Today I'm going to step away for a moment from the world of issues surrounding violence. Let's talk about violence against women in the virtual or gaming world. For as long as videogames have existed, be it 30 years or so, it has predominantly been viewed a boy's activity. You say gamer, I think teenage boy covered in acne playing World of Warcraft in in the darkness of his mother's basement. But image is just a stereotype. The gaming community has become extremely diverse over the past ten years. It has become a part of pop culture. Thanks to the "hypster" identity you can find game logos on shirts, iPhone covers, computer backgrounds and every other piece of merchandise you can think of. The gaming world couldn't't be more popular.
But going back to the stereotype. That teenage boy with acne now has to share his grease stained coach with his sister. The popularity of videogames has to be attributed to an increasing number of women holding the console. According to the Washington Post, although men still make up 52 % of the gaming community, women make up 48 %. From 2010 to the present, there has been an 8 % increase. That percentage will continue to increase.
Now that women are playing, most certainly game designers are making games with strong female characters, right? Unfortunately that is not the case. Despite the large percentage of women, the majority video games are still a "boy's game." Sexism is rampant in most games. With little to no main female characters, the only appearance women really make in video games are as prostitutes, murdered victims or just scantily clad amusement. Vice magazine writes, " be it through the normalization of sexual harassment video game tournaments, or out-of-control rape joke controversies, propagated by close-minded webcomic titans - a large portion of video game culture is disappointingly determined to make women uncomfortable." This is a serious problem, especially if the video game industry wants to continue to profit from women's participation.
Here some examples of female portrayal:
Grand Theft Auto
Hitman
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
This is just an idea of the type of roles women receive in video games.
This issue has recently led to a new and life threatening issue. Those trying to combat sexism in videogames, especially female game designers, are receiving serious threats from the gaming community.
After designing and releasing, "Depression Quest," a fiction game where you portray someone suffering depression on "Steam," Zoe Quinn began receiving a number of threats from angry gamers. "We already had half a million players at that point and a bunch of awards. When it hit Greenlight, people were leaving foul comments there, and suddenly I started getting stuff sent to my email, 'oh I saw your gam on Greenlight and I hope you kill yourself,'" said Quinn. That led to claims that her address had been discovered and detailed rape threats. These gamers were both upset by her different approach to gaming as well as her being a woman. She soon removed the game from Greenlight but would later return. But upon her return the threats got worse.
Quinn stated that, "I got some phone calls where I could tell someone was masturbating on the other end of the line. I got another call shortly after where a guy was just spewing as many rape-type threats as possible."
Zoe Quinn is not the only one facing this type of harassment. Anita Sarkeesian is a pop-culture critic who does a video series called "The Feminist Frequency Banner," where she analyzes the sexism in video games. But her work has come to a halt as a result of death threats. On August 26th, she posted on Twitter, "Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now."
The majority of the gaming community is peaceful and only sticks to the love of the game. But a small group of misogynist players are ruining the reputation of this community. Overall, players and the gaming industry are working together to bring this form of violence to an end. This month, 2,400 "industry professionals" signed a letter seeking to stop offensive acts in the gaming industry. Indie game designer, Andreas Zecher wrote an online petition that states, "We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability, has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish."
Sources:
- http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/female-game-designers-are-being-threatened-with-rape
- http://herocomplex.latimes.com/games/gamergate-related-controversy-reveals-ugly-side-of-gaming-community/
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/female-gamers_n_5207137.html
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