Poll: BBC News Article: Sexual harrasment in video games

[boag]

If you run into a group of asshats online, dont fucking stay there, get out of the server and go to another one, there are shit tons of them everywhere, or mute, or ban, or kick.

There are tools in place for this, USE THEM.

Of course, they're everywhere, so "go somewhere else" is kind of a poor solution. And I like how the answer to a detrimental cultural attitude comes down to "just ignore it."

Really, this is something we should be examining. the "just ignore it" attitude is kinda how we end up with guys like Aris Bakhtanians. Ummm....Yay for tacit permissiveness?

Its not about ignoring it, its about using the tools in place to clean up the communities you want to play in.

If you walk into a park and its a filthy pigsty full of trash, you can either go find a better park or clean it up, because putting your hands on your head and screaming "OH WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN" isnt going to get you enough sympathy from people that actually take action.

 

[Riki Darnell]

How is anonymous trash talking sexual harassment? Christ, grow the fuck up.

I agree. I'm a girl and I make "get in the kitchen" remarks to other females. I see nothing wrong with it. It's not like I'm telling someone to go kill themselves.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

"Get back in the kitchen?" she says. "I'm not in the kitchen because I'm here kicking your ass on video games, that's what I'm good at."

[HEADING=1]SO BRAVE[/HEADING]

She sure showed them.

Anyway, are these people incapable of using the mute function?

This. To this day I don't understand why people don't use the fucking Mute/Block buttons. It's almost like people WANT to deal with shit heads in their life.

Anyway, not really my problem, I tend to not play online multiplayer.

 

[ElPatron]

Because there is nothing to argue about that. Do you realistically expect this community to change in the next 5 years? I don't, so I have nothing to say about it.

How can you be this defeatist?

I am not defeatist. I am an optimist with experience.

Until the people playing right now grow up they will not change. There will also be an influx of teens who are children now and everything will start all over again.

I find it curious that in response to TJC you wax lyrical about legal rights, yet expect women to just roll over and accept harassment*. Colour me confused.

You're twisting my words again... I expect EVERYONE to ignore griefing. Being a woman does not grant you special rights, I believe.

Heck, I am the kind of person who enjoys tasting the tears of my opponents, and brutalize their score while they cry like the little sissies they are.

Like I said, sticks and stones. Everyone is free to be more focused on thinking on insults while I focus on the game.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

And I ask you why the hell would you have to go out of your way to reveal your gender?

And why do you use voice chat? I only use voice chat while playing with people I know, on a private Skype call/Teamspeak server. Other than that I have no interest to lose my cool trying to get a bunch of retards I don't know to follow a strategy knowing that they won't.

So your solution to the problem is to sweep it under the carpet. And to tell women not to use a feature of an entertainment system they pay for. That's fine if that's how you want to deal with it. I disagree.

I do not "go out of my way to reveal my gender." I'm not a bloody masochist. The question I asked was why should a woman, any woman, revealing her gender be something to be avoided in the first place?

Why do we all use online alias's instead of revealing our legit information to strangers? Cause it's a fucked up world, sir.

 

[Eamar]

I am not defeatist. I am an optimist with experience.

Until the people playing right now grow up they will not change. There will also be an influx of teens who are children now and everything will start all over again.

Or perhaps, as society progresses and parents become more familiar with the internet, kids will learn not to be sexist/racist/homophobic to strangers online. Or you could be right, but I'm just trying to cling to some hope here.

You're twisting my words again... I expect EVERYONE to ignore griefing. Being a woman does not grant you special rights, I believe.

Heck, I am the kind of person who enjoys tasting the tears of my opponents, and brutalize their score while they cry like the little sissies they are.

Like I said, sticks and stones. Everyone is free to be more focused on thinking on insults while I focus on the game.

Please, I am not "twisting your words" (why would I want to do that?), I'm reacting to them as I interpret them. I admitted that I misinterpreted what you were saying the first time.

 

[LetalisK]

*eye twitch* Oh for fuck's sake! Really? The mute button is a decent band-aid but it does shit all to actually address the problem.

 

[ElPatron]

I am not defeatist. I am an optimist with experience.

Until the people playing right now grow up they will not change. There will also be an influx of teens who are children now and everything will start all over again.

Or perhaps, as society progresses and parents become more familiar with the internet, kids will learn not to be sexist/racist/homophobic to strangers online. Or you could be right, but I'm just trying to cling to some hope here.

But you can't expect a new generation of parents to have noticeable effects in the next 5-6 years, as their children are still in the making/unable to play games.

Society will progress? Debatable. Would the progress have any impact on people growing up right now and ready to enter the internet the next 2 years? Doubtful.

 

[Eamar]

Or perhaps, as society progresses and parents become more familiar with the internet, kids will learn not to be sexist/racist/homophobic to strangers online. Or you could be right, but I'm just trying to cling to some hope here.

But you can't expect a new generation of parents to have noticeable effects in the next 5-6 years, as their children are still in the making/unable to play games.

Society will progress? Debatable. Would the progress have any impact on people growing up right now and ready to enter the internet the next 2 years? Doubtful.

Admittedly, we're unlikely to see tidal changes in the immediate future, but change is change. And it doesn't mean that in the meantime the rest of us should act like dicks or encourage others to do so.

With the parenting thing, it doesn't necessarily have to be a whole new generation of parents. Everyone is becoming increasingly exposed to the internet, I'm sure at least some current parents with kids of the relevant age will wise up and discipline their kids as they find out how they're behaving online. Some, not all, but still. It doesn't even have to be parents: if admins/mods became stricter at enforcing the codes of conduct that all of these services already have, kids (and adults) would learn to tone it down.

As for societal progress, you're right it'll be slow, but it will happen. Just look at how much more tolerant society is now compared to a few years or decades ago, at least on the surface.

 

[Charli]

Is enough being done? Not really.

Should more be done? No.

I know that sounds paradoxical but I'm going to say it like this, when you start imposing law on something so free you tend to develop more negatives than positives. Why do you think most people prefer Xbox Live to Nintendo's (Blind mans buff) don't talk to anyone/don't offend anyone 'friend code' system.

Because there are more freedoms on the former.

Really people are arseholes. To all sorts of people. Not just Women, Gals, we need to toughen up and just learn to blow these people off. Don't take it, don't deal with it, don't interact with it. Just brush them off like water off a ducks back. Don't even justify their ego.
Use to the tools given, moderators, mute, group vote kick. Not everyone is going to be a douche to you, so seek them out.

I'm not going to compromise freedoms for the sake of being offended. It's not worth it.

 

[Jammy2003]

Oh yes. I'm a female admin on a TF2 server, and I like to use my mic whenever possible. Usually when I get on the server, I just go about my usual business. Most of the time I won't get too much serious crap from people (all the regulars know me so it's only strangers that grief), but we'll get the odd kid or socially constipated man child who tells me to make a sandwich and get back in the kitchen. I might fling a bit back, or just start to flex my admin muscles, turning on noclip and changing my character's color and whatnot. Maybe even slap or slay their character. If they don't stop, then I'll mute them for harassment and disrespecting an admin.

I think it's the sort of thing that won't abate until the community stops tolerating it. When I go to other servers when I don't have admin powers and it happens, many will stay quiet and only start talking again when the harassment stops. Like there's some taboo against telling people those people it's not cool.

Of course it will never completely stop, but there is still a lot of improvement that can be made from the point we're at now.

While I usually avoid online play because of the playerbases, the few times I have played, the abuse seems to go all ways. It probably is stronger against women though, with it not being light ribbing and instead decending into general nastiness and outright weird s**t sometimes...

One thing I've always wondered though? With people being called out on "White Knighting" and people posting things saying guys should leave women to fight their own battles, as protecting them is also a form os sexism, it leaves the average guy confused as to what should actually be done. It then either leads to apathy, or possible assumptions that the people must know each other sometimes? No one wants to be the person butting in and "having no sense of humour".

So which is it? Are guys suppose to speak up and then be told to stop white knighting? Or stay quiet and let each person fight their own battles?

 

[Ryotknife]

Men give each other shit in a similar fashion all the time, you just can't take it to heart.

That doesn't justify it.

Considering all the equal rights things that have gone on in recent history, this was inevitable.

That people be sexist and despicable? Hmmmmmmm.

Kitchen jokes are on par with poofter jokes towards heterosexual men.

Right and this was determined... how?

Just give it back and keep going.

Doesn't sound like a very good solution to sexual harassment.

I think if Women are going to be precious over things like this, its only going to hurt their standing in society.

Only to people whose opinions are worthless. Namely sexists.

you realize that you are implying that men should treat women better than they treat other men (which we do generally, i treat my friend's girlfriends hundreds of times better than i treat my friends that ive known for decades). to do so is the exact OPPOSITE of equality.

of course, this is assuming non malicious banter between equals, not full blown harassment.

 

[samaugsch]

I always thought "get back in the kitchen" was used as a joke. Who the hell says that while being serious about it? Anyway, I'm really not sure what can be done about it except for the girls being harassed to either ignore it or come up with a witty retort. It doesn't exactly help the guy's case when they say things like "you're a dumb slut, you stupid whore". -_-

 

[Davey Woo]

And not a fuck is being given about the multiple times I've been called a 'gay homo fag' or similar whilst playing online?

Fair enough more girls are playing online, but they're going to have to learn to deal with the same verbal abuse everyone else has been listening to for years. Yes of course in an ideal world nobody would shout abuse at each other whilst playing online, but it's not an ideal world, and there is always the mute button.

 

[Kahunaburger]

And not a fuck is being given about the multiple times I've been called a 'gay homo fag' or similar whilst playing online?

Fair enough more girls are playing online, but they're going to have to learn to deal with the same verbal abuse everyone else has been listening to for years. Yes of course in an ideal world nobody would shout abuse at each other whilst playing online, but it's not an ideal world, and there is always the mute button.

Who said online homophobia is acceptable, either?

OT: re the "mute button," I'm personally a fan of people being auto-muted if they've been muted enough in a recent period.