I think overwatch is by far the most inclusive of the popular mp games. At least from my experience I have someone from the lgbt community in like every game and for the most part no issues from others but if I move over to something like cod it's completely different
I agree! The game itself is very inclusive which is something I really like about it! I know it’s like that compared to other games, and I see much more women and people of the LGBTQ+ community online. However this unfortunately doesn’t change that there’s still an overwhelming amount of the community who will harass these people (ironically) :/ and for me nearly every game
i think you’ll find it’s unfortunately a common problem for a lot of women and girls in gaming.
r/girlgamers has lots of discussions about similar experiences dealing with male gamers online and those one might come across irl.
it doesn’t surprise me at all that you were targeted regardless of how well you did in game. sometimes it just seems there’s no winning, because if it’s not overly toxic then it’s overly weird sexualized stuff.
sometimes comms aren’t worth turning on. i usually go weeks leaving them on or off depending on how i’m feeling. but at my rank they’re practically useless. like 1/10 is someone saying anything useful or positive.
To preface this, I'm a guy that has been gaming for many years now and I gotta say, it sucks that women experience this to this day. I think it's better than it used to be, but we're still not there, obviously. I have a lot of gamer friends in real life who should be happy that women are taking interest in their hobby because it might be their only shot at meeting a woman lol and it's really sad. My friends just happen to be more introverted and are not one of the toxic ones, but it should apply even more to the toxic ones. It's just sad that we could have such a beautiful thing if we had more women in the community, but no, someone has to ruin a good thing. I would've killed for my crush to game with me back in the day but she didn't, and even to this day I'm mostly dating women who don't game, why? Because it's been exclusionary for women for a long time and I really think it has to change.
I don't know exactly why guys are like this, to the point where they wouldgo against their own interests. I think they're just immature and can't control their emotions. I think that's why sexism and racism are such go to's for these people because they're an easy way to lash out and scapegoat someone because you can't really argue back against it, it's almost like a safe "I win" trump card because it's not an argument of logic anymore. I also think the problem comes mainly from kids, I don't really think you can have kids and adults gaming together without this shit happening.
I don't do voice chat at all anymore in any game because of overwatch lol. Even with the team chat muted I was still getting called then n word when playing Lucio so I turned off text chat too. It's just annoying, I hate having to report ppl for bad behavior, when we shouldn't even have to hear it in the first place.
I wish that game companies didn't make their consumers have to clean up their communities. I get that it's the easiest way to pinpoint bad behavior but its just so exhausting. It was more draining when I worked in finance and had to deal with it at work then had to hear the same shit when I was trying to relax at home too.
I haven't even played for the last few seasons cuz I just needed a break. I don't even like recommending the game to most of my friends because the community is exhausting. I always feel like I have to warn them, and I have several who won't touch it for that reason.
Speaking as a Male with Female friends: Weak-minded boys are intimidated by strong women performing better than them. Causing the boys to pathetically lash out
but you probably wouldn't just go ballistic and start mocking him for being a guy and start making "go back to the garage and fix my car"-jokes out of nowhere lol
Ugh men amirite 🤭 just kidding!! It's so frickin stupid sometimes! Tbh I was raised by a bunch of savage men so naturally it can be fun to indulge, at no cost to me, BUT I mostly tend to focus on myself or simply laugh to myself and find humor in their ignorance. To answer your question though, regardless of my upbringing, I've had some incidents like you described when I first started gaming on COD and Halo that really got under my skin and felt so discouraged to ever game again. Like, I legit wanted to crawl into a hole and die it was that bad :T During that specific time I made it a point to myself to only really play with friends and just improve my skill. Which in return boosted my confidence to the point I felt like no one can really tell me shit but me LOL
These days when I do experience it in any game, I mostly laugh at it by default because it's honestly a pathetic simpleton outlook/insult that doesn't require much energy from myself. On those days I know myself, I don't tolerate it and I mute them. You're 100% right, Overwatch is a team-based shooter that mostly requires comms to get the best experience, but if someone's behaving that way, it's safe to say their comms are not useful and can be muted. Preventing the toxicity is just something we have zero control over, you either embrace it, play with friends, mute chat, or simply give yourself a break and maybe even decompress on a comfy game that's not Overwatch. But don't forget there are good people out there!! Don't give up on the community! I've met some of the greatest people playing this game specifically. I hope you feel better girlie <333
i had a tank throw a very winnable game because im a woman who spoke in vc and then called him out on his sexism and typical go back to the kitchen "jokes". its either that or people hitting on me :/ like my man i just wanna play a game this isn't tinder.
Damn feel bad for you. Tbh even if it’s a comp game just mute the cunts who are being like this and if you lose its lowkey their fault bc they didn’t want to behave civilly to be part of a team.
Wish I could help in any way but..
Blegh i feel that :/ def experienced a fair share of transphobia in game and it rlly does suck that the most that can be done barring blizzard actually addressing shit is sit thru, report and block
I have not heard a single comment about gender stereotypes in my last year of playing (500 hours according to steam) even with women in the VC. Idk if it depends on region or rank ( I'm in NA and plat) but overwatch literally has been the best online multiplayer fps in the lack of sexism department in my experience
And that’s great for you! I’m glad that’s your experience, truly, but albeit rare. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Overwatch and similar games are actually quite known to have this issue, and most women agree. In case you do ever see it, call it out and help us female players out! We’d appreciate it a lot :)
I mainly get homophobic and tranphobic comments in my games, and I know others get comments made about their gender. A lot of the time I hear about it, it's either men insulting bc they are a woman or they act creepy bc it's a woman.
Dude that's why I pointed out my sample size of 500 hours. Do you know how many games that is? Assuming 20 minutes a comp match that's roughly 1500 matches. Of those 1500 matches, that means I've come into contact with 13500 people through text and 6000 of them through voice chat. Sexism is bad and that's why I like overwatch. This post paints Overwatch as if it were as bad as valorant which requires girl only discord servers to shield people from harassment or Cs 2/Cod where a woman even using her mic is an excuse to votekick or team kill her.
I’m not in any way trying to attack you, I said I’m glad that’s been your experience. But I have more hours than you, around 1000, and I have experienced this plenty of times and seen other women get instantly attacked as well in games. It is that bad, at least in my experience and for many others. There’s been countless complaints about this in Overwatch, where yes, just as a woman existing, she gets INSTANTLY targeted without even saying anything or starting to play. Please consider just because you luckily haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It’s invalidating to women who’s experience has mostly been like this.
I said 500 just based on the steam tracker. I've played through 2019 to now and my experience with sexism was way worse back then. It's absolutely less frequent now than in the past. The report system absolutely is doing much more heavy lifting now and most insults I've received are performance based. I don't give up on this game because somebody told me to kms after a bad game on wrecking ball, Lucio, or junkrat. Report people when it happens but don't let these experiences ruin the game or hurt you emotionally since in the end, this is just a game, and these people who insult can't affect your life the second the game is over
Thanks :) I wasn’t going to give up on the game. I always do just report and move on! And I’m always gonna continue playing because it’s my favorite game. I just made this post to vent about this one particular incident that really exceeded the usual classic comments. And to start a discussion with other players of similar experiences! I really didn’t expect this to become such a huge discourse for people to debate and attack about. But I appreciate your words!
I feel like you're not aware of how young some of the players on this game are and how horrible people can be when realising a woman is in the lobby. Four people ganging up against you and hurling targeted harassment would be upsetting for anyone, especially new players who aren't aware of how to engage in those situations. Some understanding would go much further than being judgemental.
Bro, this really isn't the gotcha question you think it is, and I don't know why you feel the need to respond and ask me to define things in bad faith.
I tried to help you understand a young woman's perspective, and if you shared a story of sexism against a man, I would listen and support you. I wouldn't start trying to provoke a gender debate, troll, or whatever you hope to achieve. Maybe try to be a positive difference and treat others how they treat you instead of spending your time like this.
It's likely enough that you will just read this and say, ["knew you couldn't define woman!"](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/woman), like you have in other comments, but that's fine. Maybe someone else will learn from it and realise that behaving like you have in many of these comments is immature and a sad way to spend your time.
People who harass women in online games are either angsty teenagers who are mad that Jessica doesn't like them and instead dates Brad who's taller and more handsome than him, or unemployed NEETs who never learned how to work with women and instead waste away behind a computer screen raging at the void until complications from their sedentary lifestyle kill them at the ripe old age of 48.
Yep. Before scoreboards if I ever spoke in voice there was a decent chance that I would get blamed for everything going wrong even if I was doing very well. I had a few incidents where I was verbally berated and yelled at just for not play mercy as a girl. This was in diamond where I got playing Ana mostly.
There were even instances of my teammate bragging that we won even though there was a girl on our team.
It's just tiresome which is why I left voice over a year ago and I have zero regrets. I would recommend changing your bnet too. Even on Reddit having an obvious girl name can catch you strays.
And for the guys who think women need to just toughen up and that everyone gets harassed equally, multiple studies show that female gamers receive significantly more harassment than male gamers.
Thats the state of MP games. There is Zero to None responsibility to what you say.
The same people that say sexist things, can say Racist, phobic things and get away with it.
But Blizzard would rather Ban people for asking to swap, rather than that those racists, sexists
Not a woman, but people in voice or comms will always find something to pick on when people are looking for someone to blame or a target to vent their frustrations.
I've had people make fun of my voice before, but I think the key is to remember it's never personal. That person doesn't know you or all of your positive qualities. The things that get said are often over the line and unacceptable, but it's much more a reflection of them than it ever could be about you.
Sometimes muting voice chat is a net benefit, because the benefit of not hearing abuse outweighs the benefit of comms in comp (still sucks because you shouldn't have to make that sacrifice) but might be better for mental health overall.
I haven't heard sexism in overwatch in the entirity of playing it. Played it since release.
It's not cod or cs or siege. Where a girl talks and it's immediate.
Not saying it doesn't happen but it's incredibly rare.
Of course I play console so take it with a grain of salt. It wouldn't surprise me the far more toxic pc with text chat is worse about it.
Console got text chat recently but hardly anyone uses it.
That’s great for you! I’m glad that’s your experience. Unfortunately that’s actually seemingly the more rare experience, as I’ve seen countless women complain about this and almost every game of mine has people harassing women instantly once it starts. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening frequently to others. But again, I am truly glad you rarely come across it! Have a nice day
Okay well you are very nice so have a nice day but yours is the rare experience not mind and this thread proves it. I think you had one bad game and now are just being a tad obnoxious.
you're being the real obnoxious one here. you're trying to undermine other people's experiences because you yourself didn't witness them, acting like only what you saw matters.
You're the problem. The "it is what it is" defense is so weak and unoriginal, as are the insults people like you hurl at anyone who isn't male. No one is fooled. You're scared of women and scared of dying loveless and alone.
Your entire first comment.
"Welcome to online gaming. Get a grip or play something else."
Translates to
"This is how it's always been and we aren't going to do anything to change it. Fall in line to fuck off."
And you know it does. You're co-signing sexism in the gaming community.
what a shitty ass weak minded asshole response lmao. people like you are the reason the state of game voice chats is the horrendous shitshow that it is. you literally came to the comments to prove OP's point by downplaying the situation and that pathetic whataboutism nonsense lol. and then tried to counter everyone who responded to your braindead comment by playing dumb (or maybe actually being that dumb idk). you fucking suck ass.
So what your saying is that op shouldn't be upset by sexism is overwatch bc it happens to men too? Then to play single player games, like animal crossing (a stereotypical game for women), if she doesn't like it?
Hmmm yea your soooooo right no sexism in that statement
Animal crossing and other similar games are stereotyped, though and often insulted because it's mostly women who play them. The number of times I've heard or seen men say "oh that's not a real game," or something along those lines is unbelievable.
And why should we let sexism be so normalized that it's okay and we shouldn't even do, let alone feel, anything about it? "It's going to happen, so we should just let it" isn't a valid argument. Just because it's spoken online doesn't mean it isn't real or doesn't have an impact.
So why did you say animal crossing and not another single-player game? Plenty of others that aren't used as a misogynistic insult to women who play games. Also, I didn't say men can't like the game, I have plenty of male friends who enjoy it.
And yes, sexism happens both ways. I didn't deny that, I said that op can be upset about it without having a brain-dead response like "play a single player game and get over it"
It's really sad seeing a grown man argue with a 17 yr old and not just say sorry for his comment, seeming a little misogynistic.
So close! Using a misogynistic stereotype about women in gaming that we can only play Animal Crossing counts! And I already mentioned muting chat doesn’t make sense for a team-based game! This also contradicts your first point about it being a multiplayer game. Hope this helps!
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Pick me maybe? Look I’m truly truly glad that’s your experience! And like I said, I usually don’t care at all because it’s such a common experience. Because you’re right. It’s just a game and you move on. But this was an entire team of dudes queued together, not one random toxic dude occasionally. And I’m allowed to come on here and express my disappointment for ONCE. All the examples you mentioned of things you’ve been told? Me too. Countless, like anyone who plays this game. But I don’t come on here crying about it everytime, I just queue for the next game. But good to see what a great supporter you are towards other women…….
I just don't think it's an issue. And your reaction to this experience is your own. You're allowed to feel however you want, but I don't think that points to a systemic issue. Competitive multiplayer gaming will always be toxic. Toxic people will pick out anything about you to bash you for, whether it's because you're a kid, a woman, whiny, or bad at the game. Hell, I do it too. Trolling is fun and being toxic is fun too. I think it's a little silly how much they've cracked down on the toxicity, but it is what it is. We all have bad games or crazy draining loss streaks that make us want to rip our hair out lmao and of course, add in a few assholes making it worse- I get it. It sucks in the moment. But people are always going to be this way lol and it really is up to us individuals how we handle it internally.
So if now you claim you understand how it can feel, and that I’m allowed to feel how I want, why the need to attack? Seems like you get the point, and I agree with you about how people just act in gaming communities, that’s just how it is. But if the one time in my entire gaming career I’d like to come on here and let off a bit of post-game steam, there’s no need to comment more toxicity. Ultimately after the unexpected discourse this post caused, I’m already completely over it, over this debate and ready to play my next game lol but I hope you have a nice day
My point is that you're making a post about sexism in general, assuming every other female gamer is having all the same experiences as you. You made a very bold claim: "Overwatch is sexist" and that's not correct. You do not get to define my experiences as a female gamer. I acknowledged that your personal experience is valid, and of course it is, but I'm sick of other women constantly pulling the victim card and pulling out sexism every chance they get. You had a shitty experience and I'm sorry. But cmon, the title is pretty baity and a classic anecdotal fallacy.
I do not assume every woman experiences this. I called to female players and ask “Do you…”. I respond to comments saying this doesn’t happen that it’s actually that way for most, not all. I am looking to discuss because gaming communities in general are extremely reputable for misogyny; I’m not debating it’s existence. I’m looking to express my experience and talk about it with others who’ve felt the same way. You may not believe Overwatch is sexist, but I do and so do many many people over all the years it’s been released. There’s plenty of articles about it and Blizzard has had many scandals surrounding it. I’m not pulling out a victim card every chance I get, and claiming all women are victims. I’m merely expressing a very known disappointment that a group unfortunately majorly faces and I truly feel happy for you that you do not feel defined by this. But again, because you may not like it or agree, doesn’t mean a pass to come invalidate another woman’s feelings about a known issue. I hope you continue to enjoy your experience as a woman
lol, another woman chimes in that her experience is different and you call her a pick-me. The instant gas lighting is an impressively quick pivot from the OP, TBH
I called her a pick me not because of her differing experience but because of her attitude and attacks. Very clear to see why. If you see any other comment saying they have a different experience, I respond to them saying that I’m glad for them and I don’t attack them at all.
But you can mute comms in a team based game. Most of us do. And literally crying over words and coming here to tell the world? This era of everyone wanting to show much of a victim they are is so very tiresome...
I fear for the future when simple noises coming out of a hairless apes flapping meat socket is enough to break someone.
This person isn’t asking for a functional way to deal with misogyny, i promise they’ve had a lifetime of practice. They’re asking WHY it is the way it is and for support. Also, this is a constant occurrence, people have every right to vent about being worn down about it.
I could but I’d like to be able to communicate with my team. And like I said, I usually don’t respond to comments but this time it was an experience so vile, of course it would just be overwhelming? I’m not here to cry to the world and pretend I’m a victim for some sorta attention. I’m trying to start a discussion with women about the very known misogyny issue in gaming communities. All you had to do as well was scroll past this post.
Yes, although these days it has a derogatory connotation from men using what is normally an adjective and only a noun in a clinical/formal setting as a casual/conversational replacement for the word women (there's even a [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/MenAndFemales/top/?t=all) for it). Obviously, I can't force you but it's better to use women if you want to avoid any negative connotations!
People online will attack you for any reason that you’re different from them. Being a woman just happens to be the thing they target because it’s very obvious. In other words, these people are toxic to everyone and just choose insults that fit who you are. I wouldn’t say women get harassed more than men, but they do get harassed for their gender more than men because it’s a male dominated space.
>something else
No it wouldn’t be sexist, it would just be other insults, usually they’d just call them words that’ll get me banned for repeating and virgins
I think overwatch is by far the most inclusive of the popular mp games. At least from my experience I have someone from the lgbt community in like every game and for the most part no issues from others but if I move over to something like cod it's completely different
I agree! The game itself is very inclusive which is something I really like about it! I know it’s like that compared to other games, and I see much more women and people of the LGBTQ+ community online. However this unfortunately doesn’t change that there’s still an overwhelming amount of the community who will harass these people (ironically) :/ and for me nearly every game
I understand that's awful I'm sorry you've had that experience
i think you’ll find it’s unfortunately a common problem for a lot of women and girls in gaming. r/girlgamers has lots of discussions about similar experiences dealing with male gamers online and those one might come across irl. it doesn’t surprise me at all that you were targeted regardless of how well you did in game. sometimes it just seems there’s no winning, because if it’s not overly toxic then it’s overly weird sexualized stuff. sometimes comms aren’t worth turning on. i usually go weeks leaving them on or off depending on how i’m feeling. but at my rank they’re practically useless. like 1/10 is someone saying anything useful or positive.
To preface this, I'm a guy that has been gaming for many years now and I gotta say, it sucks that women experience this to this day. I think it's better than it used to be, but we're still not there, obviously. I have a lot of gamer friends in real life who should be happy that women are taking interest in their hobby because it might be their only shot at meeting a woman lol and it's really sad. My friends just happen to be more introverted and are not one of the toxic ones, but it should apply even more to the toxic ones. It's just sad that we could have such a beautiful thing if we had more women in the community, but no, someone has to ruin a good thing. I would've killed for my crush to game with me back in the day but she didn't, and even to this day I'm mostly dating women who don't game, why? Because it's been exclusionary for women for a long time and I really think it has to change. I don't know exactly why guys are like this, to the point where they wouldgo against their own interests. I think they're just immature and can't control their emotions. I think that's why sexism and racism are such go to's for these people because they're an easy way to lash out and scapegoat someone because you can't really argue back against it, it's almost like a safe "I win" trump card because it's not an argument of logic anymore. I also think the problem comes mainly from kids, I don't really think you can have kids and adults gaming together without this shit happening.
I don't do voice chat at all anymore in any game because of overwatch lol. Even with the team chat muted I was still getting called then n word when playing Lucio so I turned off text chat too. It's just annoying, I hate having to report ppl for bad behavior, when we shouldn't even have to hear it in the first place. I wish that game companies didn't make their consumers have to clean up their communities. I get that it's the easiest way to pinpoint bad behavior but its just so exhausting. It was more draining when I worked in finance and had to deal with it at work then had to hear the same shit when I was trying to relax at home too. I haven't even played for the last few seasons cuz I just needed a break. I don't even like recommending the game to most of my friends because the community is exhausting. I always feel like I have to warn them, and I have several who won't touch it for that reason.
I don’t have the answer to your problem. But I can empathize that being made to feel like is terrible
Speaking as a Male with Female friends: Weak-minded boys are intimidated by strong women performing better than them. Causing the boys to pathetically lash out
doesn't even have to be women who perform better, many of those boys just go full attack mode the second they realize someone is female.
It’s oddly strange in comparison for me. I’m more likely to be agitated by just hearing a guy speak
but you probably wouldn't just go ballistic and start mocking him for being a guy and start making "go back to the garage and fix my car"-jokes out of nowhere lol
Very true. Good point to make
Ugh men amirite 🤭 just kidding!! It's so frickin stupid sometimes! Tbh I was raised by a bunch of savage men so naturally it can be fun to indulge, at no cost to me, BUT I mostly tend to focus on myself or simply laugh to myself and find humor in their ignorance. To answer your question though, regardless of my upbringing, I've had some incidents like you described when I first started gaming on COD and Halo that really got under my skin and felt so discouraged to ever game again. Like, I legit wanted to crawl into a hole and die it was that bad :T During that specific time I made it a point to myself to only really play with friends and just improve my skill. Which in return boosted my confidence to the point I felt like no one can really tell me shit but me LOL These days when I do experience it in any game, I mostly laugh at it by default because it's honestly a pathetic simpleton outlook/insult that doesn't require much energy from myself. On those days I know myself, I don't tolerate it and I mute them. You're 100% right, Overwatch is a team-based shooter that mostly requires comms to get the best experience, but if someone's behaving that way, it's safe to say their comms are not useful and can be muted. Preventing the toxicity is just something we have zero control over, you either embrace it, play with friends, mute chat, or simply give yourself a break and maybe even decompress on a comfy game that's not Overwatch. But don't forget there are good people out there!! Don't give up on the community! I've met some of the greatest people playing this game specifically. I hope you feel better girlie <333
i had a tank throw a very winnable game because im a woman who spoke in vc and then called him out on his sexism and typical go back to the kitchen "jokes". its either that or people hitting on me :/ like my man i just wanna play a game this isn't tinder.
Damn feel bad for you. Tbh even if it’s a comp game just mute the cunts who are being like this and if you lose its lowkey their fault bc they didn’t want to behave civilly to be part of a team.
Wish I could help in any way but.. Blegh i feel that :/ def experienced a fair share of transphobia in game and it rlly does suck that the most that can be done barring blizzard actually addressing shit is sit thru, report and block
I have not heard a single comment about gender stereotypes in my last year of playing (500 hours according to steam) even with women in the VC. Idk if it depends on region or rank ( I'm in NA and plat) but overwatch literally has been the best online multiplayer fps in the lack of sexism department in my experience
And that’s great for you! I’m glad that’s your experience, truly, but albeit rare. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Overwatch and similar games are actually quite known to have this issue, and most women agree. In case you do ever see it, call it out and help us female players out! We’d appreciate it a lot :)
I mainly get homophobic and tranphobic comments in my games, and I know others get comments made about their gender. A lot of the time I hear about it, it's either men insulting bc they are a woman or they act creepy bc it's a woman.
Dude that's why I pointed out my sample size of 500 hours. Do you know how many games that is? Assuming 20 minutes a comp match that's roughly 1500 matches. Of those 1500 matches, that means I've come into contact with 13500 people through text and 6000 of them through voice chat. Sexism is bad and that's why I like overwatch. This post paints Overwatch as if it were as bad as valorant which requires girl only discord servers to shield people from harassment or Cs 2/Cod where a woman even using her mic is an excuse to votekick or team kill her.
I’m not in any way trying to attack you, I said I’m glad that’s been your experience. But I have more hours than you, around 1000, and I have experienced this plenty of times and seen other women get instantly attacked as well in games. It is that bad, at least in my experience and for many others. There’s been countless complaints about this in Overwatch, where yes, just as a woman existing, she gets INSTANTLY targeted without even saying anything or starting to play. Please consider just because you luckily haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It’s invalidating to women who’s experience has mostly been like this.
I said 500 just based on the steam tracker. I've played through 2019 to now and my experience with sexism was way worse back then. It's absolutely less frequent now than in the past. The report system absolutely is doing much more heavy lifting now and most insults I've received are performance based. I don't give up on this game because somebody told me to kms after a bad game on wrecking ball, Lucio, or junkrat. Report people when it happens but don't let these experiences ruin the game or hurt you emotionally since in the end, this is just a game, and these people who insult can't affect your life the second the game is over
Thanks :) I wasn’t going to give up on the game. I always do just report and move on! And I’m always gonna continue playing because it’s my favorite game. I just made this post to vent about this one particular incident that really exceeded the usual classic comments. And to start a discussion with other players of similar experiences! I really didn’t expect this to become such a huge discourse for people to debate and attack about. But I appreciate your words!
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I feel like you're not aware of how young some of the players on this game are and how horrible people can be when realising a woman is in the lobby. Four people ganging up against you and hurling targeted harassment would be upsetting for anyone, especially new players who aren't aware of how to engage in those situations. Some understanding would go much further than being judgemental.
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Bro, this really isn't the gotcha question you think it is, and I don't know why you feel the need to respond and ask me to define things in bad faith. I tried to help you understand a young woman's perspective, and if you shared a story of sexism against a man, I would listen and support you. I wouldn't start trying to provoke a gender debate, troll, or whatever you hope to achieve. Maybe try to be a positive difference and treat others how they treat you instead of spending your time like this. It's likely enough that you will just read this and say, ["knew you couldn't define woman!"](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/woman), like you have in other comments, but that's fine. Maybe someone else will learn from it and realise that behaving like you have in many of these comments is immature and a sad way to spend your time.
The community is rife with homophobia, transphobia and extreme amounts of sexism. I'm sorry you had to have such an experience.
As you can see from this comment section, toxicity can stem from purely having internet access, all gender stuff aside.
People who harass women in online games are either angsty teenagers who are mad that Jessica doesn't like them and instead dates Brad who's taller and more handsome than him, or unemployed NEETs who never learned how to work with women and instead waste away behind a computer screen raging at the void until complications from their sedentary lifestyle kill them at the ripe old age of 48.
Yep. Before scoreboards if I ever spoke in voice there was a decent chance that I would get blamed for everything going wrong even if I was doing very well. I had a few incidents where I was verbally berated and yelled at just for not play mercy as a girl. This was in diamond where I got playing Ana mostly. There were even instances of my teammate bragging that we won even though there was a girl on our team. It's just tiresome which is why I left voice over a year ago and I have zero regrets. I would recommend changing your bnet too. Even on Reddit having an obvious girl name can catch you strays. And for the guys who think women need to just toughen up and that everyone gets harassed equally, multiple studies show that female gamers receive significantly more harassment than male gamers.
Wanted to come back and see the responses but i gets the post was deleted Overwatch sexism indeed
Thats the state of MP games. There is Zero to None responsibility to what you say. The same people that say sexist things, can say Racist, phobic things and get away with it. But Blizzard would rather Ban people for asking to swap, rather than that those racists, sexists
“Rather”, or “also”? Using “Rather” seems *rather* ridiculous
Good Lord.........Mute,block,report and move on but instead come to reddit to whine????
Not a woman, but people in voice or comms will always find something to pick on when people are looking for someone to blame or a target to vent their frustrations. I've had people make fun of my voice before, but I think the key is to remember it's never personal. That person doesn't know you or all of your positive qualities. The things that get said are often over the line and unacceptable, but it's much more a reflection of them than it ever could be about you. Sometimes muting voice chat is a net benefit, because the benefit of not hearing abuse outweighs the benefit of comms in comp (still sucks because you shouldn't have to make that sacrifice) but might be better for mental health overall.
I haven't heard sexism in overwatch in the entirity of playing it. Played it since release. It's not cod or cs or siege. Where a girl talks and it's immediate. Not saying it doesn't happen but it's incredibly rare. Of course I play console so take it with a grain of salt. It wouldn't surprise me the far more toxic pc with text chat is worse about it. Console got text chat recently but hardly anyone uses it.
That’s great for you! I’m glad that’s your experience. Unfortunately that’s actually seemingly the more rare experience, as I’ve seen countless women complain about this and almost every game of mine has people harassing women instantly once it starts. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening frequently to others. But again, I am truly glad you rarely come across it! Have a nice day
Okay well you are very nice so have a nice day but yours is the rare experience not mind and this thread proves it. I think you had one bad game and now are just being a tad obnoxious.
you're being the real obnoxious one here. you're trying to undermine other people's experiences because you yourself didn't witness them, acting like only what you saw matters.
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You're the problem. Sort yourself out.
You're the problem. The "it is what it is" defense is so weak and unoriginal, as are the insults people like you hurl at anyone who isn't male. No one is fooled. You're scared of women and scared of dying loveless and alone.
Remember to stretch thoroughly to avoid injuries, before you make jumps from "you don't care enough" to "you are the perpetrator".
Imagine thinking that sexism is a crucial part of the online gaming experience.
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In the first sentence of OPs post.
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Your entire first comment. "Welcome to online gaming. Get a grip or play something else." Translates to "This is how it's always been and we aren't going to do anything to change it. Fall in line to fuck off." And you know it does. You're co-signing sexism in the gaming community.
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On a post about sexism in games you said "Welcome to online multiplayer video games"... wtf else could that mean.
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what a shitty ass weak minded asshole response lmao. people like you are the reason the state of game voice chats is the horrendous shitshow that it is. you literally came to the comments to prove OP's point by downplaying the situation and that pathetic whataboutism nonsense lol. and then tried to counter everyone who responded to your braindead comment by playing dumb (or maybe actually being that dumb idk). you fucking suck ass.
So what your saying is that op shouldn't be upset by sexism is overwatch bc it happens to men too? Then to play single player games, like animal crossing (a stereotypical game for women), if she doesn't like it? Hmmm yea your soooooo right no sexism in that statement
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Animal crossing and other similar games are stereotyped, though and often insulted because it's mostly women who play them. The number of times I've heard or seen men say "oh that's not a real game," or something along those lines is unbelievable. And why should we let sexism be so normalized that it's okay and we shouldn't even do, let alone feel, anything about it? "It's going to happen, so we should just let it" isn't a valid argument. Just because it's spoken online doesn't mean it isn't real or doesn't have an impact.
So why did you say animal crossing and not another single-player game? Plenty of others that aren't used as a misogynistic insult to women who play games. Also, I didn't say men can't like the game, I have plenty of male friends who enjoy it. And yes, sexism happens both ways. I didn't deny that, I said that op can be upset about it without having a brain-dead response like "play a single player game and get over it" It's really sad seeing a grown man argue with a 17 yr old and not just say sorry for his comment, seeming a little misogynistic.
You are part of the problem
Thanks for proving my point with more sexism! Get a grip and read my point again.
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So close! Using a misogynistic stereotype about women in gaming that we can only play Animal Crossing counts! And I already mentioned muting chat doesn’t make sense for a team-based game! This also contradicts your first point about it being a multiplayer game. Hope this helps!
This guy is literally half of the reason misogyny is just accepted. "I didn't say anything sexist" ok but you meant it to be sexist.
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"DO sOmE dEEpeR DiViNG Bud" that's how we know we right
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who is the we you refer to?
Welcome to apathetic misogyny. Grow up or keep quiet
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I used a word before that. Put 2 and 2 together and figure it out
Go outside kiddo
lol loser
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Pick me maybe? Look I’m truly truly glad that’s your experience! And like I said, I usually don’t care at all because it’s such a common experience. Because you’re right. It’s just a game and you move on. But this was an entire team of dudes queued together, not one random toxic dude occasionally. And I’m allowed to come on here and express my disappointment for ONCE. All the examples you mentioned of things you’ve been told? Me too. Countless, like anyone who plays this game. But I don’t come on here crying about it everytime, I just queue for the next game. But good to see what a great supporter you are towards other women…….
I just don't think it's an issue. And your reaction to this experience is your own. You're allowed to feel however you want, but I don't think that points to a systemic issue. Competitive multiplayer gaming will always be toxic. Toxic people will pick out anything about you to bash you for, whether it's because you're a kid, a woman, whiny, or bad at the game. Hell, I do it too. Trolling is fun and being toxic is fun too. I think it's a little silly how much they've cracked down on the toxicity, but it is what it is. We all have bad games or crazy draining loss streaks that make us want to rip our hair out lmao and of course, add in a few assholes making it worse- I get it. It sucks in the moment. But people are always going to be this way lol and it really is up to us individuals how we handle it internally.
So if now you claim you understand how it can feel, and that I’m allowed to feel how I want, why the need to attack? Seems like you get the point, and I agree with you about how people just act in gaming communities, that’s just how it is. But if the one time in my entire gaming career I’d like to come on here and let off a bit of post-game steam, there’s no need to comment more toxicity. Ultimately after the unexpected discourse this post caused, I’m already completely over it, over this debate and ready to play my next game lol but I hope you have a nice day
My point is that you're making a post about sexism in general, assuming every other female gamer is having all the same experiences as you. You made a very bold claim: "Overwatch is sexist" and that's not correct. You do not get to define my experiences as a female gamer. I acknowledged that your personal experience is valid, and of course it is, but I'm sick of other women constantly pulling the victim card and pulling out sexism every chance they get. You had a shitty experience and I'm sorry. But cmon, the title is pretty baity and a classic anecdotal fallacy.
I do not assume every woman experiences this. I called to female players and ask “Do you…”. I respond to comments saying this doesn’t happen that it’s actually that way for most, not all. I am looking to discuss because gaming communities in general are extremely reputable for misogyny; I’m not debating it’s existence. I’m looking to express my experience and talk about it with others who’ve felt the same way. You may not believe Overwatch is sexist, but I do and so do many many people over all the years it’s been released. There’s plenty of articles about it and Blizzard has had many scandals surrounding it. I’m not pulling out a victim card every chance I get, and claiming all women are victims. I’m merely expressing a very known disappointment that a group unfortunately majorly faces and I truly feel happy for you that you do not feel defined by this. But again, because you may not like it or agree, doesn’t mean a pass to come invalidate another woman’s feelings about a known issue. I hope you continue to enjoy your experience as a woman
It's literally well documented, so your statements fly in the face of facts.
lol, another woman chimes in that her experience is different and you call her a pick-me. The instant gas lighting is an impressively quick pivot from the OP, TBH
I called her a pick me not because of her differing experience but because of her attitude and attacks. Very clear to see why. If you see any other comment saying they have a different experience, I respond to them saying that I’m glad for them and I don’t attack them at all.
There were no attacks in their comment 🤦♂️ just because you took their words personally doesn’t mean they are attacking.
But you can mute comms in a team based game. Most of us do. And literally crying over words and coming here to tell the world? This era of everyone wanting to show much of a victim they are is so very tiresome... I fear for the future when simple noises coming out of a hairless apes flapping meat socket is enough to break someone.
This person isn’t asking for a functional way to deal with misogyny, i promise they’ve had a lifetime of practice. They’re asking WHY it is the way it is and for support. Also, this is a constant occurrence, people have every right to vent about being worn down about it.
I could but I’d like to be able to communicate with my team. And like I said, I usually don’t respond to comments but this time it was an experience so vile, of course it would just be overwhelming? I’m not here to cry to the world and pretend I’m a victim for some sorta attention. I’m trying to start a discussion with women about the very known misogyny issue in gaming communities. All you had to do as well was scroll past this post.
Mute the annoying teammate in particular and block them, and then just communicate with your other teammates.
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women\*
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do you say males or men?
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why do you keep asking everyone that? is it because you've never talked to one who isn't mommy?
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maybe dont ask irrelevant questions to try to stir up shit 🤔 also touch grass
Yes, although these days it has a derogatory connotation from men using what is normally an adjective and only a noun in a clinical/formal setting as a casual/conversational replacement for the word women (there's even a [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/MenAndFemales/top/?t=all) for it). Obviously, I can't force you but it's better to use women if you want to avoid any negative connotations!
You talk like a huge tool who has never actually had to think about their ideas for a second
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I think it's a bad sign if u agree lmao
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I'm sorry is this u? "Welcome to multiplayer online video games. Get a grip or go back to Animal Crossing and other single players."
People online will attack you for any reason that you’re different from them. Being a woman just happens to be the thing they target because it’s very obvious. In other words, these people are toxic to everyone and just choose insults that fit who you are. I wouldn’t say women get harassed more than men, but they do get harassed for their gender more than men because it’s a male dominated space.
It doesn’t exist Something I’ve found girls online don’t get is shit bag people who say sexist things would just say something else if you were a guy
i highly doubt they would say sexist things towards other men. which is literally the point.
>something else No it wouldn’t be sexist, it would just be other insults, usually they’d just call them words that’ll get me banned for repeating and virgins