Advice on recording gameplay, and dealing with Racists/Homophobes in games (Apex Legends PC in this case)

[Arkaign]

So, I'd like to get the counsel of ResetEra here for some advice on how to handle this. If this is an inappropriate topic for some reason, I understand. I will not disclose any personal information here.

About an hour ago, I had a guy in a team that started almost immediately out of the gate spewing just a verbal diarrhea of hate speech. Fa^^^t, Nword, word that rhymes with Bike, etc. Varying from weird rants to indiscernible screeching, he was just an absolute menace to the team. It's not immediately obvious in-game on how to mute someone like this, and I *have* run into a good many hateful knuckleheads in this game so far, but this one was truly just a rampage of disgusting, vicious nonsense.

I took a screenshot of his name, and googled it, it came up with a Twitch channel, and conveniently, his real name. It's not something that anyone would ever coincidentally use, the combination of elements is absolutely unique. His real name is also extremely rare, and using available means I know almost a scary amount of information about him.

He writes for a Gaming website, has Youtube and Twitch content, etc. This was another nail that identified him, as he wrote about PUBG and seems interested in Battle Royale specifically. Finding some audio of him matched what I heard in game, though of course he didn't publish anything showing him to be a royal monster like he was in Apex just now.

I'm not sure if I should report him to the gaming website, but if I ran such a site, I certainly wouldn't want someone like that associated with my business in any way, particularly customer-side. I already reported him using the website for reporting cheaters/etc for the game. It said a response was usually doable in 3-14 days.

I'd like to hear your opinions on how to handle this kind of thing in extreme situations. I don't condone hate speech of any type, but I can sort of shake my head at some of it a bit and just move on. This was such a volcano of hate that it really kind of ruined my night. I'm not even specifically in any of the groups he was so callously and viciously slandering, but it was horrifying to any reasonable human. Our third teammate simply logged out of the game midway through, not giving a reason, though it was probably just to get away from this garbage.

I'd also like to know the best way to record footage so that if I have another one of these guys pop off, I can at least have it as definitive proof in case it's needed for a ban/etc.

Thanks!!

 

[Chivalry]

Shadowplay/Share/xbox record, etc. They run in background and you can record the last five-ten minutes.

 

[Anabolex]

Is there no mute or block function on pc?

 

[ShadowAUS]

I think contacting the site he writes for and letting them know that one of their writers was being incredibly unprofessional and hateful in-game and passing along any evidence you have is perfectly fine and is what I would do personally.

Best way to record snippets? Shadowplay by a country mile.

The only no-no in this situation for me would be publicly doxxing the person involved, that's something that I can personally never get behind.

Edit: I just wanted to point out since I didn't make this clear. Evidence is incredibly important, if you're going to potentially hurt someone's career then make 99.999999% sure you're correct and that the punishment suits the crime. A lot of people are arseholes but don't deserve to have their career hurt, I'm taking your word since you went out of your way to make this post that this one, in particular, was a real piece of work and in that case I think it's right to let the company they work for know that this individual is acting in an unacceptable way that may hurt their business. Even if nothing comes of it, if I was their boss I would want to know.

 

[Techno]

If you have a Nvidia GPU Shadowplay is a really easy way to record footage, that's what I use normally.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

I use replay buffering on OBS (which is free) on PC. It lets me just press a combination of keys to export a video clip of the last 30 seconds or however long you want clips to be. Its normally for funny or cool clips but on occasion its useful for reporting these kinds of players so they either get banned, or in your case, lose their jobs.

 

[Dan Thunder]

Hell yes you should report him. If you found him easily enough then other people likely can. At the very least it's bringing the site's reputation into disrepute.

 

[Ganado]

I took a screenshot of his name, and googled it, it came up with a Twitch channel, and conveniently, his real name. It's not something that anyone would ever coincidentally use, the combination of elements is absolutely unique. His real name is also extremely rare, and using available means I know almost a scary amount of information about him.

Click to shrink...

So, are you doxing him? Also sure, the username might be unique but you never know if it is someone that wants to fuck with that person. Be aware.

 

[Odesu]

You should absolutely report him, if I were you I would also name his Twitch and Youtube channels and the outlet he writes for. This dude has no business working in this industry.

Doxing is about distributing private information of someone with malicious intent. Calling out someone who works on the internet for his open behaviour on the internet (under the SAME username his Youtube and Twitch apparentely runs under) is not that.

That said, if he has like 50 followers and subscribers, I wouldn't bother. Chances are you would just signal boost him and give him a larger audience he ever had before with the type of crowd who loves this kind fo stuff.

 

[Arkaign]

So, are you doxing him? Also sure, the username might be unique but you never know if it is someone that wants to fuck with that person. Be aware.

Click to shrink...

Dox as in publicly expose his personal info and such? No, I said at the beginning of this that I won't do that.

Reporting his behavior directly and privately to a company which employs him to a degree in a position where his actions may be something they wish to avoid or not be a part of? Yes, I am leaning that way. Ultimately that decision is not up to me at that point though.

 

[cowbanana]

So, are you doxing him? Also sure, the username might be unique but you never know if it is someone that wants to fuck with that person. Be aware.

Click to shrink...

This. If you want to mess with people's livelyhood, be absolutely 100% sure what you're doing.

 

[Deleted member 2474]

re: writing for a gaming website, having a Twitch channel, etc. How notable is this person?

If very: yes, god, out their ass. If not very: at least report him to whoever is publishing his shit. But be extremely sure it's the same person, since you mentioned you heard their voice.

 

[Aztechnology]

So, I'd like to get the counsel of ResetEra here for some advice on how to handle this. If this is an inappropriate topic for some reason, I understand. I will not disclose any personal information here.

About an hour ago, I had a guy in a team that started almost immediately out of the gate spewing just a verbal diarrhea of hate speech. Fa^^^t, Nword, word that rhymes with Bike, etc. Varying from weird rants to indiscernible screeching, he was just an absolute menace to the team. It's not immediately obvious in-game on how to mute someone like this, and I *have* run into a good many hateful knuckleheads in this game so far, but this one was truly just a rampage of disgusting, vicious nonsense.

I took a screenshot of his name, and googled it, it came up with a Twitch channel, and conveniently, his real name. It's not something that anyone would ever coincidentally use, the combination of elements is absolutely unique. His real name is also extremely rare, and using available means I know almost a scary amount of information about him.

He writes for a Gaming website, has Youtube and Twitch content, etc. This was another nail that identified him, as he wrote about PUBG and seems interested in Battle Royale specifically. Finding some audio of him matched what I heard in game, though of course he didn't publish anything showing him to be a royal monster like he was in Apex just now.

I'm not sure if I should report him to the gaming website, but if I ran such a site, I certainly wouldn't want someone like that associated with my business in any way, particularly customer-side. I already reported him using the website for reporting cheaters/etc for the game. It said a response was usually doable in 3-14 days.

I'd like to hear your opinions on how to handle this kind of thing in extreme situations. I don't condone hate speech of any type, but I can sort of shake my head at some of it a bit and just move on. This was such a volcano of hate that it really kind of ruined my night. I'm not even specifically in any of the groups he was so callously and viciously slandering, but it was horrifying to any reasonable human. Our third teammate simply logged out of the game midway through, not giving a reason, though it was probably just to get away from this garbage.

I'd also like to know the best way to record footage so that if I have another one of these guys pop off, I can at least have it as definitive proof in case it's needed for a ban/etc.

Thanks!!

Click to shrink...

Check his Twitch channel for likewise incidences? If he's toxic like that. Then there's no way he hasn't done it before. Does he stream regularly?

 

[Arkaign]

re: writing for a gaming website, having a Twitch channel, etc. How notable is this person?

If very: yes, god, out their ass. If not very: at least report him to whoever is publishing his shit. But be extremely sure it's the same person, since you mentioned you heard their voice.

Click to shrink...

Yes, the voice match is 1:1, he has a pretty distinctive almost staccato vocal pattern.

He is not notable in any significant way, although I see from numerous forum posts and video comments that he is fairly consistently an arrogant, rude, and condescending person. I've yet to find a post of his that wasn't at least in some way anything but a combination of at least one of those elements, and sometimes more than one. Hey, he's at least consistent, though he keeps the more vile elements at least somewhat muted in his writings for the gaming website.

 

[Winter-John]

So your going to report someone to their employer and attempt to get them fired based on your Google search skills. Jesus Christ. How about instead of potentially ruining some innocent guy's life you put your pitchfork of self righteousness down until you have actual definitive proof.

 

[Ultima_5]

So, are you doxing him? Also sure, the username might be unique but you never know if it is someone that wants to fuck with that person. Be aware.

Click to shrink...

That's my first thought as well. Hell. There's someone on these boards that's using my reddit screename and an avatar which comes up often in a subreddit I️ frequent. You never know who's who exactly.

Honestly the best way to handle it is to not wear a headset and disable communication when playing with ransoms. I️ feel most of us learned this back on the 360. Just report him in game

 

[BlkSquirtle]

I would say report him to his employer with what you found. Explain the process of why you think it might be him so he doesn't have an easy out if it is him. Make sure to include his Origin name and that it matches with other social media which is why it was so easy to find him.

That said, the website honestly probably wont give af because:

1. He's not hurting their bottom line by conducting hate speech when he's not on the clock. Capitalism tho.

2. Because it's a gaming website they all say the same in their personal life and it's just "blowing of steam" or "dudes being guys and guys being dudes"

 

[Deleted member 34169]

So your going to report someone to their employer and attempt to get them fired based on your Google search skills. Jesus Christ. How about instead of potentially ruining some innocent guy's life you put your pitchfork of self righteousness down until you have actual definitive proof.

Click to shrink...

Yea I'm in this boat. Unless those videos of him show him saying shit you really have no proof (assuming you don't have a recording and a clear connection between his tag and actual name) to send to the employer.

 

[Zonal Hertz]

I would say the mute functionality is very easy to use on Apex Legends on PC and that is all that is required here.

I get very uneasy around the notion of this much investigation and attempting to ruin careers. If this person is as awful as he sounds, just mute him and he will have his comeuppance eventually.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

Mute/block, report with evidence on every website where it is possible/where he's active.

 

[Thuddert]

Report it. They can handle the rest.

 

[More Butter]

I would just report them in game and move on with my life. There are a lot of jerks who say nasty things out there.

 

[Arkaign]

So I thought it over after the valued input, and am going to take a two pronged approach. The person using this explicit Origin/Apex username IS a hate spewing racist homophobe, so the report there is done and sent.

The possibility, however small, remains that a weirdo copied his username, despite this person being in the unknown zone. Less than 50 followers is accurate to be sure. However, given that :

People like that do not seem capable of resisting the urge to spew this stuff

The Origin/Apex username system is conflict-resistant, and you cannot take or use an in-use or otherwise taken username

I believe that this individual is *nearly* certainly the offender, but not at a perfect 100% as of yet

I further believe that his racist and homophobic conduct is so egregious and reprehensible that this tiny, altogether insigificant as it might be project is actually worth at least an attempt to get certainty on.

Thus, I will add him on one of his networks, and ask him if he is interested in playing Apex Legends. If so, what is his username. If he replies with the exact match, I already know. I won't immediately act there though. I'll use his ego to get him to 'show me how to play'. Recording_every_bit_of_it. If he spews this crap out at the poor 3rds that we get, then I can send the videos to his employers.

 

[Ailanthium]

There might have been cause for concern if you hadn't heard his voice, but that's pretty much a nail in the coffin. A lawyer might try to argue that isn't definitive proof, but any reasonable person would probably agree that it's damn near it. The chances of someone stealing this guy's username then imitating his voice with high accuracy and for a prolonged time with little to no audience are just... abysmal. Report him and contact the website, and if they decide to investigate his behavior it's possible they'll turn something else up that'll be reasonable grounds to remove him from their site. Or they'll ignore it and move on from their lives. As a contributor for a gaming site he absolutely should be held responsible for his actions while gaming.

 

[Ferrs]

Report him. People trying to tie this with doxxing are ridiculous. If we want to make gaming a better space for everyone we have to do something, not only argue in forums (or worse, looking elsewhere and tie these attitudes with the "its the internet").

 

[Arkaign]

So, update. I won't really even have to go with my more elaborate plan. The guy was actually streaming this morning on twitch, so I threw it on during my commute to listen to in the background. It's absolutely him. I immediately heard the same homophobic rants, it seems for some reason Gibraltar really sets him off. He also rage quits the team before drop if someone picks his favorite character. He runs far off to pick 1v3 fights and then screeches when he doesn't get help. Just a classic dbag.

So, I'm just gonna collect his vids for awhile and compile a greatest hits to submit to his employer.

I actually feel kinda dirty for doubling his viewership from 1 person to 2 on the stream.

The guy is in his late 30s btw. What a piece of crap. No sympathy.

 

[Gifmaker]

Have you considered talking to the person in question himself? You said no sympathy, even though I don't know what age has to do with anything in this case; but it sounds as if we are talking about someone who might make his living with his writing for gaming. So if you plan to potentially destroy that for him, be sure to know what you are doing. Tell him what he's doing wrong and what you are planning to do (after collecting the evidence, obviously). At least give him a chance to reconsider his behaviour before dropping a potential bomb on him. Be better than that "no sympathy" bs. If he reacts in a douchebaggy way, you can still continue with your plans. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Chindogg]

Report him and let EA/Twitch deal with it.

Going any further starts going into that internet detective territory where you could be responsible for ruining an innocent person's life if you're wrong.

 

[chrominance]

Report their EA account in-game, and if you find Twitch footage of them doing the same then report to Twitch. I wouldn't go any further than that.

 

[Exit Music]

Please think about this before you report someone to their employer for something like this. I agree that ranting like this is terrible, but it is up to his employer to manage how he behaves at work, not in a video game.

 

[gnilres]

Yo OP what you're doing is fucked up. Fuck that guy for spreading his hate but you're not the one responsible for how he chooses to put himself out there. Unless you're willing to expose everyone who has ever said something racist or homophobic in an online game, it's weirdly aggressive to stalk this one guy like you're planning.

Just mute, report and move along

 

[Theecliff]

Please think about this before you report someone to their employer for something like this. I agree that ranting like this is terrible, but it is up to his employer to manage how he behaves at work, not in a video game.

Click to shrink...

employers absolutely do care about how employees publicly conduct themselves, as it can reflect poorly on a company who chooses to employ an openly bigoted employee - and in this person's case, they're allegedly broadcasting themselves acting like this. ultimately - if this guy is reported - it's up to the employer to act diligently and reprimand them appropriately if these claims are found to be true. it's naive to assume behaviour outside of a workplace, especially in public, will have no effect of your standing within the workplace.

 

[Jebusman]

Please think about this before you report someone to their employer for something like this. I agree that ranting like this is terrible, but it is up to his employer to manage how he behaves at work, not in a video game.

Click to shrink...

His employment is writing in the video game industry though. He's contributing to the toxicity of the very industry he works in. 100% his employer (should) care about that.

Yo OP what you're doing is fucked up. Fuck that guy for spreading his hate but you're not the one responsible for how he chooses to put himself out there. Unless you're willing to expose everyone who has ever said something racist or homophobic in an online game, it's weirdly aggressive to stalk this one guy like you're planning.

Just mute, report and move along

Click to shrink...

"This guy is racist, but you're the REAL bad guy because of you wanting him to face any sort of consequence in life"

 

[Ferrs]

If some of you who lives in a small town go around saying homophobic and racist shit, someone that knows where you work will probably tell it to your boss. And your boss more often than not will kick your ass out. Heck if it was a writter on any regular medium like a newspaper it would be the same, you guys would condemn say, a NYT writter found to say this shit.

I dunno why it has to be always different in games and we have to protect these guys in here.

 

[Mesoian]

If some of you who lives in a small town go around saying homophobic and racist shit, someone that knows where you work will probably tell it to your boss. And your boss more often than not will kick your ass out. Heck if it was a writter on any regular medium like a newspaper it would be the same.

I dunno why it has to be always different in games and we have to protect these guys.

Click to shrink...

"Because what if I say something like that one day? I want insulation too!"

The internet is one big self incrimination machine. Fuck him OP, do your worst.

 

[gnilres]

His employment is writing in the video game industry though. He's contributing to the toxicity of the very industry he works in. 100% his employer (should) care about that.


"This guy is racist, but you're the REAL bad guy because of you wanting him to face any sort of consequence in life"

Click to shrink...

I didn't say he shouldn't face consequences. I said it's fucked up that OP dug deep into this guy and found out his real name and employer and is planning a stakeout to collect evidence to ruin this guy's career.

 

[Silky]

Abusers don't deserve empathy!
Hate-spewers don't deserve empathy!
Fuck that dude, if you know it's him and got the receipts then call it a day.

 

[Jebusman]

I didn't say he shouldn't face consequences. I said it's fucked up that OP dug deep into this guy and found out his real name and employer and is planning a stakeout to collect evidence to ruin this guy's career.

Click to shrink...

This guy spends his spare time ruining other people's lives just a little bit at a time being a hateful sexist bigot.

He is employed to write about the very industry he's being toxic within.

If you want to be publicly a piece of shit, you have to be ready to deal with the consequences. It's not like OP was digging through the person's garbage trying to find out who they were or where they lived, dude literally made this public information who he was and where he's employed, it takes a google search to piece this together.

If you don't want to face repercussions in life for your actions, don't make those actions publicly.

Like I get it if he was just some random janitor and you tracked down the company he was employed with just to fuck him over, but he literally writes ABOUT the very thing he's contributing his toxicity towards. 100% fuck him.

 

[SourKiwi]

I have no fucking words for you people

 

[benzopil]

So, I'm just gonna collect his vids for awhile and compile a greatest hits to submit to his employer.

Click to shrink...

truly a sense of pride and accomplishment

 

[BlkSquirtle]

So, update. I won't really even have to go with my more elaborate plan. The guy was actually streaming this morning on twitch, so I threw it on during my commute to listen to in the background. It's absolutely him. I immediately heard the same homophobic rants, it seems for some reason Gibraltar really sets him off. He also rage quits the team before drop if someone picks his favorite character. He runs far off to pick 1v3 fights and then screeches when he doesn't get help. Just a classic dbag.

So, I'm just gonna collect his vids for awhile and compile a greatest hits to submit to his employer.

I actually feel kinda dirty for doubling his viewership from 1 person to 2 on the stream.

The guy is in his late 30s btw. What a piece of crap. No sympathy.

Click to shrink...

I applaud this.
Godspeed my friend.

 

[The Benz]

Yeah, this dude gets no sympathy from me. Go through with it OP.

 

[Dusktildawn48]

This is one of the few instances I'd say go on the offensive. Gamers get enough hate (rightfully so a lot of the time) so weeding out people like this is only for the good.

 

[Deleted member 41520]

I have no fucking words for you people

Click to shrink...

You sound like a sour kiwi right now

So, update. I won't really even have to go with my more elaborate plan. The guy was actually streaming this morning on twitch, so I threw it on during my commute to listen to in the background. It's absolutely him. I immediately heard the same homophobic rants, it seems for some reason Gibraltar really sets him off. He also rage quits the team before drop if someone picks his favorite character. He runs far off to pick 1v3 fights and then screeches when he doesn't get help. Just a classic dbag.

So, I'm just gonna collect his vids for awhile and compile a greatest hits to submit to his employer.

I actually feel kinda dirty for doubling his viewership from 1 person to 2 on the stream.

The guy is in his late 30s btw. What a piece of crap. No sympathy.

Click to shrink...

Ha! Brutal. Let us know what happens.

I feel bad for the guy but this behaviour cannot keep passing on by without friction.

 

[Mechanized]

Drag this motherfucker.