This is my CP Prospectus, a sort of introductory piece of writing that tells what my CP will be about. When I originally wrote this, I was originally confused about the goal of the prospectus; I had never wrote a prospectus prior to this course. This is evident within the underlying structure of this entire piece of writing. Notice how in the first two paragraphs, I try to introduce my chosen topic's historical context, which presumably is the goal of the prospectus altogether. However, in the last paragraph, I explored potential solutions to my problem which was not the goal of the CP. When I submitted the assignment and received feedback from the professor, much of my misunderstandings about both the CP and the prospectus was cleared up: the CP is about exploring the historical background of my chosen topic and the prospectus is meant to introduce said historical discussion and thus the CP altogether.

,            The problem that my CP project investigates is this: Online video games, particularly ones that feature a competitive mode of play, tend to have environments where sexual and general harassment is common. I think the most important questions to answer about this problem are what encourages players to  harass others?, what groups of people are more likely to harass others?, and how does this harassment affect gameplay and other players?

To understand this problem in full, it’s important to understand the history of competitive online video games and the culture that surrounds it. Traditionally, video games and the video game industry has been dominated by males; playing video games has been historically associated as being an activity for boys (Salter & Blodgett, 2012). In the early 1990s, games like Counter-Strike and Quake that pioneered the online video game genre primarily appealed to male audiences through their fast-paced action and gory gameplay. Other games, such as Dead or Alive and Tomb Raider, that featured sexualized female characters also rose to popularity amongst male audiences. The success of these games compared to others would ultimately influence the content of online video games in the contemporary period. In fact, the most popular online video games in today’s world will typically feature either of the two elements that attracted male gamers in the 90s or a combination of both. It is important to note this because it has been shown that the content of online video games may affect the behavior of online players. In other words, games that feature violence may affect a player’s aggressiveness and games that feature sexualized characters may affect a player’s tendency to make sexual remarks (Burnay, Bushman, Larøi, 2019; Anderson & Bushman, 2001). And with many online games now featuring voice chat features, verbal abuse and harassment is becoming commonplace amongst online video games.

Journalists, scholars, and game developers have taken note of the growing amount of verbal abuse and harassment in online video games. A 2014 study by Haewoon Kwak of so called “toxic” behavior in one of the most popular online games to date, League of Legends, demonstrates the frequency of harassment in online video games (Kwak, 2014).

Characteristics of League of Legends include fast-paced action, highly competitive gameplay, and sexualized character appearances for both male and female characters.

            Many scholars, video game companies, and other video game enthusiasts have proposed multiple solutions to fix the problem of verbal abuse and harassment in online video games. Some video game companies, such as Riot Games, the company who made League of Legends, have implemented an automatic system that detects some forms of harassment and hate speech. Scholars such as Jesse Fox and Wai Yen Tang have noted from their own research that some personal practices can be employed while playing online video games to minimize the effects and frequency of online harassment. Methods like avoiding in-game voice chat features, using report features, or muting perpetrators allows for one to “solve” verbal attacks on themselves (Fox & Tang, 2017). However, in terms of solving the issue of online harassment as a community, other scholars believe that educating more people about sexual and general  harassment and its consequences is a feasible solution for at least reducing the frequency of verbal attacks (Diehl, Glaser, Bohner, 2014).

Works Cited

1. Anastasia Salter & Bridget Blodgett (2012) Hypermasculinity & Dickwolves: The Contentious Role of Women in the New Gaming Public, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56:3, 401-416, DOI: 1080/08838151.2012.705199Links to an external site.
2. Burnay, J, Bushman, BJ, Larøi, F. Effects of sexualized video games on online sexual harassment. Aggr Behav. 2019; 45: 214– 223. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21811Links to an external site.
3. Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature. Psychological Science, 12(5), 353–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00366Links to an external site.
4. Kwak, Haewoon. “Linguistic Analysis of Toxic Behavior in an Online Video Game”. Qatar Computing Research Institute, 10 Nov. 2014. Powerpoint Presentation.
5. Fox, Jesse, and Wai Yen Tang. “Women’s Experiences with General and Sexual Harassment in Online Video Games: Rumination, Organizational Responsiveness, Withdrawal, and Coping Strategies.” New Media & Society, vol. 19, no. 8, Aug. 2017, pp. 1290–1307. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1461444816635778.
6. Diehl, C. , Glaser, T. and Bohner, G. (2014), Face the consequences: Learning about victim's suffering reduces sexual harassment myth acceptance and men's likelihood to sexually harass. Aggr. Behav., 40: 489-503. doi:1002/ab.21553Links to an external site.