Gender-Based Toxicity in the Gaming Community
The gaming world, often celebrated as an inclusive sanctuary offering an escape from reality, thrilling adventures, and connections with kindred spirits, is unfortunately plagued by toxicity, a phenomenon that impacts both men and women. However, women experience a completely different form of toxic behavior.
While the gaming industry has long been dominated by men since its inception, women have always been a vital part of it. This can be seen through the contributions of women such as Carol Shaw, the developer of River Ride, one of the biggest 8-bit era hits, and Roberta Williams, the co-founder of Sierra Online, the company behind iconic adventure games. However, despite their presence, women are frequently viewed as outsiders, whether they play or make video games.
Women are often directed towards games that are stereotypically associated with their gender, such as online dress-up games, The Sims, Nintendogs, and Animal Crossing. These games are often viewed as easy, simple, and almost sanitized, without the same status as action-packed, “masculine” titles like Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and sports games. This artificial classification diminishes the position of women in the gaming industry, despite the fact that these “girly” games are often bestsellers, with Animal Crossing selling over 45 million copies and The Sims series boasting over 200 million sold copies.
Marta Wawrzyniak, from the platform for gamers GAMIVO, shares her experiences of being a woman in the gaming community, saying, “I vividly recall being asked about the types of games I enjoyed. That person said it’s hard to imagine a girl playing shooters and I didn’t look like someone who played such genres. On another occasion, during a gaming convention, an interviewer asked me during a live interview if I had a boyfriend. It’s not difficult to imagine how embarrassing it was to hear this question in front of a crowded audience. People often say that we are being too emotional and why we care about silly remarks so much, but the truth is, experiencing this behavior is simply tiresome.”
The array of uncomfortable and often worrying encounters women face could fill a whole book. These questions or comments do not always harbor malicious intent, but they do highlight the fact that the presence of women in the gaming community is still perceived as a novel and unfamiliar concept. However, statistics show a different story. In Newzoo’s Global Gamer Study from 2023, close to half of all gamers were women. When considering the entire online population, 72% of women and 81% of men engage in gaming. The numbers speak for themselves: women do play video games.
While men also experience toxicity in gaming communities, women often face aggressive forms of exclusion and hostility that directly target their gender. This can manifest in various ways, including sexist jokes, uninvited flirting, extreme cases of rape threats, and harassment. These behaviors are often rooted in sexism and misogyny, and can turn a simple gaming session into a festival of objectification.
What’s even more troubling is that this toxicity is often directed at women regardless of their skill level, experience, or performance. Female gamers have faced relentless harassment simply for being female, as seen in the experiences of popular streamers such as SteffyEvans, who has made an entire series of videos showcasing her encounters with toxic players who didn’t hesitate to throw slurs and sexist jokes, even though she often outperformed other players.
This behavior is not only disheartening but also profoundly damaging to the community. A study by Maybelline New York demonstrated this phenomenon, showing that certain players’ attitudes changed dramatically upon learning their teammate’s gender, irrespective of their performance. This indicates that the issue is rooted in gender discrimination, rather than any objective measure of skill.
Another study by Kasumovic and Kuznekoff, titled “Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour,” found that lower-skilled players were more hostile towards a female-voiced teammate, especially when performing poorly. In contrast, lower-skilled players behaved submissively towards a male-voiced player in the identical scenario. This behavior might stem from the fact that poorly-performing people are afraid of losing their status in the social hierarchy.
Facing bullying and harassment makes girls less interested in communicating via voice chats and often leads them to pick gender-neutral nicknames to avoid potential drama. This forced anonymity denies them full participation in gameplay and community interactions, and in multiplayer games, this can hinder their ability to fully experience the community aspect of the game.
Gender-based toxicity is not confined to the player community; it extends into the gaming industry itself. Misogyny, harassment, and the undermining of women’s expertise are distressingly common, as seen in recent high-profile cases such as the lawsuit against Blizzard Entertainment. This issue is further exacerbated by the stark
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.