My Two Pence on Sexism in the Gaming Community

My Two Pence on Sexism in the Gaming Community

Dust was kicked up throughout the gaming community on the tenth of July, after Eurogamer reported on the arrest of a Canadian teen for the harassment of female gamers (among other things). There are some people who have tried, and will try, to sweep it all back under the rug; saying that ‘it was one guy in a million’, and ‘gamers are just gamers, no-one’s called out for being a girl anymore’, and as much as I want to wholeheartedly agree with them, harassment – especially towards female gamers – still goes on.

It’s not as bad as it used to be. For the most part women can play online or go into a game chat and have very little by way of abuse, apart from the odd sandwich joke. However, a few years ago it was a choice of one of two evils: play online with your friends, the community, and risk outside abuse; or play single player campaigns and be labelled a shut-in.

Gendered games, like toys, are outdated, and should disappear.

Gendered games, like toys, are outdated, and should disappear.

Now, I’m pretty thick-skinned when it comes to people throwing shit at me for being a female gamer, although a few years ago that wasn’t the case. I began getting messages from one guy who started off with the usual low level rubbish – telling me to ‘gtfo’ and that I shouldn’t be allowed to play online with the ‘leet’ gamers. Granted I wasn’t very good at the game, but that’s just uncalled for. Ignoring it I continued to play online, but only if a friend was online too. The messages got worse the more I ignored him. It got to a point where he was quoting my address and threatening to rape my sister and I in our sleep. My sister was only eight at the time, and this was highly distressing. I gave in and deleted my account, setting up and offline one a few months later. I shouldn’t have had to though, and this kind of harassment has happened to women the world over.

One girl on tumblr posted about a message she got sent from a male gamer in the same lobby as her. It read ‘pics of nips’ and nothing more. Is that a question? Is it a statement of fact that he was pointing out? Could there have been pictures of nipples throughout the lobby? Probably not. There are plenty of horror stories out there if you want to lose some of your faith in humanity.

Writers for the website The Conversation did a study to see if there was a correlation between levels of positive comments, skill level, and the gender of the player. They chose Halo 3 to test this out in. They played 126 games and used two recorded voices, half using a male one and half using a female one. The results were as you might expect. As the male voice’s skill level went up, so did the amount of positive comments given by other players. The female voice, however, got fewer positive comments as her skill level went up. In fact they found that the female gamer’s voice got 10 times more negative comments. I’ll include a link to the article at the end; from my own experience, and what I’ve read from other girls, these results are accurate to what goes on.

A police provided image of the teen. Looks like a regular kid.

A police provided image of the teen. Looks like a regular kid.

This is just my opinion here, but as a fairly isolated activity, gaming draws the attention of the least savoury of people. Some players come to gaming not as a source of entertainment – to while away hours upon hours investing in goals and story – but as a release of aggression that they can’t disperse in the real world for one reason or another. I have no problem with people who do this, the problem I have is when other people are being the subject of this. Women in games and female players, I feel, take a large hit of that. In the past, women have been stereotyped as ‘weaker’, and therefore are ‘easier’ targets. Which is bullshit. In my humble opinion, the anger/angst/rage should be directed at the character on the player’s own if at all, and leave other people out of it.

There isn’t feasible way to stop people being horrid to others in the gaming community either in-game or in real life. There will always be someone who can’t keep their grump in check and take it out on those around them. But it is getting better, and it will continue to do so. Communities, on the whole, are progressive. They change with the world around them, and our pixel society is no different. Thoughts towards women are evolving into the idea that we are human beings, not subjects, and the community is growing accordingly. After discussions with fellow gamers, however, there could be ways to prevent people being victimised or put under fire, but until they’re picked up on by the industry and developers, nothing is going to change.

It’s hard to monitor people like the Canadian teen; if it were easy it’d be policed already. We can’t allow this kind of threat to put us off though; the gaming world has so much potential to be an inclusive, global community. Where people, no matter their situation, have a place to go where nothing outside matters – it’s all about the game.

The study: https://theconversation.com/sexism-in-video-gaming-is-just-another-form-of-bullying-44354
The Eurogamer article: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-10-canadian-teen-who-harassed-female-league-of-legend-players-jailed#comments

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