Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
SaltyBet is the gaming community's latest obsession, and it doesn't take very long to see why. SaltyBet is a gaming stream that's going on non-stop, pitting 1500 different user-created Muge fighting game characters against each other, with hundreds of people wagering sums of virtual currency (SaltyBucks) on the outcome.
Betting fake money on a brawl between Sailor Mercury and a souped up Moomin takes the formula that made Video Game Championship Wrestling a phenomenon earlier this year (namely random gaming/pop culture characters thrown into CPU vs. CPU fights) and turns it into a 24/7 event with higher (virtual) stakes and constant community interaction.
... Though personally, I could do without the community entirely.
SaltyBet is incredibly fun to watch, especially with friends, and if you're in the mood for a mix of nostalgia and insanity when your favorite childhood icon pairs up against a Lovecraftian nightmare this is by far the best place to go. The stream's soundtrack bounces from classic gaming tunes to rock to some damn chill lounge music, and it all makes for a great evening if you do one very important thing.
Ignore the chat frame.
The SaltyBet chat is just the absolute fucking worst. It's a case study in repulsive behavior in gaming. The fighting game community already has a somewhat unfortunate reputation; that reputation's not always deserved, but it's far from being unfair. Combine fighting games with excitement, anonymity, personal wins and losses, and a constantly crowded audience and you have a recipe for some intensely vile comments... Usually with women and minority groups in the crosshairs. And that kind of sucks, because sometimes the chat's excitement is sincere and infectious, so having to choose between never seeing that and seeing that nested in with some of the most repulsive commentary you'll ever see isn't a choice I relish making.
It's because of this chat that myself and friends have hesitated in outright recommending SaltyBet to anyone (until now anyway). It's a hell of a great way to spend a night in... IF you can get past that side of things, and for some that's a big if. Without some really intense moderation (which is currently lacking) it's definitely not the thing that will change the way people perceive this community.
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TweetIris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.
A game chat channel is not obligated to provide unconstrained free expression. My personal preference is to employ a light touch in moderating, but tolerating people who actively try to drive others away from your game is self-defeating.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Monday, August 12, 2013 at 11:06 AM