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[SALT] Dehumanization of the Playerbase

Sir ArmaMalum·7/15/2014, 3:42:20 PM·16 votes·1,213 views

######I’m working on some pictures in GIMP for bigger and more colorful headers in the CB’s new look, but I don’t have them ready in time for this SALT, sorry guys and gals but it’s going to be all words today :(

Hello and welcome to the continuation of my debate series of Sir ArmaMalum's Let's Talk. If this is your first time, welcome! The idea here is for me to present and outline a certain topic, complete with my own bit at the end, for the sole intent of talking about it. I tend to stick to out of game subjects like ethics, behavior and other such things but that doesn't mean I won't do gameplay related areas of I think I can do it justice.

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Quick Guidelines on replies:

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#Dehumanization of Players

What is Dehumanization?

Dehumanization is a term for the stripping of any human traits and empathy towards an individual or group. In this context, it is the idea of an interaction between player and player being viewed (by the player) as communication with nothing more than a text generator or, at best, a virtual character the size of your hand and not a fellow human being.

Now I’m going to go out on a limb and say you just thought somewhere along the lines of “pffft, who does that? I know there are other people playing.”, but the funny thing is a lot of people do it. Hell, I’ll admit I dehumanize my teammates and opponents all the time. Now, please keep in mind the usual context for dehumanization is something like the holocaust, other acts of genocide or other extreme bigotry, but here in this discussion I’m using a much more toned down and innocent use of the term. I would even argue it’s necessary in such a high-tension game, simply because you don’t time to consider the person behind the controls of your laning opponent, who they are why they're here etc.. You only see the character and the possible moves he can use against you (in all likelihood, I am somewhat assuming here). This does not make you a bad person at all, it in fact makes you quite normal, but the kicker here is it’s not often noticed and rarely counteracted by a conscious effort. But before I get into that, let’s expand the scope here for second…

#Dehumanization and the Internet

The internet has probably been one of the greatest advancements of human technology and ingenuity in history. It has raised the intellectual floor of the average person by leaps and bounds, as well as establishing amazing projects and products like the game we know and love today, LoL. As we move forward we will (not if) see the internet play a larger and larger role in our children’s lives, and already you can see a huge impact in younger folks, some for the better and some not so much. For any of the younger readers out there: YES I MEAN YOU. And the older internet users aren’t immune either to the phenomena of the internet’s socialization either. And what does this have to do with dehumanization? Well, simply put, everyone else does it and therefore so will you given enough time. Sure you can argue strong wills and independent thinkers but you have one major disadvantage: you’re only human, and humans are innately social creatures that are fine tuned to mingle with others and absorb cultural do's and don'ts.

Here on said interwebs a primary form of communication exists, type chat. And what type chat does is give you the words and only the words of a message or reply. There are no voice cues or body language to tell you instinctively who and what you are dealing with. You can keep telling yourself you know who’s on the other end but I guarantee you you will treat anyone, even your friends, differently over text chat than over the phones or in person. While it might not necessarily be dehumanizing, the change of behavior is there. The reason it happens to random players at such a great magnitude is lack of knowledge. In most cases, you don’t know a teammate or enemy's age, gender, actual mood, what kind of person they are, or anything really. There’s really nothing to prove you are dealing with a person besides your own logic. The combination of that, the natural anonymity and indirect nature of most type chat services it’s incredibly easy for one to subconciously start stripping or simply not assigning human traits to another user. You can see this in varying degrees in post-game complaints talking about “these kids” or my personal favorite example: “this [x champ]”. Particularly the latter, because more often than not this starts as an easy way to classify a player in-game (as most champ names are simply shorter than IGNs) but isn’t it interesting a comparatively small percentage of people says “This player” or “This guy”?

Now again, I’m using the term dehumanization on a much smaller scale than it’s normal context, so I’m not saying the average player thinks another player is on equal footing of a wild animal (although I’m sure it’s been said somewhere), but rather simply not assigning human values towards random players. Simply not thinking about how there’s a person behind the keyboard.

#Effect on the Playerbase

The effect of dehumanization decreases with maturity and average respect, and so can be seen much easier in young players. I think we can all imagine that 10 year old typing angry messages like “fuck you, I’ll kill you”, or something like that. It’s easy to imagine, but let me ask you a question, do you think that same kid would say that same thing to a normal person in real life? Or even over the phone? Yes there are other factors like lower impulse control, lack of proper understanding of the words and the “cool” factor (Honestly that’s just a direct example of socialization) that affect kids, but the fact that it’s so much easier for them to do this over text shows their lack of consideration of the other player. Or, rather, lack of consideration of another player.

A lot of people do this, however, but to varying degrees. The most common is what I’ll coin as “Gameplay Dehumanization”, and this is where you’re not considering an enemy player as any more than “a [champ]”. You look for their tells, their abilities and focus on playing the game, there are games where that effect is broken through funny commentary in the first minute or general “only-human” antics of some form, but for the most part lack of human value assignment to enemy and teammates is easy to do when you just simply don’t think about it. It doesn't make you a bad person at all, but it can lower your tolerances and impulse control, essentially making it much easier to rage at champs in a game than a real person. Anonymity and the indirect nature of chat also play a part on that.

Pure de-humanization is rare. Unless you’re one of those people who talk to bots, most people realize there are people on the other end of the keyboard. But can you truly say you treat people in League (or the forums) the same way you do people in real life? It’s possible you may, I don’t know, but I can speak my myself and I can safely say that I do not. Unfortunately, solely based off of my own experience, I find the ‘default’ view of a random player is that of a lower standing. This is a very diluted effect of dehumanization, simple lack of equal respect. Simple jokes like “Randos aren’t really people”, “all these baddies” or “time to carry some plebians” are easy ways to show how the general dehumanization of the largely anonymous playerbase has ingrained itself in League. “But that’s just a joke, I don’t actually think that” may be a re-buttle to that, but that’s just it, jokes, stories and accepted reactions are actually direct indicators of socialization. The fact you can joke about it means you know it’s an accepted way of thinking.

But, finally getting to the point, what does this actually do? It can do one or both of two things generally: Superiority Complexes and Harassment. For the former, until you get into mid-plat and higher, statistically you are probably going to run into someone who is better skilled than you in a game, possibly even several someones, but I have seen time and again people coming in cocky and demeaning, looking down at everyone else while he/she says “watch me carry this game”. For the latter, simply put, it’s easier to talk shit and harass someone when you don’t consider the person, just the champion in-game. While I could have an entire separate [SALT] post on trash talking (and why so many people are so bad at it) and probably will, what I’m getting at is that every friend I talk with that trash talks on a regular basis are actually really nice and considerate people outside of the game. It’s actually a very strange experience to see them change so suddenly. And you know what response I get when I tell any of them to shut it? “They know I don’t mean it”, “They’re fine, it’s not like I’m threatening them”, or my personal favorite “They’re bad, so they get flamed, that’s how it works”. As infuriating as that is for me to hear, it’s a perfect example of a player not considering the equal standing of another player. Someone not considering the simple fact that they don’t know who they’re talking to and instead of acting with the respect and decency they normally show people IRL, they default to looking down on them and considering them as less. Simply less.

And again, for those who may say “It’s not like I mean it” or “I’m not being serious or anything”, I will again say joking and things said jokingly are direct representations of a socialized mindset, because the very fact that you can joke about it means you know it’s an accepted way of thinking, or else you wouldn't consider it funny to yourself or others.

#The Question(s)

Answer any, all or none. These are here to help promote discussion but by no means are meant to limit it.

  • Can you think of a time where dehumanization has affected you? Were you aware of it later?

  • Can you think of an example where you believe dehumanization affected a friend of yours? A random player? (PLEASE do not include summoner names, I will not condone naming and shaming here)

  • If you feel you do not dehumanize often or at all, what do you do to make sure you don’t, if anything?

  • There are plenty of other factors for the natural and accepted levels of toxicity in the League playerbase, would you consider dehumanization a major factor? Why or why not? If not, what would you consider the largest factor?

  • Overall, what is your opinion on the effect of dehumanization?

#My $0.02

Honestly I find this as a weird mix of a well-known and little-known issue. A lot of people I’ve talked with know the average online game (or general internet user) is on a lot lower expectations of respect and behavior than normal people, usually attributing them as kids or socially inept as either an insult or justification. What I find most interesting though is the fact that it’s an issue that many don’t take the time to look at, largely (in my experience) because it devolves into an argument of “just be a better person”.

But when I look at the big picture I’ll largely blame this socialized mindset to the internet’s worship of anonymity. Anonymity brings the “mask effect” (Think Lord of the Flies) into play so easily, it’s an invisible shield that many jump behind intentionally or no. Now I’m not saying anonymity is a bad thing, but it can and has been abused in a massive scale. Imho, misuse of anonymity has led to a huge rise in rude and even malicious behavior and worst of all, it’s somewhat accepted now. Because generations have been raised off of the slums of the internet and normally unacceptable behavior IRL becomes suddenly becomes very very popular. The internet as a whole can be considered an entire culture, and dehumanization is a worrying step to take even on a small scale.

#Relevant Reading

Millinials find technology dehumanizaing - New York Times

Technology is not Dehumanizing it’s What Makes us Human - Washington Post

Dehumanization - essay by Michelle Maiese, sources included

Once certain groups are stigmatized as evil, morally inferior, and not fully human, the persecution of those groups becomes more psychologically acceptable. Restraints against aggression and violence begin to disappear.

Video games, violence, and dehumanization - Blog by Art Markman, Ph.d. in Ulterior Motives

We're All People Here by Summoner Caoil

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22 Comments

Caoil7/15/2014, 5:53:54 PM3 votes

Again, I love your posts. Great work yet again.

I know that when I'm playing a game of league I dehumanize my teammates and the opponents, and this became more prevalent over time. I remember on my first day playing I was playing with a friend of mine, and I kept referring to other players in the game by their IGN and would classify everyone as a "he," since over half of the player-base is male, it was a safe assumption. My friend was quick to tell me that referring to other players by their IGN was just not a thing we did in league, so over time I became more comfortable to associate my teammates and opponents to the champ they were playing. Even more interesting is that over time I began to associate characteristics of the champ with the player (eg. anyone playing a female champ is automatically female, anyone playing Teemo is a 12 year old boy who jus wants to watch the world burn).

In games I really like it when everyone is just having casual conversation or making jokes in all-chat. It rehumanizes the players, and can make a losing game more enjoyable when you know that it's just another person on the other team who is enjoying their victory. I know that when I'm playing a game and I simply get outplayed in lane, it really sucks when your whole team (and the enemy team too sometimes) is calling you names and telling you to uninstall, go kill yourself, ... I can normally tell the difference between someone having a bad game where they got outplayed, and a person blatatly trolling. Most players it seems call the person who just got outplayed a troll for losing so badly. I know I have games where I just get stomped, but it isn't like I'm not trying. Calling someone out as a troll immediately dehumanizes them more than anything else in this game I think.

I'd write more on my opinion, but I'm hungry and it's lunch time. Can't wait to see what you come up with next week :)

Stephenizgod7/15/2014, 7:11:42 PM2 votes

It works in another way, ive done it a few times even though i try hard not to (it happens mostly when im in a lose streak where i do well but my teammates...not so well) the next game i sort of look at my team and already see me having to carry as if everyone is the same as if there is no individuals anymore only people who are going to hold me back. I really try to be nice and hopeful but when it happens back to back to back and im stuck in Silver despite trying my best to carry these people, it gets bleak.

The other day i lost a ranked game and was in a bad mood, but i was not the only one, the next game i started the person in charge hit G and banned the first 3 champs that started with G, idk if Garen counters Jax but so far i have stomped every Jax ive ever fought as Garen. Sure enough they picked Jax and there was no stopping him, we lost. When asked in champion select why he banned those three he said "What does it matter, im going to have to carry and we are going to lose because you are all shit teammates" i told him that he just made HIMSELF into the shit teammate by isolating himself from all of the rest of us with what he just did, we all hated him now. He replied with "Your comprehension skills are lacking, i just said why would i need teammates when im going to have to 1v5 anyways" needless to say we lost and he was the biggest factor, he blamed his teammates so much that he couldnt see it was actually him that was the bad one, he had no map awareness, he had no concept of teamfighting, and his engages were basically intentional feeding.

I think the reason this happened is because of dehumanization, at the time i thought he was just an ass until i read this post :), he could not look at us as humans playing characters, we were just characters, interchangeable with all his teammates he claims were bad. Because he could not look at us as humans anymore he didnt, he couldnt see why his random bans and bad engages hurt us so much and why we were so mad, he couldnt see why we disliked him so much or he didnt care. He couldnt see that it was entirely his fault we lost, not because of his bans those matter only so far, but because he refused to work with us and ended up losing his lane and ultimately the game.

So this too me is an extreme form of dehumanization, at the point where we were nothing but pixels to him and so he had no problem doing and saying whatever he wanted.

Pikalicious7/31/2014, 11:48:24 AM2 votes

A lot of people I’ve talked with know the average online game (or general internet user) is on a lot lower expectations of respect and behavior than normal people, usually attributing them as kids or socially inept as either an insult or justification. What I find most interesting though is the fact that it’s an issue that many don’t take the time to look at, largely (in my experience) because it devolves into an argument of “just be a better person”.

I would refer to the devolvement of a conversation about 'the dehumanization of players by players' into an argument of 'just be a better person' as an evolvement rather. What more can a man aspire to, than to be more than human.

I do understand your point however, some people simply cannot be profound. The non-eloquent don't vie to express deeper meaning, and those dull of mind simply do not have wit enough to find it. Many of Earth's human simply search for the shallowest, easiest to explain bits of information.

But an argument about why people simply cannot be better, is one of the greatest questions man can ever pose to man; As a wise man once said: "If men were angels no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary,"

The post was fantastic. I'm honestly incredibly new to forums.

However, I disagree that much of the 'bashing' and 'rage' derives from a player's dehumanization of a target. I think that it all derives from anonymity.

If you feel you do not dehumanize often or at all, what do you do to make sure you don’t, if anything?

A very seriously posed question...

Maybe it is just me, but in the back of my mind it is always sitting there that I am slinging attacks at another human being. This is a person, a thinking, breathing person. Yes, I at times may refer to another through their champion's name- but I never do that out of disrespect to them or because I have suddenly forgotten that they are a human being- most of the time I do it because their ID is gibberish. Now while this may be still (in an involuntary sense) a type of dehumanization, simply because a name of a champion reduces a perceived human being to streaming bits of data, the matter of the fact is that I as a human being am not actively attempting to disengage myself from the fact that my opponent is a human being. I think that there is a big distinction between dehumanization (one human trying to make out another human less of a human) and 'what ever word this may be' (to assign something a symbol).

While I could have an entire separate [SALT] post on trash talking (and why so many people are so bad at it) and probably will, what I’m getting at is that every friend I talk with that trash talks on a regular basis are actually really nice and considerate people outside of the game.

Personally it is my firm belief that if you conduct yourself poorly online, you are a poor person in real life. You should be ashamed of the people you know.

If you are considerate in real life, what is preventing you from being considerate online? Absolutely nothing.

An individual who cannot conduct himself considerately online is simply a poor person. Because one is by nature not a good person, anonymity allows one to show their true colors- that is why the internet is the playground of trolls- enabling a person to act a way they naturally so desire to.

The online charades a person plays on-line is no facade, who they are in real life is the true facade. Anonymity allows people to move beyond what socialization has inclined them to obey: inhibitions and the like; Anonymity is a tool by which people may actively act out without ever having to pay (or much less even worry about the repercussions) for having crude, fucked up, obscene, disgusting, rancid, and evil genuine-to-self opinions, manners, habits, and feelings (I mean of course, that are 'crude...and evil' by my morals, opinions and beliefs, not by society's normalities).

MarkofShame7/15/2014, 9:47:24 PM2 votes

Honestly I hate to say TL;DR because i loved the insight behind it, I just dont have a lot of time atm and I wanted to get in something first. I recall there being studies showing that anonymity isnt actually what causes the sort of bad behavior, but the lack of consequences for ones actions. I do believe that there is a large amount of dehumanization on the internet and I think it more comes down to the fact that once I play a game with someone or interact with someone, the odds of me ever interacting with them again is so unlikely I dont even care to remember their name. Thats not really anonymity that is a represetation of the complete lack of community that actually exists on the internet.

I really hope later I can come back and give your post the credit it deserves and give it a whole read and maybe more comments. Great ideas though. Also I definitely would love the teamwork one vs carry a team next! :P

Angry Monster7/16/2014, 12:14:45 AM2 votes

Are humans my team mates? I mean i know my team mates mess up alot (so do I) but that is all that i have to verify that i am playing with humans. How do I know this is not all a dream?

Ok now for the point of that. We are not directly dealing with humans. We are working with tech that shows images and we manipulate some of the images. If a new player knew nothing about this game and someone else loaded a custom with all bots how would they know it was a bot game minus champs names ____ bot?

Well I hit a short history of gaming in the last SALT and how I feel that it was tired to the age/behavior. Not sure if i should copy that post over. ArmaMalum your thought?

I know for fact I treat my team mates as human, I think most humans are stupid and follow predictable patterns. (yes i am a bit of a blunt jerk). Players tend to do what they think is best for themselves. If they think treating players like humans will get them a win they will. If they think treating players like trash or doing there own thing will get them a win, they will.

The problem is that there is no direct tangible(funny word for virtual world issues) feed back that shows treating others as humans get you wins. Not treating them human can piss people off yes. Also riot says that nice players get more gold/wins, but that does not translate to anything in each game. I have won games where others are jerks, and lost games where people were nice. Does contradict what Riot teaches? Can we just count on our skill alone? Was overall skill the only real factor? What the game tells us and what riot tells are 2 different things. Odds are Riot is right about team work ect. but skill can override that. The only tangible thing that league teaches that skill can over come most things. After all we have all lost games even being nice.

I do not care about my team mates out side of that game(unless IRL friends). I am not going to be playing more games with them. They are just a means to my end. I want to win, and only win. If being nice gets me what i want i do it. If being a jerk and making my team do smart plays get me the win, I do that. I will drag my team kicking and screaming if i have to to victory. Cause i need my team for that one game. They are a resource that riot bestowed on me for better or worse for the next 40 minutes. They are not random people. They are just a resource i can use.

That said i am a jerk.

MackleDoge7/15/2014, 5:28:40 PM2 votes

Alright, I'm back from Boston folks, so I'll actually now be a bit visible on the new Boards (really liking this update personally), but anyways, on to the post!

I tend to chalk up any time I've been flamed or insulted to dehumanization. Not specifically that the person doesn't think of me as another person but more in the aspect that they don't really measure or value the effect their words have on me as a person, or on any other person for that matter. For them it is just a matter of venting in that game and then they immediately forget it and move onto the next game. They just don't take into account how the person on the other end may interpret or experience the verbal venting that they are doing, which normally they most likely would, or would at least be less virulent in their comments if it was actually another person visually in front of them.

As far as this issue effecting people I play with or others that I know, I actually see it an awful lot. I play with two people in particular that aren't level 30 and one that just hit level 30. Part of my group of friends in real life. They don't have the full understanding of the game yet and don't have a large amount of player experience built up to help them play the lane or make good decisions for positioning and team fights. An unfortunate side effect of this is that they often end up playing with randoms or against randoms that are level 30 and have been for awhile so they have a set expectation of someone's skill level already. It invariably ends up with one of them getting blamed by the random or flamed by the opposing team because of a silly mistake. I attribute this to dehumanization in the aspect that people in the game forget that the people on the other end have different experiences and a different learning curve in gaining knowledge and being able to use that knowledge in game.

I dehumanize the majority of the randoms that I play with simply because I'm most likely not going to see them again and I'm not overly concerned with the person on the other end or what they are doing as a person on the other end either. I don't dehumanize them in the respect that I flame them or insult them, I don't bother with that stuff, and the only time I'll say anything that might lead to conflict is when they are flaming someone to begin with and I'm trying to get them to stop and calm down. I guess it just boils down to the fact that I'm busy playing the game, and I'm not really concerned with the other people on my team as actual people. That being said, I'm not opposed to talking with the people on my or the opposing team if they want to, and I have had plenty of fun games with both teams joking around back and forth and to me those games are the best examples of dehumanization of the people in the game not always happening.

To me dehumanization is probably the third largest contribution to toxicity in League, it's easy to abuse someone that you don't really consider as a person or actually have to value and acknowledge their existence as another human being. The other two largest factors are the overall acceptance of toxic behavior being okay in League and the anonymity of the internet. Why not flame if people flame you? Why not harass and abuse this person over the internet where no one knows your a dog? That sort of thing.

Overall, I don't think dehumanization in games by itself is a bad thing, it is sort of impossible to really avoid, and I don't even think it is something that should be avoided. I will say that dehumanization can have negative impacts, but I feel it is largely contingent on the game community and the person doing the dehumanizing. After all, dehumanization is pretty huge in all manners of online gaming, and yet I have great experiences with the Diablo 3 community and the Borderlands 2 community.

Earl Eulrich7/17/2014, 1:09:00 AM1 votes
  • Can you think of a time where dehumanization has affected you? Were you aware of it later?

I don´t really tend to care about stomping a lane in terms of giving someone a bad day, i just focus on the mechanical layer then - though after the game is over i often try to condulence people that had a bad game.

> - Can you think of an example where you believe dehumanization affected a friend of yours? A random player? (PLEASE do not include summoner names, I will not condone naming and shaming here)

sometimes usually firendly/respectful friends of mine like to ridicule opponents a tad...might actually be an effect of dehumanization

  • There are plenty of other factors for the natural and accepted levels of toxicity in the League playerbase, would you consider dehumanization a major factor? Why or why not? If not, what would you consider the largest factor?

It sure plays a major role in lowering the inhibition treshhold for people that lack the maturity to treat others with some basic respect, though I think frustration is a bigger factor most of the times...teams that are winning aren´t likly to flame each other

> - Overall, what is your opinion on the effect of dehumanization?

the above

I don´t really think you can attribute the decline in manners directly to dehumanization on the internet, I think a big part of it also can be contributed to having conversations with a broad variety of generations - so conflict is somewhat expected. Most of the internet-users are quite young, especially in online-games and really lack the self-awareness and experiencet to constantly reflect on their own behaviour and their environment. That´s sth. you can most certainly oberserve outside of the internet aswell, but you seldom have contact with people less mature than yourself outside of specific contexts (like family reunions), which can greatly influence their behaviour.

The real threat of Dehumanization can be seen in bureaucrazy and media, when things like war or refugees will be broken down to numbers only...and you will watch it, think about it for a minute and then shove it aside. On the one hand it may keep one from getting crazy, but it´s really brutal how much pain and suffering we can witness in this world without wasting much actual thought on it.

MrBuffington7/15/2014, 8:45:31 PM1 votes

I'm not sure if this is an example of dehumanization, but I tend to be pretty wary of people who play certain champions. I think it's more of a judgmental thing than a dehumanization, but I guess judging people based on their champion selection is a bit of a dehumanization as well. I know I am guilty of certain dehumanizing practices, for example I will call someone by their IGN during lobby, but once they pick a champion, they are that champion for the rest of the game. I guess I can make an excuse and say that this is just a way of dealing with the vast amount of information in the game, but I'm not really thinking about the character as a person, more a character with certain attributes and abilities and how to best utilize that in a game. It's really only when something goes right/wrong that I remember that there's a person controlling that character (ie. this Leona player is really smart about switching focus or that Fizz player is playing too aggressive).

For example, to this day, I still don't like Aatrox, largely because I had a particularly toxic experience with a player. Honestly the experience was pretty extreme, to a comical level, (It reached a level where it was no longer insulting but ridiculous and funny, for some reason). I've been correcting some of these stereotypes, but human pattern recognition/invention is strong (which is the root of all discrimination), it's often difficult to divorce very frequent patterns you see, especially at a subconscious level.

I sometimes find that a simple "/all glhf" at the start of the game can improve the mood significantly, though it's disappointing to hear/see a lot of people just get flamed for this. Other jokes and comments can help (ie. I will often flirt with the enemy Taric). I will often also try to defend players who are getting flamed by their teammates, on my team or the other (oddly enough I feel like I have more success defending people on the other team).

Honestly I was a very toxic player in the past, not to people in the game, but to a irl friend of mine who I played a lot with. We're still friends, but I was a lot of the reason he stopped playing the game (that and he just doesn't like MOBAs too much. We played again a while later and he just didn't enjoy the game, even though he was doing well and I wasn't trash talking him). If anything, he's to thank for my improvement as a player, him quitting the game was a right slap in the face for me. I'm not an angel by any means and I'll still lose my temper from time to time, but every time I do, it's a reminder for me to take a step back and focus on what I need to.

Sorry if all of that was off topic, with respect to dehumanization, I think there's a lot of discussion of the anonymity of the internet that allows for toxicity. Not to mention, pre-game lobby isn't the best place to have an ice-breaker/meet-and-greet. I think that communication is actually a good way of rehumanizing people, so long as that communication is productive. Even pinging objectives can help remind us that there's a person thinking strategically about the game, and not just an avatar or champion running around the map. Having fun in the game and communicating that is a good way of bringing a team together.

That's all I got for now :P

Dragon Fang Shot7/15/2014, 9:44:00 PM1 votes

I've got a story from my early LoL days about dehumanization. I only remember this because it was one of my first ever PvP games.

So, before I tell the story there's something that need to be cleared up. At the time, the machine I played League on was equivalent of a hamster on a wheel chasing after a potato that just popped out of the toaster. Yeah, it was that bad. That game I really wanted to play Karthus mid (I think I saw Reginald play him a few times and wanted to try him), so a carry mid with a laggy machine probably won't end well.

That was all agitated by a toxic top laner. I'll refer to them as Shen since that's the champion they were playing. Shen was constantly harping on my mistakes and did not try to help me improve as a player at all. One friend who I was playing with was trying to defend me, but to no avail. the Shen kept talking down to me for my poor performance in one of my first PvP games.

It devastated me pretty hard. I didn't play another PvP for the rest of the summer at least. If my memory serves me right, I didn't end up playing one until somewhere past October. I really didn't feel safe playing when I was attacked personally just because of how I played in a game.

I generally try to avoid dehumanizing other people because it happened to me a lot when I was just starting to pick up PvPs again, but I find that when I do, it's either me talking with my friends outside of the in-game chat, or it's an opponent who started to dehumanize me/a teammate of mine. Sure, it doesn't always go over well, but I want people to feel safe and human.After all, it is just a game.

OblongOtter7/16/2014, 1:52:20 AM1 votes
  1. I don't think so.
  2. Yeah I actually became great friends with someone on my friends list because we were talking about how people were jerks and ridiculed her for being a girl.
  3. I like to get into legit conversations with people. I also am generally very talkative in game, plus I never try to be rude to anyone, ever. (unless they're total dicks.)
  4. OH FOR SURE. People can be jerks, but jerks are so prevalent on the internet. Even I've been a jerk on very rare occasions (like the day after I lost my cat) and I would be able to see the person's face in real life and instantly stop.
  5. I feel it makes people not act nearly as good as they could or should. In the words of Matt: "Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes."