Trajhenkhetlive: Really we have to ask is online hacking and threats a problem with "gamers" or a problem with the nature of the internet and the anonymity it can give people? Well let's take a look shall we?
on twitter
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-arent-welcome-internet-72170/
on Facebook
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/justice/rebecca-sedwick-bullying-death-arrests/
I think it's safe to say harassment is a problem that goes far beyond the scope of "gamers". I have this wild notion that harassment is a problem with all humans that can be instigated by anyone of any ethnicity, sex, intelligence who has an axe to grind. I would hazard against saying a group of people need to be "taught a lesson" for the actions of a few misguided individuals. If someone can point to a legitimate comprehensive study showing "gamers" are more prone to harassing people I will acknowledge an issue.
I would also like to emphasize that we need a more specific definition of harassment. When I play competitively online I get called all sorts of names in free chat by the opposing side sometimes on my own team. These things range from "your cheating" to "your (insert name of sexual organ here)" and that's not even knowing what my sex is. To me harassment is when a troll starts following you on other mediums making threats or literally bugging you mid game catcalling or belittling you during the game for being a certain sex.
![avatar](/upload/avatars/2011/03/6224919e553dd4bdbba600763c4e608c790d1143_t.jpg)
TwilightBard: I'm gonna be blunt and cruel, because I don't think there's a way to sugar coat this. Thankfully it's not aimed at anyone in particular. I think the current definition of harassment is made by people that honestly don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Especially on the internet where they let their conversations take place on the most public forums and then don't know what to do when people disagree. They especially don't know what to do when some moron, some asshole gets cocky about being behind an anonymous name and decides to tweak people.
People have lost their ability to let shit slide off their backs, and if I knew how I'd write on that. Or maybe we simply never had it, and the internet has shown that in large degrees.
I'm going to repeat what I've said, and I've seen it in gaming at every point. The guy calling someone shitty names, and making horrible comments isn't because that person hates you, or hates your gender, or your race. Odds are EXTREMELY damn good that said person is talking shit to get you unnerved. It's an attempt to intimidate a person in a way that can only be done due to lack of eye contact, of physical or mental intimidation. Does it suck? Yeah, it does, but most people do not know any other way. Is it harassment? Honestly? I think Trajhenkhetlive is very right. Harassment is something that follows you, it's that one asshole who thinks he's part bulldog and doesn't want to let go of his 'prey'. It's continued attacks that can persist even when blocked, and threats made.
Hell, Twitter is great for that, 140 characters, it's easier to be a total jackass then a decent human being. Hell it's hard to write a decently complex sentence in twitter. In fact, twitter is almost a way of digital stalking, it's hilarious in that regard. Hell there's even a bot that follows certain people on a block list and puts all of their tweets on a Storify page, I mean that has to be a huge definition of digital stalking. I mean that's just out there.
But you know what? I don't like twitter, I wouldn't be sad to see it fade, but I won't protest that we should shut it down. I won't protest to destroy internet anonymity either. There's a purpose for both of those things, and there's a purpose for a lot of things out there, no matter if we like them or not. We're free to say (Almost) whatever we want, and go (almost) whatever we please. And while I may not like what people do with their lives, I may not like what people say, I'll sit here and argue for anything within reason to exist.
But I will say this, conversation, debate, disagreements, that's how we grow as people. We don't grow in echo chambers, we don't mature surrounded by yes people. And this goes to everyone. Throwing slurs, blocking people that don't agree with you isn't a sign you're in the right, it's a sign that you know what you're doing is fucked up. We need to save words like harassment, misogyny, sexism for things that are rooted in that, for things that are more then just what we don't like. Maybe we need other words, or maybe we need to learn to identify what's happening, to take a deep breath and look at what people are doing and saying, in what context that they're acting.
Or I don't know, maybe I'm becoming an old man and realizing that there's a lot more to life then being angry about things all the damn time, and finding things to be angry about and looking for them.
OR maybe the problem is, too many stupid people don't take the time to look at the English dictionary before using a word. Someone says something nasty to a person and then that person screams out harassment because he or she just assumed harassment is the right word to describe what just happened.
1.
the act or an instance of harassing, or disturbing, pestering, or troubling repeatedly; persecution:
She sued her boss for sexual harassment.
The key word is repeatedly. So like you said, it is when someone thinks he or she is a bulldog and is nasty to you for days, weeks, months, years. These kind of people do this to break their target down to a point that their target feels like killing himself or herself or running away to Siberia. But it seems so many people today are so sheltered and pampered, they get insanely butt hurt after one stranger from the internet says something nasty to them once. And then they will remember it for years like a traumatic event.