this article, I learned that some of the things that I did not consider to be trolling actually are!

According to the article, which was written by Cook, Schaafsma, and Antheunis, some of the types of trolling are verbal, trash-talking, flaming, misdirection, spamming, inappropriate roleplaying, behavioural, inhibiting team, contrary play, and aiding the enemy (3329). For me, the most surprising type was definitely trash-talking. I found this act surprising because it is something that I can admit that I engage with almost every time I play sports games. One game in particular is NBA 2K. I frequently trash-talk my opponents and even my own teammates about their myplayer. A myplayer is a personalized character that represents you in the game. In the more recent 2K games, there can be different archetypes of myplayers, such as lockdown defenders, sharpshooters, shot creators, etc. You can make your myplyer better by playing in actual NBA games and making VC (Virtual Currency). As you play, you can unlock and upgrade your myplayer in different levels. For me, the best part of the game and the place where most trash-talking occurs is called the Park. Here, you can bring your myplayer to a basketball court and play against strangers. You can also play with your friends as teammates in a three on three or you can even play a stranger one on one. Sometimes, the opposing team can have their microphones connected, which means you can hear them talking. When this is the case, I connect my microphone as well and I trash-talk, just for the fun of it. Some of the things that I would normally say are “Your player is trash”, “Your player can’t even get a rebound”, “Play me one on one”, etc. Now I will admit, I have said these things, but, they were never meant to hurt anyone in any type of way. However, after reading this article, it is possible that some people could have taken these comments in many other ways. As a result of this, I have now made it my goal to stop this form of trolling when I play sports games. There are many other appropriate ways to engage in social conversations over gaming platforms. There is no need to make fun of others, especially if they did not start the trash-talking.

Another point of the article that I wanted to tie in with my personal experiences deals with trolling as a group. Cook et al. quotes, “As it stands, trolls are aware of one another and are often connected to other trolls, forming at the very least a loose community. In fact, many members of our sample reported trolling more often in groups than alone. Historically, trolls have been treated largely as individuals (see Buckels et al., 2014)” (3337). This quote shows that there are times where multiple people engage in the act of trolling at once. I think that this shows that people basically like to create their own forms of the game within the game. Trolling itself might be a reason why people even log on and play a game. Although there is no real way to stop people from trolling, what can be done is educating the video gaming world about the different types of trolling, and the choices they have to combat the issue. Whether they want to ignore the trolls, report the trolls, etc., that is completely up to them. Overall, instead of trolling back, there are many other peaceful approaches that can end things. With that being said, if trolls are not finding their way to sensation and interactions, they might not last that long after all.

– Andy Kissoon

Online trolling has been present for years and has been seen in chat rooms, forums, and nearly all massive multiplayer online games. Hiding behind the anonymity of the internet, some people feel at liberty to purposely upset or mess with other people for a joke or for their own enjoyment. Although there are different types of trolls, sometimes trolling comes with malicious intent that can negatively impact someone in their real life. Suddenly, you’re being harassed by people you’ve seen on the internet whom you’ve never even met before as was the case with Zoe Quinn and GamerGate. 

One thing I found particularly interesting from this week’s readings was from the Under the Bridge where they talked about the triggers of trolling. As it turns out, “being trolled first was the single most popular reason to begin trolling… Trolling appears to breed trolling, with the behaviour seemingly becoming a social contagion among gamers” (Cook et al, 3325). After reading this, I realized how true this was and recalled how often these situations would arise where I found myself witnessing or participating in while gaming online. 

One of the few online multiplayer games I play relatively often is Riot Game’s League of Legends (LoL). To me, LoL is the most fun when it is competitive and everyone is trying their hardest to win, utilizing strategy and communication to take objectives and win fights. There exists a competitive solo/duo ranked queue where you (and a friend) can queue up for a game where you can earn or lose competitive points. As I see it, ranked is both the most fun and the most toxic gamemode you can play in LoL. As an example of the social trolling trigger talked about in Under the Bridge article, in many games players slip up early into the match and other players start to complain in chat about their performance which results in arguments with each other in chat. Eventually, team morale plummets, players start intentionally dying to the enemies, and occasionally, there are rage quits. Because one player decided to troll and  make a comment on another’s performance, it caused the other player to react by snapping back with another comment which spiraled into both players physical trolling by intentionally feeding and creating discord in the team dynamic which ultimately cost the game. 

Trolling can be a rampant problem that a lot of people don’t know how to deal with. Good resources like The Center for Solution of Violence that we saw in class this week among others can be used for victims and trolls alike. I personally learned through using the site just how easily someone can find information about you online that was put there by social media and other applications and websites without your knowledge. Taking extra precautions to protect your identity online is definitely a must if you spend a lot of time on the internet. 

In the article “Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context”, it gives an attempt to quantify trolling and trolls in an online environment. The way this study went about was through interviewing people who have trolling experience online. Even though the sample size was pretty small (around 23 people) and the results might be not representing all the potential factors. This study provided some insight into the spectrum of trolls from friendly banter to full on harassment that could even leak into one’s actual life. 

The whole idea of trolling can be vague, to a degree, but the study tries to give a sound explanation for trolling. It goes through the whether an interaction would be considered trolling, the motivation for the action, and the result of said action to help determine their definition of trolling. Through my personal experience, I like to think I’ve seen a good chunk of the spectrum of trolling: being a bystander, being the one targeted by the troll, or the one doing the trolling. The only time I can recall I was the one trolling would be friendly banter I would have with my friends, nothing ever got too serious in the scenario. I can recall numerous times where I’m the bystander in the troll where both I’ve known all parties involved and others where I know no one. An example would be when I was playing counter strike global offensive (CSGO, note: this is a very competitive game where the majority of the players like to take it very seriously) and I would join a game with a bunch of randoms, and someone was trying to be all funny, cracking a few jokes, trying to make everyone laugh, one of the guys on the team wasn’t having it. At first he was calm about it (we were losing a bit) and he just wanted everyone to focus up a little more to try to make a comeback. The guy cracking jokes didn’t take this well at all, he escalated his commentary very quickly, from making jokes to now cursing at him, calling him a wide variety of hurtful names. The guy getting berated then was fighting back and at this point the game was getting very toxic to the point where everyone wasn’t having a good time. That may seem like an isolated situation but in this game’s community behavior like this was commonplace. I’m numb to most of this but to the outside world this game can look very intimidating. 

The results of the piece categorized a few forms of trolling from the data they collected. They made a list of types of trolling actions while providing their explanation of the said action. Some examples would be verbal abuse, trash talking, flaming, etc. Those are the actions alone which can’t be the baseline for the parameters of trolling now the motivation and desired result of the troller needs to be taken into account too. For the most part people with ill intentions are trolling to single someone out, sometype of amusing reaction, or in retaliation an attack. Overall the piece is very well detailed on how they want to define trolling in the online community and even though the results didn’t cover all the bases of internet culture, it did a pretty good attempt at it. 

The presence of online trolls within the gaming sphere often creates a toxic environment for many players. In our discussions, I also noticed a tendency for trolls to target female players, and that in games with an online voice-chat system, many players will be quick in bringing to attention the presence of a female player. In my opinion, the anonymity and the disconnect provided through screens can lower some inhibitions for players to decide to troll others through the belief that their actions will not receive consequences. In addition, players who get trolled are incentivized to troll back as a form of revenge (Cook et al., 10), creating a cycle of negative atmosphere within the game. 

Fortunately, many online multiplayer games have implemented a report option for unsavory players. Hopefully, the reporting would result in consequences, such as a ban, for their actions. However, this is not a perfect solution, and at most times, they are only temporary in preventing the reported troll from finding other avenues of coming back to the game. In addition, many players, when they get trolled, do not resort to muting or reporting the trolling player in question, even though many people see getting reported to be one of the top negative consequences of trolling (Cook et al., 11).

As someone who had once taken to some trolling and have been on the receiving end of being trolled, in my personal experience, a reaction is generally incentive to continue trolling. If there is no reaction or an underwhelming reaction to trolling, usually the trolling stops due to the lack of reactions garnered from their actions. Particularly, trolling seems to be a form of attention-seeking, both negative and positive. I include positive attention because from my personal experiences, people not directly targeted by the troll might end up finding the situation funny without thinking about the experience from the victim’s shoes, or that in some twisted fashion, the victim “deserves” the trolling they receive due to some arbitrary reason. Thus, they outwardly support and contribute to the troll’s actions, and at times, might even join in trolling the victim. 

This can be detrimental to the mental health of the victim, as it can seem as if they are truly alone in their situation. In addition, as some players might respond to trolling by trolling back, I would also assume other players affected by trolling might go into a new game and troll the players there as a form of lashing out in anger. I assume this, because anger, particularly in a situation where the player has been on a losing streak, is seen as an internal trigger for trolling (Cook et al, 9), so anger from being trolled by others may also trigger one to troll people that were not involved. This can potentially create a snowball effect where players affected by a troll can go on to troll others in a new game, and the players in that new game being affected by it and moving on to other games to troll there. 

All in all, trolling is one of the key factors in creating a negative gaming environment, and may even snowball into a very negative community for a particular game. As such, although there seems to be no direct consequences of trolling, one might eventually find themselves on the other end of an unpleasant gaming experience.

Sources:

Cook, Christine, et al. Under the Bridge: An in-Depth Examination of Online Trolling in the Gaming Context – Christine Cook, Juliette Schaafsma, Marjolijn Antheunis, 2018. SAGE Journals.

If we had to define life, what would it be? What is our purpose? Why do we move forward and proceed, despite going into the unknown? In answering these questions, we are constantly in a state of fear to validate our existence.

“Racism, the belief of the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance. Ageism. Heterosexism. Elitism. Classism. (Lorde 115)” We begin to see a pattern in which Audre Lorde, author of the selection “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Diference”, discusses the inherent need for human beings to separate and distinguish from one another. “As members of such an economy,” she writes, “we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways (Lorde 115).”

First, would be feigning ignorance. This applies in many ways as we often ignore problems that are not our own, disputes that would only inconvenience us, or simply the fear of backlash and ostracizing that incur as a result of attempted justice. Next, we have association. Our need to feel connected to society ultimately outweighs common sense and integrity; we tend to follow the most dominant opinions and popular trends despite the conflicting feelings and outrageous prices that come with it. Lastly, the use of degradation.

There are days when we feel as if nothing we do is ever good enough. Some brood over the question for days on end, not seemingly able to derive a conclusive answer. Others feel life will play out on its own, and gives the thought less importance. Then we have the very few, who begin to spiral down a path of depression and hate. Any sense of happiness reflected from others is now used as a weapon. Lies and rumors run through others ears and continues to spread like wildfire. Onlookers become unknowing culprits, ultimately ruining the lives of others to otherwise uphold and establish their own sense of being.

This does not apply to simply social constructs but the very foundation of our culture as established in our careers and entertainment industry. Particularly for women advancing into STEM careers, many male counterparts deem them to be impertinent to the field. As with the entertainment world, receiving approval is much harder; the notion that ‘women just aren’t as good as men’ is deeply rooted into the small-minded patriarchal society within the industry. Lorde continues to say, “It is our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine those distortions which result from … their effects upon human behavior and expectation (115).”

Of course, with this definition, we might think that we are not this kind of person. But in truth, all of us are guilty of committing one of the three acts to some degree, we just like to think of ourselves as a better person.

“Under the Bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming context” brings up the issue of trolling in online video games. The article attempts to discern a solid definition for trolling as well as why trolls troll. This is done through interviews and analysis of previous writings on the subect.

The article begins by stating how previous academic articles have had issues finding an accurate definition for trolling. Which reminded me of one online game I frequently play, League of Legends. Players will complain about trolls in game and how no matter how many times they report them, they still appear. Riot has responded generally to trolls and explained its system in numerous posts. At one point they had a a system where players would review games for where people were reported for trolling and toxicity. Though they eventually discontinued this system because “It’s slow and inefficient” and “It’s sometimes wildly inaccurate.” Now back to the main point Riot has stated that they have been able more easily punish players for being toxic in chat and having inappropriate users names with automation but are still largely reliant on manual reports for trolls. (For reference: https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2018/08/ask-riot-will-tribunal-return/). This inability to automatically punish trolls is in a sense similar to the issue the article begins with, an inability to effectively categorize trolling. It is often easy to determine when someone is saying inappropriate things in chat by just detecting a few words and phrases, but for someone who is silent but plays the game in a way that other players do not expect is not as easy. Because what is the difference between someone not understanding a mechanic and dying a lot and someone intentionally misplaying so they do not win? This kind of troll would probably fall under attempting to deceive others in some sense, which was one definition mentioned in the study. Though this would also connect why its hard to detect since it is unclear as to whether the player is new or actually attempting to mess with the game for others.

The article concludes with an experiment that involved interviewing different self-proclaimed trolls and determining why they trolled. An interesting point about this part of the article is how it mentions the age and gender of the trolls when referring to specific trolls in its experiment section. This is mainly interesting because the article does little analysis on either of these subjects save for a statement that, due to ethical reasons, no one under 19 was interviewed and that only two female trolls were interviewed, making it hard to draw conclusions. Though, the article does mention these topics as good starting points for future research and analysis.

Also, if you would like more of Riots responses to dealing with trolls and toxicity:
https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/01/ask-riot-banished-to-prisoners-island/
https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/06/ask-riot-practice-tool-stays-solo/
https://dotesports.com/news/how-riot-plans-to-address-autofill-trolls-9034

After reading Audre Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” reading, I want to touch on the issue of racial differences in our society today. It seems as if the differences between white people and people of color are more apparent today than ever before, however there are not enough steps being taken to fix this. Women of color are still seen as a separate group from white women, people of color are still being treated differently and representation of people of color is still very rare in video games – to name a few. This “Racial ‘Otherness'” that Lorde refers to is very much rooted into our society today. Our grandparents grew up with it, our parents grew up with it, and most of us also grew up aware of this “Racial Otherness.” Even though we are aware of this racial difference we all seem to ignore it. Using my family as an example, I know for a fact that whenever my parents bring up a stereotypical remark towards people of color, my sister and I act as if the conversation never happened. Why do we do this? Is it because we don’t want to explain to our parents why they shouldn’t say stuff like that? Do I hide behind the fact that they are immigrants that grew up in a very different environment and use that as an excuse to their actions? The point I am trying to make is that racial difference is rooted very deep into our lives, but recognizing that and making an effort to not ignore it is a first step in closing the gap between white people and people of color.

I want to reflect back on the Audre Lorde “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” reading. There is a passage that hit me like a brick. “Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you. we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying” (Lorde 119). To put into perspective how much of a problem this racial difference is – I did some Google-ing and found that this reading, taken from “Sister Outsider,” was originally published in 1984. For a reading from the 1900’s this passage hasn’t aged a bit. The racial differences mentioned are just as relevant back then as they are today. People of color still fear for the safety of their children’s lives and some of us still choose to ignore that.

I want to continue this discussion by talking about video games and Race. We talked about wanting more women representation in video games but what about more representation for people of color? We rarely see people of color being portrayed in video games. Do ya’ll know of games where people of color are portrayed as the “hero” or as the main character? I don’t play many games today as I used to so if you know of any please comment them below. I want to check them out! As we play our video games in our past times try to keep a mental log of how many characters you come across as a person of color and compare that to how many characters you see that are white.

Before I attended the first week DMS 448 I thought the course would focus more on the history of games as my naïve self never really saw games as something with a huge cultural significance. Games have always been a past time for me, a way to just pass time. It has been almost two weeks now and boy was I wrong. Since the beginning of the first class, I quickly realized my initial thoughts were totally wrong as I learned more about the cultural impact and straight discrimination in the video game industry and culture as a whole. We analyzed passages from Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex”, the events gamergate, and what happened to both Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn.

Although Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” has little to do with gaming culture in general, the message in the passage explain many of the issues that arise in the gaming industry. According to Lorde, society has sort of created a “mythical norm” usually described as a “white thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure” (116). After looking into my past gaming history, I have found that many of my games followed this mythical norm where the hero is usually someone who fits that exact description. One example of such a game is Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword where the story follows three main characters. Although one of the main character’s, Lynn, is a female and doesn’t follow the mythical norm, her story is quickly overshadowed by the other two characters, Hector and Eliwood who are the exact definitions of the mythical norm.

This type of discrimination against women are also seen in other popular game series such as The Legend of Zelda series as well as the Super Mario series. What both of these games have in common are a male hero saving a damsel in distress. This common trope has become ingrained in game culture as well as the gaming industry. Anita Sarkeesian was one of the few women who spoke out against sexism in the gaming industry on her YouTube channel Feminist Frequency. However, it wasn’t well received or respected as she faced a ton of backlash, rape threats, sexual assault, and doxing.  Unfortunately, other women have faced similar backlash for speaking out against sexism in the gaming industry such as Zoe Quinn.

Zoe Quinn was a game developer who was caught up in an internet controversy called Gamergate. In her book Crash Override Zoe she details her story and the events of gamergate. Her story begins when her ex-boyfriend posted on an online blog about how Zoe was sleeping with game reviewers to get good ratings for her game Depression Quest. These rumors quickly turned into a virulent harassment campaign against Zoe. Many people threatened her as well as her family. There was one paragraph that Zoe wrote in her book that spoke to me and it was:

“You might have heard stories about the darker side of the internet— hackers, hordes of anonymous people attacking an unlucky target, private nude photos made public by vengeful exes—but to you they remain just that: stories. Surely these things would never happen to you. You’re not famous. You don’t go around picking fights with anyone online. Who would even think to mess with you?” (8)

I was honestly extremely surprised about many of the events of gamergate. In fact, I’m still confused why it turned into such a huge hate campaign since it was, as Zoe put it, “just a breakup between two nerds” (11). However, the stories of both Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn show the sexism in the gaming industry where women are seen as a group that doesn’t belong. It was inspiring to see how despite the amount of backlash and harassment they received, they stood strong and continued to fight not only for themselves but others who looked up to them. They’ve already made a huge impact in the gaming and online world with the creation of the Zoe Quinn’s Crash Override Network as well as the continuation of Anita Sarkeesian’s project: Tropes V.S Women. For the rest of this semester, I will definitely need to reassess my thoughts and past belief of games but for now, I’ll end off on an inspirational quote by Zoe herself:

“…although what was done to me was heinous, those responsible for obliterating my old life have overlooked one important thing: I’m better at games than they are.”

(Quinn 13)