{"id":1730,"date":"2010-07-08T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T04:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/mediaberkman\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2010-07-12T15:45:30","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T19:45:30","slug":"radio-berkman-157-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/mediaberkman\/2010\/07\/08\/radio-berkman-157-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Berkman 157: Gaming Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"MMORPGs may maim and pwn but words will never hurt me.<\/p>\n

In online gaming environments you may be getting shot at, impaled, or run over by tanks. But the more serious damage may come in the form of the offensive chatter bandied about casually between players connected remotely via headsets.<\/p>\n

Racist, homophobic, and sexist language proliferates as gamers trash talk. But often such language and name calling is used, not to offend, but to distract and gain attention.<\/p>\n

Such “Griefing” behavior is meant to be ironic. “I am not racist\/sexist\/homophobic,” a griefer will think, “therefore, my use of an offensive term is just a joke. If you interpret it any other way then you just don’t get it.”<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean griefing doesn’t have an impact.<\/p>\n

Lisa Nakamura \u2014 Professor in the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and author of the book Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet<\/em><\/a> \u2014 spoke to David Weinberger about the origins of griefing, and how online communities are dealing with it.<\/p>\n

Listen:
\nor download<\/a>
\n…also in Ogg<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Reference Section:
\nFind Lisa Nakamura’s bio here-><\/a>
\nCheck out Lisa’s recent work here-><\/a>
\nLisa on Twitter here-><\/a>
\nJohn Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory here-><\/a><\/p>\n

Lisa’s recent talk at the Berkman Center Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game<\/em><\/p>\n