So you may have noticed a little game named "Agario" blowing up on Twitch and Reddit recently. For those that aren't aware, it's a simply game where you move a dot around to eat other colored dots, there's no text or voice chat, you just move the dots around and try to make your dot as big as possible while avoiding the other players dots. It pretty much couldnt be more innocuous as far as games go, right? Wrong. So what's the problem? Well for one thing, anyone knows how toxic the Twitch community is knows how capable they are of ruining a gaming scene, and if you're in the sub you're already well aware of how bad Reddit is. Our old friends at 8chan /v/ and /pol/ have picked up on this game as well as KnowYourMeme but still... how could there be a problem with a game that features no chat, no messages, no grouping of any kind? The game, at least at first impressions seems to take the Hearthstone route of not providing gamers with chat functionality in order to starve them of the oxygen they need for harrassment. Unfortunately Shitlords always find a way, and in Agario's case they have resorted to using the functionality of choosing your own name and skin in order to be misogynist, racist assholes. A quick look at some of the top posts in the Agario subreddit illustrate my point perfectly. Consider there to be a BLANKET TRIGGER WARNING ON ALL FURTHER LINKS IN THIS POST... Mocking feminism and a rape joke for good measure[1]
More mocking feminism[2]
Homophobia, racism and anti-semitism and oh look feminism is present too I'm sure this will end well...[3]
More racism[4]
Homophobia[5]
It's just "historical roleplay" guise...[6]
Racism[7]
Edgy[8] One person who voices dislike to the offensive themes is shot down in the name of MUH FREEZE PEACH[9] Another is met with highly upvoted abject racism[10] And as per usual on Reddit, Asians are a protected class amongst the rest of the anti-PoC racism[11] LOGIC & REASON! "This offensive skin is okay because there are other offensive skins in the game"...[12] Mocking SJWs and cucks? Business as usual...[13] I think I need to restate the fact that GAMERS ACTUALLY MANAGED TO TAKE A GAME ABOUT MOVING COLORED DOTS AROUND AND MADE IT ABOUT HARRASSMENT. It would be too easy to blame this ALL on the gamers, as I mentioned above Hearthstone has implemented a system which works quite well. But Blizzard has proved they are willing to moderate and curate their games, and they have at least made baby steps in the direction of Social Justice. However, the dev for Agario not only seems to be revelling in the attention of his Channer, Twitch and Gator fans, but actively encouraging their behavior... Glancing at the list of skins he has added[14] immediately shows some of the 'edgy' racist, misogynistic and un-politically correct skins available... 8chan, hitler, isis, nazi, north korea, patriarchy, piccolo, satanist, stalin to name a few. From browsing the subreddit many gamers seem to argue that these skins were added for "historic roleplay" but I think the links I shared above show that they are of course used to create offensive situations. The silver lining is that his game will never achieve mainstream media coverage and popularity while it's full of nazi and misogynist imagery. Hopefully someone will come along soon to create a sanitzed version that can be played by children and people who don't want to be constantly harrassed, offended or triggered. And by someone who can KEEP THE FUCKING GAMING COMMUNITY IN CHECK.