We’ve all seen the memes of the Call of Duty voice chats getting leaked and how we talk to our friends and random people online, saying the most awful things to people that I can’t repeat on here. Basically, nothing was off limits when speaking in voice chats and in a lot of games, that’s still how they are. In the early 2000s, the gaming community wasn’t nearly as diverse as it is now and had a much smaller community playing them and a lot of the people playing them who were, to put it kindly, not the most mature. Before the pandemic, gaming was a lot more niche, however so many people got introduced to gaming so quickly it became the fastest growing industry and with that, a lot of new gamers would find out what it’s like to get their whole bloodline insulted.
Within friend groups, people say stuff they wouldn’t say in public and the same applies for people online. We are less restrained with how we talk because it feels like it’s just a screen we’re talking to and not a real person. Many people don’t realize that the internet is just like a public space, given how many people from all ages and backgrounds use it. So, when a community that was completely okay with using hateful language now does this to people who might just be a kid. This isn’t like a rare occurrence either. It’s so normal that kids adopt this language without understanding the social cues of what language is appropriate to repeat. Whether we mean to or not, we’re directly raising kids to speak like this.
As we established, internet slang can be offensive. Terms include using ‘gay’ as a synonym for ‘bad’, or slurs for neurodivergent people as a way to call someone stupid and other hateful things are so common at this point that people aren’t even shocked hearing them online. They’ve come to accept that this is just how online gaming is. Again, it’s still just a screen you see, and you don’t even know who the person is or even hear their voice – you can only see their character. It can also be part of the issue of people not understanding their digital footprint enough to know that you are not as anonymous on the internet as you might think, and if you don’t want to deal with the consequences of saying something, don’t say it.
To play devil’s advocate I would say some of the burden is on the individual person to do their research on the online community they’re thinking of joining. I would also say that words’ meanings can change overtime and may become less offensive. In a way, words have already changed meaning on the internet like a few years ago when swearing on the internet was less common around large content creators. Today, people don’t care as much – it just becomes normal English words and the meaning of using it to attack members of the group has been lost in a way as it gets more common it’s just a word that people use as internet slang in a way it’s like the way the word ‘queer’ evolved into a word that isn’t offensive anymore. To simplify it, it’s complicated. Generally, it’s an issue with staying in communities you’re comfortable with; online gaming is very diverse if you go to the right games. However, there are a lot of communities which are far less accepting of new players. In summary, gaming isn’t just one group anymore. Lots of different people gravitate towards different games, sometimes with a toxic community, but you still can stay with the crowds you feel comfortable with.