Video games and bullying
We hear more and more about how online video games are a decidedly hostile world. It is not uncommon for players to be bullied or insulted during matches. A new report may have discovered how this phenomenon is much more extensive than we could think.The study, published on Preply, has revealed some very interesting details. The first concerns the figure of those who have been harassed: over 90% of players say they have been bullied online and about 7 out of 10 players have considered the idea of retiring online video games. Two out of five players have also suffered from racism, and the platforms where bullies strike the most are Xbox and PlayStation. Bullies proliferate mainly in multiplayer shooter and arena games.
Various measures have been taken over the years to avoid bullying in online video games. Unfortunately, due to the very large communities, it is impossible to control all players. To have a safe gaming experience, therefore, the advice is always the same: disable all in-game chats, both spoken and written, and try to participate in online games only with a group of trusted friends. Unfortunately online bullying does not know definitive solutions and will never be eliminated in its entirety.
10 TERRIBLE Video Games (You Should Play Anyway)
When it comes to video games, the worst thing you can do is release something that’s forgettable. A good game? Sure, that’s the intent, but if it goes horribly wrong, sometimes you’ll catch a saving grace and the attention of the masses by producing something that is so bad... people want to play it regardless.
Morbid curiosity is definitely a thing after all, and if your bad video game has a unique selling point then bully for you - you may have just made history. Not as you intended, but it’s notoriety all the same.
The games on this list aren't the worst of the worst by any means, but they are games that were generally panned upon release, and usually for pretty good reasons.
A lot of the time however, games will get a reputation for being tragically trash in a way that belies the fact there’s fun to be had, even amongst the biggest issues.
Most of the titles on this list are never going to be anyone’s favourite, but they’re at least worth that look of morbid curiosity.
In 2005, Sega decided to cash in on the popularity of Sonic's broody bro Shadow the Edgelord and give him his own spin-off.
How would they separate it from any other Sonic game? Why not slap a gun into his hands and see what happens? I'm sure we can all agree, the idea was staring us in the face this whole time.
Shadow the Hedgehog isn’t the most broken of the Sonic games, that’s for sure, but it definitely broke any semblance of sanity the series had at that point.
Shadow spends his one and only titular release firing a variety of firearms, driving in tanks and cursing like an angsty teen.
This one is worth playing for a couple of reasons. First of all, the game has a really cool system of morality-based objectives you can pick from on the fly in each stage. It plots out a course through the game’s many stages based on these choices, meaning there are a lot of different possible playthroughs, and that’s genuinely impressive.
Mostly though, you need to play Shadow the Hedgehog just to understand how absolutely nuts it is. If you can make it through the opening cutscene with Shadow sneering with an automatic rifle in his hands without laughing, you’re made of sterner stuff than me.