I was watching a live video broadcast the other day on YouTube, where several people related to gaming on YouTube and the gaming industry were discussing and ultimately trying to answer the question, Is gaming Sexist? I'll include a link at the end of this blog to the uploaded video conversation.
Although I do not know all of the in's and out's of gaming development, or many attitudes of people within the business and creation side of the industry, I do consider myself to be a gamer, and I like to think I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the gaming audiences, the people who play them once they've been released. It so happens that the broadcast focused on this aspect quite heavily in their discussion, saying that alot of the sexism came from players talking online, or sending messages or posting things online.
Having listened to this discussion I thought that I'd also like to have an input and give my opinions on the subject. Having just said previously that my main focus is on the other gamers/players, I'm only going to discuss this area of the debate.
When it comes to gamers, there is alot of sexism within the community, although it isn't that cut and dry. In my experience when talking online, you tend to hear people being abusive or trolling more when on consoles then when playing games on PC. Furthermore when it comes to specific game types, there seems to be more sexism with players playing FPS games such as Call Of Duty, compared to any other.
The main reason there seems to be this sexism, especially when it come to first person shooters so because of the players anonymity, because you are only a voice heard over the game, and so can't necessarily be punished. I don't see any reason why there is all of this sexism within the community, from last I saw the number of female gamers out there is about equal to the number of male gamers. Just because these trolls are threatened by females gamers, it doesn't justify them to say the things they say, and often it only hinders more females getting into gaming, extending the original problem.
Saying all of this and acknowledging that there is this problem within the community, people have to remember that it is only a very small percentage of people, and I've heard a number of times guys and girls getting along fine online, without the question of gender ever arising.
I've kind of come to the same conclusion as the other participants in the discussion, that games themselves aren't necessarily sexist, the problem lies within the community, within the small groups of trolls and haters who decide to ruin things just because they can. Hopefully this will soon change.
Truthloader - Is Gaming Sexist? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0YHHgI9BaQ&feature=plcp
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