This kind of shittiness tied to videogames. Swatting, Toxic communities etc...

Even in the earliest days of online games everyone was largely awesome to each other outside of the hackers.

Swatting has already gotten people killed. This is not funny, and will never be funny, in any way, shape or form. The fact that someone even bothered to do this despisable “prank” on a goddamn kid makes this all the much worse.

you must be youngish.  It certainly didnt suck in the late 70 and 80s

Misery loves company, that’s why. a Bunch of punk-ass shitty kids hate themselves and their shitty existence so they do shit like this to happy people.

I never heard someone screaming racial epithets into my ear until I started playing online.

Oh yeah, lets be completely oblivious to all the bullshit that’s happening in the gaming world right now and make a false equivalence to someone driving poorly.

To get further info, it can be. Fake Facebook profiles to get closer to targets, fake e-mails to try to fish info, etc.

I really don’t believe that. At all. That seems like an overly simplistic excuse to me. Everybody understands the explicit difference between calling the cops, and calling the cops to make SPECIFIC reports that require the response of that department’s actual paramilitary force. Make no mistake: No matter what these…

The thing is..I don’t think it is. I think the outcome is this: a famous player gets live swatted, the news reports on it, and the perpetrator gets to revel in the “power” he thinks it gives him.

It never occurs to assholes like that that someone “could” get killed. That’s how petty these assholes are.

And if someone…

I think the worst part about this is that when some rando swats a streamer, the outcome they’re HOPING for is that the streamer gets murdered by the cops. 

I’m sad to say this, but our pastime really is the fucking worst guys.

Man, swatting is so fucked up. You’ve got to be a freaking sick person to do that to someone. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key.

Back in the day - like 1998 - a ladder admin got pissed off at me for cheating at rainbow 6. To be clear, I’ve never cheated in my life, I was just really good at 2v2 and was one of the top 2-3 players in the game at the time. He used my password for the ladder and hacked my personal website and email. Thought that…

If you are a popular streamer, of any type, especially one where your real name is known, I feel like you should talk to your local police and give them your address and info so that if a call comes in for something crazy, they can have abit of aheads up. I mean, the cops or course couldn't just ignore it, but they…

It’s basically attempted murder.

The courts should charge the idiots that do this with attempted murder because that’s what it really is. If a cop kills someone during a swatting, then straight up first degree murder. They do this knowing full well that a trigger happy cop might shoot someone live on stream and they’re hoping for it. Pieces of shit,…

It’s scary easy to get info like that. They don’t even need super hacking skills to trace your IP or such. They can easily social engineer that info just from doing basic online searches with your name.

While playing video games with your nephew :(.

...or the cops might just kill you INSIDE your home after your neighbor calls for a welfare check because you left the front door open to get a breeze.

I say it every time: there should be MUCH more severe punishments for doing this shit. Especially given that the cops might just kill you - sometimes while standing outside your house.