Friend getting sued over online game

yeah people say some genuinely horrible shit online and especially to kids. and we gotta protect the kids, man... "well maybe that 11 year old should grow some thick skin" yeah or like maybe we shouldn't let angry 34 year old men scream into team chat that they're going to murder or rape your family. this is not a freeze peach issue. game companies can (and now are) actively monitoring voice chats. you can't say that shit to someone in real life and you shouldn't be allowed to make threats like that just because you're anonymous and online.

idk if you play league at all but people arent catching bans for screaming about murdering and raping somebodys family. basically anything negative directed towards another person will net you at the very least a mute, i got an account perma'd once over telling an ezreal jg they sucked or something like that (probably a little bit more visceral but it definitely didnt involve anything extreme or threats, lol).

literally the last thing i want is riot monitering voicechat. and again, the opponents team arent in it. hell, your team isnt in it unless youre friends/partied with them.

no amount of legislation, age verification, punishment, etc. is going to prevent kids from accessing stuff they shouldnt or other people from being dicks. the only way to actually "protect the kids" from online stuff is to keep them as offline as possible (hard during covid times ofc) and moniter them closely when they are... besides, better that than me losing my honor level for muttering "wow this yasuo blows" to a teammate into my microphone.

Same thing. They knew it was a female gamer

He said that he and his buddies didn't even know if the opponent was a male or female. 

?

  ... Of course woke Trudeau groped a female reporter years ago and he never lost his job nor after he did blackface.  Leftist hypoicracy and double standards for another time, perhaps?...

I admit I don't follow Canadian politics, so for me to evaluate the hypocrisy of Trudeau's treatment, I wonder if you could provide, say, three or four examples of right-wing Canadian pols who lost their jobs after incidents similar to groping a female reporter years ago or wearing blackface.

I admit I don't follow Canadian politics, so for me to evaluate the hypocrisy of Trudeau's treatment, I wonder if you could provide, say, three or four examples of right-wing Canadian pols who lost their jobs after incidents similar to groping a female reporter years ago or wearing blackface.

the blackface thing wasnt when he was in office either, it was the usual college party pic from years ago sort of deal. he did do this hilarious video directly apologizing to 2 black twins who looked distinctly uncomfortable which was hilarious. (although apparently he has worn black/brownface several times...)

I admit I don't follow Canadian politics, so for me to evaluate the hypocrisy of Trudeau's treatment, I wonder if you could provide, say, three or four examples of right-wing Canadian pols who lost their jobs after incidents similar to groping a female reporter years ago or wearing blackface.

First you'd have to find any other politician as senior as Trudeau who has done blackface so many times they admit they don't know how many more photos will surface.  He didn't even try and lie about that one when asked.  He knew it was a go to routine for him.  Hilarious blackface.  Then after you find the other PM or very senior minister that did blackface as a matter of routine find the one that was as sanctimonious as Trudeau on the subject of race.  Tough search. 

The guy just "won" an election and the approval rating is 36%........................ Disapprove? 61%

I don't think a lot of Non-Canadians realise how unpopular he is. He's the "young, rockstar PM of Canada. The cool guy."

literally the last thing i want is riot monitering voicechat. and again, the opponents team arent in it. hell, your team isnt in it unless youre friends/partied with them.

...

besides, better that than me losing my honor level for muttering "wow this yasuo blows" to a teammate into my microphone.

they monitor valorant voice chat. i guess it doesnt matter as much in league where you dont have to talk to your opponents but a critical part of playing valorant is using team voice chat. people (frequently) say terrible shit to their own team that has 0 relevance to the actual game. i've reported people for using racial slurs (or other terrible shit) throughout the game and i got notifications that they were banned. but yeah i wouldn't report someone for saying "damn viper you suck" and i doubt you'd get banned for it too. obviously you shouldn't get perma-banned for saying "wow this yasuo blows" but if you get put into a toxic queue or something then whatever.

idk how honor works in league so idk how big of a punishment that is but yeah in general i have little sympathy for those people. if you want to mutter shit to yourself, use push to talk (i do it all the time ;) ).

ok why am i getting banned or put in a toxic q or literally anything for simply talking shit in a videogame? and sure if somebodys just shouting the n word or whatever that should obviously be punishable, but the mute button also exists and if game companies are gonna be actively moderating vcs i need a full list of exactly what is and isnt a slur. would hate to be reported to the southern poverty law center or whatever for calling someone a retard or some shit

ok why am i getting banned or put in a toxic q or literally anything for simply talking shit in a videogame?

yeah you shouldnt get banned. i said that. as for toxic queue or something else, it really depends how shitty you're being and what the punishment is. theres a huge range

and sure if somebodys just shouting the n word or whatever that should obviously be punishable, but the mute button also exists and if game companies are gonna be actively moderating vcs i need a full list of exactly what is and isnt a slur. would hate to be reported to the southern poverty law center or whatever for calling someone a retard or some shit

yeah the rules need to be clear for sure for sure but "the mute button exists" is a terrible solution for games where you need to talk or else the game is pretty much a forfeit. and if you wanna be 100% sure not to get punished then maybe just don't call people retards while your mic is on? seems very doable

Spocksbrainrocks: You ********** ****** why did you steal my
                                    ****** tank? You must come from *********!
                                    I hope you ******* and *******!

I played a lot of pickup basketball back in my day and while there was lots of smacktalk, there was a line that lots of gamers seem to cross that you'd never cross on the court unless you were ready to throwdown.

Some games a girl would play and if I started screaming horrific shit at her just because she hit an open jumper or picked a pass, that would be really a douche move.

Don't say anything online you wouldn't say to anyone 4 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than you on the court.

the blackface thing wasnt when he was in office either, it was the usual college party pic from years ago sort of deal. he did do this hilarious video directly apologizing to 2 black twins who looked distinctly uncomfortable which was hilarious. (although apparently he has worn black/brownface several times...)

I really could not give 2 shits if someone wore a tacky costume during their dorm days in the 90s.

?

OP said this happened over voice chat and insults had been traded. How exactly did they not know she was female if that was the case?

The fact that OP phrased it this way- "He said that he and his buddies didn't even know if the opponent was a male or female." and not the more direct "They didn't even know if..." is a bit of a tell as to how much OP believes his buddy.

As far as codes of conduct and appropriate penalties, I'd say the same guidelines as a gym or board game club is fair.

OP said this happened over voice chat and insults had been traded. How exactly did they not know she was female if that was the case?

i dont know. i wasnt there, and im not gonna base an argument on whether someone is/isn't guilty of sexual harassment off of speculation, lol. not saying youre doing that or anything btw, just that im leaning innocent until proven guilty on whatever the guy says.

seems very doable

it isnt, if anything its even less doable when i know they can hear me, thats sort of the point of an insult lmao

it isnt, if anything its even less doable when i know they can hear me, thats sort of the point of an insult lmao

i do it all the time. *take your finger off push to talk* "man this ****** jett sucks." they don't need to hear it. anyway... you dont really have my sympathy with "i want to insult strangers on the internet with no repercussions". so to the toxic queue you go! you can insult each other all you want. fun shit talking/banter is cool and fun, but insulting strangers (even if they might "deserve it") is not. and like d'tino said you probably wouldn't say those things to a person you were playing basketball with, but i guess people like to hide behind their monitors

you dont really have my sympathy with "i want to insult griefers in videogames with no repercussions".

i notice you somehow broadened the specific instance of raging at someone in a videogame to "insulting strangers on the internet", went ahead and fixed that for ya! feel free to keep within the actual context of, oh gee, pretty much the entire thread next time :)

anyways, i dont want your sympathy, i want my god-given right to go off on other players.

fun shit talking/banter is cool and fun, but insulting strangers (even if they might "deserve it") is not.

cool, neither is someone running it. again, you can use the mute button to block out insults, i cant do shit if someone decides they want to int my game. funny how the action that fucks everyone over infinitely harder is also infinitely less punished.

and your point about vc being needed for a team-based game or whatever is kind of moot since if someones mouthing off to the point you could take them to court over it i imagine their gameplay alone has probably already lost that round

i notice you suddenly made this about griefers when no one has mentioned it. your example was you saying "wow this yasuo blows" with no indication that the hypothetical person was intentionally doing anything wrong. a random yasuo player is closer to "strangers on the internet" than "griefers". sounds like you just wanna be toxic

dude guess what you can report griefers too and i think they should also be punished

and i thought we kind of moved on from the "i'm gonna sue you for calling me bad" conversation. there aren't that many things you can do in voice chat that would warrant a lawsuit or even a perma-ban (but there are a few)

anyways, i dont want your sympathy, i want my god-given right to go off on other players.
if someones mouthing off to the point you could take them to court over it

You can still insult other players.

What you can't do is sexually harass other players or use threatening/menacing language or in some countries, racially abuse them. Not to mention there are the TOS you agree to which likely include some clause against attacking other people for race/gender/religion/etc. Insult their play? Insult the gap in their teeth on their profile pic? Sure. Sure. Insult the music they have playing? Sure. Sexually harass them? No, that's not covered and shouldn't be allowed. Seriously, why is there even debate on this?

"I have the right to sexually harass" is perhaps not the hill to die on.

i notice you suddenly made this about griefers when no one has mentioned it. your example was you saying "wow this yasuo blows" with no indication that the hypothetical person was intentionally doing anything wrong. 

i'm pretty sure the fact that he blows is a pretty solid indication that he's doing something wrong. fair enough on the "intentionally", griefers specifically was the wrong word, i shouldve said "bad players"

a random yasuo player is closer to "strangers on the internet" than "griefers". 

hard disagree. "strangers on the internet" completely removes the entire context of all of this taking place in a videogame, with other players who im forced to interact with and have a direct impact on my experience. me telling my yas they suck ass is a specific instance in a specific context with an easily attributable motivation, "strangers on the internet" makes it out as if im finding random people in facebook and hopping in the dms. they aren't "random strangers on the internet", they are players in my specific game who have a direct impact on my gaming experience.

sounds like you just wanna be toxic

sounds like you just want to dodge the point

dude guess what you can report griefers too and i think they should also be punished

cool. i didnt say they were never punished, i said they were "infinitely less" punished. which is the case. and im not saying that should be changed either, ultimately its impossible to distinguish whether somebody is running it or just bad if they dont literally announce their intentions, and as much as i hate griefers id still rather they run rampant than people get banned for having a bad game. but i still think that the same consideration should be given to me when i go off on said griefers rather than a bad word in chat being an insta-ban without any consideration to whether or not it was warranted.

and i thought we kind of moved on from the "i'm gonna sue you for calling me bad" conversation. there aren't that many things you can do in voice chat that would warrant a lawsuit or even a perma-ban (but there are a few)

depends on the game/company. for league specifically, theyre pretty liberal with the ban button. imho the only things that should be bannable are racism/sexism/etc and threats that are actually threats (like "im gonna swat you" or something like that)

anyways tldr if youre bad i should be allowed to call you a scumfuck bastard. thats my hill and im dying on it

You can still insult other players.

no i cant. try following the actual thread of the conversation... or did you somehow manage to completely miss the entire "got banned for saying yasuo blows" bit me and glooby have been quibbling over for the past couple posts? also, in case it isnt obvious by now, nobodys talking about the specific example of ops friend anymore.

please keep your cute little epic putdown moments vs the strawmen in your head in your head, no need to clutter up the forum with them.

no i cant. try following the actual thread of the conversation... or did you somehow manage to completely miss the entire "got banned for saying yasuo blows" bit me and glooby have been quibbling over for the past couple posts? also, in case it isnt obvious by now, nobodys talking about the specific example of ops friend anymore.

please keep your cute little epic putdown moments vs the strawmen in your head in your head, no need to clutter up the forum with them.

I thought you just lost an honor level (admittedly I have no idea what that entails and how big a deal that is)

besides, better that than me losing my honor level for muttering "wow this yasuo blows" to a teammate into my microphone.

Yeah, you can get banned for insulting people. And you can get sued and possibly have a criminal referral for sexual harassment or racial abuse. Don't really see the issue there. I mean, granted on an ethical level, I don't think people should be trying to ban each other because someone calls someone else an ahole or says F you over the voice chat, but there are boundaries and the default setting should not be "Don Rickles".  There should be a place for that, but that shouldn't be the default. I generally favor a broad interpretation of the boundaries of speech, but I don't have any tolerance for sexual harassment or racist abuse.

I also think that given the fact that most of these games have a large number of minors on them, the standards are a bit different than say, a bar or even waygook.org. Also, the company is trying to establish a welcoming environment for players of all appropriate ages where players from around the world face each other.