Only noticed since crossplay: why does PC allow such hateful, profane, discriminatory profile names?
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Am I personally offended by it? No.
Do I think it’s insensitive? Yes. For the same reasons it is okay to parody the nazi movement, but it’s absolutely NOT socially acceptable to make fun of the Jewish Holocaust.
Making light of BLM with a name like that shows a total disregard for black people in that movement that have been a direct victim of oppression and violence.
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Because Valve.
That's pretty much the long and short of it. I don't actually know what kind of company policy they have, but it seems to be the extremely hands-off approach in which you leave people to police themselves and plug your ears to the spread of racism, sexism and homophobia.
It's funny how I can have a name outright stating the horrible things I do to people but the moment I drop an f-bomb I'm on a blacklist. Logic.
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Although Steam employs a language filter on comments, there's no such filter for names. It's quite unfortunate, but that's why report systems exist. IMO, people who think "kill all [insert slur here]" is funny have no place on the Internet, but I also know many will ignore the paradox of tolerance and defend these people under the guise of "freedom of speech".
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They’re usually the ones under the false idea that Freedom of Speech also means Free of Respect or Human Decency, and Free of Consequences.
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Hmmm... go figure hey...
I don’t get it.
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Indeed, because it's beneficial to certain groups if you pretend "freedom of speech" is anything you like to say and do, but anything other groups like to say and do is "political" or "pandering" or whatever buzzword they use nowadays.
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Quick answer is: you can report steam names/avatars/anything that trigger you.
18+ answer: I doubt censoreship will stop Hatred game fans following their genecide crusades since 2015... :^)
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That's what anarchists think about laws, but I've yet to meet someone (other than extremists) who wasn't glad murder was illegal.
How about this: we try to impose a standard of respect by banning hate speech and see how it goes? We have literally nothing to lose, only the people spouting hate speech do.
Post edited by Mandy on2 -
No, it’s not a slippery slope.
One example is implying/inciting violence towards a particular group of people, and the other example is just someone insensitive thinking they’re being clever.
There’s no slippery slope here, other than the slippery slope of thinking it’s ok that particular people should be killed or physically hurt/oppressed.
And whether the person behind the name genuinely does or does not feel as their publicly displayed name states doesn’t matter. It matters that there is likely to be black people seeing that, some of them kids.
Post edited by Mandy on2 -
Laws did actually prove to be able to stop.
Censoring based on protecting people from being offended proved the opposite.
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Steam doesn't really filter at all. I see racist ######### all the time.
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######### kids are doing in this game anyway?
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Steam has had a profanity filter for at least the past decade, yet it's not the "SJW cesspool" you claim it should have become. In fact, other than websites specifically started by and for SJWs, there are no "SJW cesspools".
"Slippery slope" is a fallacy. It was a fallacy when applied to equal rights (minorities having equal protection under the law, women having equal protection under the law, abolition of slavery, and so on) and it is a fallacy now.
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They shouldn’t be. But that doesn’t change the fact there are. And who’s to say these jerks keep their profile name that way for other games where it’s more acceptable for kids to be playing.
Also, as I said earlier. Freedom of Speech doesn’t also mean Free of Respect and Human Decency, and it most certainly does not mean Free From Consequences.
Let’s look at this from a different perspective. What if that WAS taking censorship too far? If so, what are the actual positive implications of publicly spreading a message like that: kill all (insert marginalised group of people)? What good is meant to come from freely saying and spreading stuff like that? What benefit to society at large does that provide?
Little to none if you ask me.
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Because they don’t have chat logs in their own game?
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They do, that person was wrong.
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I didn’t think I’d read so,etching so dumb when I first woke up. Yet, I’ve been surprised. “Game culture just doesn’t mind racism and stuff.” Gave yourself away there
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Not only that, but history has proven time and time again that allowing divisive speech inevitably leads to internal (and sometimes external) conflict. Racists, etc., quite literally ruin societies by being divisive, because whereas you can compromise with someone who thinks that people shouldn't say "kill all [insert slur here]", you can't compromise with someone who thinks and, in fact, wants to "kill all [insert slur here]".
This is where the paradox of tolerance comes from and is why hate speech is not something societies should tolerate.
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They do, but since people can change all parts of their profile whenever they want they might not get reported enough to have their profile reviewed before they change all their info back + delete alias history. So someone has to get enough reports/attention on their profile to be reviewed before they change back and stop getting reports, I'd assume.
And it's not even stuff like racism exclusively, I've seen someone get their entire profile "factory reset" and their profile editing privileges removed temporarily for having what could best be described as "ironic sexual roleplay logs" on their profile. So even stuff considered "obscene" can get people punished.
But people can just put on some edgy name and avatar to troll for a play session then wipe all the evidence of it from another user's perspective. And with Crossplay console players have no easy way of reporting a Steam profile either.
EDIT: But for automated filters, yeah there's not that much. They're currently testing a method for in-game chat censoring in TF2 and CSGO I think, probably because automated cheater bots had a field day headshotting everything while spamming really racist and overall unpleasant garbage in chat. At first they restricted people's ability to use chat (free to play players couldn't chat at all), now there's an opt-out and customizable censoring thing implemented that they're trying out.
Post edited by oxygen on1 -
Don't know if somebody mentioned it already, but as far as I know, steam doesn't allow it, but because it doesn't use filters, people have to actively report offensive names or profiles but than steam will react.
But with the amount of profiles and how easy it is to change a name, it is impossible to avoid offensive names unless steam adds a filter.
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@SunaIIanu is perfectly correct, Steam doesn't allow it - and if the name is reported they will act on the report. I don't believe they will ban based on a name but they can force a change their end and I've seen them do this - they can also filter out the words with their "hearts".
We do not ban for names, this is something that is dealt with by the rules of the platform on which you are playing on.
Also, just to correct something that was said in this thread - no video evidence is not required for chat offenses, we do have the chat logs so an in game report is enough.
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Well, it's a horror game, you are expected to have a shock.
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Bit of an irresponsible policy. This is the only online game I can think of where the devs wash their hands of content experienced by players in the game. Lots of games don't use your steam name as your in-game name, but just washing your hands of it means I could show you a video of something I experienced in the game, say someone has changed their name to "<my full real life name> should #########", and I report this directed harassment and because it's in a username, they get off scott free. Behaviour that's wrong and harassing toward your users should always be the concern of people running an online service.
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If something like that happens, you need to report it on the platform for which they are playing on. Sony and Microsoft are pretty good at banning these names, so if you see something like that it's 99% a steam user, for which you need to report it to them.
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I agree with all your points, but as someone who attends a high school and is under 18, I've seen almost every insult and slur out there. Anyone who isn't aquatinted with the slurs probably isn't playing DbD either.
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You can report Steam profiles for offensive names, however I'm very supportive of the ability to put whatever name you like as your profile name.
If you get reported, you be an adult and live with the consequences of doing something dumb, but we don't need a filter in case people are so thin skinned that they burst into tears every time they see a no-no word in someones game name.
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thats wrong. I reported someone for having hacked legacy (very obvious, false achievement dates) and he got banned the day after.
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dont u know? its the century of the snowflakes :)
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A username can incite violence? So a word on a screen is violence?
I mean I get u. But DBD is a M rated game. Not to mention u can play the most non violent video game and have 14 yr olds screams insults over the mic in front of 8 yr olds.
u can't control the nature of the ppl. U just restrict minors to what parents deem appropriate.
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Well that's the dumbest comment I've seen so far today-I'm 37 so definitely not a spring chicken, people usually mature with age and understand a bit more. Evidently you've somehow missed that maturing phase
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Username!
USERNAME!!!
A username that a player publicly displays isn’t restricted to DBD.
I’m discussing it here though because it’s only since playing DBD with crossplay enabled that i’ve started to see names like this.
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Your field of view is quite narrow, man.
There is as many black male racists, white female racists, asian racists as white male racists. You just don't see them around because there isn't much of that people around you.
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You must believe in limited freedom because there's no such thing as absolute freedom on the internet. If not, what are you doing here? You're not free to do or say what you want!
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Lotta bunched up panties in here. All you're doing is proving to the name trolls that name trolling works. Report them and move on. This lip service in the name of being offended is useless.
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As someome who works in liquor retail, NOBODY grows up. My customers prove that to me every day.
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This discussion isn’t a “who’s worse than who” discussion, and is starting to lose all context and focus.
Someone said something about gaming culture always being this way. I, as a white male, that has been gaming over 30 years refuted their statement by explaining that gaming culture hasn’t made me discriminatory against anybody that isn’t a white male, and I do my best to also not be culturally insensitive to anybody that isn’t a white male.
This discussion is ABOUT my surprise and shock of a total lack of filters in place for PC players when choosing a publicly displayed profile name, regardless of whatever that platforms code of conduct may be. That a filter isn’t in place for Steam profile names despite many countries enforcing anti discrimination laws that also shape many businesses policies and codes of conduct (and in regards to online gaming, most companies err on the side of caution by putting filters in place) to ensure laws are abided by, is the heart of my concern and what this discussion is about.
It’s easy to pretend that language is harmless. But no major trend, movement, democracy, rebellion, or dictatorship was ever started without language and communication first. A black kid, or teenager struggling with their sexual identity, could be having a really tough time, being bullied or beaten, and close to the edge of self harm. Playing video games online might be their only escape and solace. Except they load into a lobby and see a player that’s named themselves something like “n_____smustdie” or “f_____smustdie”. That could be the final straw for someone already in a very fragile state of mind.
I’m using a pretty extreme theoretical scenario here. But the point is that language has power in a public space. Life is already hard. For some, really really hard. Suicide across the globe is higher than its ever been. Division amongst people has been higher than its ever been, and some places in the world are in big trouble.
If someone is a racist, or sexist (in particular, very derogatory towards women), homophobic, and generally highly discriminatory, then whatever. Some people are beyond being swayed from such a philosophy or attitude. But where that DOESN’T belong is in a publicly displayed profile name, for anyone to see. That will not, and will never be okay.
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How did I insult orion? I don't agree he brought FACTS and so did I, if you don't like it sorry, facts are facts, right?
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(Eye roll)
@MandyTalk this discussion has been “illuminating” in some rather disappointing ways.
Can this be closed?
I can see this getting out of hand based on the tone and direction this is heading. I’d prefer to prevent that before things get very heated and ugly.
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Not really surprising that this post turned into such a ######### show.
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Nonetheless it’s still disappointing.
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This game is an escape. Leave the bullshit virtue signaling, SJW, PC policing at the door. If you're too fragile that a username upsets you, you probably shouldn't be playing the game.
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It's not virtue signaling, the majority of people just don't think this is acceptable. Virtue signaling is something completely different.
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They don't. I have reported people for having racist names. Received responses back from Steam, thanking me and saying they took action against the person. The short answer to your question though is PC is meant to be a place of freedom of choice for responsible adults while consoles have to cater to children so they need to have strict censorship. A child is generally not going to have a pc, they will more likely have a console.
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The internet use to have absolute freedom back in the day. It didn't have anymore problems back than, than today.
And the term itself is too loose. Regardless of what u think I believe in, I am telling u, I believe in absolute freedom whether we actually have it or not.
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But according to the TC, apparently steam let's u create whatever username u want. So it's within the guidelines. So if ur offended, that's on u, and u should avoid things u don't like.
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You should check out Somalia before 2012. A true anarchist state, total freedom for everyone.
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Dear Teethgrinder83,
Unfortunately for you maturity only comes with age when you are boring or haven't realized that you only grow up to facilitate yourself being able to act childish again like buying your own fruit snacks. Don't worry though when you regret missing out on having fun all these years the regret will flow like a river and clarity will follow. Live a little bit why don't you this is a forum after all not a job.
Sincerely
Bjorksnas
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that only applies to reports regarding ingame behavior though.
why would they need a video of an endgame chat when they already have the chatlog anyway?
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How can you get offended by a username? Geezus
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hey if giggling like a schoolgirl at naughty usernames is your thing then have your fun, just don't pretend your a big, grown up guy lol I'm plenty happy with me, the Mrs and the dog :) someday you'll understand I'm sure
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