Sexism in Gaming

[SaiKar]

Zerlina still on the sexism kick? She's been doing that for years now.

As Sir Isaac Asimov said "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

You're my new favorite person for making this quote.

[Meiscool]

XD

[drenrin2120]

Now, I didn't read everyone's post, so maybe someone said this already, but basically my thoughts on it are this: Sexism is pervasive in most cultures around the world, in some form or another. So it makes sense that it would take some weird form within the gaming community, but still be relatively unoriginal. Guys asserting their supposedly rightful dominance over women in every aspect of life imaginable. It's all about how you should stop trying so hard to keep up with "the boys" (in this case, quite literally) and go back in the goddamn kitchen and make me a sammich and bring me a beer. It's not cool, it's fucked up and I see it everywhere, from being blatantly obvious like my boss being a perverted old prick every time a young girl comes into the store, to the subtle jokes some of my closest friends make. It's not easy to really fight back against because it's so ingrained in everything we do, but you can't ignore it if you want to be a happier person and everyone who acknowledges its existence should speak up about it even if it's not easy to do.

So yeah, there's my little moral rant. Sorry you have to deal with sexist assholes when you're simply trying to do your job.

[Prpl_Mage]

Well, how should I put this. It's mostly the game's fault in this case. Nearly all of those games were competitive shooting/fps games. Those games attract a certain kind of people. Kinda like how soccer and such attract a certain kind of people. People who after a days work just want to vent everything they are locking up inside. Hatred and contempt of other people, trying to live their lives but hating themselves for the failure they are.
Well that or just a 13 year old punk who thinks his Kill/death ratio is as important as the nads between his legs.

Any game that introduces a PvP moment where you can check people's statistics will get heated. Just a game as soul calibur gets heated when playing online. People drop out of the game when losing to avoid getting that loss in their statistics. And then they come back online and send you a message such as "you ****ing spammer". Well woopdewopp, you played mitsurougi and spammed forward forward B.
Of course I've been called a lot of worse things. ****, pussy ect ect is not words used only against women. It's used as insults and will be used for just that, calling someone a **** is worse than calling someone an ***hole since ***hole is said pretty much anywhere. It lost effect.

Getting away from my point perhaps? Well when facing other people and you're losing - you're gonna throw some hate at them. Allow mics in the game and you're definitely gonna get hate thrown at you. Allowing microphones is probably one of the worst ideas ever. People say things when they are angry. Either at your character, the game or the person who just sniped you from an unreachable point of the map. And when they are angry they will say things. But when a person actually writes something he's pissed.

I play a whole lot of games with my brother. With is the word here, not against. And his temper when it comes to games is just as heated as his temper when it comes to sport and his favourite team is losing. Being on skype or ventrilo with him when he dies in Diablo 3 can cause several hearing problems. He yells at the game for being a complete piece of **** and that it's not even worth playing. He says that his character is a stupid **** that can't do **** right and that the enemies are complete ***-raped faggots. Let him vent all that and 2 minutes later he's back to his normal charming ways. It might have been obvious but he doesn't take losing very well.
Which is the problem with all of these games. My bro doesn't direct this at any specific person since it's a PvE game but he would if he was playing pvp.

And in these games you have a private message option, which means that the other players won't see what a jerk that guy is. Which means that they'll have to post it on a blogg. And by then it's already too late. Failure in behaviour needs to be corrected when it happens. Like with cats. Telling them afterwards won't have the same effect since they are not in that state of mind later. They might be a really charming person now and love all types of people.
Worst part is that this kind of treatment have always appeared outside the internet. But outside the reach of teachers or parents it goes by unnoticed, or rather uncorrected.

So what I'm saying is that what they say are not personal but rather the result of a state of mind. Mostly. There can be a lot of anger. But when playing just like working (or being on a forum) you need to enter some professional role where things said at you isn't said at you but rather what you are right now. Just like Jeysis is saying, you can't take something personal if it's from someone who doesn't know you personally. It's not gonna be nice, just like an umpire in any sports. They'll call you names, but they don't care about the person wearing the outfit just the tag and the stripes.
They represent something that you make fun of or complain about. And in a game when you kill someone or ends someone kill-streak you're just the ***hole who did just that - kill you or wrecked your kill streak. They don't know or care about anything else.

As for your bad working experience. All people get some taste of that. People treat me differently because I'm young and a gamer. If I were a jock among nerds I would stick as well. Old people in toy shops gets some pervert looks. It's just unfortunate that women aren't completely merged with the gamers yet. But I think we can blame some videobloggs for that where women in revealing outfits talk about games.
Not that talking about games is wrong, it's just that it sends a pretty messed up message where the woman is merely there to appeal to men. When someone asks you if you play any games just start rambling all the games you've played over the years. If they ask if you're just there to be pretty ask them what their high score is in Cruel Multi man melee and let them know that you actually beat their ***- if it's not a sad sad fps.
The guys are probably just really scared of you. Attractive girl in a store with video games, what if they start talking game with you and then it turns out you only got the job because your brother worked there? They'd look like fools and get really embarrassed.
I mean no offense at all against professions but I still have a hard time entering a store when there's a woman at the counter and handing over the latest pokemon game for purchase. Nothing against her, she's doing her job. But it's become a pretty common thing to hide nerdiness around girls(especially the kind involving pokemon or anything else I played when I was like 10) that it feels a bit odd.

[Felix-0]

I've never been so far as to can even come close to understanding what I just read.

[Moosetroop11]

The main problem is that a girl who likes to play that sort of game is such a rare and desirable person that the other people playing assume the worst and think you're on there for attention :p

Difficult to know what to do, if you want to play using the headset.

[aboutasoandthis]

It's embedded in our heads that games are designed by male losers, mostly for male losers. This isn't the real case at all. Luckily, this stereotype is slowly disappearing as more diverse groups of people play games.

I can admit to being a bit of a bigot sometimes when it comes to girls playing games, even if unintentional. Just the other day I met an unbelievably pretty co-worker who was very much into video games and anime. It through me for a loop just based on her looks that she was so into that, even though it is the wrong way of thinking.

In my defense, she has a look-alike that she knows about who is a straight up Mean Girl, and I met this other woman first.

[greenraven]

In my personal experience I have noticed that the whole male vs female stigmata is yesterday's news and is fading on the brink of extinction. The new battleground seems to be hardcore vs casual.

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

I thought we were talking about within the internet. Outside of it, is an entire different lingo. I try to help out my female companion from almost every single thing she gets stuck in, not because she can't, or isn't able to, but because it's my instinct, when she declines, I secede. She's actually very capable of defending herself. The wit of her is better than mine. This is also almost generally true when it happens to other girls. However in the internet. I would probably do not do such thing.

I mean if everybody here would just start harassing Zerlina, I would probably not do anything about it. I would rationalize that she'd have the capacity to just turn away from internet idiots.

[greenraven]

I mean if everybody here would just start harassing Zerlina, I would probably not do anything about it. I would rationalize that she'd have the capacity to just turn away from internet idiots.

I will almost always try and defend anyone who is getting harassed, both online and in real life. In my younger days I was subject to extreme bullying, I know how it feels. (Inbred close-minded redneck hillbillies don't take too kindly to us devil worshiping immigrants.) XD

[Meiscool]

I liked purple's post. It basically boils down to NOT TAKING THINGS PERSONALLY on the internet.

[Archem]

I still don't like how many of you are accepting it as a constant and treating it as something that should be left alone. It really irks the hell out of me. Not taking it seriously can only go so far, and ignoring constant harassment shouldn't be an option. It's not the same as being a harassed male; we get trolled a bit, but the only true harassment comes when we make a major error in a game. Women get it simply for being women. It's not that different from racism or other forms of bigotry; it's still hate, and it doesn't stop when they play better. Hell, it makes things worse because they're suddenly threatening the harasser's masculinity. I'm telling you, leaving an infection alone doesn't make it get better. It festers and spreads unless it's treated.

[Prpl_Mage]

Problem is that it's hard to know when it's just anger and when it's directed as harassment.
I get that jerks open their stupid mouths and say stupid things. Which is why we tell them to shut the hell up. But if that jerk sends a private message to someone - I won't know. It's done so that noone else will notice since if others did they would tell him to shut the hell up as well.

I just remember my time playing DotA and such, it got some prestige. Getting killed too many times gives the opposite team a whole lot of exp, and money. And getting killed also cuts some of your funds.
So when I and my buddy ganged up on a player to kill him(for that extra cash) he eventually would get pissed and start ranting.
When a person like that write it in the chat everyone would tell him to chill out or leave. And they know it. So they sent whispers(PM) instead. And boy those were never pleasant things to read. And to be honest, all those messages followed the exact same pattern as the ones posted by those ladies.
It's about how I, my mom and my sisters are gonna be raped and by what type of object. Throw in some threats and racial slurs and it's pretty much complete. I'm a swedish male but that made no difference. Every "angry letter" referred to me as either a : bitch, fag, N-word, nazi, n00b, ***hole, dick, pussy or a neat mix of all. Was actually called a faggot nazi bitch once. True story.
How did I reply? Well either with nothing or "That's the game bro, play it or leave it to the pro". (I only wrote it 'cuz it rhymed though. I thought rhymes were cool back then).
Replying to it as a PM only made the person in question go on. Ignoring it at least gave me some peace. When they're that pissed they'll probably leave the game pretty soon anyway.

And that's pretty much my reason why I can't take this too serious. It's always been like this, despite sex and race. You'll get hate when you piss someone off. I can't say for certain that those people would treat guys differently. That's not my place but I don't see why they should.
If your name says "gal", "african" , "jew" or anything else, that just might reveal what would actually insult you - they will use it. Insults are insults in the end and it's about not letting them get to you, if they do they've won. Can't get upset by every single angry thing someone says. You'd drown if you do.

[greenraven]

It's not the same as being a harassed male; we get trolled a bit, but the only true harassment comes when we make a major error in a game. Women get it simply for being women.

I would actually disagree with that statement, at least based on my own experiences. I guess it depends on what crowd of people you hang with. It really depends on the game and the crowd it attracts I suppose.

For example shooters or fighting games probably WILL have women insulted simply for being women. But on the other hand dorky card games where everyone thinks a lot will only have them insulted if they actually did something wrong (stupid).

[Rikushinblade]

To say there's sexisim in games is a sexist comment within itself.