One social norm is that when playing on certain servers for Counter-Strike, a first person online shooter, which are 'family safe' you abide by the set rules like keeping the language polite and not having any inappropriate sprays. Sprays are graphics which you can post on different parts of the map and all users can see them. Sometimes players will have pornographic sprays but in ‘family safe’ servers they are usually banned.
You will know whether or not the server is ‘family safe’ and or has particular rules because when you enter a server there is an information screen that pops up letting you know all the do's and don'ts of that server. These rules are an example of Wallace's netiquette. They are rules that people should follow when behaving in that specific online space. Certain rules that I have seen include no one under the age of 18, no bad language, no language other than English, and no pornographic sprays. Most servers usually just put two rules, respect all players and respect all administrators.
Administrators (Admins) can be considered the Leviathan on any Counter-Strike server. Admins have the power to kick a player from the server, ban them from using the voice chat system, and even ban them from their server for any length of time. If anyone goes against the rules of the server they have to deal with any consequences that the Admins decide to give them. This could be as small as a simple warning or it could even be a lifetime ban depending on the nature of the scenario.
Conformity and the arched brow are two different issues that Wallace talks about in The Psychology of the Internet and these ideas can also be found within this situation. When playing in a server with rules the majority of players will conform to these rules so that they can continue playing at this server. Misbehaving and not conforming to these rules will usually result in a player being banned and thus won't be able to play there anymore. The arched brow idea is also prevalent because when people don't adhere to the rules there is sometimes general surprise. For example if there is a server that is strictly against bad language, racial terms and or cussing, and if someone comes in a spews a whole sentence of banned terms out there is usually surprise and shock followed by anger by the rest of the group. Most servers with these kind of rules usually have younger players and thus the Admins try to run a 'family safe' server. Overall most players will conform to the rules so as to not experience the arched brow and to continue their survival within a particular server.
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- http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-6-option-1-29-unread.html
- http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/10/a61-cheaters-game.html
3 comments:
Personally, I’ve never seen a “family-safe” server (personally, I would also imagine that sprays of blood or dead bodies to be contrary to the whole family safe idea), but I’ve been rather grateful to the rules on the server. It shows that they are run by people who care about the state of the server, which in turns attracts players who do not want to deal with cheaters or the foul mouthed. Those same players may also be more willing to enforce the influence of the Leviathan, since they know they are in an environment that fosters those rules. They act on their urges to reprimand the ruler-breakers, and maybe encourage others to indulge in vigilante justice (it helps that CS is a PK-based game). If peer pressure isn’t enough, as you mention, an admin in the game does wonders to the peace, especially if a ruler-break doesn’t want to be banned from a popular server.
Before reading your post, i was not familiar with this game, and i think it sounds really interesting. With anonymity so easy to achieve on the internet, and with access to pretty much anything, it is refreshing that there are restrictions on these games, so that anyone underage who might be playing does not have to be exposed to vulgarity. I have no idea how affective these enforced leviathans are, but it sounds like a great concept at the very least. The nature of the game does seem to be violent, so i question whether children should be playing it at all, and i wonder if the existance of the leviathans actually promote younger children to expose themselves to this graphic game. This example can remind us that because the internet has so many capabilities, its affects can be broad and complex.
As a former CS player the idea of a family safe server sounds like an interesting idea. I feel the most important thing to consider when looking at it though is how the power of the leviathan changes from this medium to another. A CS admin has a wide array of powers at his disposal. Not only can he remove and ban players from the server but he can also just make their playing experience less enjoyable in the game. I feel that because the CS leviathan is so powerful it provides more incentive to conform to the social norms of the server rather than face the consequences. Great post!
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