Hurr’s experience of the online community as a female gamer

Although I believe that gamers in general are over the whole “there are no girls on the internet” drivel, there still seems to be a depressing amount of animosity towards female gamers.  I’d never before seen a reason to purposefully hide my gender, and I never understood why some people think it would affect my ability to play games. My first experience with online gaming was with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (yes I know this probably wasn’t the best place to start); and as I used to play with friends a mic was needed.

A majority of games were uneventful, although I’m not sure if that’s down to the community, or the fact that not many people who play on PS3 use a mic at all. However, when the harassment did start – it was pretty agonising. It ranged from friend requests, to messages asking if I wanted to see a picture of various uh body parts, to the usual unoriginal sexist insults.

“Is your boyfriend playing for you?” “Can you make me a sandwich?” “Are you hot?” “Show me your tits”, the list really goes on. It started off pretty funny, but eventually it just became a nuisance.  I ended up automatically putting everyone except my friends on mute before the game starts, regardless of whether they spoke or not. If anyone sent me a message, I’d reply back saying that my name is Steve and I have a massive package.

Now that I have moved to the “PC Master Race” I was more hopeful that we could all just get over the fact that I have a vagina. My steam username was the same that I use on forums “Girl With One Eye” – which is taken from my favourite Florence and the Machine song. While playing Left 4 Dead 2 it didn’t take long for the insults to start rolling in. One incident stuck with me in particular – “So I guess it’s true that girls can’t play games” (sigh). I was also being kicked from games before they even started just because of my username; I ended up changing it just so I could play in peace.

So what has my experience taught me? Well there are assholes everywhere, and they will insult you for any reason they can possibly think of. If you are not a girl you are a “noob” or a “homo” or whatever else they come up with. I want to make clear though, that I still have a lot of faith in the gaming community as a whole. On forums such as The Escapist, female gamers are a large part of the community and while there are still some assholes with a superior attitude, this is just something that all gamers have to live with.