Poll: Sexism in Online Games

[RachaelIsaacHill]

So, my fellow gamers of the feminine variety, have you ever encountered sexism while playing an online game? Just the other day I was playing WoW, healing Utgarde Keep on my lvl 70 Priest. The tank for our group was woefully undergeared, and by that I mean he was losing a good third to half of his hp during my global cooldowns alone. Try as I might, I could only do so much for the poor sop until he eventually went down. I could keep my other group members and myself up just fine, so we never actually wiped because of it. But this guy was getting pretty annoyed at the situation, and finally asks if I'm a girl (my priest is a female worgen). I answer yes, to which he immediately calls me fat, tells me to stop playing, get some dick, and then leaves the group. We wait a little while, get a new tank, and finish the run without any deaths.

Why is this still an issue that we run into in the gaming spectrum? Intelligent people know gender has nothing to do with gaming ability, let alone most everything else. Male friends, I know most of you aren't ignorant sexists like the wonderful lad in my story, but could you maybe shed some light on this for us? I'm less upset with the situation, and more confused.

EDIT: And I apologize for the poll. I keep trying to fix it and it's just not saving the text for some reason.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

I've never been made fun of for my gender (I'm male), so I can't really say. One of my guildmates got kicked out for making fun of a female player in a group, but that's about it. I don't play many games online.

I've been called gay, of course. I know no online gamer who hasn't. Baseless lies and slander. But I wonder why that is such a Go-to insult.

 

[JMeganSnow]

So, my fellow gamers of the feminine variety, have you ever encountered sexism while playing an online game?

I never have *any* problems with this, but I play DDO which has a higher average player age than WoW (most people who play DDO a lot are in their late 20's to early 40's) and seems to attract people who are more mature overall.

DDO is not as group-dependant as WoW from what I have seen, either. While there are raids in the game, you can build a character that can take on any raid in the game without ever getting any raid GEAR, and all other content can be handled either solo or in small groups. So if you want to group with people, you HAVE to be polite, or people will simply blacklist you and you'll never get into a raid again.

Having a smaller player base also helps in this regard--it's easier to know who the jerks are and avoid them.

I'm not saying anything against WoW. Being popular isn't a sin. But it does increase douchebag exposure as well as making it more difficult to avoid those people.

P.S. Also I've been informed that I'm so effing scary nobody would dare give me any crap for being a girl.

 

[Hiname]

Nothing thus far. Someone in my old Aion guild was trying to make fun of m, though. Claiming, and I quote: "Girls can NEVER pvp with equal skill like a male, so do us a favor and gtfo."
So after bashing his ass (5:1) and outscoring him at the upcomming siege, the rest of the guild had a good laugh and our leader gave him the boot for being a sexist noob.

Ahh, glorious times..

 

[TheIronRuler]

So, my fellow gamers of the feminine variety, have you ever encountered sexism while playing an online game? Just the other day I was playing WoW, healing Utgarde Keep on my lvl 70 Priest. The tank for our group was woefully undergeared, and by that I mean he was losing a good third to half of his hp during my global cooldowns alone. Try as I might, I could only do so much for the poor sop until he eventually went down. I could keep my other group members and myself up just fine, so we never actually wiped because of it. But this guy was getting pretty annoyed at the situation, and finally asks if I'm a girl (my priest is a female worgen). I answer yes, to which he immediately calls me fat, tells me to stop playing, get some dick, and then leaves the group. We wait a little while, get a new tank, and finish the run without any deaths.

Why is this still an issue that we run into in the gaming spectrum? Intelligent people know gender has nothing to do with gaming ability, let alone most everything else. Male friends, I know most of you aren't ignorant sexists like the wonderful lad in my story, but could you maybe shed some light on this for us? I'm less upset with the situation, and more confused.

EDIT: And I apologize for the poll. I keep trying to fix it and it's just not saving the text for some reason.

if you were a man (in a female char) he would say that you need to get a sex change operation, call you a fag or a tranny and tel you to go and have fun in a night club wih other men.
You being a woman in my opinion doesn't really matter, If I were that guy ( and IF i was a dick) I could curse any person I meet effectively.

 

[RachaelIsaacHill]

I'd assume gay is a go-to insult for most males to other males because it inherently suggests a lack of masculinity, which is (wrongly) perceived by many as a bad thing. As much as I hate the stereotype of gamers as being immature, this kind of behavior stems from immaturity. And behavior like this usually comes about because the one on the attack is uncomfortable with something about themselves. If they call you gay, they are also implying that they themselves are not, and are therefore better. People insult others with things that would in-turn insult themselves, usually.

 

[Cronq]

I'd assume gay is a go-to insult for most males to other males because it inherently suggests a lack of masculinity, which is (wrongly) perceived by many as a bad thing. As much as I hate the stereotype of gamers as being immature, this kind of behavior stems from immaturity. And behavior like this usually comes about because the one on the attack is uncomfortable with something about themselves. If they call you gay, they are also implying that they themselves are not, and are therefore better. People insult others with things that would in-turn insult themselves, usually.

Your argument makes no sense to a person unless they accept your premise. You not accepting their rejection of your premise makes you a hypocrite?

 

[lobster1077]

I don't think so, in fact during my time on Xbox live its become apparent that it's an almost exclusively male affair.

 

[deleted_by_strongbad]

People are just retarded, especially when it comes to gender/sex. There will always be people who think sex a is better than b at some or all things, there will be others that think the opposite. It has nothing to do with gaming, gamers, sex, or reality, just people being people (see first sentence).

 

[Total LOLige]

never spoken to a female gamer on xbox live except the few that play GRAW 2, never heard any sexism towards them

 

[Gamblerjoe]

In my brief time playing WoW i saw some really bad tanks. They always blame their problems on other people, and no amount of evidence will convince them that they are to blame. Even if the rest of the group had stuck up for you, he would still stick to his guns.

If you being female is where he goes straight to, then thats his problem. It sound like he has some gender issues that will prevent him from ever having a meaningful relationship. Hes not even adhering to any kind of remotely reasonable stereotype. Hes simply being misogynistic.

The current stereotype is that females like to play healers and support classes, and excel at it. While this isnt as bad as telling someone they are fat and incompetent, its still narrow minded. Most of the girl gamers iv played with gravitate toward rogue or dps type characters. Thats just my experience though. Im not dumb enough to think that the .0001% of the girl gamer population that i have interacted with is any indication of the overall statistics. Then again i used to make my living off gambling, and know all too well how deceptive short term swings can be.

All in all, a lot of WoW players are assholes. The reason i quit that game is because after capping a mage, i got invited into a leet guild that my rl friend was in. they were total pricks that were way way too proud of their skills, and way way too judgmental toward other players. i realized that my only options were a crappy guild, feebly trying to pug endgame content, tolerating a bunch of pricks, or finding a different game.

 

[Bon_Clay]

People don't really care, your gender, race, sexuality and whatever else isn't actually what bothers anyone. If you suck at the game, or they suck and you made them feel bad, they will be mad at you. When people get mad and don't have to deal with you in person, they will say whatever they think will piss you off.

Though on a side note, if you bring up the fact you are a girl in games for no reason it pisses people off, and doing that is definitely asking for getting insulted.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

I don't have a problem with the females who don't blatantly flaunt their gender.

 

[Wharrgarble]

When I played WoW, twice I had gotten the "Well... Your application looks solid, but we don't accept women because they cause drama and they're just not as good. Thanks anyway."

Granted, that was two out of quite a few guilds through my entire WoW career. Still, it seemed completely bizarre and managed to strike a nerve.

Outside of that, aside from the joking "TITS OR GTFO" in L4D2 and "What? GIRL ON THE INTERNET?" in Killing Floor I haven't had to put up with it all that often. In fact, more times than not it turns into getting awkwardly hit on rather than blatantly insulted. :/

 

[Lukeman1884]

But this guy was getting pretty annoyed at the situation, and finally asks if I'm a girl (my priest is a female worgen). I answer yes, to which he immediately calls me fat, tells me to stop playing, get some dick, and then leaves the group. We wait a little while, get a new tank, and finish the run without any deaths.

To be fair, if you weren't a girl, he probably still would've called you fat and told you to get some dick anyways. IMO the situation you've described isn't really anything to do with gender. The tank probably would've still been a complete ass regardless of whether or not you've got two X chromosomes.

 

[manythings]

Maybe he was just asking so he could use the correct words as it would be insensitive to just assumed you were a guy.

OT: Never have had it come up and I would probably answer Gender Neutral or something... maybe septa-sexual... you can have a lot of fun with words.

 

[RachaelIsaacHill]

I'd assume gay is a go-to insult for most males to other males because it inherently suggests a lack of masculinity, which is (wrongly) perceived by many as a bad thing. As much as I hate the stereotype of gamers as being immature, this kind of behavior stems from immaturity. And behavior like this usually comes about because the one on the attack is uncomfortable with something about themselves. If they call you gay, they are also implying that they themselves are not, and are therefore better. People insult others with things that would in-turn insult themselves, usually.

Your argument makes no sense to a person unless they accept your premise. You not accepting their rejection of your premise makes you a hypocrite?

Sorry, what? Firstly, what are you saying is my premise, and what would constitute a rejection of that, along with my not accepting a rejection of that? I'm sorry, not trying to be mean or anything, I just legitimately don't understand what you're trying to say here, and would like to so we may further the discussion.