Observation Paper Draft

If you spend anytime online interacting with strangers you know that they can be rude and uncouth with little provocations, and for what seems like no reason at all. Or worse, people will be say things they know are morally, and socially unacceptable for the purpose of getting an outraged reaction out of others. I consider myself an “online junkie” and I have from time to time been guilty of both the former and the later. I know that the majority of Internet users are at least guilty of the first unintentionally, and have at least encountered the later once in their online experience. Maturity is thrown out the window, or left in the real world, in all walks of life when it comes to the Internet. I've seen housewives, parents, pet owners, doctors, lawyers, students – the list can go on forever – loose their dignity over text on a screen. I've heard young men screaming into their expensive, and sensitive microphones over an intangible object in a video game.

Let's be honest to ourselves, the Internet is a refuge from a world where one is held accountable for the things they say and do. There are exceptions to this, of course, that happen ever so often where people have incriminated themselves with their social networking web pages costing them their jobs, marriages, or earning themselves jail time. But usually people can say the most vile things - like racial slurs – without ever having to face the consequences – an angry mob consisting of the offended race.

The online gaming community is a little different, and I stress the use of the word “little”. I find that most of the time the mature adults that like to indulge in online gaming are pretty civil, and I stress the use of the word mature. I've believe that this is because they have a virtual representation of themselves, and the more time they invest in the game, the more they care about their virtual reputation. When some one has invested years into a game, they tend to avoid the type of behavior that would get them banned from the game. Of course, like with all things in life, there are always exceptions.

Xbox Live is the service provided by Microsoft that allows gamers to connect their Xbox 360s online and play their favorite games with or against their friends and strangers. Xbox Live is for both casual gamers, who like occasional gaming sessions from their living room, and gamers who consider themselves hard core, and practice to compete in competitions at conventions for the ultimate validation. Microsoft rarely bans anyone for social misconduct, they only ban for cheating and hacking. Instead they rely on the gamer to rate the people they play with. You can avoid other gamers, or prefer other gamers, but this has no real consequence to the person being rated. Even the most offensive gamers can continue gaming to their hearts content spewing misogynistic racial slurs to their hearts content after being rated negatively. This also leads to some shocking, but amusingly offensive gamer tags.

Gamer tags are the handles in which gamers go by on Xbox Live. Think of it as your Xbox Live name. You can some times anticipate an unsavory gamer by their gamer tag. If you start a match and some one with the name “xxGreasyballsxx” joins, it is safe to assume you have a potential hooligan in your presence. The “x” in front of the name indicate that this person was not the first to think that “Greasyballs” would be an appropriate gamer tag.

In my time on Xbox Live I have tried to reason with these virtual delinquents only to receive unsatisfactory results. I breached the subject one day, with one rather rowdy young man, and he replied with a comment about my mother! My mother! Stooping to their level doesn't seem to phase them either. During one match one young woman relentlessly called me racial slur after racial slur, I lost my temper, and found myself without any control over my actions. I told her she sounded like a cow! To which she replied I sounded like a “fat negro”. The temerity!

Another fallacy of social conduct that one may expect on Xbox Live is the lack of sportsmanship. Your teammates can, and will betray you at any moment allowing the other team to win! I have been shot at by a teammate because they did not appreciate my appearance, I have also been shot at because I found a shotgun, and my teammate wanted it for himself!

I have decided that Xbox Live is no place for any person who values any sense of social decorum. Tread at your own risk or play with friends and family whom you trust!