ABC News once acknowledged the phenomenon of cyberbullying:

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/L4D2-from-Valve-causing-players-to-kill-themselves-from-cyberbullying/story?id=14675883

There is a research basis linking internet trolling with narcissism, machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic behavior, with many scholarly papers studying this phenomenon:

https://slate.com/technology/2014/02/internet-troll-personality-study-machiavellianism-narcissism-psychopathy-sadism.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886914000324
https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1368&context=etd

Rampant cyberbullying ruins L4D2 games. I should know because I used to be one until I got banned and linked to these various resources by Steam Support on top of doing tons of research myself causing me to think deeply about my life and correct my behavior for the better.

This guide will give you the tools for dealing with cyberbullying.



In L4D2, in-game moderation on Official Valve Servers is a purely player-driven endeavor. If you are not aware of the tools at your disposal then you might fall victim. It is you who must make the first step in just saying NO for accepting this abuse.

In 2013 doctorates of Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee published a 104 page dissertation entitled "Cyberbullying in 'Left 4 Dead 2': a Study in Collaborative Play":

https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1368&context=etd

Many I've spoken with don't believe this is an actual real dissertation, but rest assured it's a thing someone actually wrote to get a doctorate in Philosophy stretching out in 104 pages which I cover here in this small guide:



In it, we find some of the earliest roots of L4D2 cyberbullying:

Bullying research began in Europe as a response to playground aggression in the early 1980s, quickly expanding beyond European borders as school intervention programs proved successful.

Cyberbullying is generally used as a shortcut tactic for achieving dominance within a group, and is often mistaken as leadership... which is toxic and hypocritical behavior:

While comparing competitive and collaborative groups at play, Menesini, Melan, and Pignatti (2000) found a clear distinction between command and compliant behaviors in collaborative play, but not in competitive play. The bullies (or higher power participants) were more aggressive, issued more commands, and demosntrated more regulative behavior, while victims (or the weaker participants) yielded more frequently and complied more with commands. Menesini, et al.'s findings suggest that the palyers are motiviated to perform well in order to complete the game and that bullying may be used as a tactic by some to achieve this goal and function as a cohesive group. Given that bullies used more commands and victims yielded to those commands there may be some connection between group leadership and bullying behavior. For example, since the bullies are directing in-group behavior, they may be perceived by others as the leaders of the group.

I won't spoil the rest of the article. The 104 pages are well worth everybody's time, and has reformed me into a better person.

This article in conjunction with UWM's groundbreaking dissertation provides classifications of what we need to look out for to know if we're falling victim to cyberbullying:

https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html

In terms of L4D2, these are the types of cyberbullying you may experience:

Persistent – L4D2 https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6899-IOSK-9514 "game bans" do not exist. No one has ever been banned from in-game griefing. L4D2 is limited to bans from community participation and the standard VAC and that's all. When on sale, L4D2 is abundantly affordable allowing for the creation of alternative accounts and it's very difficult to find a game without griefers. More often than not, these griefers will even follow you game to game from your profile which is defaulted to public unless you manually change it here https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/my/edit/settings which I'd recommend doing:



Permanent – Word travels fast in our small community. While forum posts and comments aren't necessarily permanent, word of mouth is. This is one of the reasons why naming and shaming others is disallowed, which I'd recommend brushing up on community rules here https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810 to learn more.

Hard to Notice – There is no CS:GO Overwatch for L4D2 https://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/overwatch/ and in-game griefing and chats are completely unmoderated. It's up to you and you alone to moderate those who you play with, here https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?id=62&t=qanda you can find more information on blocking other players and other options available.

The best tool at your disposal is to block other players:





This will prevent them from joining your games. This will not work on unofficial Community servers, you'll have to resort to the independent moderation of that Community provider.

As I've said before, I am a recovering bully and after my ban sought help to make amends for all the grief I've caused. Steam Support connected me with several valuable resources I'll summarize here.

The Steam Subscriber Agreement which you've most likely already agreed to because you're reading this can be found here:

https://steamhost.cn/subscriber_agreement/

The Steam Subscriber Agreement is a very easy and fast read with no legalise mumbo jumbo and I'd highly recommend going through it at your leisure.

The Rules and Guidelines for Steam Discussions can be found here:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

The Rules and Guidelines stipulate valuable rules that double for real life. You wouldn't argue with a police officer now, would you?

This is more information on reporting content within the Community:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1476-HJCM-5616

Stuff you're able to report if necessary includes profiles, avatars, groups, reviews, screenshots, discussions, and Workshop thefts.

Now I'd like to turn my focus to abuse and harassment, covered here:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7597-KZNM-3716

It states that a lot of the time the abuse you're receiving could be your own fault, and provides you tips on how to avoid this in the future. They are summarized below:

Keep Your Personal Info Safe
Never post personally identifiable information on Steam, even in private chats or other areas that you might think are safe. You should also review your Steam privacy options and be aware of what components of your profile are public.

Protect Your Account
Take advantage of Steam's security features.

Engage In Responsible Steam Behavior
Make sure that you are following the Steam Rules & Guidelines and that you are not engaging in activities that violate the Steam subscriber agreement. Activities like this will potentially expose your account to other bad actors, making it a target of malicious activity.

Unfriending and Leaving Groups
Don't participate in groups or befriend users that are involved in harassment, scamming, or other malicious activities. Associating with players or groups that are involved in inappropriate activity will increase the likelihood that you become a target.

Don’t Engage The Other Party
Whether it's scamming, harassment, spamming or any other malicious activity, do not engage the party that is responsible. A reaction typically results in even more dedication to the activity by the other party. We recommend ignoring the behavior and utilizing the appropriate resources outlined in this FAQ.

The mentioned Account Security Recommendations article can be found here:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1266-OAFV-8478

We can find that Valve has an aggressive stance against trolls, posted in 2012:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/550/discussions/0/882959903378211331/?ctp=3#c882962066688220791

Chet Officer Oct 3, 2012 @ 11:34am
When people encounter trolls - especially groups of trolls - please block them and report them as well. We have been going through and penalizing players who have shown consistent negative behavior.

And no, action is not only taken based on reports alone but other data the reporter has no control over. Reporting just lets us elevate some of the data from the noise.

Closing troll groups and removing privileges from those who use them to harass is very satisfying. Having them mail support complaining they didn't do anything and why did we take action against them? Priceless.

We are working on additional tools and automated behavior on the backend but until that is complete (and probably even then), reporting someone and/or someone's group really helps us look at the biggest offenders.

thanks

Valve does everything possible to counter cyberbullying in L4D2 but it is entirely your responsibility to use the tools they provide, which I've outlined in this guide.

Stay safe out there, people!



And please help spread the word! OwO