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Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming
SlavojZizek
Member Posts: 50
Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming - BBC report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18280000
By James Fletcher BBC World Service
Suggests its about time some of the male gamers took stock of themselves and dropped the abuse during gaming.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Yeah, not gonna hold my breath.
"...where women are often exposed to abusive language."
Umm, that is called equality. Everyone is exposed to abusive language, "in the world of video gaming."
Attempting to portray it as something that is targeted harrassment of women is ludicrous.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
If you play video games you are going to be harrassed. If they can find something RL about you (Like your gender) they will harrass you about that. You have a choice on which gender you character has to be and you are not obligated to tell anyone you are a guy or a girl. Straight or gay.
Now if we could get rid of harrassement all together that would be better, but Trolls will be trolls, all you can is report them when they cross the line.
Annonymity, unaccountability and competition bring out the worst in people. The reason why online games have this problem is because it really is the only widely used platform where all of these things are present.
Game companies lose revenue when they ban people for poor behavior (in either subscription, or in future sales, or both). Additionally, they have to spend resources in reveue of accounts and such.
While I would love a harassment free enviroment, realize that it requires a great amount of effort from the gameing platform to create and maintain it.
And not enough people vote with their wallet. For now.
First off, the blatant sexism all over that article screams to that guy's ignorance and lack of opinion-mattering.
Second, there's a reason they add "Ignore" to a video game. There are D-bags on the internet, and normally that is as close as they'll ever get to a female IRL (ie: by miles). Therefore, if you can't stand some child from saying how nice your butt looks in that new armor, and you don't stand up for yourself and tell them where they can go (ie: probably hell?) you don't need to be ANYWHERE near the internet.
Lastly, how is this news? There's a reason females on the internet is almost a myth simply because they LITERALLY have to hide or pass themselves off as dudes when playing just to avoid situations like "Sexual Harassment". Speaking of which, how can you be "Sexually Harassed" on the internet when you have /petition, /report, and most of all "Ignore" at your disposal? Sounds like a case of attention-seeking syndrome from the players to me
.
But I digress
!
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Videogames are the source of many evils:
Sexual harrassment.
Drugs.
Aris Bakhtanians.
Mass murder.
War.
Bullying.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
Biological Warfare.
This is not new news.
Don Quixote's Delusions
Three thoughts based on ten years plus playing MMO:
- yes the problem is real; females and also gay people (especially gay men) are given an especially hard time. This is understandable given the demographic (mostly straight young males) plus the above-mentioned anonymity. The only real defense is /ignore and/or logging off and doing something else
- although it seems useless, it is still a good idea to stigmatize the abusers; even if a small minority are deterred from bad behavior it is something; it is worse for people to just stand around silent and watch someone else get victimized
- finally, while "it's just a game" is a true statement, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars making these virtual worlds as real-looking and sounding as they can; it is only natural that many people lose themselves in the fantasy while playing and hence open themselves up to being hurt. It is wrong to blame the victims for not being thick-skinned enough to toss off the abuse - not everyone is wired the same way. You also don't know what that person has in their background. A woman who is a RL rape survivor may have a different reaction to being subjected to an MMO emoted sexual assault - even if its subconscious and she doesn't openly react, the hurt can be real
Too many people are coming to accept the notion that you blame the victims for reacting to online abuse.
Agreed, blaming the abused victim is ridiculous.
On the other hand it is unreasonable to hold others responsible for one's own feelings of hurt.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
On a side note. I sure am glad the OP used the big font, I believe that using big font, ALL CAPS or a lot of exclamation points really add to an argument!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
some very goood, well thought out points.
I honestly do not know if the statistics are wrong or if these is just something that draws girls to the same guilds, but since Everquest, every guild in every game I play has as many if not more girls than guys.
That said on any given night the girls( myself included ) are more trashy, more slutty, more sexual than any of the guys.
Can only speak for myself here, but when I am on vent I say things and act ways I would never say in a real life situation.
I flirt, I joke, I make sexual inuendo, and I expect it in return. It's all part of the game to a point.
Now on the dark side of that I have been in a situation where a guild mate, got carried away, he thought our in game flirting and sexual inuendo was real and so he became fixated and obsessed and it actually turned in to him tracking me down and showing up at my door one night thinking we were in love and trying to force himself on me. Thankfully I was not alone, and the situation was dealt with in the right way by everyone involved.
However, that is not just a gaming issue, that is a troubled person issue, and happens just as often if not more outside gaming.
That being said it is my experience that most guys both in and out of games are just men being men, and that when push comes to shove they are true gentlemen that know the difference between playing around and crossing the line, and when it really matters in my experience they have all been true men, gentlemen, and defenders of a lady and her honor.
Do i smell some bad pvp player who was ganked by some stealther? Ignore is way to go in every mmo and Oprah is place for crying out your frustrations
The sad part was when the other girl was insulted to her face and people supported the asshole. In an online game there are tools to use to block people and it really shouldn't be an issue. Probably a 15 year old over a hundred miles away so there really is no reason to take it hard. I remember a topic on here that someone was suggesting people should be arrested for harassment in MMOs.
People don't deserve to be harassed but they should also know what they are getting into. If it's just words you have a block/mute option and if it's actions a GM should take care of it. Some games are better than others but I know of a few people who have had thier accounts suspended because of harassment.
And it's not just video games where this happens. Plenty of places on the internet as well as real life have sexual harassment issues. I can't say I'm too surprised the guys kept up the harassment in real life, but it's sad that there were so many of them that they could bully someone at an event and have full support of the community.
Make games you want to play.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RavikAztar
Ah and how for heaven they can know who is gay in game? Or maybe this gay players talk to much about sexual orientation and try to abuse us with some kind of ''Ogrimar gay pride protest''. Do i go to Ogrimar and yell--I am straight! Well nooooo! So how somebody knows who i am and what is my sexual orientation?? Maybe because you ''people'' live to much in gaming world and bring your frustrations and other problems from real world in to games
I just don't play bad games that attract simpleminded people. Cuts out alot of the racism and trolling.
In general Only games that make you talk and are conflict oriented tend to be the largest crossections for both trolling and harassment. Guess that would be in part why we have the term 'forum pvp' for how some people troll.
For the most part I just ignore gender conversations since I don't talk much. >_>
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
yup fer sure ... the BBC is a really bad pvp player who is constantly ganked by stealthers.
I dont know. I used to play WoW with my wife. We found out if we were pugging to NEVER EVER reveal we were married. We had to leave groups because as soon as people found out she was my wife they said the most nasty and abusive things imaginable. In real life I would have tackled them to the floor and introduced thier sweet little faces to my fists repeatedly but you cant do anything in an mmo really.
So then we refused to really acknowledge each other at all or pretended we barely knew one another if at all. Then she finally had to stop admiting she was a girl, and even pretended to be a guy some of the time regardless just to avoid sexual comments or one liners even if she was playing without me.
Thats my one bad experience. But usually when guys find out a girl is a girl in an mmo, not always, but typically males will start slobbering all over their keyboards and wigging out. Its really kind of pathetic every time I see it but whatever. And for those of you who do that?
I had a friend named Nick in EvE once upon a time. He played a female avatar which isnt much more than a picture icon in EvE but regardless he got asked if he was a real girl so much he eventually started telling guys he was a 17/F/ from California and the results were hilarious. It would have been obnoxious regarding the male replys except for the fact Nick was not a girl at all. And boy did those male gamers sure hit on a guy. Did they ever. And they never even knew it.
It's like The Guild... only real and thus, much creepier.
Well not bbc but you, you just use bbc article for cover up or was that post only about--''just to write something'' or you have bad expirience to . Like i said before do no chat in games-PLAY
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"
~Lord George Gordon Byron
Harassment? Her ass ment nothing.... It was her boobies that I liked.
Ea is like a poo fingered midas ~ShakyMo
I would disagree that it is simpleminded and bad games attract trolls. EVE is a very in depth, well made game, but it also attracts trolls. You can find trolls in both well made and badly made games.
In the end, games are what you make them. In World of Warcraft and in EVE I was part of both Guilds and Corporations that had chat rules such as, you didn't talk trash in Local. I actually prefered guilds/corps with rules of conduct because, most of the time you look at Guild/corp chat more than local chat and the rules helped cut down on the trolls.
That's great, then they charge you for assault and can laugh all the way to the bank.
My sister was playing DAoC and she joined a guild called Chaos Theory. The guild was full of guys, all hitting on her and constantly making sexually suggestive remarks. After being put under lots of pressure she was stupid enough to give them a real address. Well, a mini bus load of them arrived one Saturday night. Yep 8 or 9 dudes. They were all drunk and shouting. Fortunately she gave them an address for a house three doors up from ours.
I am a gay man and i completely agree. There are ways of making sure people a good people before joining guilds. If they mess with you then leave the guild and ignore the officers involved.
I've had harrassment of a different kind and even tho in the current climate regarding gay people in most countries including the US i don't blame the games or the game makers. It's not their fault that nasty people play their titles or use their products and they certainly aren't required or responsible for what goes on in voice chat or vent.
The point is I see words like Faggot and Queer and "that's gay" and hear them all day long, doesn't mean it's the game makers fault nor should they be made to police such things.
Edit: To the mods, the words used here are only to make a point, I'm not calling anyone names as i am a gay man in real life.