Exploring Cyberbullying and Other Toxic Behavior in Team Competition Online Games

In this work we explore cyberbullying and other toxic behavior in team competition online games. Using a dataset of over 10 million player reports on 1.46 million toxic players along with corresponding crowdsourced decisions, we test several hypotheses drawn from theories explaining toxic behavior. Besides providing large-scale, empirical based understanding of toxic behavior, our work can be used as a basis for building systems to detect, prevent, and counter-act toxic behavior.Comment: CHI'1

Toxic Behaviours in Esport:A Review of Data-Collection Methods Applied in Studying Toxic In-Gaming Behaviours

Online competitive multiplayer games (esports), although enabling positive social interactions and skillset growth, are notoriously known for their prevalence of toxic behaviours. Seeking to develop greater understandings and explanations of such behaviours, researchers have used a range of empirical data-collecting techniques, encompassing self-reports, log data, and observational methodologies. The objective of this article is to review the current research literature and its application of these methodological approaches for studying toxic behaviours in esports. Following systematic review procedures, 54 empirical research articles were reviewed. Based on this review, it is demonstrated that knowledge of toxic behaviours is typically based on self-reported accounts (e.g., through surveys and interviews), while lessestablished methodological techniques available for capturing naturalistic behaviours of toxic encounters stand under-used. Drawing on recent developments in video-based research on violence and bystander interventions, an argument is made that online video-based behavioural analysis holds promising potential to address this research gap.Online competitive multiplayer games (esports), although enabling positive social nteractions and skillset growth, are notoriously known for their prevalence of toxic behaviours. Seeking to develop greater understandings and explanations of such behaviours, researchers have used a range of empirical data-collecting techniques, encompassing self-reports, log data, and observational methodologies. The objective of this article is to review the current research literature and its application of these methodological approaches for studying toxic behaviours in esports. Following systematic review procedures, 54 empirical research articles were reviewed. Based on this review, it is demonstrated that knowledge of toxic behaviours is typically based on self-reported accounts (e.g., through surveys and interviews), while lessestablished methodological techniques available for capturing naturalistic behaviours of toxic encounters stand under-used. Drawing on recent developments in video-based research on violence and bystander interventions, an argument is made that online video-based behavioural analysis holds promising potential to address this research gap

Toxicity in Valorant: a general panorama and analysis of a female player experience

Video games have become one of the most lucrative industries in the world with a substantial growth specially after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With its raising importance, research about the gaming industry and its issues had also come to a growth. A lot of these works approach the toxicity inside this gaming community as main Thema and the causes and consequences surrounding it, as well as how machismo and gender bias can affect a player experience both as casual player and professional ones. Valoran, a game from the First-Person-Shooter (FPS) gender, collaborative multiplayer from Riot Games Company, was released in 2020, being a relatively new game that contains a high toxicity rate, it became, then, relevant to focus research on the purpose of studying toxic and disruptive behavior inside the game and understand if and how toxicity and sexism can affect a player experience inside it. Data from both real Valorant matches, played by the author of this present research, and from a questionnaire available for other players through social media, was collected and analyzed through both qualitative and quantitative analyses to trace a panorama of toxicity in this game. The approach of the methodology was mainly exploratory, encountering corroboration in previous research. The results indicated toxicity still as a big issue inside the Valorant Community independently of a player’s rank, server or gender. However, it was found that gender related toxicity, albeit less frequent, is also still a problem and happens in a way more incisive and aggressive manner when it comes to offend or harm female players, becoming a harder task to cope with when compared to general toxicity related, for an example, to player performance. It also indicated that although toxicity detection in text chat is improving in Valorant, there is still a weak point in toxicity detection and combat from Riot Games when it comes to the voice chat and toxic non-verbal behaviors such as trolling, especially when data indicated that these are the most common toxicity forms of display in game matches

Navigating Toxic Identities Within League of Legends

Toxicity is an inevitable part of online gaming for many individuals that participate in the activity. How individuals navigate this behavior affects not only the community but the players themselves. In essence, online world environments affect the identity of the individual within them. The magic circle separates the gaming world and the real world into two separate and distinct places, however crystalized selves posits that the identity of an individual in one sphere is part of the individual in another. Understanding the connection between these two ideas gives rise to the question of whether or not toxic behaviors in a game carry outside of the game. This study aimed at defining toxicity from the point of view of gamers in League of Legends and then determined whether or not the behaviors from in the game carried outside of the game. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty individuals currently a part of the game League of Legends. Results indicated that participants view toxicity in unique ways but at the same time all share communal definitions of what is toxic. Further, behaviors and identities in game were not as separate as the magic circle describes, with participants indicating that their online identities and behaviors converged with the real world the older they get. Overall, the findings of the study suggest that the real world and play world are more connected than some theories suggest, and that toxicity is a phenomenon that is as unique as it is universal

Community in the Crowd: Motivations for Commenting on Twitch.tv Live Streams

Twitch.tv is a growing platform designed or interaction, communication, and socialization. It is space for content creators and viewers can to interact and build communities. Although it is not exclusively video game streams, Twitch.tv has become a major player in the industry. This study is a thematic analysis of comments made during live streams of video game content. The questions guiding this research were: What do viewers comment about on streams? What do these comments reveal about their motivations for participating? What are the variations between content types? After analyzing 9084 comments across 10 streams, what was found was that a major motivation for Twitch.tv viewers is the creation and maintenance of social bonds. Additionally, the building of hype was a large motivator. There was a small but widespread number of toxic comments. This research shows that Twitch.tv acts as a center for communities to grow around unique streamers and the potential significance of the platform itself

Pekka : social software to improve in-game dynamics

Video games are like virtual cities. Similar to towns in the real world, virtual cities contain facilities and communities represented by game elements and players. There is a question for us: Can a game be a better city? To answer the question, we need to understand what a good city looks like. Generally, a good city needs sound facilities and harmonious communities. Similar to a real city, we need to build more advanced game elements and peaceful game communities to make the game to be a better city. Games like Paragon have failed because they lacked game communities, even though it was one of the best graphic free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, which means the game communities are one of the significant element for games

Altruism Online: An Ethnographic Exploration into League of Legends

If League of Legends can provide a social model for cooperation and altruistic behavior, the source of this behavior can be easily derived for future applications. What allows five strangers from all walks of life to come together, or fall apart may also be indicative of what allows global leaders to cooperate in a gg, or be confronted with defeat. League of Legends has provided for five possible ways by which a diverse population can come together to achieve a state of cooperative altruism. Through a shared identity, and an efficient communal dialect, players from around the world can relate to each other and communicate effectively. Through exposure and representation of minority identities, players can overcome preexisting stigmas that would otherwise interfere with cooperation. With values that mirror global capitalism, and a character roster that is relatively diverse, League of Legends provides for an environment that most players can relate to furthering their ability to cooperate. Finally, a shared justice system maintains and molds player behavior to allow for smoother cooperation and a more pleasant experience overall. Through lessons such as these, we are able to better our own understanding of what can make, or break cooperation in the globalized context that our world exists in

Ludic Taunting: Does Taunting Work Differently in Video Games?

Studies on taunting in video game context tend to mull over around how players taunt other players via online chat features. Studies on how taunting works in games with in-game taunt features are under investigated. Examining twenty-seven gamestory-wise and gameplay-wise games, we argue, through this sociolinguistic study, that taunting designed for game characters is better termed ludic taunting since it has different functions from that of taunting in games with online chat feature and in real life. Ludic taunting has two major functions namely narrative and mechanical. The former which refers to taunting for game story-bound purposes is classified into archetyping, cameoing, and mythopoesing. The latter, for game play-bound purposes, is classified into buffing, cosmeticizing, cueing, debuffing, hinting, and rewarding. Game designers and scholars could employ this study as a reference in designing games with in-game taunt features