By Nada Al-Hamazi

KUWAIT: Video games are not a recent trend; they have been around for decades. They are a source of entertainment, relaxation, and even the occasional lighthearted competition between friends. However, video games, like most things, have been affected drastically by the introduction of the internet; it offered the chance to play online with friends and strangers and meet all kinds of people. Online gaming, specifically Player Versus Player games, slowly took a turn for the worse as it became a highly competitive and even toxic environment that is unsafe for the casual player base.

Kuwait Times interviewed several people who played in the Middle Eastern region and asked them about their experiences: Nora, shared her opinion with Kuwait Times, saying she was glad for the addition of Middle Eastern servers as they made her game run smoother, but she found that the difference in communication between players of her region and other regions to be severe. People would only chat to share rude remarks. She discovered that there is a lack of sportsmanship as most players take losses to heart.

Meanwhile, Ahmed explained that racism in the Middle Eastern region is not punished as heavily as it is in other regions. He said that some players would type in racial slurs to get back at the other players, and “They do it to seem edgy”, but because they would type these Arabic slurs in English letters, these words would get past the in-game filtering system that would result in them getting a ban.

Despite being good at the games she plays, Shahad claims that her experience playing online games is very bad, mainly as a woman. She has faced sexism when speaking in voice chat on multiple occasions; she claimed that people would resort to sexist remarks and stereotypes if she made an in-game call-out. She also shared that she feels obligated to consistently perform at her best in fear of enforcing the unfounded stereotype that women are bad at video games.

James, who has played games with his Middle Eastern friends on their server, said that the experience “wasn’t great”–players were “very racist and angry for no real reason.” He also claimed that the friendliness from other servers doesn’t carry over. People would use anonymity over the internet to abuse toxic traits without repercussion.

When asked about combating this toxicity, most interviewees agreed that it could efficiently be dealt with by implementing hardware bans and better filters that could detect the Arabic language and the Arabic words written in English letters. Many also wished that the in-game report system would work properly so that other people’s experiences would not be affected as theirs have been.

To summarize, whether they are losing or winning a game, these toxic players in the Middle East would resort to racism, sexism, and hate speech, using slurs, baseless stereotypes, and the usual vulgarity to alienate other players and drive them away from gaming. They are getting away with this bigotry more than players from different regions because the in-game systems that work to filter out this behavior and language do not work in the Arabic language.