Traumatizing or Just Annoying? Unveiling the Spectrum of Gamer Toxicity in the StarCraft II Community

Samuli Laato, Bastian Kordyaka, Juho Hamari

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contributionScientificpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to explore the forms of toxic behaviour that players encounter in competitive multiplayer real-time strategy (RTS) games. To this end, we carried out ethnographic observations and player interviews within the popular RTS game StarCraft II, and approached the data inductively, leading us to discover ten categories of toxic behaviour. While the harmfulness of toxic actions can be obtained as a product of severity and frequency, players' assessment of the severity of toxic behaviors was contextualized by, (1) directly observed; (2) background; and (3) extraneous factors. Following our empirical findings, we derive a conceptual model for differentiating toxicity from mildly annoying and more severe behaviors. The discovered view of toxicity challenges the prevailing paradigm of treating players' toxic behavior as a monolithic construct with a linear intensity spectrum. Instead, we advocate for a more granular approach, encouraging an understanding of the underlying dynamics behind negative online behaviors.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems
PublisherACM
Pages1-18
ISBN (Electronic)9798400703300
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2024
Externally publishedYes
MoE publication typeA4 Article in a conference publication
EventCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Honolulu HI, United States
Duration: 11 May 202416 May 2024

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

ConferenceCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulu HI
Period11/05/2416/05/24

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