Gamers Launch Harassment Campaign Against BioWare

My daughter told me she signs up for online gaming using a guys name because guys will harass women playing. I said really? are you serious? Well I guess we find a-holes everywhere. They're even harrassing Jennifer Hepler, a writer for Old Republic. Being a dad of 2 daughters this really pisses me off.

http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=7832

The flash-lynch mob of the modern day is a disturbing trend. Not only in gaming but other aspects of life. I find it repulsive myself.

As to female gamers being harassed. I admit my experience is somewhat limited to the time I spent playing WoW. I did find that boys offered to help female characters more than male ones. I don't know if that would escalate to harassment, though I suppose it might. Being an adult I just blocked anybody I found annoying.

My step daughters never complained of being harassed but they did talk about "creepers". However, as they were both forged in the fires of my sarcasm they had more fun destroying such people with witty comebacks than they were scared or intimidated.

Nice to be reminded casual misogyny is still alive and well.

Personally, I skip "listenting to the dialogue" because I turn on subtitles and skip the shitty voice acting.

This crap reminds me of the Dickwolves fiasco.

At the risk of pissing some people off at this site, I can't stand the videogame/comic book subculture and hope my kids take no part in it.

(Kinda ironic with a videogame avatar...)

EDIT: To clarify, by subculture I'm referring to the group that folks like Penny Arcade and Kevin Smith pander to.

This is why I like face to face boardgaming. Cause no one talks shit about you from across the table.

Videogames suck.

I don't condone harassment against anyone but it's misleading to say that they are only picking on her because she is female. These are the main things people are upset about her,

1. She is a senior writer for Bioware one of the biggest and well respected game developers in the industry and she has publicly stated that she hates playing video games.

2. A lot of people don't like her writing and what she did to some of the characters in Dragon Age 2, for example Anders.

3. She has stated that she wishes there was an option to skip past the "game" part of video games to get to the story and dialogue portions. Bioware has been watering down their games to appease casuals, ala Dragon Age to Dragon Age 2, this doesn't sit well with a lot of gamers.

Wetworks wrote: 1. She is a senior writer for Bioware one of the biggest and well respected game developers in the industry and she has publicly stated that she hates playing video games.

Like Chapel says, videogames suck, but there's a lot of money in it. Can't judge someone for earning a livelihood. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the videogame industry that don't play videogames in their spare time. Hell, I don't code afterhours, and yeah it rates pretty low on my favorite things to do.

Wetworks wrote: 2. A lot of people don't like her writing and what she did to some of the characters in Dragon Age 2, for example Anders.

She wrote some dialog/story/whatever and fans didn't like it, so she deserves to be harassed? Don't like it, don't play her 'games'. Do you harass novel writers that you don't care for?

Wetworks wrote: 3. She has stated that she wishes there was an option to skip past the "game" part of video games to get to the story and dialogue portions. Bioware has been watering down their games to appease casuals, ala Dragon Age to Dragon Age 2, this doesn't sit well with a lot of gamers.

So? It sounds like an _option_. _All_ of these 'rpg-like' video games are watered down. Sink enough hours into them and anyone can finish them. Beat Ikaruga, Super Ghouls and Ghosts or Metal Slug, then come back and claim you aren't a casual. (Also, you won't have to worry about 'writing', they're real games.)

EDIT: Bottom line, regardless of whether fans like her writing or are happy with how little she likes to personally play videogames, would she be harassed to this level if she were a male? Are bad male writers singled out, called at home? Do male players need to hide their gender when playing online?

Chapel wrote: This is why I like face to face boardgaming. Cause no one talks shit about you from across the table.

FWIW: I do. That's 10-20% of the fun. Sticking you with 2 Monkeys and a Vending stall in Zooloretto and declaring "Yeah, you know you're pimping out apes, you fucking pervert...do you enjoy your own stock or is it solely for the money? No wonder you always pick the Flamingos for your zoo...Freudian slip?" That kind of shit talk makes the game worth winning. But the key is that it's not an anonymous person. I'd never talk shit to some dude I was playing Rainbow Six with or something just to be a dick. Those people fucking kill me.

But I digress....

This isn't just a woman problem, it's a loser problem. I used to play a shit ton of Ghost Recon on Xbox Live back 7 or 8 years ago, I guess. Back when it was THE SHIT. Same with Counterstrike back in the day. There's always the aggo cockbiters who will stop at nothing to berate every single person there, chipping away until they find the hot button and then going after that mercilessly. It's just the nature of a lot of online gamers.

The "vagina" is completely arbitrary to me, I think it's that the abusive pricks online just use the ammo that they know how to use, and belittling a woman to make their sad, lonely little self-handjob laden lives a little less dreary by tearing someone else down is all they 've got. I'm not sure if it's pity or seething hatred that I have for those kinds of people; maybe a mix of both. But preying on the weak (or those they perceive as weak) for enjoyment is just sickening.

SuperflyTNT wrote:

Chapel wrote: This is why I like face to face boardgaming. Cause no one talks shit about you from across the table.

FWIW: I do. That's 10-20% of the fun. Sticking you with 2 Monkeys and a Vending stall in Zooloretto and declaring "Yeah, you know you're pimping out apes, you fucking pervert...do you enjoy your own stock or is it solely for the money? No wonder you always pick the Flamingos for your zoo...Freudian slip?" That kind of shit talk makes the game worth winning. But the key is that it's not an anonymous person. I'd never talk shit to some dude I was playing Rainbow Six with or something just to be a dick. Those people fucking kill me.

But I digress....

True. But that is different kind of shit talking. That's just having fun with friends kind of shit talk, and not meant to be mean or degrading.