![]() ![]() ![]() "I hope people understand we did this to try to make the world a better and more inclusive place," she said. SteelSeries was conned into believing the Bully Hunters were a serious organization doing a real work and that resulted in SteelSeries sponsoring the event, so now the Bully Hunters released their scripted videos to make SteelSeries think they are actually accomplishing anything with the money from the sponsorship. Taylor said while the agency is still processing the hard lessons of the campaign, it is still committed to promoting an anti-harassment movement among gamers. I wonder if it's a bad case of Hanlon's razor. All that remains are YouTube copies of the livestream and hundreds of blistering critiques. She said more productive approaches would involve developing online tools to ban the most toxic offenders, and encouraging players to tamp down harassment the moment it takes place, thus denying trolls the validation they crave.Īfter the barrage of criticism, FCB Chicago took down Bully Hunters' website and social media accounts. "When someone comes in and wipes the floor with you, you're not going to be amenable to hearing the message." "We know from aggression studies in video games that when they get more frustrated they get angrier, and they're more likely to (bully)," she said. Hopefully this brings attention to it." Better approaches?īut Jesse Fox, an Ohio State University professor who has studied sexist behavior in video games, said Bully Hunters relied on a faulty premise - that harassers can be brought to heel through chastening defeat. "I'm of the opinion that if there's a problem, we always need to be looking for a solution. "As an activist, you never have perfect tools in your toolbox," she said. Paloma Delgadillo, the chapter's president, said she wasn't surprised by the blowback but rejected the idea that it harmed the anti-harassment movement. The only group that stood by the effort was Chicago NOW. ![]() SteelSeries said its only role was to donate equipment and "support the call for positive change" and that it hadn't been involved in executing the campaign. The companies quickly put up statements distancing themselves from Bully Hunters. So don't pretend that you took a step forward this is taking a step back." "This is so idiotic that no one is going to take harassment seriously. "You did more harm than good here, clearly," he said. In a video viewed more than 3.5 million times, he blasted the organizers and the participating companies, saying they were exploiting a serious problem to sell gear. PewDiePie, a YouTuber who is the biggest celebrity in gaming, was particularly unsparing. Others picked apart the statistics on harassment presented during the livestream. Online sleuths, looking up gamer profiles, revealed that a victim and a Bully Hunter appeared to be the same person. It was to point out this is what could happen in the real world."īut the damage was done. "We would 100 percent agree that that key message didn't come across," Taylor said. One of the livestream's hosts, Nati Casanova, a popular gamer who goes by the handle ZombiUnicorn, later said she flubbed a scripted line meant to emphasize that the footage was staged. The action seemed artificial to veteran CS:GO players, who accurately called it out as fake. The livestream included two purported episodes of harassment: In each, a voice that sounded like it belonged to the same man made vulgar, sexist and threatening remarks to female players, only to be dispatched by a Bully Hunter. An online tool was supposed to summon them into the game, where they would track down and eliminate bullies, leaving a calling card in the chat: "Harassment is not a game." The set featured "casual gamers" playing CS:GO on computers, while across the room, the "Bully Hunters" waited to enter the fray. It began with a montage of vicious insults recorded during games, followed by a woman's voice intoning over a countdown: "This ends in three, two …." Not a game Whether or not Bully Hunters will regroup and try again remains to be seen.Ĭounter-Strike: Global Offensive is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.On April 12, the agency launched Bully Hunters with a livestream from Chicago's Ignite Gaming Lounge. You can debate the merits of the execution, but I’m always gonna remain supportive of the overall goal." It’s bringing more attention to the fact that harassing isn’t OK. "If it’s gonna help a few more people understand that this is not OK-all these people are speaking up saying that we shouldn’t do the Bully Hunters thing because that might harass the bully-then it did its job. She believes that the organization has done some good, despite the widespread negative reaction to the stream. Popular Twitch streamer ZombiUnicorn, who co-hosted the stream, is remaining with Bully Hunters as a consultant. Sponsors SteelSeries, Vertagear, and the Diverse Gaming Coalition have all pulled support from the Bully Hunters, releasing statements that suggested as though the organization started as something much different than what was shown in the stream. Since airing the controversial stream, Bully Hunters has shut down its website and social media accounts. ![]()
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