Call of Duty players at Davis High share thoughts on game lobbies’ toxic reputations

PHOTO: Fablio Silva’s Call of Duty gaming set up is shown (Courtesy: Photo by Fábio Silva on Unsplash).

By Francesca Fanucchi,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Call of Duty is a popular multiplayer and battle royal game where you can play until the last player is standing or in games where you work for an objective. It is extremely popular amongst Davis High students and their friends. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students were newly exposed to the game.

 Call of Duty, sometimes shortened to COD, has a reputation for having toxic lobbies in which hate speech and bullying is prevalent in.  

Senior Chase Johnson feels that the culture found in COD can be either very wholesome or extremely toxic.

“Players can get into a game and talk about their problems and have good conversations with them, then get made fun of in the next game,” Johnson explained “I wouldn’t consider the exchanges as hate speech, just some trash talk.”

Another DHS student who enjoys playing is Junior Ryan Feifer. With similar feelings to Johnson he believes  instead of hate speech, the lobby rooms can get really competitive with people trying to be funny or just trolling others. 

“Sometimes people say things in lobbies but not often,” Feifer said. He himself does not talk back because talking back would just increase the comments.

DHS sophomore Nicholas Sokolov began playing COD when he was 9 years old.

While he is not really sure about hate speech in the game he feels that “during the game it is actually kind of culturally acceptable for people to [trash talk)]”. Sokolov said  “I myself have done this and no one gets offended because it’s accepted. I haven’t been affected because I am used to it.”

While many players have a shared experience with harsh language in the game they can all agree that this mainly comes from the competitive nature of the game, which is what makes it so fun.