Over the past decades, video games have become a part of everyday student life. According to the United States National Library for Medicine, roughly 36% of teens in the United States have played video games. Video games can help conjure a healthy, competitive environment which boosts confidence and can affect performance in the real world in a beneficial manner. However, too much can have malefic side-effects. What good does this information bring to the table? Video games are commonly perceived to alleviate stress from adolescents, however there are times wherein online games have done the opposite. Online games can create situations wherein players become too competitive, easily becoming frustrated with one another, leading to toxic attitudes amongst teens. Sometimes instead of helping alleviate stress, video games can aggravate it.
Yes, video games are used mainly for entertainment; they are the contemporary world’s unequivocal time killer. Multiplayer games often have various strangers playing in the same match, where an in-game chat box is implemented and even with the option to talk to one another (what happened to “never talk to strangers”?). The whole concept of playing with strangers however is a double-edged sword. There are at times differences in player’s opinions on how to play the game, leading to players “butting heads” which could lead to disagreements and at times toxic behaviours between players. Some even feel a layer of safety to be less cooperative and more “toxic” as the anonymity in video games makes it very hard for them to face real world consequences for their misbehaviors. Hence, video games can at times give a lot of space for different people to be as toxic as they want, creating a room filled with harassment, misogyny and racism. The anonymity that one has in the virtual world proves to not only be advantageous to the innocent that want to have fun, but also to those that want to cause trouble without getting caught. All these toxic behaviours brought upon by random strangers in an online game causes a chain reaction, in which teens are unknowingly picking up such toxic behaviour.
These issues don’t just occur in the common FPS gun-related games. This can also occur in gacha games, where success is heavily reliant on luck. A gacha game is a genre of video games that implement the “gacha mechanic”, which is a luck mechanic that functions similarly to the toy vending machines seen in arcades. It’s a purely chance game. With that in mind, let’s have a scenario: the rates to pull a super rare item are at 0.5%, meaning the odds that one would expect to get such a super rare item are 1 in every 200. But since the game purely relies on luck, the odds are always either above or lower than the average. Now let’s say that the amount of chances one gets to pull these rare items are exactly 200, hence expecting at least 1. Since the luck of this certain someone is really, really bad, they get nothing. However, someone they know managed to get 2 of these super rare items in only 10 chances. In this hypothetical situation, the other person is clearly luckier. This would definitely make one rage and possibly spew out harsh words to cope with the stress and frustration of the situation. The thought of being “worse” than others due to luck is quite absurd, making anyone stress about it. This aggravates stress rather than relieving it. The stress is brought upon by no one else but the person themselves, indicating how various types of games all contain stress within.
Gaming companies have also taken initiative to solve toxicity as well. Game developers such as Valve and Electronic Sports have launched anti-toxicity movements to help stabilise the gaming environment, slowing down the possible damage toxicity may have on mental health. For example, Overwatch by Blizzards Entertainment implemented a simple feature called the “Endorsement mechanic”. At the end of the game, players can award other players for their positive behaviours, showing up as a badge next to their in-game name. According to Blizzard, this in-game policing system, alongside their player reporting system, has had success, reporting a 40% reduction in overall toxicity in 2019. Though the system isn’t perfect and there are still some levels of toxicity present in the game, features like this help players know that game developers are actively making an effort to help create a better playing space for their gamers.
Keeping a stable mental health after a bad day of stressing over online games could be quite a challenge. Calming oneself down due to the harassment received may be tough. There are many ways to stabilise the mind after enduring stress, with sleep and regular exercise being the most common ones. If these methods don’t seem feasible, stress-eating could potentially be a last-minute option to keep a healthy mind — but not a healthy body. All in all, video games should ultimately be a stress-reliever, not the opposite. Despite online games becoming quite detrimental to even the most sophisticated people, spreading positive vibes and kindness would bring an ecstatic playing environment filled with good juju. Along with all the typical “be kind when playing online games” and “don’t talk to strangers” (despite being quite irrelevant with modern day video games), ignore all the hatred comments from others that would aim to diminish you. It may sound cheesy, but being a kind fellow to other games is actually a great way to solve toxicity. There are many people all over the world that just want to de-stress and have a fun time playing their favourite games and by being that positive figure they meet during the gaming experience, you not only enhance their quality time, but also act as a role model for those players to mirror in their own matches. Just because it’s a simple solution doesn’t mean it’s wrong!
Sources:
Cummings, H. M., & Vandewater, E. A. (2007). Relation of Adolescent Video Game Play to Time Spent in Other Activities. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161(7), 684. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.161.7.684
Wired Opinion. (2020, December 9). Toxicity in Gaming Is Dangerous. Here’s How to Stand Up to It. Retrieved July 25, 2021, from Wired website: https://www.wired.com/story/toxicity-in-gaming-is-dangerous-heres-how-to-stand-up-to-it/
Zigelman, K. (2020, February 17). How major gaming companies are COMBATTING toxicity in 2020. Spectrum Labs AI. https://www.spectrumlabsai.com/the-blog/how-major-gaming-companies-are-combatting-toxicity-in-2020.
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