{"id":26233,"date":"2021-07-31T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T08:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26233"},"modified":"2021-08-02T04:12:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T04:12:43","slug":"the-activision-blizzard-lawsuit-shows-gamer-culture-still-has-a-long-way-to-go-5-essential-reads-about-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-in-gaming-and-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-activision-blizzard-lawsuit-shows-gamer-culture-still-has-a-long-way-to-go-5-essential-reads-about-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-in-gaming-and-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"The Activision Blizzard lawsuit shows gamer culture still has a long way to go: 5 essential reads about sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eric Smalley<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sexual harassment in gamer culture burst back into the spotlight on July 21, 2021, with news of California\u2019s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard<\/a>, publisher of top-selling video games Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, and a walkout by company employees<\/a>. The lawsuit alleges a \u201cpervasive \u2018frat boy\u2019 culture\u201d at the company and discrimination against women in pay and promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The turmoil is an echo of the infamous Gamergate<\/a> episode of 2014 that featured an organized online campaign of harassment against female gamers, game developers and gaming journalists. The allegations are also of a piece with a decadeslong history of gender discrimination<\/a> in the technology field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been covering sexual harassment and gender discrimination in gaming \u2013 and technology generally \u2013 and picked five articles from our archive to help you understand the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Gaming culture is toxic \u2013 but community norms can change it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Things have not been getting steadily better. The shift to online activities caused by the pandemic was accompanied by an increase in online harassment and a decrease in the number of women and girls playing video games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a third of female gamers have experienced harassment, and female players have developed coping strategies like hiding their gender, playing only with friends and shutting down harassers by outplaying them, according to University of Oregon professor Amanda Cote<\/a>. These strategies take time and energy, and they avoid rather than challenge the harassment. Challenging harassment is also fraught, because it typically sparks a backlash and puts the burden on the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shutting down harassment comes down to creating and supporting community norms that reject rather than allow or encourage harassment. Gaming companies can adopt practices beyond banning harassers that discourage the behavior before it happens, including reducing opportunities for conflict outside of gameplay, adding in-game recognition of good behavior, and responding quickly to complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf esports continue to expand without game companies addressing the toxic environments in their games, abusive and exclusionary behaviors are likely to become entrenched,\u201d she writes. \u201cTo avoid this, players, coaches, teams, leagues, game companies and live-streaming services should invest in better community management efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: Here’s what it’ll take to clean up esports’ toxic culture<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

2. It\u2019s not just players \u2013 fans are part of the problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Go to any sports stadium and you\u2019ll see that the atmosphere that energizes players and fans alike comes from the fans. For esports the venues are streaming services, where fan reaction comes not from cheers and chants but in the form of online chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of South Florida professor Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia<\/a> and colleagues analyzed chats on Twitch, one of the largest streaming services that carries live esports. They found a sharp distinction<\/a> in the language fans use when commenting on players, called streamers, depending on gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen watching a man stream, viewers typically talk about the game and try to engage with the streamer; game jargon (words like \u2018points,\u2019 \u2018winner\u2019 and \u2018star\u2019) and user nicknames are among the most important terms,\u201d he writes. \u201cBut when watching a woman stream, the tone changes: Game jargon drops, and objectification language increases (words like \u2018cute,\u2019 \u2018fat\u2019 and \u2018boobs\u2019). The difference is particularly striking when the streamer is popular, and less so when looking at comments on less-popular streamers\u2019 activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the games themselves, combating harassment and discrimination on streaming services comes down to community standards, he writes. The streaming services \u201cneed to examine their cultural norms to drive out toxic standards that effectively silence entire groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: Can online gaming ditch its sexist ways?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

3. Collegiate esports leagues don\u2019t reflect the population of videogame players<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Esports is becoming a big business, with over $1 billion in revenues<\/a>, and collegiate leagues are an important component of the field. Just over 8% of college esports players and 4% of coaches are female. The low rates of participation are not a reflection of interest: 57% of women ages 18-29<\/a> play video games that are in the esports category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Boise State esports coach Doc Haskell watches scholarship graduate student Artie \u2018N3rdybird\u2019 Rainn compete in a match. AP Photo\/Otto Kitsinger<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Female players face overt hostility and harassment, which discourages participation, according to SUNY Cortland professor Lindsey Darvin<\/a>. College teams often engage in tokenism by bringing on a single female player, and the vast majority of scholarships go to male players<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professional esports organizations are beginning to address the gender gap<\/a>. Colleges and universities need to follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColleges and universities that receive U.S. federal aid have an obligation to improve opportunity and access to participation based on Title IX policy, which prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: At colleges nationwide, esports teams dominated by men<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

4. Lessons from the tech field: Diversity and equity require women with power<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The roots of esports\u2019 toxic culture lie in decades of gender discrimination in the technology field as a whole. That discrimination has proved stubborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 1995, pioneering computer scientist Anita Borg challenged the tech community to a moonshot: equal representation of women in tech by 2020<\/a>,\u201d writes Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor Francine Berman<\/a>. \u201cTwenty-five years later, we\u2019re still far from that goal. In 2018, fewer than 30% of the employees in tech\u2019s biggest companies<\/a> and 20% of faculty in university computer science departments<\/a> were women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reversing discrimination is a matter of changing cultures within organizations. \u201cDiverse leadership is a critical part of creating diverse cultures,\u201d she writes. \u201cWomen are more likely to thrive in environments where they have not only stature, but responsibility, resources, influence, opportunity and power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCulture change is a marathon, not a sprint, requiring constant vigilance, many small decisions, and often changes in who holds power,\u201d she writes. \u201cMy experience as supercomputer center head, and with the Research Data Alliance, the Sloan Foundation and other groups has shown me that organizations can create positive and more diverse environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: The tech field failed a 25-year challenge to achieve gender equality by 2020 \u2013 culture change is key to getting on track<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

5. The myth of meritocracy is an impediment to equality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The myth of meritocracy is a large part of the longevity of gender discrimination in the tech field. That myth says that success is a result of skill and effort, and that women\u2019s representation is a reflection of their abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., women own 39%<\/a> of all privately owned businesses but receive only around 4% of venture capital funding, according to Brown University professor Banu Ozkazanc-Pan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYet the meritocracy myth, which my research shows<\/a> has a stronghold in the world of entrepreneurship, means that women are constantly told that all they have to do to get more of that $22 billion or so in venture capital funding<\/a> is make better pitches<\/a> or be more assertive,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletter to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the tech field calls meritocracy is in fact gender-biased and results in mostly white men gaining access to resources and funding. \u201cBy continuing to believe in meritocracy and maintaining practices associated with it, gender equality will remain a distant goal,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting gender-aware approaches<\/a>, including setting concrete goals for gender balance, is key to correcting the imbalances caused by the meritocracy myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: Women in tech suffer because of American myth of meritocracy<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Smalley<\/a>, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Smalley, The Conversation Sexual harassment in gamer culture burst back into the spotlight on July 21, 2021, with news of California\u2019s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, publisher of top-selling video games Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, and a walkout by company employees. The lawsuit alleges a \u201cpervasive \u2018frat boy\u2019 culture\u201d at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[272,10262,2103,9592,10263,7532,365,2575,10265,2812,1976,1516,6754,4948,3628,10264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26259,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26233\/revisions\/26259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}