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Female Streamer’s Video Reminds the World of Harassment Women Face Gaming Online

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Cupcake's banner on her Twitter profileThe Overwatch player and streamer known as Cupcake (Chassidy Kaye) posted a short clip from one of her recent matches. In it, you can hear extremely sexist reactions to her playing, including one player who says the n-word, popular among toxic players online. The video is embedded below.

This shows the kind of sexism women face online at all times, but especially in games and forums of partial anonymity, like Reddit or Twitter. In fact, the Masters-level player was the target of more abuse in that Twitter thread.

The Tweet and Reaction

She also included the profile IDs of the guys who made the comments, ensuring Blizzard, the company behind Overwatch, can take action. However, the action they take will likely be less than satisfactory. Players like this usually get to keep playing the game, an go back to the same abuse after a short temporary ban.

Cupcake revealed the players names making the comments, Opakii, Cameron, C6H12O6, and Adonis

In that thread, many guys came in to defend the guys’ comments. They tried to claim Cupcake, a professional player with Masters ranking, Captain of the CMU Eagles Esport Overwatch Team, was a bad player, and deserved the harassment. Obviously, this is not the case. And, in fact, as the only player on the objective, it’s definitely not the case.

In the video the players told her to go play Mercy, a popular female hero in the game. They told her to go back to the kitchen, to make them a sandwich, to mop their floors, and then one guy, seemly for the “fun” of it, just said the n-word. One of those “heated gamer moments,” right wing pundits seem to like, I suppose.

Carrying a team is hard. Carrying a team of sexist, racist manbabies is even harder.

Other Female Players Chime In

Every woman who plays games online knows this all too well. This kind of harassment happens to us on a regular basis. Many players, like the woman quoted above, simply don’t talk online. This gets in the way of competitive play, of course, which further pushes women out of the industry. Problems like this are why I prefer single player games, rather than wasting time with these kinds of wastes of space. If there were female-only servers, I’d definitely play and chat online. It’s not all men, but it’s certainly enough, and few try to stop this behavior.

Toxic Games From Toxic Developers

Overwatch, or any game that retains mainstream popularity, eventually becomes a toxic wasteland like this. That’s because the companies in charge of these games don’t do enough. Players like this should be banned for life. Let them find another game to ruin. Instead, they’re invited back after short bans. There’s no real-world identification required, and the developers do little to ensure accountability. This is usually because the people who make the games, predominantly white, straight, and cisgender, men, don’t see the problem with racist, homophobic, transphobic, or sexist abuse. They may not believe it’s as common as it is. But this is something every woman has experience.

The fact that the toxicity of the game is reinforced by the toxicity of the working environment is exemplified in Riot Games. Riot makes League of Legends, a game many know more for its toxicity than its gameplay. The studio denies women jobs and promotions, engages in testicle-slapping and farting, keeps abusers on board, and worse. This is the environment that creates a toxic game, and it’s more common than anyone would have you believe.

Yet Another Problem With a Simple Solution

Another photo of someone speaking during the walkout. She's surrounded by employees

Photo: Kotaku

Hire and promote more women. It’s really that simple. More women in positions of power at companies adds diverse voices to planning. It ensures all potential customers are accounted for. Having women in positions of power can ensure that players cannot maintain perfect anonymity while playing. It ensures they can’t just make another account to harass players with. There can be real-world consequences for racist, sexist behavior online.

Developers don’t currently prioritize a system of harsh punishment for infractions, monitoring tools that police this kind of abuse automatically through speech recognition and recording, and reporting tools. They can also consider women-only servers, where such abuse simply won’t happen. By not prioritizing these issues, developers welcome these problems. Women know how bad online gaming is for women. They know it’s a toxic wasteland. But toxic workplaces don’t see the problem because they’re too busy silencing what few women they have within their own walls.

Everyone who’s not a part of the solution is a part of the problem. The people who allow this behavior are most certainly a bigger problem than the people making these comments. They enable it and allow this behavior to spread. The blame lies with those in power who remain silent.

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