The Gaming Industry Still Has a Sexism Problem
It’s our responsibility as gamers to call out sexual harassment in the industry
There has long been a perception that the gaming industry normalizes, and potentially encourages, sexual violence. While the consumer base for electronic gaming has become increasingly diverse, men remain vastly overrepresented within the industry. When women constitute a minority, it is likelier that they will experience proportionally larger incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination. The electronic games industry is no different, with thirty-three percent of women surveyed in the U.K. games industry stating that they have experienced harassment and forty-five percent agreeing that gender has negatively impacted their career progression.
Warning — The following article contains mentions of sexual harassment and sexual violence. Procced with caution.
Given this context, the lawsuits faced by Activision-Blizzard alleging a “frat boy culture” subjecting women to rampant sexual harassment and lower pay, and the subsequent attempt at a cover-up, are unfortunately unsurprising. While Activision-Blizzard settled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and began to make the changes necessary to address its culture, its struggles are emblematic of the gaming industry. Several developers, publishers, and media outlets have experienced high-profile incidents concerning discrimination and harassment. Without industry-wide cultural shifts, the problem will continue to rear its ugly head.
As industry leaders have failed to adequately address problems relating to sexual harassment and discrimination, it continues to run rampant in online environments populated by gamers. The propagation of sexual violence within the corporate and media sectors of the gaming industry has given cover for ill-intentioned “gamers” to harass prominent female streamers, journalists, and developers. Most dangerously, on several occasions, women have been stalked, doxxed, or threatened because of their work within the industry.
The tacit allowance of sexual harassment against women has cultivated a culture of violence permeating the entire industry. In a recent study by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology & Society, thirty-eight percent of female players reported being harassed on the basis of their gender. Significant numbers of LGBTQ+, African-American, Latino, Muslim, and Jewish players additionally faced harassment as a result of their identities. By refusing to take action against harassment against women in the industry, companies have allowed for harassment against all players to flourish. This is especially true of people with intersecting minority statuses.
Make no mistake, this behavior permeates the entirety of the gaming industry. Players and online trolls, facing little to no repercussions for their actions, continue to harass players across various platforms. To little shock, this comes both from teammates and opponents in online multiplayer games. Approximately two-thirds of players have experienced “severe” harassment. With thirty-five percent of players reporting sexual harassment specifically, companies and regulators have failed to adequately protect consumers, many of whom are children.
The normalization of harassment within the video game industry has real-world consequences. Nearly every year since the infamous “Gamergate” incident, the industry has been rocked by scandal. Ubisoft, Kotaku, Riot Games, Activision-Blizzard, Insomniac Games, and IGN are among the myriad companies where employees have filed public complaints regarding sexual harassment. In 2020, over fifty sexual assault allegations were published against professional Super Smash Bros. players alone, including claims of statutory rape, rape, and grooming. While Nintendo, the developer and publisher, strongly condemned the competitive community’s conduct, the frequency of harassment within the wider industry is toxic for both players and employees.
Any solution to the toxic culture surrounding sex and sexual discrimination in the gaming industry needs more regulation from companies, not less. Creating a platform and allowing players to say nearly anything they would like with limited repercussions has proven to be disastrous. The culture surrounding video games is broken, and radical changes must be enacted.
Corporations must take an active role in policing their internal culture and the online ecosystems they create, with the threat of government intervention acting to ensure structural changes actually occur. The federal and state government must become more willing to regulate the gaming industry and punish companies which do not adequately protect employees and players from the current toxic environment of the industry.
