FOR YEARS, THE IDEA OF MAKING A CAREER out of playing video games seemed to be little more than a pipe dream. Then the rise of e-sports leagues made it real. Today’s professional gamers enjoy salaries, benefits, retirement plans, and the envy of many a cubicle dweller. Yet as gaming has grown into a proper profession, so have its harassment problems—enough so that today’s virtual workplaces could use an HR department of their own.

Consider the case of Félix Lengyel, better known by his digital moniker “xQc.” The 22-year-old Canadian gaming pro gave the Overwatch League, a division of entertainment company Activision Blizzard, quite a headache in January when he hurled a homophobic slur at a gay competitor. Lengyel was promptly suspended. It was far from his only infraction: Lengyel had racked up thousands of dollars in fines for his antics. This year, he used an “emote,” the name for the emoticons used on Twitch, the live online gaming channel, in a racially disparaging way toward a league emcee. (Lengyel said later that he didn’t realize he was being offensive.)

多年来，把玩游戏作为职业似乎一直等同于痴人说梦。但电子竞技联赛的兴起却让这个想法成为了现实。如今，职业电竞选手有薪酬，有福利，有退休金，坐在小隔间里的他们还收获着越来越多的羡慕之情。但随着电竞发展成一种正当职业，它也出现了一些令人困扰的问题，而且已经足以让如今的电竞组织建立自己的人事部门。

大家可以想一想发生在菲力克斯·伦杰尔身上的事，他的ID“xQc”更为知名。今年1月，这位22岁的加拿大电竞选手让动视暴雪（Activision Blizzard）旗下的《守望先锋》联盟颇感头疼，原因是他用反同性恋语言攻击了一名同性恋对手。伦杰尔立即遭到了禁赛。这可不是他第一次“搞事情”——他已经因违规行为被罚过几千美元。今年，他在电竞直播平台Twitch上对一名联赛主持人使用了有种族歧视色彩的表情符号（伦杰尔后来说他当时没有意识到那是一种冒犯）。

Lengyel is one of a half-dozen Overwatch League players who have received warnings, fines, or suspensions for their conduct on personal social media channels or official league streams. (“Playing in the Overwatch League is an amazing opportunity but also a big responsibility,” commissioner Nate Nanzer says.) But the problem isn’t limited to the 12-team Overwatch League, which was established last year. Today, e-sports groups are increasingly asking themselves the same question: How do we ensure that the talent doesn’t become a liability?

The NBA 2K League, a 17-team organization in the midst of its inaugural season, is trying to confront the issue before it becomes a problem by looking to the policies of its real-world counterpart. (The virtual league is co-owned by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive, the game publisher known best for Grand Theft Auto.) Before this year’s e-season began, players were given a crash course in conduct, says league managing director Brendan Donohue.

Still, most e-sports organizations are young and haven’t yet had to deal with bad behavior on a large scale. (Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, says it polices harassment using humans and algorithms alike.) But the gaming community’s toxic underbelly—on display during the Gamergate controversy in 2014— offers reason to be concerned that e-sports’ growing platform would only magnify it.

In the meantime, results may vary. Pro gamer Mychal “Trihex” Jefferson, who is African-American, says he sometimes sees racially disparaging jokes on Twitch, where he has more than 300,000 followers. “It can hurt,” he says. “It can take you out of it.”

It can also motivate. Wendi Fleming, a female gamer who participated in this year’s NBA 2K League draft—no women were among the 102 players selected—says the dynamic fuels her competitive streak.

“I purposely made my name ‘ALittleLady87’ so people would know that I’m a woman,” she says. “So you could know that a woman just beat you.”

A version of this article appears in the July 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “This Game Is Out Of Control.”

已有六位《守望先锋》选手因为在个人社交媒体渠道或官方联赛直播中的行为而遭到警告、罚款或禁赛，伦杰尔就是其中之一。（《守望先锋》联赛总监内特·纳兹尔说：“参加《守望先锋》联赛是个很棒的机会，但也有很大的责任。”）然而问题并不仅限于去年组建，囊括了12支队伍的《守望先锋》联赛。如今，越来越多的电竞组织都在问自己一个同样的问题，那就是如何确保电竞人才不会成为累赘？

正在进行第一个赛季的《NBA 2K》联盟有17支电竞队伍。该组织想在这个问题爆发前做好准备，他们的办法是参考“真实世界”联赛的政策。（《NBA 2K》联盟由NBA和游戏发行商Take-Two Interactive共同拥有，后者发布的最著名游戏是《侠盗猎车手》。）该联赛的执行董事布伦丹·多诺霍表示，今年的联赛开始前，选手们被安排了一堂行为速成课。

但大多数电竞组织都很年轻，从未被迫应对大规模不当行为。（亚马逊旗下的Twitch称自己同时用人工和算法来对付这样的行为。）然而，电竞界已然中毒的软肋让我们有理由担心正在成长的电竞平台只会把这个问题放大，就像2014年的“玩家门”事件（游戏玩家对几位游戏界女性成员的攻击）所展现的那样。

另外，电竞界存在的行为问题，其结果可能也各不相同。ID为“Trihex”的职业电竞选手迈克尔·杰弗森是一位非裔美国人，他说自己有时会在Twitch上看到有种族歧视色彩的笑话。这位选手在Twitch上有超过30万粉丝。杰弗森说：“这很伤人，会让你筋疲力尽。”

但这也可能给人动力。女选手温蒂·弗雷明参加了今年的《NBA 2K》联赛海选。她说这种情况激发了她的斗志。这项联赛挑选的102名正式选手中没有女性。

弗雷明说：“我特意给自己起名叫‘ALittleLady87’，这样人们就知道我是女的，他们也就会知道自己刚刚败给了一位女选手。”

本文最初刊登在2018年7月1日出版的《财富》杂志上，题为《这个游戏失控了》。

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林