Dealing With Harassment in Hearthstone
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
The potential for harassment is simply a facet of the online gaming experience. That’s a truth I’ve known since I first loaded up Neopets on my parents office computer back in 1999. I had been playing all of four days when I received a rather vulgar message from another player about my username. I was 12 at the time and it really bothered me. It actually bothered me enough to initially quit. My friends later got me involved again, but I was leery because of what I’d been called.
People being difficult (and that’s putting it kindly) in online games has not changed since then. If nothing else, it’s gotten considerably worse as the term ‘trolling’ has become increasingly trendy. It’s now considered the height of cool to hurt the feelings of others. I can’t claim to understand why that’s the case. It’s frankly for brighter minds than my own. Regardless, it still happens, and it’s frustrating for a number of players simply looking to have a relaxed gaming experience.
Thankfully, Hearthstone exists in a unique vacuum where ‘trolling’ is a rather unsatisfying experience. Players are limited to six emotes as direct communication goes, and a squelch option is easily available to those not looking to put up with shenanigans. There’s still the potential for players to be irritating, but it’s vastly mitigated through simply understanding the mechanics of the game.
I’ve begun recording most of my Hearthstone games out a desire to share the interesting and the strange. Plays such as a Knife Juggler killing Leeroy Jenkins (because of the whelps he creates upon being played) before he ever attacks or a Noble Sacrifice Defender surviving a turn are a lot fun to watch. While recording my matches, I’ve run into a lot of really cool players and we’ve shared intense and satisfying matches. I’ve also run into the occasional opponent who is determined to be as obnoxious as is humanly possible.
Such was the case while doing an arena run earlier. I happened upon a player who spent the first two to three minutes of the game spamming emotes. I’ve come a long way since 1999. I’ve played sports, conducted interviews in basketball locker rooms, played high tier MOBA matches, et cetera. I am no longer easily frazzled, and that’s something I’m proud of. I don’t feel the need to squelch, because to me, it’s essentially letting the terrorists win. Instead, I kept cool and managed to grind out a win. After my opponent calmed down, the match was incredibly close and very enjoyable.
Given my odd sense of humor, I decided to post the video to YouTube with a sort of wall of shame motif. It was honestly meant as a joke. In the back of my head though, I figured, ‘hey, maybe there’s a chance this person sees the video and realizes how outlandish they were being’ and then from there decides to cut it out. This person was clearly good at Hearthstone. He or she can rely on skills, not attempting to rattle cages with unsportsmanlike behavior.
The video was met with mixed results, and that’s fine. I checked the comments on it some hours later and saw something that really bothered me, and ultimately inspired to write this article.
There’s nothing inherently insidious about this comment. In fact, while a bit prickly, it’s totally reasonable. I should’ve probably just hit the squelch button. That’s what it’s there for. This mentality bothers me, however. Why should the onus be on the players behaving to have to mitigate this sort of behavior? If it’s not addressed, doesn’t it stand to reason that this person will just continue on, maybe eventually driving off someone who doesn’t know about the squelch mechanic? I’m not saying that what I did necessarily addressed the issue. It is, however, my hope that offenders might see the video and decide that ‘trolling’ is not cool, or trendy. It’s just stupid and ultimately kind of sad.
Squelching is fine, especially if the person in question is weary towards harassment. However, where possible, I think it’s our duty to the community to actively work to clean up the streets. We should be discouraging rude behaviors, as opposed to insinuating that well-mannered players are somehow at fault because they don’t reach for the squelch button. I don’t think I’m alone in this mindset, either.
Hearthstone is a game like no other in how it approaches interactions. It is incredibly intuitive. The system set before us is one that can breed positivity and help foster a fun environment. At the end of the day, that’s what the game should be about: fun. I’m genuinely curious what you all think, as readers who frequent this and other Hearthstone sites. Is squelch the correct answer here? Do you feel that calling people out via YouTube/social media is an appropriate response to an admittedly mild situation such as this?
I think it’s tough. You can obviously tell when some people are just being obnoxious, but other times, the message could just be lost in the one-word-emote translation. Heck, texts and e-mails are misread all the time, sending the normally level-headed into fits of rage because of an innocuous text read with an inflection on the wrong syllable. There is a world of difference between saying “Well Played” before the death blow and saying it after the death blow (IMO).
So, how about a “Polite Hearthstone Players Emote Dictionary” as your next article, Zen?
It honestly wouldn’t be a long article. I always use ‘greetings’ when the game begins. I drop a ‘well-played’ whenever someone makes a really awesome play. I close the game with a ‘well-played’. 🙂
I applaud you for writing this article because it seems I run into the idiots you talk about here too often.. but the #1 thing that gets me is when it is the end of the game and your opponent can defeat you in one move and decides to instead showboat and lay down all his cards and cast his spells before applying the final blow.. for me.. that is the ultimate in Hearthstone bad sportsmanship.
Yeah, a lot of times I’ll stick around to let them get the joy of the death blow in, but if they make even one move that isn’t required to kill me, I’ll concede.
I’ve just gotten to a point where, these days, I straight up concede if they don’t use what they have on the board to kill me within five seconds. It’s probably a bit ridiculous but I have other things to be doing with my day, as opposed to sitting around waiting for someone to finally end the game.
While I agree with you it is very annoying to have to wait and watch your enemy play all his cards before defeating you, there is one reason why some people may do it: XP.
It is my understanding that the XP you get for a win or loss is directly related to how many cards you played in that game.
With that in mind, I dislike the people that like to use their cards to kill you in ways that are unnecessary, but I understand placing all minions you have on the board before finishing the enemy off.
Dat top deck
Nowadays the very first thing I do when I play online games is hit the Mute/Squelch button. To the point where I give extra points to games that have a Mute All button. Yes, it’s unfortunate but I don’t have the energy to put up with toxic behavior when I’m just trying to have a good time.
I think any negative reaction garnered from not using Squelch is completely unjustified.
In what scenario would we ever throw a person in jail/penalize them for being shot (as an example) because they weren’t wearing a bulletproof vest? It’s like saying, “You didn’t prepare for this position when you had a perfectly clear solution, so you should be ashamed of yourself for now wanting justice.” If that were the case, you would always be in trouble just for walking out your front door.
We shouldn’t blame the victim, traditionally, but we see it happen quite often. In some situations, you have control over outcomes and yes, Zenstyle could utilize the Squelch button. But he shouldn’t HAVE to and he shouldn’t be CHASTISED for not doing so.
The Squelch button is a band-aid one can use when you get a cut. Personally, I’d rather see an improvement in the environment to where cuts received are very rare instead.
All I wish for is a new emote that says “Hurry the *beep* up!” There are so many people I’ve encountered that stall my inevitable defeat, and I don’t want to concede either, because that just makes them even more smug. If you are guaranteed to win your turn, then finish it, say “Good game”, and be done with it.
“Thank you” and “Sorry” harassment is the most annoying, up until I learned how to squelch (I was doing it wrong before, by spamming RMB on hero portait)
Blizzard should add auto-squelch, in case we forgot to do that. Ironically, emotes are used for trash talk 99% of the times.