Turning terror into a game
Study after study has shown no link between video games and violence. But terrorism and gaming experts say chat rooms are used as recruitment tools by the alt-Right, and the ideology behind games drives a harmful subculture we need to monitor. Michelle Du
The moral panic around video-game fuelled violence has been around for decades. It’s been seized upon in recent times by US President Donald Trump, who prefers blaming mass shootings on entertainment rather than societal ills and the availability of weapons. ‘‘I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts,’’ he said after the February 2018 school shootings in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students and staff died.
The science puts us well past that. The most recent research from Oxford University, the most definitive to date, found no relationship between violent video games and adolescent aggression.
But in discussing the study, lead author Professor Andrew Przybylski made a side note that now seems incredibly important. ‘‘Anecdotally, you do see things such as trash-talking, competitiveness and trolling in gaming communities that could qualify as antisocial behaviour,’’ Przybylski said. ‘‘This would be an interesting avenue for further research.’’
Just over a month later, a 28-year-old alt-Right terrorist allegedly gunned down 50 people in two Christchurch mosques. He live-streamed the attack on Facebook in a first-person shooter style
reminiscent of a video game, for viewers to comment on in real time.
Followers on the internet chat room he frequented – a site that began out of a harassment campaign known as GamerGate to target highprofile women in the gaming industry with trolling, rape and death threats, and doxing – cheered along and encouraged him as innocent people died.
Gaming forms an integral part of a subculture the terrorist was part of. As a light is shone on these feral fringes of the internet, it has to be asked – have we all been focused on the wrong thing?
‘‘This isn’t about video games causing violence. It’s the much more complicated relationship between far-Right groups and gaming subcultures,’’ says Alfie Bown, author of The Playstation Dreamworld and an academic philosopher on games and politics.
‘‘It’s not as simple as one thing causes the other, but it’s the wider issue that there are important connections between gaming culture and subculture and far right communities, which have consequences. These are a hotbed for extreme racist, far-Right and misogynistic viewpoints, xenophobic and almost neo-Nazi white supremacy. Why does it seem that video games are at the heart of these subcultures?’’
Bown, who is an avowedly Left-wing gamer and has struggled to find spaces online to talk with other players free of insidious hate speech, says pockets of the internet such as gaming forums and image boards where extremist views are common have mushroomed.
‘‘They grew over a period of years and years away from the mainstream discourses, and video games have played a role in that of being this form of entertainment that is seen as being anti-establishment. An event like Christchurch makes you aware of the political importance of these subcultures that remain hidden a lot of the time,’’ he says.
The document left behind by the killer heavily references the style of communication typical of these forums, Bown says. The terrorist mentions video games, the name of a massively popular online YouTube gamer, and leaves what are known as ‘‘easter eggs’’ – gaming terminology for a hidden message or image that reveals a work’s ‘‘true’’ meaning.
‘‘On the one hand this is just the ramblings of a heinous terrorist, on the other hand, the kinds of things he said gives us a clue as to the kind of culture it emerged from. I can tell you those people on those forums would not have been as shocked to see the live-stream as you or I.’’
Video games have long served to dehumanise the ‘‘enemy’’, with traditional uses including American military training. ‘‘If you’ve already shot an Arab 500 times you might shoot quicker in real life because you’ll be less likely to stop and think ‘do I want to do this’. In terms of dehumanising us to the other, that is what they do.’’
In this way, many games align with Right-wing ideologies – making it easier for those playing them to become absorbed in these thought patterns, Bown says.
Internet watchdogs and counter-terrorism experts warn about the use of gaming forums and chat rooms to both recruit susceptible youth and spread Right-wing propaganda. Benjamin Decker has spent years investigating the online radicalisation of mass shooters and jihadists. He is a research fellow at the Shorenstein Centre at Harvard Kennedy School in Boston.
A few years ago, Decker and his colleagues began noticing far-Right extremists recruiting in the same way as Islamic State before them. This included using fabricated narratives and false concepts designed to deceive, with messages deliberately targeted to different online platforms.
The footage taken by the Christchurch terrorist was similar to that commonly used in IS recruitment videos, Decker says. It was manufactured to spread online and act as inspiration to far-Right extremists. The internet has connected these fringe groups in our society and allowed terrorist propaganda to spread.
‘‘One of the things about the radicalisation of people on the internet that very much fits into video game culture – particularly the more violent games – is this numbing down of emotional responses to acts of violence. It’s the vicarious effect of experiencing violence over and over again.
‘‘Extremist groups are often trying to find vulnerable youth, and what are vulnerable youth doing? Playing games on the internet.’’
In New Zealand, Netsafe’s Martin Cocker says it is aware of recruitment on games communications platforms like Discord – a voice and text chat app for gamers – and other messaging forums.
Overtly racist and misogynist rhetoric and images would often be picked up and shut down on more mainstream channels like Discord, YouTube and Twitch, a live-streaming video platform where viewers chat and comment on gameplay in real time. But those with extremist views would try to entice these gamers to join them on more toxic message boards where there was no moderation.
‘‘They’ve got to somehow convince people to go there and be part of the conversations – they are looking for people who might be susceptible or interested in those views,’’ Cocker says. ‘‘That’s how it works, they put out feelers and then encourage them to go to places where the conversation is more extreme.
‘‘Some of the themes of games give a starting point for a conversation. If it’s a first-person shooter game, it could be a casual conversation about the kind of person you like shooting in the game. The really important thing is to recognise that it happens – and if you have a conversation about these things with your kids then its less likely to be effective.’’
Because these communities are full of ‘‘bluster and bravado’’ and exaggerated, over-the-top claims, it’s easy to nestle hateful ideology within that and also difficult to monitor, he says. ‘‘There’s so much commentary that it’s hard to pick what is harmful to the population more generally.’’
‘‘On the one hand this is just the ramblings of a heinous terrorist, on the other, the kinds of things he said gives us a clue as to the kind of culture it emerged from. I can tell you those people on those forums would not have been as shocked to see the livestream as you or I.’’ – Alfie Bown
Let’s Play Live (LPL) is one of the top eSports providers in the world. Run out of SkyCity in Auckland; the company organises global video game tournaments for top players. Viewers can then join the livestream to watch their favourite teams play on the Twitch platform – players can narrate the game if they want, and the viewers are able to comment in a chat feature alongside the screen.
‘‘What you’ve got is a very powerful experience that allows for hyperengagement,’’ operations manager Duane Mutu says. ‘‘Of course, you’ve got to be very careful about what that looks like.’’
Twitch has a basic moderation function that blocks keywords. A plug-in designed by 2018 Young IT professional of the year, Wellingtonian Sam Jarman, allows for even more words to be banned across multiple accounts. LPL also has up to three or four physical chat moderators, depending on the size of the audience.