Written by Citizen Alpha Wednesday, 10 March 2010 03:45

There are a lot of great aspects to multiplayer gaming from a society standpoint.  There’s study after study that shows what a positive impact gaming has had on most people. However I have experienced, as I’m sure a lot of you have, the flip side to interactions with strangers.  I’ve been called every name in the book, I’ve been personally berated, had my 4 year old daughter insulted, had people attempt to post my private information such as address and phone.  This is really nothing new and because the anonymity of the internet and inability of most users to stop such harassment.  I decided to do a little digging and try to define this type of behavior a little better.  The medical definition of what these people are is called a sociopath.

Nigger.  Faggot.  Kill yourself.  Die in a fire.  This isn’t the kind of stuff I’d hear after beating some kid at a trivial sports game in gym class.  If it was, you’d be damn sure that kid would be pulled aside for some sort of mental evaluation but yet on most any night playing in a public game for Xbox live you’ll hear some 12 year old kid rattling this kind of nonsense off without a second thought.

Visible symptoms include physical aggression and the inability to hold down a steady job. The sociopath also finds it hard to sustain relationships and shows a lack of regret in his or her actions. A major personality behavior trait is the violation of the rights of others. This can appear as a disregard for the physical or sexual wellbeing of another.

“Some researchers say only about one percent of the general population are sociopaths. Others put the figure at three or four percent.” I can think of a laundry list of players I’ve encountered that fit this description.  I’m no psychologist but after years of gaming and watching a few people I thought were normal, snap, or exhibit sociopathic tendencies I’ve concluded the following: most gamers are normal and otherwise mentally healthy people.  Much like books, TV, music, or any other media, video games provide an escape from life occasionally.  Who hasn’t come home from a rough day and played Grand Theft Auto or Modern Warfare 2?  Maybe just felt like relaxing and playing Portal or Medieval Total War.

“A sociopath's goal is to win. And he is willing to do anything at all to win.”

Video games provide a nice little break from life to go do something fun and nonsensical.  Most games reward players with some sort of accomplishment like in game money, achievements, or some kind of recognition.  Unfortunately there are those folks that see no such reward from life and the most achievement they’ll see is going to come in the form of a video game.  When you take that away you inspire rage and worthlessness that cause them to attack you on a personal level.  I’ve always thought you can tell a lot about someone when the chips are down, after years of gaming I’ve come to understand the worst kind of people are the ones that melt down when the chips don’t even matter.

There’s a wide variety of games out there but I find this type of stuff is most prevalent in MMO games.  MMO games attract a diverse population but they all typically have some sort of central message board whether it is official or not.  If you do frequent one of these forums take a look at some of the more vocal posters and see if that fit the above criteria.  I know the Citizens Coup Network has had its share of sociopaths with the Grand Theft Auto multiplayer server we ran and taking note of these key elements I think I can do a better job of gaming in the future by avoiding them.

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