• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
69 percent of gamers admit to "smurfing" even though they find it toxic

Home> Gaming

Published 16:25 22 May 2024 GMT+1

69 percent of gamers admit to "smurfing" even though they find it toxic

Gamers believe the punishment should depend on the player's reason for smurfing.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Nobody likes a cheater.

Whilst smurfs may not be directly hacking the game to give themselves an advantage, they definitely come pretty close.

If you're unfamiliar with the term, smurfing has nothing to do with those blue animated characters although, the name does derive from World of Warcraft players who were so good at the game that people left when they saw their usernames, 'PapaSmurf' and 'Smurfette'.

gorodenkoff/ Getty
gorodenkoff/ Getty

Advert

Smurfing is actually when a player creates a new account in order to play people of a lot lower skill level than their own in a way to 'crush the noobs' so to speak.

When you play an online game against other players, the game tries to match you to players of similar skill levels.

So you can imagine the frustration as a newbie to the game, expecting to be in lobbies with similar experience, only to be dominated by opponents far above your skill level.

Despite hating it when others smurf against them, a new study on toxicity in gaming found that 69% of gamers admit to smurfing and 13% say they do it frequently or almost always.

Advert

'Relative to smurfees, participants perceived smurfs as more likely to be toxic, to disengage from the game, and to enjoy the game,' the team from Ohio State University wrote in their study.

'There were also pronounced self-other effects. Relative to themselves, participants thought that other gamers were more likely to be toxic, less likely to keep playing the game, and less likely to enjoy the game.'

zeljkosantrac/ Getty
zeljkosantrac/ Getty

Looking into the reasons behind why people create smurf accounts. Real smurfs from Reddit explained it was because they wanted to either play with their lower-levelled friends or crush a bunch of noobs.

Advert

The team also conducted a second study, asking players what level of punishment should be given to the smurf.

'This perspective says if something is wrong, it doesn’t matter your reason for doing it, it is always wrong,' lead author Charles Monge explained.'The idea is that it shouldn’t matter if you were just smurfing so you can play with your friends, you made me lose this game and now I am mad.'

Expecting people to use 'motivated blame' or consider the act wrong altogether, they instead found that gamers judged whether smurfing was wrong on an individual case basis.

Therefore, they ranked some types of smurfing as more blameworthy than others depending on their intention. For example, smurfs who just wanted to give others a hard day on the digital playground deserved harsher punishments, according to the recruited gamers.

Advert

Finally, a third study found that non-gamers shared roughly the same perspective, with the punishment relying on the player's intention.

Given the toxicity often associated with gaming, the research team hopes to apply the findings to other fields outside of gaming.

Featured Image Credit: gorodenkoff / zeljkosantrac / Getty
Gaming

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

21 hours ago
2 days ago
3 days ago
  • 21 hours ago

    Switch user issues warning to gamers after being banned by Nintendo for what they downloaded

    Be careful what you're playing

    Gaming
  • 2 days ago

    Microsoft boss gives brutal advice to thousands of fired workers after $80,000,000,000 announcement

    Talk about rubbing salt in the wound

    Gaming
  • 3 days ago

    Call of Duty called out over 'insanely stupid' changes that are costing players a fortune

    Many aren't happy with the game's direction

    Gaming
  • 3 days ago

    Stop killing games hits 1,000,000 signatures but there's still one major concern

    The movement could change gaming forever

    Gaming
  • Switch user issues warning to gamers after being banned by Nintendo for what they downloaded
  • Gamers in for huge win as PlayStation Plus adds 199 hours worth of free games
  • Microsoft boss gives brutal advice to thousands of fired workers after $80,000,000,000 announcement
  • Tim Cook explains why Steve Jobs recruited him even though Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy