Does trash talking have a place in gaming?

The second part of my comment was not aimed at you Journeyman

edited 4th Jul '14 12:21:57 AM by Bleddyn

Suweet!

When it comes to the kind of language people are getting upset over, there's only two ways to settle the matter: 1. The folks using the words stop using them. 2. The folks getting upset go out and claim the damn words so they start meaning something far better than they do now.

The second one's honestly better, since it strips the words of their power and gives that power back to the People (All people), but going with prevailing trends, we know the more likely one to succeed would be the assholes choosing cleaner language.

How exactly would one go about performing #2, though?

It's not that difficult . . .

Person A and Person B are fighting in a game. Person A uses a constant string of slurs. Person B listens, grins, says "Yup, that's exactly what I am." Person B absolutely pounds the everloving shit out of Person A in-game. Rinse, Repeat, all day.

Have that happen on a wide scale, and eventually people will get sick of seeing their insults applied to people who just don't give a shit anymore.

It's like in the inner cities where the lower class gangster types greet each other as "My slur." All you'd need is for the higher class ones who truly made something of themselves to take up the banner, and if someone from outside the race said it, instead of getting pissed and suing, they just say, "Yup, that's what I am." And continue raking in the cash and being a pillar of the community.

It's not difficult, but it does require fortitude and the willingness to not get offended. As I'd said, going by prevailing trends, #1 is more likely.

I can even understand it, really. Folks are afraid that if you clean up the term and make it lose its power, the old lessons about hate and intolerance will be forgotten. If you let it keep its power, then you have a go-to reference to teach the lesson. It would work better if we didn't have so many dulled down folks out there who let the words remain bad while forgetting the reason anyway.

Being active duty military, me and people in my unit often rib each other or trash talk, but then again we all know each other and it's all in good fun. Trash talking amongst friends is good, however in a professional setting (i.e a tournament) where you don't know the other person, I'd say it's out of line.

Actually, I would like to add to what Isaid earlier.

I said Trash Talking used as an outlet for frustration is not ok, whereas Trash Talking for fun is.

Just want to add that Trash Talking for fun is not ok, but Trash Talking for mutual fun is what is ok.

That said, I am guilty of trash talking myself, but I am only an unrepentant, merciless asshole to people who were being absolute jerks to others. Of course it is not justified, but I guess that's just me: not a perfect person.

I say yes, trash talking (to me anyway) in gaming is like trash talking in sports. If it's all in good fun and you don't take it as if your life depends on it, it's all good. Like everything else, it's just those bad apples (like asshole manchildren, neckbeards, or middle-school kids allergic to maturity) that spoils it for everybody. Unless you really just don't like the other side and you're just saying that to shit on them, then at that point, it's never okay...

O.o Okay, that whole neckbeard shit . . . what the Hell does that even mean? You know there are people who can't grow hair on the front of their chins, right? And not all of them are assholes.

Granted, mine grows under my chin, not on my neck, but it always irritated the snot out of me when people said that term.

Sounds like the thread is talking about Verbal Abuse than actual trash talking anyways.

The problem stems from asshats not knowing where the line between those two is.

Yeah that's the issue. Its already a fine line though.

i think neckbeards is just a nickname for Something Awful denezins.

ive heard them call themselves that plenty of times. it seems to basically be equivelent to "fat, unkempt and unhygenic guy living in his parents basement talking shit on the internet about something or another"

Yay! That's not me and I've never been to Something Awful. I know what it is, but the closest I've ever come is the blog sites that hold their Dwarf Fortress L Ps. Those things are funny as Hell.

I think I'd like to keep my trash talking down to in-universe terms, whatever game I'm playing. That would definitely make it unlikely that I use offensive terms.