Form drew attention to sexism in video gaming with her video series
Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. Harassment can involve sexist insults or comments, death or
rape threats, demanding sexual favors in exchange for virtual or real money, or criticism of the presence of women and their interests. In some cases, female players are also
stalked, whether online or offline. As a result, women may face offensive behavior at conventions, competitions or in video games stores. It may affect female gamers, journalists or
game developers, even when they are invited to talk at a conference or to present a game. Since the release of the
NES, video games advertisements have been accused of strengthening this tendency by targeting only men. In the 1980s, women stopped being represented playing video games in advertisement and scantily clad women started being used on game covers and ads. Some women saw their non-sexualized female character designs rejected, and others reported
sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2014, the
International Game Developers Association conducted a survey that demonstrated some of the lack of professionalism women in the game developing field were met with. Firstly, women reported defiance from their subordinate male colleagues. The study also showed that white males were favored for positions of management and all throughout the hiring process. Female developers from the survey also revealed that they were not taken seriously in the field and instead were met with inappropriate behavior from male colleagues, such as being misled into attending dates. Online video games can be host to extreme sexism towards women, with 65% of women reporting an instance of sexual harassment in this setting. In comparison to their male counterparts, women are subject to three times the amount of derogatory or offensive remarks, which can be made anonymously by gamers. Video games conferences have been criticised for using sexualised advertising such as '
booth babes', creating a demeaning image of women, and for failing to stop harassment of female attendees. This has led some to adopt or share codes of conduct for managing these issues. One form of harassment involves perpetrators changing their username to include sexist or racially charged language when they leave comments during live-streams, according to gamer
Amira Virgil.
Frequency Insults are frequent in
online gaming. According to Stephen Toulouse (moderator of the online gaming service
Xbox Live), between 2007 and 2012 women were the most frequent target of harassment. However, data from
Riot Games lists racism and homophobia as the top problems. Furthermore, derogatory words for homosexuality are used almost constantly in online gaming. In 2012, a study of the
Ohio University showed that the same person playing
Halo 3 online with a male and a female profile using recorded voice messages received three times more negative comments with the female profile, despite similar game scores. Even welcoming everybody at the beginning of a game could lead to sexist insults against the female profile. A 2015 study of Halo 3 player interactions found that less-skilled male players display a tendency to make "frequent, nasty comments" to female gamers. The researchers suggested that the poorly performing males "attempt to disregard a female's performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank." In an ethnographic study of
Xbox Live,
Kishonna Gray wrote that a lot of the racism and sexism experienced in the gaming platform is facilitated by
linguistic profiling. Linguistic profiling is comparable to racial profiling or gender profiling, but is based on voice and speech rather than appearance. It is common in gaming spaces that rely on voice communications rather than text. There are certain linguistic stereotypes that may be associated with one's voice, making women more vulnerable to discrimination just based on how they sound. A study from 2006 showed that 83.4% of gamers had seen the words "gay" or "queer" used as derogatory names, and that 52.7% of gay gamers perceived the gaming community as "somewhat hostile" while 14% perceived it as "very hostile". According to Lucy Waterlow, there appears to be a deep history of sexual harassment in the video game industry and women who play video games on online forums such as
Call of Duty are often told they should "return to the kitchen", along with other slurs. However, the changing demographics that have been seen in the video game community (an increasing proportion of people who play video games are, as it appears, female.), have led to certain consequences. The largest change in terms of who plays video games has been that of gender proportions. This translates to more women playing video games than ever before, "almost reaching parity" with the number of men that play video games. The most visible and immediate ramifications of that have been the resistance of men and even some women within the industry. Critics have stated that there is an increasing pervasiveness of the sexual harassment of women in the video game community. A study conducted by Kate O'Halloran in 2017 found that women receive an almost amplified amount of harassment in the setting of online video games than they do in real life, whereas preferential treatment is given to men by other men. The difference in the treatment of women further diminishes the desire of women to participate in video games, or, as O'Halloran found, to completely conceal their gender identity and allow other players to assume their gender. Liliana Braumberger, a participant in O'Halloran's study, states that this stems from the fact that the men who engage in this form of sexual harassment have the invisibility and anonymity that comes with participating in an online server, and that men have a certain sense of entitlement that leads to the invisibility of women. She feels that this discrimination and erasure potentially have the same effects on other people who do not identify as men, not necessarily just women.
The #MeToo impact on the video game industry In October 2017 the
#MeToo movement highlighted sexual harassment allegations against several important and high-profile figures predominately from the entertainment industry. In response to a growing number of claims of harassment, several important figures in games media or publishing made public statements outlining their thoughts on how more needed to be done within the industry to do better when dealing with harassment including
Jennifer MacLean, Executive Director of the
International Game Developers Association, and
Kate Edwards, the former director,
Joe Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment and
Mike Wilson of
Devolver Digital. The IGDA meanwhile published a public statement criticising "The prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in our community" and demanding "action from every game developer to ensure the safety and support of all of our colleagues and community members. We all must do a better job of welcoming, and protecting, all game developers so that our community, craft, and industry can thrive." While some commentators called for action throughout the industry to call out toxic behaviour,
Brianna Wu, who had been one of those targeted during the
Gamergate controversy, argued from her experience that the video game industry did not have a system in place to support those women that came forward, thus favoring silence on such matters. While the decision was criticised in some parts, including by some of the leading women at Atari during that period in time, Bushnell himself supported the decision and applauded the GDC "for ensuring that their institution reflects what is right, specifically with regards to how people should be treated in the workplace". In a January 2018 an opinion piece in
The Guardian, journalist Keza McDonald speculated that the video game industry would have a similar "#MeToo moment", but was not currently ready. McDonald highlighted a few instances of action being taken but noted that "there has been no mass movement of women coming forward with their stories of workplace harassment", and suggested that the harassment of individuals associated with #1reasonwhy and #Gamergate deterred women from opening themselves "up to further harassment,
victim-blaming, and unpleasant professional ramifications". A number of industry members established a "Times Up" group to encourage other women to speak up about events in their past.
Anita Sarkeesian stated that this may be the expected #MeToo moment for the industry. A similar wave of sexual harassment and misconduct accusations occurred in June 2020. Initial claims were made against one of the popular
Destiny 2 players on Twitch by several women on June 19, 2020, accusing this player of inappropriate conduct in both online and offline behavior. This led to at least seventy women involved in the industry to speak out on other Twitch streamers who had engaged in similar inappropriate behavior, including one directed at Omeed Dariani, the CEO of Online Performers Group, a talent agency that represents many Twitch streamers. Dariani apologized for his past behavior and subsequently stepped down. Twitch was also criticized for allowing such behavior to occur, and the service said it would begin to evaluate all reported incidents and work with law enforcement as necessary. The event led to other accusations of past misconduct to be raised against various members of the video game industry and other closely related markets, including freelance writer
Chris Avellone (later retracted), CEO of
Cards Against Humanity Max Temkin (who resigned following the allegations),
Wizards of the Coast artist
Noah Bradley (who was terminated following the accusations), and
Ubisoft creative director Ashraf Ismail (who stepped down from his position to deal with his personable matters). Both Ubisoft and
Insomniac Games also addressed additional claims of their employees being accused of sexual harassment and stated they would take these accusations seriously and investigate the matters internally. Charges were made toward the CEO of
Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Joey Cuellar, who was subsequently let go. Multiple publishers that had backed the event had pulled out on this news, and the EVO event, which had already been reworked as an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was subsequently cancelled. However, the #MeToo movement has partially made its way to the gaming industry, starting from the audience's demand, and is currently moving its way up. More and more gamers are looking to expand their gameplay to play protagonists of different identities, allowing them to see the world through somebody else's eyes. Hence, the #MeToo movement is starting to seep into the gaming industry itself. She eventually collected $160,000 out of the requested $6,000. The most recent threat against Anita Sarkeesian was in Logan, Utah, on October 15, 2014. She was scheduled to deliver a speech on a Wednesday evening until an anonymous email message arrived a day before, stating that there would be a mass shooting if the event was held. • In November 2017, the cosplayer Christine Sprankle announced that she was quitting
Magic: the Gathering cosplay due to persistent harassment. In a Twitter post, she named MtGHeadquarters/UnsleevedMedia as having made her "life hell this whole year". In response,
Wizards of the Coast posted a tweet saying they are "saddened", and that the bullying and harassment is "unacceptable". Additionally, many professional Magic players posted an
open letter in support of Sprankle and in criticism of the harassment.
Jeremy Hambly, the accused, remarked that Wizards of the Coast may likely issue a ban that would affect his ability to play
Magic Online among other formats. • A female player answered in a forum post that she had experiences of sexism during online games. When she said in voice chat during the game, "the sniper is in the bottom corner in the bushes under the Tower," one of the male players in the game called her names that look down on women. The female player only can play with mute mode so that she does not have to listen, and her mic stays off most of the time. • A female player said in an interview that if your username looks too feminine or if you use voice chat as a woman, other players will kick you out of the game. • Kuznekoff and Rose were studying about sexism in online video. They played a networked violent game with other anonymous players and interacted with them using male or female pre-recorded voices. The female voice received three times the amount of negative comments that the male voice received. • There is a long history of video games sexualizing Native American and Black women, starting with ''
Custer's Revenge'', in which the player could rape women of color.
South America • A study at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro found that female respondents experienced cases of sexism while playing online video games twice as much as male respondents, and cases of sexism were witnessed by 75 percent of all respondents.
Europe • In February 2012, the behavior of a
Tekken team coach against a female player of his team during a
Capcom competition named Cross Assault provoked an outrage. After a few days without any reaction from the sponsoring company, the female player eventually gave up the competition. Capcom later issued an apology and stated that "any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming". The team coach also apologized afterwards.
East Asia • In 2014 the
International Esports Federation, headquartered in South Korea, sparked public outcries after it ruled that they could make rules to keep women out of Hearthstone tournaments. • South Korea's Kim "Geguri" Se-yoen, who became Overwatch's first and only female professional gamer in 2016, competed in a Nexus Cup qualifier and was accused by multiple male players of using aim assist software after the match and was forced to prove her innocence in a live demonstration.
Middle East • When Arab gamers were interviewed about Arab representation in video games, some players expressed concern that Arab female characters were often sexualized and portrayed as belly dancers or slaves. Other Arab gamers expressed more concern about the male Arab representation, claiming there was a largely male audience, but still thought that Arab women should be shown respectfully. • In a study on Arab gamers, many gamers saw that game developers showed Arab women as submissive and sexy, while Arab men were shown as violent terrorists. == Effects ==