Today, I finally started playing Path of Exile. This is the Diablo clone I've been waiting for, without even realizing I had been waiting for it. I've been content with my Sacred, my Titan's Quest, and my Din's Curse. I was even moderately pleased with Diablo 3, although I see no reason to play it anymore. Torchlight just doesn't do it for me, something about it just isn't complex enough for my tastes. But, I'm not here to discuss PoE, but instead something that my short time with the game today reminded me about.
Online game communities are cesspools. PoE is an online game, much like Diablo 3, and like Diablo 3 the first thing I did was turn off the chat. Over the course of half an hour, I saw things written that were just despicable, and I'm not talking about the kid that kept saying fag this or fag that. (For the record, that is despicable, however easily reported. They have a "Hate Speech" designation and everything.) It was a constant barrage of "STFU retard", "l2p hur hur hur","go kill yourself" and "I thought there'd be more tits in this game."
This is why the "Real World" doesn't accept us. Why should they? Log into game like League Of Legends, World of Warcraft, or god forbid you wander into an FPS game lobby, and you're inundated with hate speech, sexism and immaturity. You can't act like that in the outside world without consequences, but that makes it okay to act like that in games?
If I hear "Deal with it, it's the internet" one more fucking time, I'm going to scream. Take some responsibility. Take ownership. Say something to the person who offended you. Don't settle for the community being that way because "Dur, internet anonymity". It's up to each and every one of us somewhat "mature" gamers to make a stand, otherwise this will never end. Even some companies are doing this, although it feels like too little, too late on that end.
I will not walk away from my hobby because of the bad apples. I will however continue to be ashamed of my hobby because of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment