Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by Spivak on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:00AM (#34052820)

The fact that online gaming chat is really really toxic. It's one of those things where christian mothers were right about video games but wrong about why. It turns out that artificial violence and guns and sex aren't some big corrupting influence but hanging around assholes for the majority of your leisure time and social activity absolutely is.

Online gaming where the only communication between players is jumping and canned voice lines is a wildly different experience.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by mardifoufs on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:13AM (#34052974)

Or maybe this is exactly the same as those christian mothers, in the sense that it's "think of the children" hysteria from modern day puritans?

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by Spivak on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:26AM (#34053135)

Oh no, it's "this shit is bad for absolutely everyone regardless of age and in some cases worse for adults, particularly young men, but it's politically infeasible to do anything to stop it once people turn 18."

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by mardifoufs on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:08AM (#34053683)

I get what you are saying, but I was more talking about the weird "it's different when we do it" that I got from the comment I was replying to. It's weird to distance yourself from that "video games bad" (because it's been mocked to death) craze while using the same arguments and tactics.

As for voice chat, I guess it would make sense to put children and minors in age appropriate lobbies? That way they can just talk to each other.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by devmor on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:38AM (#34053309)

I don't share your experience at all. In fact the the majority of online gaming chats I've been in have been relatively enjoyable and low drama.

It's generally the ones that have children in them that get toxic - I would guess because children have less developed social filters and act out their negative emotions more readily than adults.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by hourago on Monday December 19, 2022 @12:16PM (#34054645)

> It's generally the ones that have children in them that get toxic

That is the problem. Kids are learning from each other to be harmful and hateful as there is no consequences for that behaviour. In other spaces they will be called out by adults, but game chats become a learning place for the worst behaviours at the same time that this games are rated as "apt for children". Rate them 18+ or kill the chat, it is all about not lying to buyers.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by stevehawk on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:20AM (#34053070)

The irony is that the people I find to be most toxic in video games are the children. To the point that in a lot of "Looking for Group" Discord channels you see people saying "18+ only".

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by mrguyorama on Monday December 19, 2022 @04:09PM (#34057749)

It's almost like people without fully developed brains don't have very healthy social interactions in a giant soup of similar kids who don't know how to have healthy social interactions and the 4chan-ness of it just encourages being as angry and toxic as possible.

It's actually probably the same problem drivers face. When driving, your brain kind of ignores that other normal humans drive the other cars, and therefore you are extremely judgemental of their actions, because you expect them to be perfect. This is why so many people road rage.

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