Fellow Gamers, Grow Up Before We Ruin the Industry

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me.”

What a terrible saying. What horrid advice. 

“Faggot.” “Pussy.” “Gay.” “Retard.” “Cocksucker.” “Bitch.” Don’t forget about all the racism too. 

These are all slurs I hear virtually any time I play an online game. Screamed at me by people that sound not a day older than 12. Not only are they used, they are used with such hatred and malice that it’s downright scary. It’s ridiculous how upset people get over a game. Ridiculous how even today, being gay is still automatically supposed to be perceived a terrible insult. How being a girl is supposed to be a horrible thing. How not being good at CoD, or LoL or what ever game you decide to play that day suddenly means you have a mental disability.

Being gay isn’t wrong, being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t play games, and having a disability doesn’t make you any less of a person.

Now before everyone gets all up in arms about how I need a thick skin or I shouldn’t be on the internet. I don’t give a damn about what slurs you throw at me. I’m not writing this to complain. I’m writing this for other people.

I’m writing this for the (NSFW) little kid making threats, I’m writing this for the people who don’t (again NSFW)  play online anymore because of the slurs. I’m writing this for the people in the closet that are hurt by slurs. I’m writing this for the girls who cave to the idea that they shouldn’t play games.

Playing online used to be about fun.

Now it seems like it’s about being told to go suck a dick. It’s gotten so bad that League of Legends developer, Riot Games just seems to have admitted defeat. 

Words hurt. Maybe not as much as being stabbed, but they can cut just as deep. 

And you know what? It’s not just players that are being targeted. So are the developers. Just look at Phil Fish. Yes, he was super antagonistic. Yes, he could have handled it differently, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that the industry is so toxic he canned FEZ 2.

The players are creating toxic communities and blaming the industry.

Ignoring that we are part of the industry. 

Still don’t believe me?

Look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Designer, David Vonderhaar. Vonderhaar and his FAMILY received death threats because Treyarch made microscopic changes in the behaviour of several weapons.

Gamers told him to die. In a fire. over this: 

The DSR fire time was 0.2 seconds. It’s now 0.4 seconds. The rechamber time was 1.0 seconds. It’s now 1.1 seconds. +

— David Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) July 23, 2013

Gamers like that need to grow up, or risk of killing the industry that the rest of us treasure so much.

Changes of fractions of a second were so terrible, that not only him, but his family was told to die.

Gamers like that need to grow up, or risk of killing the industry that the rest of us treasure so much. Don’t give me that ‘it’s not hurting the industry’ nonsense… toxic interactions literally killed FEZ 2. 

Grow up and show some maturity.