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The Guardian: "Sexism and abuse isn't only on Twitter: one woman's gaming experience"

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
. One commenter on the Guardian, who uses the pseudonym TheIneffableSwede, described her experiences as a player in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

"I used to be – emphasise used to be – an avid participant in a certain online game. I was a very good player of this game, but the majority of its players are guys. I'd say the ratio is about 80:20 male:female for this game. The game is MMORPG and has millions of active users from all over the planet.

"Whenever I won against my opponents, which I did almost always, some male players would threaten to rape, mutilate, or even kill me (but rape was by far the most frequent threat). I reported these threats to the game operators, whose response was:

1. It's your fault for choosing a username that reflects your gender. You should change your name to something that is gender-neutral.

2. If you are concerned about this, report it to the police.

Her response: "How do you report someone you only know as VikingKiller0912, especially when that player is in a different country from you?"
Click to expand...

"Eventually, I complained to the CEO himself of the gaming company and his response was to ban me from the game because he was 'tired of hearing about this problem'. The players who threatened me with rape, mutilation and death are still active in the game and some of them have been given jobs as game operators (the referees of the game).

"Before I was banned, one of the game operators, an employee of the company, released my real-life details (full legal name, physical address, email, telephone number, link to my social media, such as Facebook, etc.) to thousands of other players (I had given this information when I registered for the game) and encouraged people to harass me outside the game, which several of them did. I had to change my mobile number, cancel my Facebook account, and even considered moving house at one point to escape the harassment.
Click to expand...

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo.../sexism-abuse-twitter-woman-gaming-experience

Edit: It seems that this is dug out from the comments on one of their articles, More here.
 
Q

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
What the fuck? Might as well just say the name of the game in the case of something this extreme.

Edit: And being threatened with rape due to "user name" doesn't make sense. Plenty of dudes play female characters with female names on the character so that means she made it public that she was female, not that there is anything wrong with this threats of rape are low no mater the gender, also people make death threats all the time online as well that alone has nothing to do with gender. The whole situation sounds fucking stupid and ass backwards though. Must be a F2P game
 
G

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Why can't they specify which MMORPG it is? Seriously. What's holding them back here because people should know.
 
B

Broken Joystick

At least you can talk. Who are you?
"Before I was banned, one of the game operators, an employee of the company, released my real-life details (full legal name, physical address, email, telephone number, link to my social media, such as Facebook, etc.) to thousands of other players (I had given this information when I registered for the game) and encouraged people to harass me outside the game, which several of them did.
Click to expand...

What the actual fuck.
 
I

inky

Member
Yup, shit sounds super serious to just say it's "a certain game". I'm pretty sure her story together with the gathered evidence (if she has any) would be enough to start a shitstorm around this game, so why not name it? I think people should know.
 
M

Mephala

Member
I agree with first post. Name and shame game. Provide e-mail to shame CEO.

I hope she finds a better game and better people to play with.
 
Pagusas

Pagusas

Elden Member
wait the CEO heard her complaint then banned her?

1. We need real investigative journalism here, someone to actually look into this and bring it to the light of day and get this person put in the extreme negative spot light if its true

2. The company's name NEEDS to be revealed.
 
B

Bazza

Member
Admittedly these online abuse stories are pretty disgusting and you cant justify them in any shape or form but this actual account smelly pretty iffy especially this part

"Eventually, I complained to the CEO himself of the gaming company and his response was to ban me from the game because he was 'tired of hearing about this problem'. The players who threatened me with rape, mutilation and death are still active in the game and some of them have been given jobs as game operators (the referees of the game).

"Before I was banned, one of the game operators, an employee of the company, released my real-life details (full legal name, physical address, email, telephone number, link to my social media, such as Facebook, etc.) to thousands of other players (I had given this information when I registered for the game) and encouraged people to harass me outside the game, which several of them did. I had to change my mobile number, cancel my Facebook account, and even considered moving house at one point to escape the harassment."
Click to expand...

if this is even remotely true then name and shame the game/company, if it is true then companies like this need to be avoided by everyone.
 
Mithos

Mithos

Member
Pagusas said:
wait the CEO heard her complaint then banned her?
Click to expand...

Stuff like this happens so much it is not even funny. We have (the group I played MMO with during the years) multiple people banned for reporting cheaters and abusers. Eventually the admins/mods of those MMO's just got tired on all the reports and banned them instead of the cheaters / abusers.
 
K

Karsticles

Member
Before I was banned, one of the game operators, an employee of the company, released my real-life details (full legal name, physical address, email, telephone number, link to my social media, such as Facebook, etc.) to thousands of other players (I had given this information when I registered for the game) and encouraged people to harass me outside the game, which several of them did.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mind a little evidence to go along with a claim like this.

The rest isn't too far-fetched, though.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
McDougles said:
They don't want to risk slander? Even if the person telling the news is right, it's not legally advisable.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? What legal action can the creators of the game take on this person if she publicly gives out details on what happened to her? If she is telling the truth there is nothing that can be done against her.
 
G

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
McDougles said:
They don't want to risk slander? Even if the person telling the news is right, it's not legally advisable.
Click to expand...

There's probably a paper trail here. If she contacted the CEO, she probably didn't just phone him up. She probably e-mailed or wrote him a letter.

And if there's evidence of her leaked personal information, that should be enough to bring the name of the game to light. Hell, forget the sexism. If personal info is leaked at all, it's a huge deal, whether accidental or deliberate, and MMOs get toasted for it.
 
Acquiescence

Acquiescence

Member
NeoGAF_zps8af8f61d.png~original


We've got a man on a mission here.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
Poetic.Injustice said:
They can take action against the guardian, Libel laws in the UK are very strict.
Click to expand...

Isn't that only if it's all purely a lie?

And forget the Guardian even, she can go onto any popular forum and state exactly what happened. I wish she would do that. I'd really like to know which company this is.
 
G

Gamerloid

Member
First off, who the heck thought sexism and abuse was only on Twitter?

We need the name of the game like the first post said. No need to cover for such a company that threw out your information. That is a serious offense.
 
D

DaBuddaDa

Member
Zero evidence provided, no names named, and the Guardian runs with it as if it's absolutely 100% true and real. Great journalism!
 
M

Massive Duck. C.M.

Banned
My first thought was World of Warcraft just based on the number of subscribers. Slander/libel is a concern, but what would she really have to gain by lying? Not to this extreme of a degree, but it's fairly common knowledge that these kinds of things happen.
 
J

jet1911

Member
What's wrong with these people? Threatening to rape someone because she kicked your ass in a game? How can you even function in real life if you make that kind of threat because pf something as pointless as a fucking mmorpg...
 
M

McDougles

Member
shinobi602 said:
What are you talking about? What legal action can the creators of the game take on this person if she publicly gives out details on what happened to her?
Click to expand...

I should have clarified. She's telling her side of the story. It's truly deplorable of the CEO to ban her, and downright criminal of the game operator to release personal information.

She has full rights to sue the game company. It is not advisable, therefore, to name the company's name at this time because it could open her up to a lot more legal scrutiny. Even the slightest slip-up in her story could be pounced upon by a huge corporation's numerous lawyers.
 
F

Forkball

Member
I expected this to be, "so and so said he was going to do unspeakable things to me" but the whole section about mods releasing her info and the CEO not caring definitely raised some red flags. She's got to name the game, because that kind of stuff is ridiculous. I wonder if it's really a game with "millions of subscribers" though because you'd think if this is true, a similar incident would have happened before.
 
G

glenn8

Banned
GuardianE said:
Why can't they specify which MMORPG it is? Seriously. What's holding them back here because people should know.
Click to expand...

Tera, Elins & Melons.

And you dont belong to the internet if some letters from a random can depress you. Quite saddening indeed, but is its an useless news anyway
 
Q

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
jet1911 said:
What's wrong with these people? Threatening to rape someone because she kicked your ass in a game? How can you even function in real life if you make that kind of threat because pf something as pointless as a fucking mmorpg...
Click to expand...

You haven't heard kids on CoD and LoL/DotA?

Actually have you been online ever? People get angry and say stupid ass shit like that all the time.
Forkball said:
I expected this to be, "so and so said he was going to do unspeakable things to me" but the whole section about mods releasing her info and the CEO not caring definitely raised some red flags. She's got to name the game, because that kind of stuff is ridiculous. I wonder if it's really a game with "millions of subscribers" though because you'd think if this is true, a similar incident would have happened before.
Click to expand...
It honestly sounds like a generic F2P game. It most certainly isn't WoW as the GM's in that game ban the shit out of people like crazy
 
T

Takuya

Banned
Apart from the testimony, does she have any proof? Screenshots or whatnot? Not saying she's lying or anything, but it would be a lot more damning if there was some actual evidence.
 
B

brandnew

Member
DaBuddaDa said:
Zero evidence provided, no names named, and the Guardian runs with it as if it's absolutely 100% true and real. Great journalism!
Click to expand...

This might be why no game is named. The story is about the trouble women have while gaming, not about the specific game. Yeah, the story itself would benefit from details since it adds credibility, but does that really discredit the whole thing? It's hard to prove stuff on the internet, but is that a reason to ignore this completely?
 
D

danmaku

Member
She complained to the CEO of the company and he banned her? Must've been a small company, probably some F2P MMORPG or maybe a browser game. I don't think top managers at Blizzard or EA deal directly with customers.
 
B

bigbaldwolf86

Banned
Women are just as bad. One told one of my female friends she hopes her and her kids die in a roadside bomb. Abuse is everywhere on both sides
 
C

CTLance

Member
Not enough facepalms in this world. On one hand I don't wish for this to be true since its just incredibly saddening, and on the other I want this to be court-verifiable so someone can rip that shitty company a new one. Several new ones.

Sentenced to using female sounding handles for the rest of their life in anything that requires a login. That would be fitting. >:)
 
H

hellmonkey

Member
Labor said:
My first thought was World of Warcraft just based on the number of subscribers. Slander/libel is a concern, but what would she really have to gain by lying? Not to this extreme of a degree, but it's fairly common knowledge that these kinds of things happen.
Click to expand...

I don't think its WoW, at least not US/horde. Half of my characters are female with female names and my wife also plays female characters with feminine names and played a ton from launch, right up until WotLK launched. Neither of us have ever been harassed in any form like that. I did make an female alliance char and got some crap, nothing like whats in the OP. Neither of us duel and you can cross faction talk.
 
S

Salaadin

Member
Holy shit if all of that is true.

Release the name so that everyone can know how shitty of a company it is. Dont protect them if they did nothing to protect you.
 
Q

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
brandnew said:
This might be why no game is named. The story is about the trouble women have while gaming, not about the specific game. Yeah, the story itself would benefit from details since it adds credibility, but does that really discredit the whole thing? It's hard to prove stuff on the internet, but is that a reason to ignore this completely?
Click to expand...
Well it's not really news that a woman is treated like shit in the gaming space, but typically mmo's are the nicest communities towards them. It's best that people learn what company this was so people can ignore it. Not because players treated a woman like shit, players treat both genders like shit, rape and stuff like whore tends to get used vs females, dudes tend to get called pussies or homosexual insults. The biggest issue is the banned for reporting and giving out all her personal information.

bigbaldwolf86 said:
Women are just as bad. One told one of my female friends she hopes her and her kids die in a roadside bomb. Abuse is everywhere on both sides
Click to expand...
Yup, exactly. There are assholes of every shape and size online.
 
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