The Salt is Real
“What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.”
–Eric Hoffer
by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker
Hate mail is probably the sincerest form of flattery.
I personally receive hate mail all the time: when it comes to my Home fashion works, beating people in a game of Tekken or Dead or Alive, or when I’m giving enough power or heals in DC Universe Online. When I use my mic in some games, I receive a gracious “STFU” from some other would-be “salty” player because I tend to laugh a lot while I play; it’s part of my character.
When things aren’t going your way in some games, the frustrations mount and it can add up pretty quickly if it just isn’t your day. Rank matches, tournaments, even a casual game of Hopscotch can add a ton of stress — and if you’re not properly prepared, then you’re in for one heck of a losing streak.
Well, life has that to offer and some people just don’t tend to “get” the gist of what it means to take a chill pill nowadays.
For instance: in a Tekken Tag Tournament 2 match-up you’re paired against a player who doesn’t know anything about the game. Heck, he doesn’t even know what the words “Tekken” or “swizzlesticks” means. He’s just another opponent that is possibly getting the hang of the game and is impressed by the amount of pretty colors displayed on the screen.
You, however, are geared up and ready for action. You’ve been studying your characters, outfitting them in some of the best ensemble the money can buy in-game, and even know your frame traps. Gatorade on one side, nachos on the other, and in the back of your mind is the statement that keeps echoing repeatedly: “I got this!”
You’re pumped and ready to go.
The match is underway; best 3 of 5.
And somehow, some way, the set goes in the opponent’s favor.
Everything you’ve worked for — all the studying, the Crunchin’ Munch dieting that you’ve undergone the entire two weeks just for this day to finally get back into swing of things online — all for naught. You lose.
So. What do you do?
Well, instead of analyzing the situation and figuring out why (or how) you were inducted into Mark Henry’s Hall of Pain, you surmise that hey, it’s not me…it’s them. And quickly denounce every factor that lead to your demise. Subsequently, the opponent receives a lovely message, courtesy of you.
Edited for the sake of your future children
We’re all guilty of venting disgust when something just doesn’t go our way. And we all receive the same amount of salt from the battered and bruised in return, all thanks to better knowledge and experience on your end. But there are times when the hate mail just goes a bit too far, and way too extreme.
If you think, for some reason, that killing someone over one casual match in a game that you lost – the sportsmanlike concept of “the better man won” is simply foreign to you — and equate their victory with lacking a life, virginity, or basement-dwelling (all three are really common memes from salty players), then never mind being told that you need to stop playing games: just seek help.
There’s a reason why too much salt isn’t good for you. It raises blood pressure, can cause heart rate to go up quicker than three perfected matches, and makes you not even want to eat the rest of your food. I’m personally pretty tired of it myself, but lets look at this from an analytical perspective: this is a common factor with online gaming. If any of these antics were to take place in a social event, I assure you someone would wind up on the 5 o’clock news over how someone took the life of someone else’s child because they lost in a game of Street Fighter.
Seriously, it’s bad enough the gaming community as a whole is perceived by news anchors as developmentally-stunted bottom-feeding fat slobs that hiss at sunlight. But it’s shameful how far people are willing to reveal the depths of hatred — over something as silly as an online game — just because they lost, and they’re conveniently and safely anonymous, out of any physical danger.
At a societal level, we’re still figuring out how, as a species, to cope with online competition. Human behavior is guided by the perceived repercussions for any particular action; we’re used to being face to face with people, where a certain level of tact is to be expected, lest things turn violent. Online, however, is a different (and rather bleak) story.
Thing is, most people don’t know how to handle hate messages. The correct thing to do is utilize ignore/block features. But more often than not, this isn’t done, because people don’t want to walk away from a fight feeling like they were beaten. One teen had to find out the hard way just how real life can get when you sit behind a TV monitor and spout vitriol against a grown man; I certainly don’t condone what the man did in response, but I sure as hell don’t have much sympathy for the child, either. Neither party was in the right.
In the Tekken Tag Tournament community, a well-renowned player went on a salt spree against good players to tell them how trash they were. Threatening messages, false reporting, the works. I find this to be a bit of a shame, because when you look at other communities outside of North America, I just don’t see videos of players blacklisting one another; they simply ignore them. No, I’m not stating that every online game is a perfect virtual world; far from it. But there is something wrong with our culture, specifically, that is bleeding over into how we play games with one another. Taking an online loss to the extreme by announcing how you would end someone’s life because of a bad match is beyond unfathomable; it’s criminal.
What’s also concerning, though, is the growing trend of spotlighting threatening trolls by placing videos of their antics on YouTube, et cetera. Yes, it’s a method of demonstrating that you’re documenting and collecting evidence; but these days, it’s becoming a trend to see these sorts of things and actually look for them as a form of entertainment.
That’s scary. It’s scary because it actually encourages further bad behavior by creating demand for it.
If someone is cheating in online gameplay and thus ruins the match for you…fine. There are annoying players out there that want to ruin your day. Consider for a moment: winning an online game is such a focal point in that person’s life that they’re willing to go to that extreme to feel some sense of victory at another person’s expense.
My god, how empty must their lives be?
This doesn’t mean you should be a pushover just to get along with everyone. Gamers are, by nature, competitive people. But we have to realize that poor user behavior — the inability to lose gracefully — is par for the course when it comes to online gameplay. Be the bigger man when dealing with it.
I know it’s hard. I know it’s unfair. Lord knows I’ve had enough people just in the Home community take shots at me out of jealousy, let alone what I’ve encountered in online fighting game communities. So I now use my privacy settings on the PSN to my advantage: if I wish to game with a community, I have a separate account for that. As far as the one account I use, it’s on a setting where no one outside of my friend list can message me. This eliminates all the vitriol, crazy spam, and unwanted messages from users that I don’t know. If I haven’t communicated with them firsthand anywhere, they just can’t get to me.
These privacy settings exist for a reason. Use them. They’re empowering.
I believe if we were to simply not give these salty players any voice, online communities could thrive a bit more than they presently do. Granted, developers aren’t always blameless in this matter: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 lacks a report option, as does DOA5U. And of course we’ve already documented at length the woefully inadequate user-level tools for curbing harassment in Home.
Still: walking away and letting someone stew in their own hatred by themselves is the best option. It’s best to unclog those arteries by utilizing a game’s ignore feature and simply not entertaining the negativity.
September 14th, 2014 by Jin Lovelace | 5 comments
Jin Lovelace is a machinimist and team writer for HomeStation Magazine, as well as the founder of Twilight Touch Inc. -- http://twilighttouchinc.com and http://youtube.com/twilighttouchinc. When not found in PlayStation Home, Jin studies graphic design and illustration (character design and fashion), gaming, and the culinary arts.
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Nice article, but this is why a fighting game is best played offline.
Don’t like how I play, please say it to my face IRL.
Online gaming is too conveniently anonymous.
I will never understand how anyone can take gaming so seriously. It is a game people, the very nature of it is to be a fun thing to do not a way to vent your real life anxiety. In fact it is supposed to be a way to release tension, not create more.
It isn’t like they are making a ton of real life money from any of this, though some people can do that, I rather doubt that that type of behavior would garner any sponsors to do so.
Great article and it had to be said.
It seems that many hobbies or passions can create stress, Burbie.
example: a sports fan watching his/her favorite team losing a game. Why be stressed about it, when you’re merely a spectator.
Another example: mcdonalds not selling mcnuggets at 10am/breakfast time.
Silly? Yes indeed.
I’ve seen people Fight/argue over the most trivial things in life.
Why? The world may never know
A lot of issues are created by one user being better or perceived as better than another user. Gaming industry and home are guilty of tapping into this competitive side of human nature. Usually so we buy in game stuff. Who wants to have a pea shooter in gta when you can have a tank. Who wants noob clothing when you can have jewel encrusted gold plated look at me I’m rich suit. This is what the gaming industry wants to some degree. I want to be better than you so I buy stuff to make sure I am. If you beat me I’m a noob and if I beat you I’m a hacker and a cheat. What happens though when a user can’t keep paying out. Do they give up on a game, do they cheat or do they work they way up. Can’t imagine a gaming world where random users said well done you played so well without any resentment. I want to feel like I’ve beaten you badly if you say to me I hate you because I better than you I’ve won. As you said hate mail is a form of compliments.
I have to say I went round on uncharted online games trying to humiliate other users by killing them in the most embarassing way possible, like pulling them over the side. One of my friends kills users in cod by only using a riot shield. There’s that guy on you tube that only uses a blade. I know me and my mate were called all sorts of names for them stunts lol. If you want to in the background play a co op game if you want to be a target play online versus other users lol