Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming

[Stealthy_Singh]

The world of video gaming has a problem with sexual harassment. The number of women gamers is growing fast - in the US they now make up 42% of the total - but it remains a macho environment, where women are often exposed to abusive language.

(The language in this report reflects that reality.)

"Get back in the kitchen and take your goddamn hands off a video game controller."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-18280000

Shocking behaviour. I would like to think it's just little kids who haven't grown up. But somehow I doubt it.

[Vice]

In that report there is an image on the side:

I can't help but think being in a group called Fat Ugly or Slutty undermines their credibility a little.

[Niekess]

Once I played Halo 3 online in a closed party and a girl joined. One of the guys was really harsh to her and thought she used some kind of voice transformation and kept yelling "A girl playing games?!". Good thing he didn't actually went insulting her. I could notice on her answers to him also she got pretty ****ed at him. Spoke with her through message and she was indeed very ****ed at him. Some people really need to understand that playing games is just not only for males.

Did also had once in Halo Reach that one guy was insulting a girl in my team in the post-game lobby. She reported him and so did I because this was just sick. Guess some people can't take it to lose from a girl. :D

[Lovell]

Everyones abused online, welcome to the internet where people can abuse other people with no repercussions.

[Miuku.]

I can't help but think being in a group called Fat Ugly or Slutty undermines their credibility a little.

How sexist of you, clearly a girl should be able to be in a group called Imaslutlol without being subjected to prejudice! :shiftyninja:

[moloko]

Everyone is ragged on. I been called so many things its crazy. Stop bitching, grow a pair and move on. STFU

[Amarok]

Sadly there is a lot of sexual harassment in gaming, and there are a lot of people who treat women gamers as if they're some sort of alien species and that's only slightly less bad. It's actually kind of creepy.

[HighwayGlider]

Uh... Back during the WoW days, meeting female players was not something strange. We didn't event care who's male and who's female. I find this article more strange.

[DrakeN2k]

call of duty on xbox is not the best game for girls due to the high amount of american kids on there. cant stand them so aggressive and rude for no reason.

[PurpleHaze420]

Most of these people being abusive are 12 year old idiots anyhow. From the initial article on BBC I ended up finding the following site:

http://fatuglyorslutty.com/

Check that out and see how many children have some serious issues.! :huh:

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

In that report there is an image on the side:

I can't help but think being in a group called Fat Ugly or Slutty undermines their credibility a little.

It's the name of a site that posts hate-filled and/or sexist messages to female gamers: http://fatuglyorslutty.com/

I actually came across the site a year ago and couldn't remember the name. It's such a damn shame that people would say those things. Anonymity brings out the dark side of people. And it's a side that they wouldn't show in person.

[Lovell]

A link to his youtube account

http://www.youtube.com/user/KingOfPayn01

HAHAHAHA

[Crisp]

Give everyone on the Internet a IPv6 static IP. All the BS will stop, no more hiding behind your TV / monitor.

[Miuku.]

Give everyone on the Internet a IPv6 static IP. All the BS will stop, no more hiding behind your TV / monitor.

And it'll do what exactly? You can look at someones IP that resides in another country or state.

What are you going to do about it, fly over and bitch? Good luck with that :p

[The Laughing Man]

95% of the time "female characters" are actually dudes.

The one thing ive noticed is that i don't see this happen on the PC, I mainly see this abusive crap happen on the Xbox because of voice chat in games, and its mainly from kids anywhere from 10+.

Why kids that age get access to games such as Halo and COD is beyond me. That is where the abuse comes from.

You'd think being that young, your parents would hear the things you say coming from another room....

[Amarok]

Uh... Back during the WoW days, meeting female players was not something strange. We didn't event care who's male and who's female. I find this article more strange.

WoW back in the day was a little different though. For one it was an MMORPG and attracted a different type of people. After it became super popular it attracted the sexist crowd as well. There were top guilds that refused to recruit women because they felt that women gamers weren't as good as men and only caused drama.

95% of the time "female characters" are actually dudes.

The one thing ive noticed is that i don't see this happen on the PC, I mainly see this abusive crap happen on the Xbox because of voice chat in games, and its mainly from kids anywhere from 10+.

Why kids that age get access to games such as Halo and COD is beyond me. That is where the abuse comes from.

You'd think being that young, your parents would hear the things you say coming from another room....

You'd be surprised. I tend to follow the fighting game scene which is mostly an older crowd and there is quite a bit of sexism there as well. There was that whole thing a few months back where the Team Tekken coach for Capcom's SFxT web series made some pretty sexist remarks and he's almost 40 IIRC. Or when MvC3 first came out and Yipes (a well known member of the fighting game community, some of his more famous lines actually made it into the game.) criticized the game because a female player beat a couple male players and he stated that any game where female players can beat male players can't possibly be a good game.

Younger players tend to be more likely to have the sexist mindset, but honestly there are jerks of all ages.

[Stealthy_Singh]

I just don't understand the people who say 'this is the internet get used it'. That's exactly the thinking that allowed slavery to exist, 'it happens, get used to it'. We stopped that , we're trying to stop racism and we should try and stop this.

I get some messages online calling me a paki. It's not just sexism but racism also. The thing is these folk can't bear being beaten and have to resort to this. At least all I'm dealing with is names. A lot of the stuff that women get as far as I have seen on the websites are threatening. Even if it might be someone thousands of miles away it easily might not be. That's got to be a little scary in the least.

The people who run the gaming servers should take abuse more seriously especially when it can be checked so easily. If someone reports someone the messages can be parsed by an algorithm for potentially abusive words and then flagged for investigation by a person. Surely it's not that hard!

[firey]

every game I play, I play as a woman.. I mean.. if I have to stare at an ass and hear grunts and yells for the duration of play.. I'd rather it be a womans (albeit virtual).

[Vandalsquad]

Give everyone on the Internet a IPv6 static IP. All the BS will stop, no more hiding behind your TV / monitor.

Still doesn't stop you bouncing through 7 proxies if you want. I remember one kid wouldn't shut the F up in a Blops game me and my mates where in, private messages of "YOU F**KING HACKER SAD C***" with his friends laughing in the back ground over and over.. was pretty hilarious since he was about 14. What was even more hilarious was when my mate managed to get him to send him a private message and keep him going while he grabbed the kids IP with Cain then rang his home phone in game saying 'ring, ring' pick up the phone kiddo. Never seen someone disconnect off live faster in my life.

Wish I was recording the entire game actually, golden CoD moment.

[Miuku.]

I just don't understand the people who say 'this is the internet get used it'. That's exactly the thinking that allowed slavery to exist, 'it happens, get used to it'. We stopped that , we're trying to stop racism and we should try and stop this.

You did not just seriously compare a group of children shouting obscenities into the microphone to slavery or racism?

[FloatingFatMan]

"Smack talk" is precisely why I don't play online against anyone except my closest friends, and never on XBox Live...

[Crisp]

And it'll do what exactly? You can look at someones IP that resides in another country or state.

What are you going to do about it, fly over and bitch? Good luck with that :p

No but it makes it easier for you to get black listed and belive me, not every 12 year old gobby kid on xbox live knows how to get around it.

You wouldn't "trash talk" in real life to random people in the street, if you behave this way on the Internet you should just be perma banned from the service.

[Stealthy_Singh]

You did not just seriously compare a group of children shouting obscenities into the microphone to slavery or racism?

Really are we going there? This is not comparing the two, but saying that we should just get used to it is lazy! Slavery and racism are protracted problems but were still dealing with them. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we have to accept the status quo. If you think I'm comparing them with this issue rather than using them as a useful reference then I've got nothing to more to say to you because talking to you will be a waste of time.

Also the fact is it isn't just kids shouting obscenities get your head around that. And how is sexism different to racism? Pray tell.

[De.Bug]

Everyones abused online, welcome to the internet where people can abuse other people with no repercussions.

Pretty much exactly what I thought.

[.Neo]

I can't help but think being in a group called Fat Ugly or Slutty undermines their credibility a little.

Maybe they have good sense of sense of self-knowledge. :p