I recently found myself responding at length to a comment posted on one of my YouTube videos in the mobile gaming section. The fellow (Keroberus R) made mention of his Autistic friend being bullied by members of the games community on one of the servers. This reminded me of the tumult of Hate and extremism that I to have found so commonplace in mobile games over the years.
I did in fact type up such a long response that it well exceeded the character limit of the YouTube Comments sections and I hade to break it up into separate posts. I think the points I mentioned in my response were worthy of remembrance as they may inspire others to fight for some real change.
Keroberus R‘s comment:
My response (BOLD added for emphasis):
I am sorry to hear of your friends mistreatment by the community in this game. Yes, unfortunately many mobile games are home to Bullying, Racism, Misogyny, and Christian Supremacy. Having been driven from the more sociable areas of the internet, hate groups have certainly found solid footing in the domain of mobile gaming.
Such problems are further conflated by apathetic developers and moderators that do not properly address or remove flagrant offenders. The bulk of mobile games we find on the App and Play stores are developed in non-English speaking countries that will be unaccustomed to Hate as it is understood in Western nations. As such they are often ill-equipped to staunch the flow of hateful rhetoric upon their platforms.
We as players often have little recourse when confronted by such divisive language, we are left to either leave the platform or ignore the hate. Advocacy and education remain our best tools to fight these troubles.
There are three (3) points that must be driven home by those that advocate for change.
First: The App stores where these games are made available must be made to recognize their role in stopping the proliferation of extremist content.
Second: To hold all developers (games and otherwise) accountable for speech and actions of their userbases.
Third: An end to anonymity in gaming; users must be required to provide to developers their legal identification upon registration.
While other users of the platforms would not be able to access such personal information, developers would be able to use this to properly enforce rules and issue very permanent bans upon offenders.
Concerned Interest Groups made up of players or the parents of players, may also opt to seek legal action against the App stores or game developers for failing to manage and enforce their own rules against hate, offensive, or extremist content.
#advocacy #change #bullying #racism #misogyny #christiansupremacy #education #outreach
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