CALL OF DUTY: HOW TOXICITY CONTINUOUSLY POISONS THE MINDS OF ITS PLAYERS

Abstract

New multiplayer video games have risen in popularity with many features increasing the accessibility of communication in its diverse community. However, the structure of these games creates a platform for the cycle of discrimination by providing an inconsequential space for the dominant player group: straight white men. We look at examples of minimally moderated communication, character design, game layout, and marketing campaigns in Call of Duty (CoD) to argue how discriminatory behavior is reinforced in a developed subculture. In this paper, we use the feminist and critical race theories, focusing on Johan Huizinga’s theory of the magic circle: a social contract between players with rules in a subspace that is separate from reality. Within the game, an insult is not offensive and instead becomes normalized vocabulary. Through this, CoD problematically reinforces prejudice against people of color and women in the real world, revealing the underlying assumptions and biases of the developers and players towards certain notions of gender and race. We argue that online multiplayer game spaces blur the lines of the magic circle and the players’ view of gender and race is shaped, not from a modern or open-minded perspective, but instead from the rules of a videogame’s subculture.