Contemporary Carnival: The Online Activity among the Video Game Community

Abstract:

The video game community and their online activity is a modern day version of Bakhtin’s Carnival. During carnival participants wore masks and dressed in costumes corresponding with the use of usernames and avatars. The laws and religious rules were imposed less strictly during carnival, reflecting the lenient laws and policies used against the language and actions of online users in the video game community that can be hateful and demeaning.

Feminists and their sympathizers argue for more diversity and inclusivity in video games. Other gamers have used demeaning language, jokes and actions in hopes of pushing out gamers unlike them.

Male and female gamers are perceived differently within the video game industry. A few characteristics of the gender differences in video games include few playable female characters, hyper-masculine male characters, and over-sexualized female characters. Between 85-90% of creators in the video game studios are male (Johnson, pg. 578). As a result, many male gamers have a sense of superiority over other gamers and critics.

Usernames and avatars are on a spectrum running from two extremes of anonymity. On one end, sites like 4chan and 8chan have almost complete anonymity. On the other end are sites like Facebook. Usernames are directly linked to or are the user’s actual name. There are other sites like Twitter and Tumblr,  which are in between the two extremes giving some semblance of anonymity. The closer the user’s are to complete anonymity the more freedom they feel to express their opinions, especially when demeaning or negative.

All manners of speech, including all types of hateful speech, are covered under Freedom of Speech. Meaning that both laws and website policies protect users’ Freedom of Speech more than they protect the victims of hate speech and doxxing( the public release of private information), which is primarily used to discredit and instill fear in other gamers.

Bibliography

Johnson, Robin. “Hiding In Plain Sight: Reproducing Masculine Culture At A Video Game Studio.” Communication, Culture And Critique 4 (2014): 578. Academic OneFile. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.