The current landscape of the gaming industry isn’t one to be boastful of. In fact, in some cases, it’s downright disturbing. This is the time of the year where we should be anticipating the fall lineup of software and hardware releases, but instead we are facing, what seems like, daily reports of harassment, aversion and an absurd level of threatening behavior from the very group who consumes these on-screen experiences. In fact, the online gaming scene seems to be less and less about community, teamwork, and solidarity, and more about policies, enforcement, and the consequences of poor behavior.
While sour apples have certainly been around from the beginning, the magnitude of this issue was arguably absent a decade ago when Xbox Live was still a primitive concept. Back then, online multiplayer was about jumping on to meet new friends, share experiences and find new ways to play multiplayer games. Things have been horribly twisted since then, leading up sickening stories like Call of Duty developers being threatened for simply tuning a weapon in-game for balance. This digressive evolution has raised perhaps one of the most challenging questions for the gaming industry as it gears up to make the leap to next-generation: is online multiplayer as fun as it used to be?
While this question is certainly open to one’s own interpretation and opinion, I’ll be damned if the answer isn’t no. Don’t be fooled, though; the matter doesn’t stem from the games themselves, but how gamers interact with the medium as a whole. Though this particular question has not been discussed as it is written, it’s been highlighted throughout the industry, whether that be aforementioned attacks at Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar, sexist, unwarranted comments towards Aisha Tyler, or simply the countless forums aimed at “Well, why did I get banned for that?”
Back at PAX East 2010, Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement Director Stephen Toulouse noted that at the peg-point of this hostile environment, at least on Xbox Live (though it likely extends to all platforms), are 12 year-olds; but are teenagers really the only culprits? Of course not. This sour taste is left by gamers of all ages, and it’s undoubtedly poisoning all of online multiplayer across all platforms – something that was rarely brought up a decade ago. Now, to be fair, online multiplayer during the early days of Xbox Live was a niche feature that few had the chance to partake in. You were privileged if you got to hop online and duke it out against players across the world, and it seemed all were on their best behavior when doing so. Today, millions have access to online multiplayer functionality in some form or another, and it’s much easier to highlight poor conduct than ever before. However, this cannot be used as an excuse for what’s become of online infrastructures.
Poor behavior isn’t just affecting the environment of online multiplayer, it’s affecting how multiplayer games are being played. The Battlefield franchise is a testament to this predicament. During the golden age of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, the series used to be all about constant communication and teamwork to achieve objectives. It didn’t matter if you ended the game with 2 kills and 15 deaths. Did you keep the opposition out of vehicles with mortar fire? If so, you contributed. However, flash-forward to Battlefield 3 and the setting is much, much different. Nearly every server is blanketed with silence from players, and most of the game is spent with players going about their own routes, merely hoping to end with a positive kill-death ratio.
Looking forward, this same issue may plague titles to come, including infamous game modes from popular series – most notably Splinter Cell: Blacklist and “Spies vs. Mercs.” Made famous in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Spies vs. Mercs was the epitome of online multiplayer. It seemed like at anytime you could jump on, meet a team of total strangers and end up working together in a mode that was structured around teamwork and communication.
With its return in Blacklist, along with the reality of what online multiplayer is currently, one can only question whether or not this experience will have the same effect it did eight years ago. Will players communicate with one another? Will it be constructive? These are just two questions that surround this game simply because of the online community and its disturbing track-record in recent years.
We are on the cusp of the next-generation of gaming – one that will have to answer to matters such as this, because if there’s one definite response to online multiplayer and the community who partakes in it, it’s that this recent trend of behavior cannot continue. Not only are platforms becoming more and more hostile, turning away newcomers left and right, but online games are suffering as a result.
We have digressed as a community, and there are few who are proposing plans to reverse the trend, but that shouldn’t give any of us a reason to wave the white flag. A turnaround will begin with one, and then another, and then a dozen more, until as a whole we do not accept behavior that hinders our delicate form of media in any manner. Of course, that sounds good in theory, but how can it be implemented in practice? The answer comes by way of us all, entirely.
Xbox Live has proven to be a breeding ground for bad behavior online, but Microsoft vows to fix all that with Xbox One’s new reputation-based system.
As gamers, we must do our duty of reporting malicious, ignorant behavior. You may feel like the trouble outweighs the time and effort, but it’s does not. We also must not fall into traps of “feeding trolls,” as the Internet likes to say. To be frank, though, not everyone who presents themselves as ignorant on the web is just “trolling.” They’re simply just being jerks. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.” Don’t add fuel to the fire. I oftentimes look on websites’ message boards and see one post of pure arrogance, and then some macho man feels he or she needs to come in and add his or her rebuttal, which of course leads to an endless amount of Internet poison.
A culture change isn’t only on the shoulders of gamers though; part of it requires the care of developers and press outlets. Developers must begin working harder to remove problem players, even if it means losing money in the long run, while publications, on the other hand, must open their eyes, do what they’ve been saying all along, and fix their issues – many of which reside in the comments of their articles.
When it comes down to it, our form of entertainment needs to grow up. Yes, it’s difficult when your age range spans decades upon decades, but there must become unwritten guidelines that take shape across all forms of our medium. Then, and only then, can change begin, and our beloved multiplayer experiences can go back to being mindless fun with players all across the globe that share a similar passion for all things gaming.
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