The screeching of diabolical insults heard thundering through the bowls of my small two-bedroom apartment. Rapid typing of the keyboard letting out all the destructive and dishonest hate left over from the daily grind. The typical everyday happens of an online multiplayer game chat room.
No one night separates itself from the other. One fades into another. Was it one game last night or five? What words or phrase did I use to achieve the ultimate goal of spitting the greatest chemical fire a living being has experienced from a virtual realm of unsophisticated slurs.
Most nights filled to the brim with everyone’s revolting language. Through the red filter we finally see salvation as we are greeted with the opportunity to call our opponent a trash water slurping, grotesque mongoloid of a human being that was birthed from the loins of a goat. One more game, one more escape from the horrifying reality that has taking many a mortal to the brink of absolute insanity. What seems like the spawning pool of mental illness and abuse to me is actually a sense of relief as I can finally let out all the anger and stress from the day prior.
Trash talking is one of the most therapeutic way to release my fury upon the metaphorical punching bag that is strangers on the internet. On the physical plane I find the risk of harm from others, ridicule from my peers, and a life of shame where everyone thinks I’m equivalent to demons of ages past. But in the online world I’m free to make my peace. On the battlefront we all know it for our own mental sake to call someone a spineless jellyfish who can only succeed by sucking the morsels of their superiors. But then the end game chatroom comes and together we release a GG. A hardy good game. We all come together because we know that reality waits for us in the morning.
I believe that the toxic material thrown in video chat rooms is a form therapy. One of my friends has over thirty banned accounts on League of Legends for toxic behavior. He no longer enjoys the thrill of victory; he enjoys scorning his teammates when they misplay and expects no mercy in return. Now I may not have any banned accounts, but the principal is still the same. Some games I go for the epic victory royal, but others I kick back let lose the dogs of war. Just make sure you always give them a meaningful good game in the endgame it’s only good manners.
I am a semi competitive gamer who enjoys a wide verity of game who somehow has never received a ban, suspension, or chat restriction in any online multiplayer player game if played so far. Toxicity is an art form that can be perfected to not hurt but make someone think “dang I just got burned.”
