There’s a little debate raging on within the Counter-Strike community about how poorly women, and people in general, are treated over in-game chat.
It’s always a debate worth having, although there’s a cold, uncomfortable reality that gamers should face. The Counter-Strike community isn’t just toxic to women: it’s toxic to everyone. WARNING: There is a lot of profanity, creepy questions and just generally unpleasant chatter. You have been warned.
People like to heap crap on Call of Duty and Xbox Live, or more recently League of Legends, for the level of salt its players dispense on a minute-by-minute basis. Those games didn’t develop a reputation for nothing, after all.
But it’s worth remembering that these games have absolutely nothing on the cesspit of humanity that Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source and Global Offensive seems to foster. It’s like a real-time manifestation of YouTube comments in a zero-sum video game. It’s truly awful.
Most people, particularly older readers, will be familiar with this already. But if you weren’t, here’s the two montages the CS:GO community has mocked up showcasing the standard of discourse that happens on a frequent basis. The first comes from swegZbot.
The second is the response, although the middle of the image probably encapsulates the entire debate perfectly. “Counter-Strike: Globally Offensive.”
Not much really needs to be said; the images speak for themselves. The CS:GO community doesn’t really treat one gender better than another — it just treats human beings like trash, from start to finish. In my experience, and this is running back almost 13 years now, that’s always been the case. It doesn’t look like it’s going to change, and Valve hasn’t made a great deal of effort trying to make it change.
If you want to read a thoroughly depressing discourse of the how’s and why’s, the ongoing thread is here. Don’t expect a pot of gold at the end, though.
Comments
25 responses to “Actually, The Counter-Strike Community Is Just Straight Up Toxic”
people online being complete and utter fuckwards.. more at 1.
edit: simply put if the game has a multiplayer component, be it pvp, team based or co-op, or even leader boards or even a text based chat system, the community is going be pretty fucking toxic as a general rule.
hell even venturing on the offical fourms for a singleplayer game like TES or Fallout and you still see some pretty damn toxic comments and trolls and flaming
Maybe I’m just lucky, but for the most part TF2, my main multiplayer game, has a great community. Every now and again some asshat will tell a female player to go medic because women can’t shoot good or equally dumb stuff, but the vast majority of the time people seem pretty civil.
Yeah, I used to play Cod 4 on a great server with a supportive community but every now and then you get people who come on and hack or just write abusive chat completely ruining the game if there was no admin. It stands to reason that if the game’s more popular and more competitive then the amount of abuse will increase. Sad but true.
Wait wait.. Are we ONLY JUST realising this now? It’s been like this since 1.6 days.
It’s pretty disgusting, and embarrassing. It’s not like gaming isn’t popular, people get so suprised when theres a girl playing a game lol You’d be hard pressed to find a few girls you know that don’t like gaming now.
The abuse goes both ways, girls really cop it the worst though. If you tell the person being a fuckwit to shut up they then gang up on you because you’re being a hero haha That’s what i experienced anyway.
The funny thing about it all is, these people probably have very little friends and live online to talk shit so they feel tough. If anyone spoke like that to a women in front of me or anyone i know they’d get their head kicked in, online they can get away with it.
I know people just say that’s just how it is online, and it’s to be expected. That kind of attitude has to change though. People that talk like that are dickheads and should be banned from the game. Screen shot, record or whatever and report them. If only that accomplished anything, sadly these idiots get away with it
No. You wouldn’t.
Not always. I play online with plenty of friends and I talk shit because the reactions I get are hilarious. PJSalt
The csgo player pool as a whole is just plain rubbish, featuring some of the worst humanity has to offer. If you haven’t played the game, don’t. Cheaters and other scum who lose deliberately etc run the game, and the developers aren’t interested in taking back control of it, so stay well away.
“If anyone spoke like that to a women in front of me or anyone i know they’d get their head kicked in”
Aaaah….. sweet irony
Vidya Games = Awesome.
Vidya Games + People = Sucks Old, Decrepid Donkey Balls.
No need for the homophobic comments mate.
Praise the power of report and block communication. If someone’s being properly offensive, report them and then block communication or chat. Makes life easier. No one has to be subjected to this kind of puerile, repugnant, arrogant, braindead harassment. Let’s just hope the powers that be actually follow through on the reporting.
The CS community has been a festering sore on gaming’s behind for more than a decade.
We are all to blame. Originally simply the group were simply ridiculed as kiddies. But the behaviour was semi-tolerated so it fermented in its own bile to the point where it is now. We should have quashed it years ago.
you need to play with more Australian players.
The most toxic bunch of curs known.
I think this is an overly complex issue and handing out bans left and right isn’t the correct way to deal with it. Trash talk is and always will be (I hope) a part of video game culture. Obviously there are certain things that are unacceptable, but by the same token it is easy to take some remarks out of context and, at the end of the day, this isn’t actually hurting anyone. I never got that into GO, but I did play the hell out of 1.6 back in the day and it was always an escape for me- a bit of trash talk makes you feel good about yourself when you’re winning and amps you up to play harder when you’re losing. Taking that away is taking something from the game and it’s not fair for new people who don’t necessarily understand the culture or haven’t been around it that long to come in and ruin it.
As I said before, obviously there are some things that are unacceptable and those who repeatedly engage in such behaviour should probably have their chat rights revoked for awhile, but I struggle to find anything that might offend me in either of those pictures (though I am a white male who probably needs to “check my privilege,” as they say).
Though I did just see the “shut up girl or I will rape you :)” in the first picture, that there is a good example of something that should garner a ban. Second pic still just comes across as navy seal shit to me.
Right. Trash talk is just a part of video game culture. Just like slavery is a part of American culture.
It’s people like you who makes excuses for the unacceptable on the grounds that “it’s the way we’ve always done it” that are propagating the problem.
Are you honestly comparing the treatment of humans as disposable goods to talking shit on the internet? Your comment says a lot more about you than it does me.
Arcane Azmadi: “Could I take my lunch break twenty minutes earlier today?”
Arcane Azmadi’s boss: “I’m sorry Arcane, lunch is at two o’clock, as it always is.”
Arcane Azmadi: “AS IT ALWAYS IS?! JUST LIKE SLAVERY WAS ALWAYS PART OF AMERICAN CULTURE?!”
Arcane Azmadi’s boss: “…”
Arcane Azmadi: “Hitler.”
Actually, there is a shit load of cheaters that come from “down under” .. sop whos toxic now mate? lel. Another shitty article.
Who’s toxic now? Um… that would be you.
I loved the 1MAN!! CS:S server. Everyone there was a prick but we all had a laugh about it. Had some mighty fine late night sessions there.
I pretty much disable voice & text chat in CS:GO it’s all shit. I’m also sick of people playing on casual and complaining about how bad it is.
Any good Australian community servers out there for people who just want to have fun and not play seriously, this guy needs one.
This. I don’t even run my voice chat anymore. I’m sick of hearing 12 year olds telling me how they’re going to “rek” me. I’m honestly debating whether to disable text somehow – I’m also tired of “TRADING. ANYONE TRADING”
ive been playing cs since 1.5 and i never really saw much back then. CSS there was a little bit and in csgo i see it once every 50 games?
If you go into casual then you are going to get the bottom of the barrel scum players
People need to feel objectively “right” in the eyes of others. They get angry when they don’t win as it’s a display of objective dominance given to someone else. It’s why everyone has one or two causes they’re really into and judges everyone based on these (vegan diets, environmentalism) yet ignore other causes (perhaps refugees and gender equality) and somehow considers themselves free from the same responsibility they hold others to. People are stupid, emotionally reactive things, most react in veiled hatred.
It’s the online community in general. It all sucks for the most part. Anonymity is like the strainer that filters out the social refuse from the crowd. You can even see this when you’re driving where people will do absolutely ludicrous things without hesitation from inside the protective veil of their cars/helmets/etc.
As a female member of said community, I’ve long since burnt out and given up on any change at the individual level. Instead, I just pick gender neutral nicknames and avoid voice comms and such. Works out well enough for me most of the time. I do feel I miss out on some things like clans and such but playing with my partner and select friends fills that void.
I think I’ll just stick to singleplayer games.
You can disable chat, and voice. If your so “offended”, mute, or ignore. Today’s generation is so allergic to anything they dont agree with, so quick to get their feelings hurt…..they have no idea how to just ignore idiots and just go on with life. You dont need to start a crusade every time you get “offended”. Get over yourselves.