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Online Gaming Leads to Offline Violence | Kiwi Commons

Online gaming leads to violence

During every minute of the day, thousands of gamers all over the world are fiercely competing online. Some play with a group of friends, others are lone wolves. Some play after school, others play at 4 AM. One constant about online gaming, however, is that it often gets ugly.

Through headsets, players on virtual teams communicate and build strategies in real time as they play. It can be an amazing exercise in teamwork and leadership. But there?s also a lot of trash talking that goes along with it. To say the least, tween and teen aged boys often lack a certain verbal sensitivity.

Now, while most gamers feel secure trash-talking and otherwise verbally torturing competitors?after all, they can be anywhere in the world?one young man in Britain had a close encounter with a rival gamer he may never forget.

According to Michael Santo of the Examiner.com, ??a father of three was so incensed that he attacked a 13-year-old boy who ?killed? his Call of Duty: Black Ops game character. Mark Bradford, 46, of Plymouth, England, went postal after his character was killed, although it was also because the unnamed 13-year-old did some trash talking and called him a name.?

It turns out the unemployed father knew where his young nemesis lived. So he walked into his home, found him, and started to strangle him. After the police became involved Mr. Bradford was contrite and did show remorse, ?I?d been playing the whole day and he was baiting me and just would not shut up. I just lost it. In a moment of madness I went round to the house. I didn?t know what I was going to do. It wasn?t malice. I just grabbed him.?

So what?s the takeaway from this bizarre story?

  1. Trash-talk online at your own risk. Not everyone you play with is necessarily stable or shares your sense of humor.
  2. If you?re a sensitive person (and especially if you?re prone to violence!) simply mute the chatter of your online rivals. Gaming consoles give players this option and changing online audio settings is pretty intuitive. If you can?t figure out how, visit the website of the gaming console you own for details.
  3. Relax! It?s only a game. Getting agitated? Read a book or play a video game that isn?t about competing with others. Sometimes it can be fun to beat your own best score!

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Talk To Us! How do you feel when people trash-talk you online? Do you ever adjust your audio settings to avoid insulting chatter?

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Image source: Flickr

Source: http://kiwicommons.com/index.php?p=8162&tag=online-gaming-leads-to-offline-violence

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