Women experience guilt, shame and exclusion in gaming culture, study finds
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
Well you win the most asinine comment I’ve read today.
Even I remember girls getting crapped on in the arcades.
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Yeah that’s definitely not going to be exclusive to mobile games, but I always feel like mobile games are generally more isolating to begin with.
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This is pretty clear to anyone who has ever played a game of Counterstrike or whatever and a woman makes the mistake of using voice chat. You’ll get the whole gamut from misogynistic nonsense to the most awkward and creepy attempts to hit on them possible, pretty much every time.
I don’t doubt this but now I’m really curious about the numbers. Is it the same on PC? How do women’s experience compare to other genders in similar surveys?
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Eh, I’m one of those MMO ‘females’. I have to be really cautious when I first join a guild. I’m often seen as a ‘female’ first and gamer second. The amount of times I’ve gotten OnlyFans comments is way too high. I’ve had the best luck in multiplayer FPS games. The downfall of Bungie hits me hard because Destiny in particular was a great place to be a woman gamer. Can you do the mechanic and communicate? That’s all a good team wants.
Absolutely, in a guild with a female GM and we’ve collected a fair number of female gamers because of it. But we still end up kicking folks occasionally because they lose their shit when they hear a female on discord.
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This is pretty clear to anyone who has ever played a game of Counterstrike or whatever and a woman makes the mistake of using voice chat. You’ll get the whole gamut from misogynistic nonsense to the most awkward and creepy attempts to hit on them possible, pretty much every time.
I’m not into gaming, but my wife used to be into it. When we were dating, we’d play call of duty together (side-by-side consoles). She’d get on voice chat, get teased a bit by teenage boys, and then proceed to utterly destroy them. Sometimes they’d scream and curse, accuse her of cheating, accuse her of having a guy play for her (lol her man sucks at this), and so on. She’d just mock them, call them horrible names, and then specifically target and spawn camp the little shits until they rage quit.
It was fucking awesome, and it was alway a laugh riot for the other (more mature, less sexist) folks in the match. I love her so much.
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Given where this is coming from, im waiting for the drop where they blame the tranas community for this. Somehow.
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Dr Seán Roberts, who researches gaming at Cardiff University, said: “When I ask people if they play video games, women often say no. But if you ask about playing games on a mobile, many of them will suddenly say yes. It’s like they have an idea of what a real gamer is in their heads, and they feel like they don’t meet that ideal.”
TBF I don’t really consider myself a gamer anymore… even though I clock a few hours a week on the playstation. But like I used to play competitive FPS/MOBA/RTS 10+ hours a week.
So they aren’t actually getting excluded from games they just dont view themselves as gamers probaby because that label is cringe. I wouldn’t consider someone who casually plays mobile games to be a gamer either. Gamer isnt just anyone who play a games, it describes someone who embeds themselves in gaming communities and culture and engages gaming as a hobby. Same as going for a walk doesn’t make you a hiker.
I play pc games often and wouldnt consider myself a gamer.
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This is pretty clear to anyone who has ever played a game of Counterstrike or whatever and a woman makes the mistake of using voice chat. You’ll get the whole gamut from misogynistic nonsense to the most awkward and creepy attempts to hit on them possible, pretty much every time.
I agree that most competitive games tend to go that way. My ex and I played a lot of League of Legends in a small friend group together (where this did not happen, thank god), and if playing with “externals” it was unbelievable what bullshit she had to deal with. and although most of the time the creeps bit off more than they could chew, it must have felt pretty bad, regardless of what me and our friends did or said.
Anyone with experience in non-competitive game settings to share?
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How the fuck are they getting shamed and excluded in mobile games?
Probably by the common mindset that mobile games don’t really count for gaming clout.
If i compare what crap games i’ve played on my PC sometimes to mobile games, i feel that such boundaries are pretty arbitrary. There are some mobile games that can keep up with PC gaming too - Shattered Pixel Dungeon and Hoplite come to mind.
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Multiplayer with randos is to be avoided in general IMO.
I wasn’t on board until this statement but this is exactly why I fell off any amount of competitive games very quickly.
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Without voice or text chat enabled that expectation of “should use VC to not be a burden on your team when they’re trying to communicate” is if course a projection, but it’s still powerful, and there’s no way of knowing how true that projection is without actually hearing from your teammates. So there’s really now way out of it besides “get over it” (which isn’t easy after a lifetime of learning to cater to others unspoken expectations)… Or by playing a game where there is no option of VC, so there cannot be any possible expectations of it, and no downside of not enabling it.
For something one does to unwind I don’t feel like unpacking and facing deep-seated psychologically ingrained issues and the level of discomfort that brings, so it’s easier to choose games where that issue isn’t an issue.
And now, after playing for a few years I feel confident enough to actually consider playing games with mic on. But I wouldn’t get there if those were the only ones available, I’d just find a different hobby or play offline.
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Without voice or text chat enabled that expectation of “should use VC to not be a burden on your team when they’re trying to communicate” is if course a projection, but it’s still powerful, and there’s no way of knowing how true that projection is without actually hearing from your teammates. So there’s really now way out of it besides “get over it” (which isn’t easy after a lifetime of learning to cater to others unspoken expectations)… Or by playing a game where there is no option of VC, so there cannot be any possible expectations of it, and no downside of not enabling it.
For something one does to unwind I don’t feel like unpacking and facing deep-seated psychologically ingrained issues and the level of discomfort that brings, so it’s easier to choose games where that issue isn’t an issue.
And now, after playing for a few years I feel confident enough to actually consider playing games with mic on. But I wouldn’t get there if those were the only ones available, I’d just find a different hobby or play offline.
I get that. It’s awesome you are open to it now.
I’ve made some good friends on dbd and it’s nice to be able to speak to them, I think maybe the game could benefit from a mode with voice enabled, so there’s at least the option. But maybe that would fragment the playerbase a bit or eventually turn the game more toxic. It would be hilarious though if the survivors and killers had proximity voice, thats something I would love to try!
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I agree that most competitive games tend to go that way. My ex and I played a lot of League of Legends in a small friend group together (where this did not happen, thank god), and if playing with “externals” it was unbelievable what bullshit she had to deal with. and although most of the time the creeps bit off more than they could chew, it must have felt pretty bad, regardless of what me and our friends did or said.
Anyone with experience in non-competitive game settings to share?
Folks in MMOs tend to be more chill in my experience. In such a large sample of people you’re going to find a few dickbags who think they’re hilarious or the kind who will DM sexual harassment, but the majority of people just do not care and are happy to play the game. Toxicity tends to crop up around entitlement to loot and perceived performance rather than gender.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
Activities don’t need to be inherently sexist for the culture surrounding them to be. Consider the ways things like healthcare, cooking, and hunting have been gendered in different times and places.
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Probably by the common mindset that mobile games don’t really count for gaming clout.
If i compare what crap games i’ve played on my PC sometimes to mobile games, i feel that such boundaries are pretty arbitrary. There are some mobile games that can keep up with PC gaming too - Shattered Pixel Dungeon and Hoplite come to mind.
I feel like Puzzle Quest and Gyromancer are “real” games, but somehow Bejeweled and Candy Crush are silly things for little girls and bored housewives. Hell, I think Progress Quest would be considered more legitimate to the kinds of people with this mindset, and that’s not even a game.
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I’m sure the solution to this problem has nothing to do with killing internet anonymity like fascist governments are currently trying to do…
Edit: wow it actually doesn’t say that, I was really expecting that to be the angle of this UK article.
Instead it says these feelings of gamer imposter syndrome women feel is most likely a symptom of culture, but not a cause for women to not play games. And suggests that gaming spaces being more inclusive would help women feel less like importers despite playing games and being gamers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
gotta love that you not only completely missed the point, but you quite perfectly encapsulate the kind of “gotcha” rhetoric that women hear every day in gaming spaces from these toxic men.
it’d be funny if it weren’t depressing.
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“Researchers surveyed 1,000 women of all ages across the UK who play mobile games.”
Shows a picture of a woman holding what appears to be a PS4 controller.
Poifect.
what controller should she be holding? or is this you not realizing you can use a PS4 controller for an android device?
cause you can.
edit: did you just downvote me for telling you that you can use a controller on a mobile device?
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Do they resize this is the case for al gamers? No matter the gender
it is not equal between men and women. toxicity toward women is usually much worse. and is much more frequent.
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Folks in MMOs tend to be more chill in my experience. In such a large sample of people you’re going to find a few dickbags who think they’re hilarious or the kind who will DM sexual harassment, but the majority of people just do not care and are happy to play the game. Toxicity tends to crop up around entitlement to loot and perceived performance rather than gender.
Maybe in more current MMOs, because back in my WoW days (2013 and earlier), misogyny was rampant