“I generally don't get abusive and try not to directly insult people, I just get really annoyed, criticise their gameplay, end up back-seating them and start to ignore them. Is it a means of getting what he wants from his teammates, frustration with the game or just plain nastiness? “I don't flame or get mad to put people down, it's out of sheer frustration,” he explained. “It's alarmingly common, and very odd that it happens.” I asked him what compels him to get this way. “I get so horrendously toxic,” he told me. Twitter user Daniel Mudd openly admits to flaming teammates but still has the humility to evaluate it. However, these responses make me wonder do a lot of flamers honestly think they’re merely retaliating or defending themselves in some way? I wasn't expecting everyone to give thoughtful, honest answers to my questions trolls hide behind anonymity and an in-game persona and won’t readily expose themselves to scrutiny. No one is willing to admit that they flame or abuse before anyone else has said or done something negative (apart from one Reddit user, who declared, “Honestly, I hate people and it's fun to troll bait”). When I asked people outside of the game why they flame, the response was usually the same - it’s either some kind of retaliation against other people flaming them or frustration with people ‘not playing the game properly’. If someone throws one of those incredibly original gendered insults at me, no matter how fast I block and report them, I’m still really annoyed about it. And it doesn’t stop them abusing you in the first place. Blocking is obviously the best tool for getting rid of harassers, but in a game that depends so highly on communication it just sucks to have to block somebody. One user was adamant that the block and report system had already fixed the issue, but I just can’t bring myself to agree. Notably, most of the abuse stopped immediately after I’d asked for their reasoning. If I was lucky I might get another ‘fuck you’. There’d be a long, contemplative silence and nothing else. I tried again in competitive games but the result was more or less the same someone would be a jerk, they’d scream at their teammates and I’d carefully and honestly ask them to explain their logic. I learned absolutely nothing about anything. Then came more of the unfamiliar language.
“Okay,” I said, “keep arguing, that’s good.” “Fuck you,” they said with a heavy accent. I soon realised they were several people talking to each other, loudly, maybe even… angrily? I politely asked if they spoke any English. I was met with a volley of responses in a Slavic language. “Hello,” I said, tentatively joining a casual game at first. Naturally, this venture was a terrifying foray into the minds of my abusers. I’m one of those people who usually only plays in stacks of four or five to avoid abusive teammates, especially when, as a woman, I attract a good amount of bullshit. Perhaps, I thought, there's nobody better to answer than those who flame themselves.įirst, I tried asking during matches. To begin, I decided to simply ask: what compels you to flame or abuse others? I brought this question directly to players in-game, in the CS:GO subreddit, and on Twitter. But why do people flame? In an attempt to figure out if we can improve our community, and if other players even want it to improve, I started thinking about what compels us to get abusive. We already know this we’ve done studies on the effects of anonymity both online and in the real world, we’ve seen Riot’s research into the abuse of the League of Legends community, and we’ve all heard our share of profanities in-game. This piece, however, is meant to highlight one important issue that I think we can overcome.Ībuse in online games is a huge problem. It’s simply one of the best team games out there. Before we get to it, let me reiterate that I am madly in love with Counter-Strike. This week, I’ll be discussing abuse and toxic behaviour in the CS:GO community.
In Pop Flash, a series of insights into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Emily Richardson looks past the amazing clutches and crushing defeats to understand the culture and meta of Valve’s everlasting competitive FPS.