:: netwoman's blog ::

Social Gaming & Harassment: Gendered Spaces

Everything old is new again - or - Has nothing really changed?

In October I was in Milwaukee at the IR10 (Internet Researchers 10th annual conference). I heard some really interesting papers about gaming and virtual worlds and reconnected with some old friends and peers.

I gave a presentation at the conference "The Voices in my head are idiots: Rethinking Barriers to Female Gamers" and talked about how women (and others) are harassed and bullied in XBox Live via voice and chat. While poking around online found some media articles and blogs that were interesting (and disturbing).

This old one over at misbehaving.net talks about an incident in WoW: "It seems you’ve got a massive pole up your ass if you can’t just take male harassment in MMOs". The examples in the comments (and the comments) reveal as much as the blog post itself. The harassment is there, and you should just deal with it. Why is it happening in the first place? Why are people allowing it to happen? Is this one of the frontiers of the Wild Web that we're still taming? wtf people.

Here's an example: "How to Stop and Prevent Harassment on Xbox LIVE"

Avoid competition-intense game genres. First-person shooters, like the "Call of Duty" series, can be much more intense than other genres and you are more likely to run into other players’ trash talking and other aggressive behavior when playing these types of games on LIVE.

I can't believe I just read that.

Dear women, please stay out of our clubhouse - you can't take it. kthksbai.

Again, it's the same as the MMO example. No one challenges that the problematics of this social space - the behaviour is excused because - that's the way it is here. That's the way the men play. Frustrating, and I've heard it before.

And it's not that this is only happening in this genre: one woman told me about webcam exhibitionism during an UNO game. Seriously, a card game - in a family zone. This behaviour happens in all types of social gaming spaces. Hell, this type of behaviour happens in all types of social spaces period - virtual or physical.

One article talks about how women deal with harassment - they swap genders: "Sexual harassment is rife online. No wonder women swap gender"

Female gamers are used to putting up with sexist claptrap - both from the companies that design games and other players. So a study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University showing that 70% of them chose to construct male characters when given the option by online games, should come as no surprise.

Other gamers might choose generic gamertags on Xbox so that it's hard to tell if you're a woman or man - and then avoid using the mic for voice interaction. It's not that women don't game or don't want to - some are just in camouflage.

Others, like myself are not - we're out there in the open and yes, yes we do get harassed. At one of my presentations about female gamers and online harassment, I was asked (very carefully) whether I felt my gamertag invited the attention and harassment (my gamertag is pistolvixen and he described his image of a vixen. newsflash: it's not always about s e x). The room was tense, and several ooohs and aaahs were heard as they awaited my response. My response: "are you suggesting that if I walk down the street in a short skirt and tank top, I'm asking for it?". It shouldn't matter what my name is.

With more and more women gaming - both on the PC & Console - we need to address the unsocialable-social spaces. Female Demographic is PC Gaming’s Largest, Says Nielsen Report and the Wii brought 5% more women to console gaming last year. women game. the harassment gets old. Toxic environments are tiring.

Although I'm focusing on women here, it is not just women who are harassed. men are too. Harassment and bullying are framed around race & ethnicity, geography, homophobia and class. I'm not harassed everyday - but it's often enough that it's a constant presence that looms.

Labels: female gamers, gaming, video games

posted by Netwoman @ 5:56 PM