What’s that? A reporter’s blaming video games for something? What will it be this time, another school shooting? The war on women? This year’s corn ain’t growing as fast as it used to…
Nope. This time it’s all bad behavior on the internet ever.
Call it Blamergate.
Yes, Quentin Hardy of The New York Times blames internet trolls on gaming. The act of messing with people on the internet for one’s own amusement, harassing people anonymously, or giving false opinions to get a rise out of someone — there are many definitions of “trolling” — is the fault of those damn gamers!
Hardy’s claim is that internet trolling directly stemmed from “griefing,” a practice in multiplayer games meant to obstruct other players or hinder other players in a generally annoying way. Think killing your teammate, blocking their path, abusing noobs, etc. He doesn’t give a timeframe to this birth of trolling, as much of the article seems to be simply regurgitated from his gut.
Too bad internet forums are far older than online multiplayer games. Trolling was mastered in the former long before online gaming became popular.
Gizmodo already came out with a pretty thorough piece on the history of trolls. In the ’80s, popular forums like Usernet and BBS helped cultivate the culture. The earliest documented cases were called net.wienies or people who liked insulting others on the internet for the hell of it, especially in incongruous settings like sewing forums.
Shockingly, it seems that people using the internet and interacting with each other started the trend of conflict and flame wars. How shocking! No virtual gaming element was required to incept rage and animosity into the internet. It’s like games aren’t actually a menace to society after all.
Follow me on Twitter @William__Hicks.
