The players have been found, the map has been set and I’m just waiting for the level to load. It’s pretty cool that with Wi-Fi, I’m able to play online against people from all around the world. In the group today, I’ve been matched to play against 8 different people.
The only thing I know about them is their username, avatar and whether or not they’re using a microphone.
Suddenly, it becomes apparent I’m not the only girl online. She’s much braver than me though; she’s using a microphone. A string of the most offensive comments are hurled her way until she disconnects. This isn’t uncommon for girls who play online, in fact its pretty much an assumption that you will receive some distasteful comments should you chose to reveal your gender.
Fair? Nope, absolutely not. Common in gamer culture? Yes, unfortunately.
Not only is online harassment common online, it’s heavily prevalent in the industry itself. In fact, if you Google female game developer the next thing you’ll see are words like harassment, misogyny and sexism. Which unfortunately is not hard to believe if you have been keeping up with #Gamergate.
#Gamergate is a movement started over debates on the coverage of games in the media. In particular that game reviewers and reporters are cutting deals with programmers for ideal press regardless of the quality of their games. The movement sparked from allegations that female game developer, Zoe Quinn, cheated on her significant other with a game journalist to receive better publicity for her games. These allegations have since been proven false.
Nonetheless, the accusations sparked debate over the relationship between designers and the press, which turned ugly and quickly took aim at female developers and participants as a whole. Threats of rape and murder where thrown at various females in the industry to the point where Quinn was forced to leave her home in fear for her safety. The movement has been described by many as a mob forcing those who do not fit the stereotypical definition of a gamer out of the industry.
Pretty messed up right? But this isn’t just a one-time thing for females in the industry. Weeks ago, video blogger Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency was forced to cancel a speech she was holding at Utah College on the representation of women in video games. The popular vlogger was forced to cancel after receiving various death threats claiming that the school would be shot up should she speak at the event.
Lets get something straight here. These critics are not attempting to generalize every male that games or is in the industry as sexist of misogynist. That’s exactly the broad generalizations about gender that feminism seeks to dismantle. Critics are instead, they are attempting to open the conversation on representation and treatment of women during gameplay with the goal that the gaming community will be a comfortable place for both genders.
But as #Gamergate has evolved so have the questions surrounding it. Why is it that this conversation about gender and video games ends in backlash against females in the industry?
Sarkeesian recently visited the Colbert Report and gave and responded to the question – “I think women are perceived as being threatening because we are asking for games to be more inclusive,” Sarkeesian told Colbert. “We’re asking for games to acknowledge that we exist and that we love games.”
While the #Gamergate controversy is still ongoing, it is important to recognize some of the improvements for women in games. . Just look at the latest Lara Croft Tomb Raider reboot released by Crystal Dynamics in 2013. In comparison to previous games Croft is less sexualized, sporting some pants and a tank top – a believable costume for the world traveler who in this reboot has been ship wrecked on a mysterious island.
As you can see, this transformation for Croft has taken years. While this process took far longer than it should have, it has been seen in other games in the industry such as Halo Reach and Fable 3 that have included female characters for game play. These are baby steps but they prove the existence of progress in gamer culture.
And while the intensity of Gamergate posts have begun to decrease in their quantity and aggressiveness the publicity of the mob-ish movement alone has begun to redefine who a gamer is leaving that definition open to both genders.
Whether you know it or not, women are in the multiplayer arenas and while we may not have microphones we enjoy the game just as much as our male counterparts do.