Is it me, or has politics taken over nearly every video game with a chat component? Even with Election Day officially over (even if we dont quite know who our next president will be), I doubt Ive seen the last of TRUMP 2020, MAGA, or worse within World of Warcrafts Orgrimmar (or Barrens) chat. And Im not the only gamer dealing with this:
The list goes on. And while the best advice I can offer to deal with toxic political chat in games is, just ignore it, thats not always the easiest solution. If, for example, youre playing an MMO where much of the information for what youre doing drops in the same window thats used for chat, its going to be harder to ignore someone telling you what a horrible [insert political affiliation here] you are. If text or voice chat is a bigger part of the experiencein a team game, for exampleyou might put yourself at a competitive disadvantage if you try to tune out.
Whats a person to do? You have a few options.
Look for plugins that can pull politics out of your chat
This advice mainly applies to massively-multiplayer games that support plugins and add-ons. With World of Warcraft, for example, you can find add-ons that give you a global ignore list. Add an annoying person to the list and you wont see them on any of your alts, either. You can even set an automatic timer for when that person is removed from said list, in case you only want to give them a temporary ban. And, of course, you can create your own filters for chatwhether youre targeting political trolls or just annoying people trying to sell gold.
Hide the chat (or hide the trolls)
If your game wont let you mess with or automatically disappear messages in its chat service, its possible that you can at least hide the chat so it isnt in your face all the time. Some games will even keep the box, but remove everyone elses messages; youll get any key details you need about the game youre playing, but nobody else will bother you. If youre playing an MMO, odds are good you can leave certain public channels and stick to safer waterslike your guild chatif you dont want everyones opinions to get in the way of your gaming.
Similarly, make sure youre running the most up-to-date versions of the games youre playing, and check patch notes to see if any new features have been added that you can then use to block trolls. In the case of Among Us, for example, a recent update allegedly makes it harder for people to spam chat with political crap. Soon, the game will launch a moderation and reporting system, which should hopefully cut down on the sus political nonsense.
Avoid voice chat (if you can)
I have never played Fortnite with voice chat enabled, because I dont need someone else to tell me how terrible I am at it. The same is true for any first-person shooter. Thats partly because I suck, and partly because I also dont need 14-year-olds screaming all sorts of racist garbage at me because theyre showing off for their giggling friends (or thousands of Twitch fans).
Im not saying that you cant handle yourself online. But if you dont want people to direct a stream of bullshit your way, simply search through your games settings and see if you can disable voice chat. Youll feel a lot better when its quieter, I bet.
Dont be afraid to be a narc
Im 100% guilty of this one. When I see terrible comments in a games online chat, I usually just shrug and go about my business. I never stop and think, hey, I could report this asshole, and maybe enough of those will convince the games overlords to do something about it.
Nobody likes a narc. But also, no one likes chat trolls. Dont rat someone out because they did something stupid like blast every player with TRUMP 2020. If they do it once, and they get it out of their system, sure. Whatever. Save your reporting for people who are exceedingly profane and/or gross, or just wont stop. Youre not reporting them because youre offended. We can all handle naughty words. Youre reporting them because theyre being a combination of asshole, not clever, and spammy.
Dont feel bad. Youll sleep just fine at night, because your account in the game will remain active. Watching a persons years of effort, achievements, and/or witty online handle get stripped away because theyre running their mouth is its own reward.
Chat somewhere elselike Discord
If you absolutely must use a chat feature while youre gaming, consider a different service entirelyone where you, or a moderator, sets the rules, rather than a company that might not be that interested in doing much about spam.
In other words, switch to Discord. You can plop an in-game overlay into whatever youre playing, giving you a great real-time chat that isnt tied to the game itself. You even get voice chat. It wont let you chat with the people youre playing with unless youre gaming with your guild and chatting via Discord, but its something. If, or when, a games chat moderation fails you, go somewhere else.read more
How to Stop Political Trolls From Ruining Your Games
