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Just how large of a console population are gamergate / far right assholes?

TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
I use to think the assholes of the community was a very loud and vocal minitorty.

But I'm begining to wonder if I was just naive in my estimation?

What is the realistic distribution of bad faith actors, racist and sexist assholes on the home consoles.

PS4 - population 150m (or something crazy like that) in my mind it feels like there are 5 million far right douche bags

Xbox - 50 mil population ....2 million far right nazi's?

Then you have Nintendo which I still look at as a family system, does that attract this community as well? Is there white nationalist on there playing Animal Crossings?


Also what's a realistic expectations these big companies can do about this.....
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,662
This doesn't seem scientific at all.

One thing to note is that video games are way more interactive than other mediums. Started with forums in the early internet and stuff like Reddit, Twitch, Youtube, and Discord today.

Also, many white supremacist groups use things like Discord for recruitment.

www.nytimes.com

Opinion | Racists Are Recruiting. Watch Your White Sons. (Published 2019)

Parents need to understand how white supremacists prey on teen boys, so they can intervene.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

slate.com

White Supremacists Still Have a Safe Space Online. It’s Discord.

Far-right hate groups used the platform to organize their deadly rally in Charlottesville in 2017. A year later, Discord is still their social lounge.
slate.com slate.com

So it's hard to compare this to something like film as there is less of a community-based ecosystem that gaming has developed online.
 

citrusred

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,967
Is it really that many? This was more to do with comics which is a much smaller industry but remmember a twitter user who used blockchain (which I understand was a tool developed as a consequence of gamergate) that after using it it became clear that the usual agitators are just a few thousand people who all follow each other and consonantly try to start shit.
 
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

Banned
Apr 25, 2020
3,418
Judging by things like Call of Duty, it has to be something like 50% at least, but I do think when talking about gamers, the distinction between a casual couch rider who has got the shits after a hard day at work and decides to be a jackass online and core gamers who treat it as their main past time. I'm no analyst, but I think you'd find the prevalance of toxicity in the latter is far less than the former.
 
Kain

Kain

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
7,669
I don't there's so many but they are very loud. Bad fuckers are the loudest
 

Deleted member 2752

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,110
Very very few actually identify themselves as that, but from time to time their standpoints/framing moves into a greater audience and gets adopted, which is their goal. It's a weird form of radicalization.
 

Deleted member 22750

Oct 28, 2017
13,267
lots...I dont have a number

and they're vocal
so its amplified
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,188
I assume a lot of the far right/gamergate people are...literally children. People 13-17 that get their info from their favourite alt right streamers and still have very simple minded ideas like "girls cant play games" which manifest into worse ideologies as they stay in their echo chambers and grow older. Lots of kids really buy into the edgy humour of offending others. Many wont grow out of it, which to me is more a problem on how we dont teach social justice literacy as well as we should
 
Rattlethyhead

Rattlethyhead

Member
Jan 7, 2019
233
User Banned (2 Months): Dismissing concerns of bigotry across multiple posts, account in junior phase
How about we stop with the fucking political threads in the gaming side.
 
Ashes of Dreams

Ashes of Dreams

Fallen Guardian of Unshakable Resolve
Member
May 22, 2020
14,737
The vast majority of people who own a PS4 are not steeped enough in internet/game culture to know or care about Gamergate.

But there's still probably more than you'd think and way way more than you'd like.
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
21,055
It's probably a relatively small amount, but they're protected by the larger gaming culture as a whole that does its best to dismiss minorities at almost every opportunity.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,995
I used to think that they are the majority, but after seeing the union in the last few weeks I'm hopeful that they are just very loud and annoying.

TheGhost said:
Then you have Nintendo which I still look at as a family system, does that attract this community as well? Is there white nationalist on there playing Animal Crossings?
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AC and Splatoon communities are very women and LGBT friendly at least
 

Deleted member 56306

User-requested account closure
Banned
Apr 26, 2019
2,383
Probably more than we'd be comfortable with. Then there are those that agree with certain ideas because they don't know any better/ because they've been memed.
 
VanWinkle

VanWinkle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,100
Probably 1% or less? They're loud, though. They unfortunately make themselves look bigger than they are.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,125
There's really no way for us to tell.

Especially when they're louder than majority of the playerbase.

Maybe we can make a good estimate from the number of racist usernames or some shit.
 
VPplaya

VPplaya

Member
Nov 20, 2018
1,973
I can imagine a significant amount being those high schoolers who are in that sexist, racist, libertarian phase before they realize how privileged they are and how the real world works.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,125
CG Amor said:
According to an EA survey most are in favor of inclusion.

www.pcgamer.com

EA survey finds majority of players want games to be more inclusive

Only 13% don't think it's important.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com
Click to expand...
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A study made by EA's Global Consumer Insights team has found that 56 percent of 2,252 survey participants consider it important for companies to make their games more inclusive. 31 percent were "neutral" on the matter, and 13 percent said that inclusion was "not important".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That seems about right in my mind.

60% are decent people.
30% don't think about these things.
10% are shitlords.
 
OP
OP
TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
Rattlethyhead said:
How about we stop with the fucking political threads in the gaming side.
Click to expand...
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I mean when people's politics lead to harrasment of people simply trying to enjoy a game they paid for in an online environment it's very much needs to be discussed.

Just because the online portion is not rated doesn't mean it's ok to be a fucking asshole or hateful bigot to someone because of the color of their skin or nationality.
 
udivision

udivision

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,038
You have the gamergate/far right pool of people, and then the larger pool of people who say/do racist/sexist/bigoted stuff.
 
Opposable

Opposable

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,368
Nintendo has had 'controversy' in recent years with portions of fans angered by western censoring of how little women wear in games. I don't know if that's part of a political side.
 
Redcrayon

Redcrayon

Patient hunter
On Break
Oct 27, 2017
12,713
UK
Loads of the social media channels are stuffed full of 'Gamers' objecting to any kind of push for inclusion, even just a tweet about it. I feel like it's, at the most possible optimistic view, a vocal minority that's been enabled by the industry wanting their money too much for too long for them to categorically do anything about it. At worst, huge sections of the community are rife with it.
 
ArjanN

ArjanN

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,146
The people who are all in on that stuff are definitely just a loud <1% minority.

But like in the rest of society, almost everyone can be toxic, privileged, racist etc at times.
 
1-D_FE

1-D_FE

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,287
tzare said:
I guess about the same percentage as in real life?
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Is my guess. Trump has a floor to his approval ratings. Nothing short of renouncing the right's sacred cows would make those numbers drop. Those people are the same irredeemable assholes that make up gamer assholes. It's depressingly higher than it should be. Such a low bar too. Are you a complete piece of shit for a human being? No? You pass the bar. It's so low you have to intentionally kick it as you're walking over it.
 
It’s Time To Go

It’s Time To Go

Member
Dec 2, 2017
20,698
A lot more than you think. A lot of them try and cover it by saying 'they don't want politics' but it's a pretty poor cover for their alt right convictions.
 
Ashes of Dreams

Ashes of Dreams

Fallen Guardian of Unshakable Resolve
Member
May 22, 2020
14,737
As someone who works in a retail store that sells video games, I regret to inform everyone who thinks it's mostly teenagers that are like this... it's not.
 
ArrogantBastard

ArrogantBastard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,211
Rattlethyhead said:
How about we stop with the fucking political threads in the gaming side.
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Everything is political. Sorry, not sorry.

OT: I don't think it is possible to put a number on it, but the sheer amount of toxicity in chat and voice chat is one of the reasons why I automatically mute people. It just isn't worth it. I'm not sure if they really feel that way or if they are just doing it to get a rise out of people, either way I don't want any part of it.
 
OP
OP
TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
Nepenthe said:
It's probably a relatively small amount, but they're protected by the larger gaming culture as a whole that does its best to dismiss minorities at almost every opportunity.
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Yeah but see to me that's guilty by association and I lump them in with the numbers.

If there is a pool of a 100 gamers
And 10 of them are legit Nazi's
And another 10 aren't comfortable with that.....
but 80 of them are trying to shut down the conversation because "who cares it's just games"

That's just as bad in the grand scheme of things.

For example someone up above said
"Can we stop with the fucking political threads"

That person is probably not far right or a Nazi, but it's still part of the problem with out even realizing they are.
(I'm not using that example as a "report" unless he doubles down just using as an example)
 

Goodbye

Member
Oct 27, 2017
547
Gaming used to be such a great hobby to clear my mind but lately everything surrounding videogames gives me a negative vibe.

Racist streamers making you can't breathe jokes, content creators being rapist fucks... Even the companies themselves suck with their micro transactions, loot boxes and insane crunch time. And what's even worse, if someone tries to apologize you see thousands of comments that it isn't enough. No, they want to mark you like we're in the god damned 1940's.
 
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