A wise man once said that a normal person, plus anonymity, plus an audience, equals…well, something we can’t reprint on a family-friendly website. But the tendency for anonymous crowds to be abusive is well-known, and adding in the competitive nature of online multiplayer games doesn’t help things.
If you’ve found yourself harassed by abusive players, there are a few things you can do to make your online games less frustrating. Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely inoculate yourself from abusive gamers…aside from staying offline altogether. But you can at least try to have a better time with these tips.
Don’t Be a Jerk
Okay, this seems like fairly obvious advice: any reasonable person knows that being mean to other people is a good way to get them to be mean right back. But you know who wouldn’t consider not being a jerk to deter other jerks? That’s right, a jerk. So for the sake of completeness, we’ll remind you that the golden rule still applies to online games: treat others the way you want to be treated. Yes, even if they’re Hanzo mains.
Don’t Engage
The number one thing that an abusive player wants to get from his or her interactions is attention. Therefore, the one thing you shouldn’t do when you’re actively being harassed is respond in any way.
This is harder than it sounds. If someone is being obnoxious or stupid, or hurling racist or sexist abuse at you, a desire to quip right back and shame them into silence is natural. Don’t do it. Remember that this person is gaining some kind of satisfaction from abusing anonymous strangers—there’s very probably nothing you could say, however correct or justified, that would stop them or change their mind.
On the contrary, any kind of response is only going to encourage them to keep up the abuse.Remember, everyone in the current game is there because they want to be playing. In this exchange, you have the ultimate trump card: the power to leave it at any time.
Block and Mute
Most multiplayer games with either text or voice chat have some kind…
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