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Comment by GenericDev | Hacker News Reader

A lot of you are missing the point that censorship is a slippery slope. And that this kind of moderation exists as surveilance tool. I do not understand why people are so excited to allow this kind of surveillance creep across all aspects of their life.

I can't leave my house without being monitored by ring cameras. I cannot go to work without being monitored by badge systems. And now, I can't play games without my voice chat being moderated.

I'm not a racist, sexist, terrible, or bad person. Why do I have to be forced to be surveilled and monitored like this in ever freaking part of my life, and why do you all jump so gleefully into these ecosystems? Why are you so excited to throw away these areas of your life to be monitored and controlled by companies?

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> I'm not a racist, sexist, terrible, or bad person. Why do I have to be forced to be surveilled and monitored like this […]

I am not a racist, sexist, terrible or bad person, either. Why should I be forced to listen to that shit?

While I’m a huge proponent of privacy and against surveillance at scale, the truth is, neither of us are forced to do anything here. We can both turn off VoIP in these games.

This isn't the only solution to this problem. We shouldn't be jumping to this end immediately.

Like what? How?

In my 25+ years if gaming, I have only seen it (mostly) solved in smaller/niche games where the community is small and healthy already (usually targeting “older” gamers), and when server admins are actively doing “their job”.

… or, with a similar system as is being utilized (Battlebits Remastered)

Look random internet person. I'm not going to sit here and try to solve an incredibly complex problem - one that I don't have the tools or ability to even begin to approach.

But I am telling you that monitoring and surveillance is not the first, second, or even tenth potential choice available to start tackling this problem.

We agree on the principle. I’m just pointing out that much smarter people than you and me have tried and failed to solve this for decades.

My best understanding is; this is human nature, and cannot be solved, only mitigated. Smaller scale and niche games do this with human intervention (server admins) and if the community is small enough, shame can work.

At a certain scale, it breaks apart. Toxicity unpunished leads us to the “toxic gaming culture” we have today.

Like you, I am horrified of the surveillance society being built around us. I genuinely wish there were a better way. Your OP gave me the impression that maybe you had an idea for solution, hence my follow-ups.

Barring that, in the context of gaming — where kids and teens spent a significant part of their lives these days — I’d rather see a non-optimal, opt-out solution that removes the toxic elements, so we don’t grow yet another generation of casual racists and sexists.

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