Uninstall, Noob! Views on Rampant Toxicity in Online Gaming

Video games have become a big part of the digital world, evolving from mere sources of entertainment to entire career paths. Combined with improved device accessibility and implemented network-based features, gamers all around the world can play together any time they want. While the increased social aspects of video games mean that players can make new friends wherever they are in the world, some gamers take advantage of anonymity to harass others for various reasons. As the number of gamers grows over the years, so does the number of toxic behaviors found in online video games. In this research, a survey is conducted on the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) community to collect their experiences with toxicity and harassment in online video games, as well as player reporting systems. The results show that racism, sexism, and extreme slurs are encountered the most and that current reporting systems are ineffective in the battle to curb toxicity.