bigbaldwolf86
Banned
It is true. There are a lot of women that give out abuse when playing games. You just don't hear about it as often
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The Guardian: "Sexism and abuse isn't only on Twitter: one woman's gaming experience"
- Thread starter Poetic.Injustice
- Start date
It is true. There are a lot of women that give out abuse when playing games. You just don't hear about it as often
How did she get into contact with the CEO of such a large game? Why did the CEO spend time on banning her? Why did the Admins release her personal information? They would most likely lose their jobs, so why risk it? They must have had a reason -- like being extremely upset at her for whatever reason.
If true, which I doubt, this person is probably not telling the whole story. Also, again, if true, it's probably a very small MMO or online game, maybe an old, obscure MMO game with a small active userbase.
Huh? What's the point of banning the reporters? That would be more work than banning the people who do the cheating, since people would just continually report the cheater.
If true, which I doubt, this person is probably not telling the whole story. Also, again, if true, it's probably a very small MMO or online game, maybe an old, obscure MMO game with a small active userbase.
Huh? What's the point of banning the reporters? That would be more work than banning the people who do the cheating, since people would just continually report the cheater.
The Cowboy
Member
If true about releasing her real info etc - this is pretty serious.
The thing is, I don't know if I believe this - I mean she complained about how she was being treated and the CEO banned her and then a game operator released her real life info?.
I'm very sceptical on this and this is something that should clearly have proof in the article for such a massive implication.
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If it is in fact true, then good lord @ the company in question - they should easily be taken to court/shut down.
The thing is, I don't know if I believe this - I mean she complained about how she was being treated and the CEO banned her and then a game operator released her real life info?.
I'm very sceptical on this and this is something that should clearly have proof in the article for such a massive implication.
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If it is in fact true, then good lord @ the company in question - they should easily be taken to court/shut down.
Really? Alot of people know how to handle it... or just disable communication features for randoms.
Congratulations. You are that person!
No it isn't, really. That argument doesn't work for anything actually.
What does he win.
tycoonheart
Member
Those are questions I have as well.
Hamster Plugin
Member
It's made up. Nobody in their right mind would let a scummy company like this be left anonymous. The source is a goddamn comment on a news story.
CambriaRising
Member
Something doesn't make sense in that article.
This shit happens, 100%, full stop. But something is off about this story.
This shit happens, 100%, full stop. But something is off about this story.
Of course The Guardian aren't going to reveal any specifics here. The story is simply from one of the comments from their website. Unless they can verify all the details they aren't going to be able to give any specifics. They have, at least some, journalistic integrity. Besides, if the commenter has been victimised by the company previously I doubt she wants to publicly name them and make matters worse.
Also, if you look at the commenter's profile, this is her 'about me' section:
Also, if you look at the commenter's profile, this is her 'about me' section:
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
Wow. Instead of people saying how awful that is to say to someone you have a go at me instead. Congratulate yourself
Ravensmash
Member
How many of these women target others based on gender?
Your comments have little to do with the actual angle of the article.
No, I'm more or less speaking about the "get death threats/file a complaint/get banned" part.
Why the fuck would I bother surrounding myself in an environment so vile?
It's no wonder the mainstream public see online gaming as some disorder (lone Wow raider who lost his job and wife because he couldn't disconnect).
ElectricBlue187
Member
Story needs more details and an attempt to contact the other party before I can take it seriously, it doesn't sound very far fetched but a real for serious journalist should know that one side of an emotional story is rarely 100% correct
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
That was never my point
You saying you know of one friend who encountered abuse online from another woman and using it to dismiss the serious problem of endemic sexist abuse in gaming and the wider world is what's awful.
Ravensmash
Member
I don't think so. It's not an expose as such, but a commentary based upon anecdotal experiences.
Dark-Cloudz
Member
Well this thread took a turn for the worse.
No way in hell are women as bad as men for this sort of crap. It's juvenile males aged 14-20 who pull this shit. Half the reason I gave up on xbox live; there's only so much inflammatory bigotry and misogynistic crap one can take before you realise it's not worth it.
I bet all of the alleged perpetrators were men.
If there's a solid evidence base for this (and why wouldn't you take screens and copy emails of abuse) then it should be released and the company named and shamed.
No way in hell are women as bad as men for this sort of crap. It's juvenile males aged 14-20 who pull this shit. Half the reason I gave up on xbox live; there's only so much inflammatory bigotry and misogynistic crap one can take before you realise it's not worth it.
I bet all of the alleged perpetrators were men.
If there's a solid evidence base for this (and why wouldn't you take screens and copy emails of abuse) then it should be released and the company named and shamed.
Jezbollah
Member
Indeed. Big news, data privacy law(s) broken and a huge lawsuit in the making.
bigbaldwolf86
Banned
Ha ha that's a massive assumption. I could tell you quite a few stories. I never dismissed anything in the article and I think what happened to this poor woman is awful. If it seemed like I was dismissing the issue then I apologise as that certainly wasn't my intention
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
Once again, the insults part is sexist in both ways due to the nature of gender specific insults. These are more obvious with women due to them being a minority in gaming which tends to bring out the rage more and the shit people spew from their mouths.
How players treat other players based on gender is a different thing than how women in the game industry get treated though. Totally different subjects.
The main issue here is the way the GM's acted and the CEO. The important stuff has nothing to do with her being female outside of showing how shit the GM's are at doing their job. It's on par with say a character being named mr.cupcake and that player being harassed with insults and the GMs not doing shit.
It's a launching point into some potential, serious investigative journalism to determine the veracity of the claims and call out the abusers if there is evidence of harassment. As it is, the article is just regurgitation a random, anonymous poster's unverified story, contributing nothing to the wider discussion.
Which is exactly why I wonder it's been put up on The Guardian's "Games Blog" and not on the front page, or on other places. A gaming company banning someone from complaining about people leaving hate and rape messages against her, as well as breaking the Data Protection Act (the law) and releasing her personal information?
That would be grounds for international headline news.
Never heard of that happening until now... Its sketchy. We all know these type of sensational stories are seldom checked into for accuracy. ceo banned her? Idk...
ElectricBlue187
Member
If it was just a "yeah young boys on XBL are awful" comment id agree but this goes way way beyond that to purport that an entire game, it's players, the community managers, and the goddamn CEO are openly hostile toward female gamers. That kind of assertion needs some more detail.
Mithos
Member
Beats me, but I guess getting 20 reports/week from you on the same persons over and over again (because they have not been banned for cheating yet) will make some admins/mods get rid of you if they cant confirm your reports.
Turns out TheIneffableSwede is a user at TheGuardian
Her bio at TheGuardian:
https://id.guardian.co.uk/profile/theineffableswede/public
Some of her other comments
at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/tsa-nsa-unreasonable-searches
Their wording in the article
She's commented on a lot of "similar" topics.
Yep, indeed, it was apparently a comment on their site. This is her full comment that was mentioned in the OP's article:
[Possibly a repost of the same comment she posted on another article: "Twitter under fire after bank note campaigner is target of rape threats." here: http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/25522644]
Did they just copy-paste this comment from their own comment sections?
Her bio at TheGuardian:
https://id.guardian.co.uk/profile/theineffableswede/public
Some of her other comments
at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/tsa-nsa-unreasonable-searches
Their wording in the article
She's commented on a lot of "similar" topics.
Yep, indeed, it was apparently a comment on their site. This is her full comment that was mentioned in the OP's article:
[Possibly a repost of the same comment she posted on another article: "Twitter under fire after bank note campaigner is target of rape threats." here: http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/25522644]
Did they just copy-paste this comment from their own comment sections?
The Cowboy
Member
Indeed, this would be all over the place - I mean take it in if true (again IF).
A person complains about harassment and vile messages, the CEO bans her because they're fed up dealing with her AND then a game operator (an employee of the company) releases her real life info onto the web!.
This would be massive news not only within the gaming community but major news places due to the massive privacy breach and the fact a person was banned from a game due to complaining about abuse and threats.
This is where it lost me. I do think female gamers are treated like this in games but MMORPGs I've always found to be a lot better then most. Especially since the very fact they were subscription based filtered out a lot of people right form the start. This is actually part of why some are so against the free to play switch I believe.
If this did take place it would have to be a smaller game where you might have access to its head. The only things that come to mind would be something on the scale of maybe Darkfall Online/Unholy Wars. In fact that's the game that came to mind as I was reading this where it might be possible to talk with the CEO. Where the actual player base might be more likely to behave in the manner described due to it's complete PvP nature and how many abuse that of setup. You can talk with other players regardless of the faction I think. In other games such as WoW, SWTOR, etc where there is a big focus on PvP you can't talk to the other side. Sure you can dual but this seems to extreme to be a response to a dual fight. They're also structured in a way so that you can't even contact the CEOs but just customer service.
However this seems so out there that if this did happen legal action should have been taken right then and there. We would have heard about this happening to some degree.
Sentenza
Member
It would also make the story terrible easy to expose as a lie/exaggeration in case it's completely made up.
Just saying, eh.
AyaisMUsikWhore
Member
I'm thinking WOW or LOL. The only two top ones I can think of.
Unless Blizzard has truly lost their way in the last 3 years, it can't be WoW.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Sounds pretty legit. There's a temptation to believe these stories because they are plausible but the one in the OP stretches believability a bit with the employees publicly shaming her
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
Seems like the more competitive nature of LoL would lead to that level of unpleasantness.
* Millions of players
* Some sort of PvP aspect.
* CO responds to complaints directly and bans people
* Real-life details are available to the game
WoW sprung to mind first of all, but I really don't see any of the big guys there responding directly to a complaint and proceeding to ban the complainer. On the other hand, though, millions of players. That screams F2P to me.
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
WoW GM's are VERY strict, they ban people for crude pms all the time.
Pretty much Smoky. REALLY need the whole story.
This also reminds me that pretty much every competitive game I've played I've been threatened with death, had my sexuality questioned, had many people mention their relations with my mother. Obviously can't speak from a female's perspective but it really just shows the internet is full of fuckin' buttholes.
SolidSnakex
Member
You have to consider that this person is saying that she managed to get into contact with the CEO of this company. I very much doubt that some random player is going to be able to reach the CEO of Blizzard or Riot to discuss how they're being treated in game.
AyaisMUsikWhore
Member
There are but the ratio to women and men in gaming is as she said 20:80.. Hardly anything they say is abusive as to what is coming their way when they do something good. I don't ever think a man even takes a threat from a women gamer that seriously anyways. Trust me, I hear it all the time when I play games especially in COD (pretty much the reason I stopped playing). You get the occasional "get hit on" guys, but that completely goes out the window when you win something. My god, my little cousin doesn't make it better either. He screams "Oh ya'll just got beat by a girl"
Here comes that. "That bitch ain't shit." "Tell that shit to my d**k""She can beat my di** any day blah blah blah" Of course it doesn't mean anything to me but I feel bad for her because does happen.
Yeah, but I have to be honest, this smells like bullshit to me. Either we're only getting a fraction of the story, or it's completely false.
There's an enormous difference about sadly common ocurrences like assholes being assholes online and CEOs banning someone who's a victim of sexism and harassment and publishing their full details online. This isn't a common attitude at all and generic examples don't make any sense here.
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