In this post, I would like to touch on something that has been in the back of my mind ever since I decided I would be playing Destiny more actively. Its been a long time since I did any serious online gaming and even longer since I used a microphone while I did it. While I am excited to be online gaming again, I can't help but wonder if my being female is going to affect how I'm going to be received as a player. There are more and more female gamers as the years go by, and yet I still hear about women being ostracized in certain gaming communities. While I am lucky in that I never really had this happen to me, there's still that "what if" thought in the back of my mind. I will never let it stop me from being a gamer or allow it to make me fearful of playing with other gamers, but I would like to understand why it still happens.
Sexism is definitely an issue that we as a world are still working on (and probably will be working on for a very long time). I suppose, then, that it should not surprise me that it sometimes appears in the gaming world too. But what is interesting about this whole occurrence is that many of us nerds and gamers know what it feels like to not feel equal to other people. Many of us were teased, or didn't have much of a social life, or just didn't fit in with our peers. And yet some of us turn around and treat other gamers in this very same way. I understand it to a degree. When you feel like you have no power, it feels good to be be better then someone at something. And we all enjoy a level of competition among each other. After all, that's why games are fun in the first place. But why must gender play such an important role in determining someone's worth as a gamer? If they have a passion for games, let them play. And if they're good at a game, let them be good. When I brought up this issue to Speeder, I told him that I am determined to not let this whole issue stop me from playing, but that it makes me sad that I still have to think about the possibility of harassment for being a female while I game. As I mentioned, there have been a lot of articles recently regarding the steady increase of women not only gaming regularly, but also working in the games industry (which is my goal, of course). There have also been many regarding sexism in the gaming world. There was a quote from one such article that really stuck with me. It was taken from a gentleman over on Polygon in regards to sexism in gaming. Here's a piece of it:
"I can be sure that my gaming performance (good or bad) won’t be
attributed to or reflect on my gender as a whole," he wrote of being a
male gamer, continuing, "I can walk into any gaming store and see images
of my gender widely represented as powerful heroes, villains and
non-playable characters alike."
He has a very good point, and it is the core of why this whole issue bothers me so much. With more and more women playing and buying games, my hope is that it will make this issue more apparent and bring about change. I also hope that someday, gender will not be the deciding factor in whether someone is a good gamer or not. In the mean time, I'm going to keep doing what I love: playing video games.
And Destiny is now two weeks away :)
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