ARMA 3 - A Haven for Online Bullying?

ARMA 3 the realistic Milsim video game that has been going for nearly ten years now, has not shown any signs of slowing down. It is game that has a realistic combat element to it, one hit and you are dead, your avatar can be injured and then healed in real time. Also it has real world physics with bullet dropping and all the transport has real world physics.

You can add to that the modding community creating anything you can think of, creating servers that have combat, Roleplaying and all sorts. With this then came the idea of units, in which a player can join and play alongside others in a variety of scenarios from World War 2, Vietnam, The Middle East. Even Units dedicated to Star Wars and Warhammer 40k are around.

Unfortunately, there have been rumours circulating that there has been an increase of online bullying and harassment going on. 

One player who joined a unit went said: “It’s mad, I joined for fun but there are these High Schoolers that start a Unit expecting everyone to salute them and call them ‘Sir’, they don’t treat it as a game.” Another was told that his position in the unit was at stake if he didn’t stop work to play more “I must work to pay my bills and rent, I can’t always make it to game. I do the best I can but those in charge of the unit just throw abuse about my attendance, telling me that I can leave (The Unit) or go to work. What gives them the right? I am in a new unit now and it is a lot more fun.”

One other form of harassment that has been reported was the pay to join model, where a player would pay into a Unit owner Patreon to gain membership. Even then the application can be denied. 

That said there are other units that are fun to play in on gamer said: “I went through at least three units and left them all because of bullying and harassment. I have found a great Unit and others I have played with in the past who were great, also joined this unit. It has only made the unit stronger.”

The same gamer also quoted that the bullies should “Get Help and realise that this is game”.  

It is sad to say that there is bullying in many online games, but there are also decent players that are friendly and accommodating for new members of a Clan or Unit.