It's all a matter of perspective. If one finds themselves getting upset when people use the term, the issue isn't with the term (It means good game, no way that could be negatively interpreted without sarcasm, and you can't just assume someone is being sarcastic through text) the issue is with the way they are looking at it.
Just....see it for what it is. A simple, respectful post game address. It's no different than when you played sports as a kid and high fived the other team after every game.
The issue, besides perspective, is the way the in game community
uses the term. I've seen
countless occasions where someone doesn't just say "GG", they say "GG get rekt" or "GG no re 12 hearts." Don't even get me started about the swags and yolos that make their way into these statements. And what about those times - nearly every time, mind you - where the person says GG after a fight? The game isn't even over yet, the only thing that's been good so far is...the killing of the player you just killed. For more experienced players who become frustrated after a loss, GG after they lose a fight - especially an "unfair" one - is clearly the guy trying to shove in his face "I killed you, I'm better", and that's pretty much how people use it now, which often isn't even shrouded by the "is it sarcasm or not" rule given the time and way it's used. These people are giving a bad meaning to the abbreviation, and sadly, they don't even realize it - they are often joking around, sometimes with a friend, but every single other person who sees it won't get that - it's created a bad image for the phrase.
This isn't even considering the recent stuff I've been hearing from several online communities where GG is even starting to be interpreted as "Get good" and GF as "Get f***ed". It also doesn't help that for many people getting into these communities, you may see things like "l2p" (learn to play), or similarly "f2p" (free to play in games like TF2) among many other abbreviations that aren't so nice. GG is
hardly a "good" term anymore, and that's not just in this community it's being misused and misheard, it's just not as common elsewhere.
But should people get banned for it? No. I can completely understand that there are plenty of people out there who legitimately mean no harm in saying it and won't know any better, and they don't deserve to be kicked right out. Still, it seems silly to ignore it, toxicity in online gaming communities is a serious issue that the people behind the games are constantly fighting for a reason. Just because other online gaming communities don't have the same problems, doesn't mean we should ignore it. (Quite frankly I was amazed at how long it took before "First!" posts where disallowed here...that was long overdue.) (In two different countries, body language can have two meanings sometimes. Taking your thumb and pointer finger and making a ring or circle with the tips of them touching might mean "OK" here, but in other places it's an extremely offensive gesture, as merely one example of different "communities" with different "rules".)
We cannot assume everyone will see "gg" as "good game" with positive connotation. If a large amount of people in a community are showing dislike of it, there is a reason, you cannot assume everyone can just suck it up and magically start seeing the word as positive again, especially without considering what made it negative in the first place that could still be around. I have a lot more I could say about this topic on a much more serious note, (like, biological stuff on why we react to it the way we do beyond it's usage by the community) but I already said that in posts on another recent thread.
(...as much as I hate making these, I want people to understand the point of my post.)
TL;DR: To be blunt, you're telling people to "get over it", and human nature and instinct says that's impossible. Beyond that, I'd like to actually see the problem being addressed. It seems it's quite a hot topic, and there's a reason for that; people care. Clearly, there is something out there giving it the negative connotation within this community, and if it's not addressed, it will only continue to get worse. People won't just start seeing it in a positive light if the thing that made them see it negatively is still around, and the last thing any online gaming community needs is a bunch of upset players because of "toxicity". Some people get just as offended and upset over a "GG" when they lose as they do harassment, and harassment is against the rules, and no amount of "it's supposed to have good meaning" overrides that when a problem clearly exists.
If not changing the rules or blocking the "words", take care of the problem, please. (Read my post for more on that.)
