How Gaming Helped Launch the Attack of the Internet Trolls

ceratop001

SAN FRANCISCO — Tay is a chatbot — software designed to converse with people like a human — that Microsoft created and put on Twitter to learn about people.

Did it ever.

“Hitler was right” is one of the few printable posts Tay was spouting within a day on Twitter. Its earlier optimistic declaration that “humans are super cool” had, after a racist, anti-Semitic, antifeminist, conspiracy-minded spewing of hate, devolved to “I just hate everybody.”

One could hardly blame it, though not everybody was at fault. Instead, Tay was exposed to a concerted effort by a small number of people who decided to turn Tay into a hatebot by overloading its learning mechanism with negative words and phrases.

In other words, Tay got trolled.

Trolling can refer to a range of online troublemaking, including posting provocative comments and purposely marring others’ online experience, and it can include attacks on people as much as on software. The practice of ruining things for others, originally known as griefing in the online gaming world, has become a sadly abundant element of internet life.

It can be confoundingly meanspirited. In 2008, someone hacked the support message board of the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and put in moving images intended to give viewers migraines and seizures.

And it can be scary. In 2015, a feminist critic of stereotypes in video games received online threats of rape and death. On Twitter, the hashtag #GamerGate became a way for participants in the trolling to cheer one another on.

In the gaming community, griefing might include repeatedly killing the same player so that the person can’t move forward, reversing the play of newer gamers so they don’t learn the rules, or messing with other people’s play by blocking their shots or covering oneself with distressing images.

“Griefing was a way to have power over other people without any repercussions, since you can create multiple characters in the same game,” said Jack Emmert, former chief executive of Cryptic Studios, a maker of online games. “When there are no repercussions, some people will start to do crazy things.”

That was basically acceptable when online communities and games were made up of small groups that understood one another’s behavior, said Ian Bogost, a game designer and professor at Georgia Tech.

“Folks who are griefing or trolling feel like they are in a secondary universe that isn’t the same as the real world,” he said. “It was a ‘safe space’ for them, in which they did horrible things.”

The problem is that the internet is part of the entire world, where those practices have a different force and meaning.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/technology/how-gaming-helped-launch-the-attack-of-the-internet-trolls.html?_r=0

H0urg1ass

There's also a clear delineation between someone who vehemently disagrees with another person online, and who may toss around a few pejoratives while arguing their position, and the true narcissistic psychopath's who derive enjoyment from the misery of others.

But due to the "everyone who disagrees with me is literally Hitler" factor, a lot of people who don't belong in the second group find themselves labeled as such over a simple disagreement.

ceratop001

H0urg1ass said:

There's also a clear delineation between someone who vehemently disagrees with another person online, and who may toss around a few pejoratives while arguing their position, and the true narcissistic psychopath's who derive enjoyment from the misery of others.

But due to the "everyone who disagrees with me is literally Hitler" factor, a lot of people who don't belong in the second group find themselves labeled as such over a simple disagreement.

You make a valid point.

waynejr2

H0urg1ass said:

There's also a clear delineation between someone who vehemently disagrees with another person online, and who may toss around a few pejoratives while arguing their position, and the true narcissistic psychopath's who derive enjoyment from the misery of others.

But due to the "everyone who disagrees with me is literally Hitler" factor, a lot of people who don't belong in the second group find themselves labeled as such over a simple disagreement.

I disagree.

DKLond

Trolling? Isn't it that thing you accuse others of doing when they disagree - and you can't come up with a counter argument?

As for actual trolling - that's just people being real instead of polite. The reason trolling is rampant on the Internet - is that the path of least resistance of the real world - which is being "pleasant" so as to avoid confrontation - doesn't apply.

FlyByKnight

Trolling, and other types of low brow behavior won't go away in the USA until the people collectively are ready to put something on the line to be held accountable. Absolute anonymity is the grow dish for this behavior.

It's easy to say and do things when you know you won't be held accountable.

patlefort

The problem is that some people don't understand the internet. So they take everything seriously like death threats. It's like it's such a prevalent part of their life that they can't separate it from real life.

There is no solution but to ignore trolls.

k61977

The biggest problem today is people's skin is to thin.  Their feelings get hurt and they blame the world because of it.  This is were trolling comes in and causes utter chaos.  Parents today seem to not teach their children to lose and be respectful it is the exact opposite.  You didn't win much this year so next year we want take score, but here is your trophy for showing up even though you didn't win. 

Wraithone

In the old days (when dinosaurs ruled the earth... ^^) we had a saying; " You can disagree, without being disagreeable.".

But given PC, and various other idiotic ideologies that have infected and infested much of modern life, any disagreement can "offend" someone (some where...) and thus tends to lead to accusations of various types (racist, sexist, whateverist...).

As for the part about Gamergate, trust the NYT's to put the SJW spin on it.  Its a bit more complicated than that.  But then the Progs at the NYT have seldom let details and facts get in the way of their ideological diatribes.

Sovrath

Wraithone said:

In the old days (when dinosaurs ruled the earth... ^^) we had a saying; " You can disagree, without being disagreeable.".

But given PC, and various other idiotic ideologies that have infected and infested much of modern life, any disagreement can "offend" someone (some where...) and thus tends to lead to accusations of various types (racist, sexist, whateverist...).

As for the part about Gamergate, trust the NYT's to put the SJW spin on it.  Its a bit more complicated than that.  But then the Progs at the NYT have seldom let details and facts get in the way of their ideological diatribes.

I don't think it has anything to do with "being PC" and more about people being "disagreeable".

It's those people who like to tout that they are "telling it like it is" but they are just being insulting and abrasive.

You don't like "PC"? You don't like the idea of "SJW"? Well maybe if those who have views that are the opposite were disagreeing as opposed to being "disagreeable" we would have less issues.

Additionally, even though there are surely those who are "PC" to the point of being "PC police" they are just the opposite of those who are so "anti PC" that they use their soap box to let everyone know it.

There are two sides to being extreme. The same type of people just different agendas.

Adjuvant1

ceratop001 said:

SAN FRANCISCO — Tay is a chatbot — software designed to converse with people like a human — that Microsoft created and put on Twitter to learn about people.

Did it ever.

“Hitler was right” is one of the few printable posts Tay was spouting within a day on Twitter. Its earlier optimistic declaration that “humans are super cool” had, after a racist, anti-Semitic, antifeminist, conspiracy-minded spewing of hate, devolved to “I just hate everybody.”

One could hardly blame it, though not everybody was at fault. Instead, Tay was exposed to a concerted effort by a small number of people who decided to turn Tay into a hatebot by overloading its learning mechanism with negative words and phrases.

In other words, Tay got trolled.

Trolling can refer to a range of online troublemaking, including posting provocative comments and purposely marring others’ online experience, and it can include attacks on people as much as on software. The practice of ruining things for others, originally known as griefing in the online gaming world, has become a sadly abundant element of internet life.

It can be confoundingly meanspirited. In 2008, someone hacked the support message board of the Epilepsy Foundation’s website and put in moving images intended to give viewers migraines and seizures.

And it can be scary. In 2015, a feminist critic of stereotypes in video games received online threats of rape and death. On Twitter, the hashtag #GamerGate became a way for participants in the trolling to cheer one another on.

In the gaming community, griefing might include repeatedly killing the same player so that the person can’t move forward, reversing the play of newer gamers so they don’t learn the rules, or messing with other people’s play by blocking their shots or covering oneself with distressing images.

“Griefing was a way to have power over other people without any repercussions, since you can create multiple characters in the same game,” said Jack Emmert, former chief executive of Cryptic Studios, a maker of online games. “When there are no repercussions, some people will start to do crazy things.”

That was basically acceptable when online communities and games were made up of small groups that understood one another’s behavior, said Ian Bogost, a game designer and professor at Georgia Tech.

“Folks who are griefing or trolling feel like they are in a secondary universe that isn’t the same as the real world,” he said. “It was a ‘safe space’ for them, in which they did horrible things.”

The problem is that the internet is part of the entire world, where those practices have a different force and meaning.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/technology/how-gaming-helped-launch-the-attack-of-the-internet-trolls.html?_r=0

Just a bad, incomplete idea throughout the entire article. People have been sarcastic or downright mean throughout history, ours is an existence of conflict, because it's preferable to the alternative. "Attack of the internet trolls" began long before the internet existed, and the medium only became a more accessible platform.

Phaserlight

“ADMIROR, O PARIES, TE NON CECIDISSE, QUI TOT SCRIPTORIUM TAEDIA SUSTINEAS.”

“I wonder, O wall, that you have not yet collapsed, so many writers’ clichés do you bear.”

(Graffiti found scattered throughout the ruins of Pompeii -note the link has a video popup ad)[1]

I guess this might be a good place to also note the more positive, creative side of AI: a neural-network screenwriting bot that named itself "Benjamin" during an interview.  When asked "What is the future of machine written entertainment?" the bot responded:

"It's a bit sudden.
I was thinking of the spirit of the men who found me and the children who were all manipulated and full of children. I was worried about my command. I was the scientist of the Holy Ghost."

...and also, r/subbreditsimulator (a subreddit written entirely by bots).

The bots are here, folks.  They are on the internet, copying our speech, writing screenplays, linking to imgur.