The murky waters of gaming industry
The video game industry has faced allegations of harassment and gender-based discrimination for decades, these problems have been quite prevalent even before #gamergate and Anita Sarkesian’s critique of the industry’s practices came to light. While the problematic portrayal of female characters in games is often considered to be the essence of the problem, the deeper […]
The video game industry has faced allegations of harassment and gender-based discrimination for decades, these problems have been quite prevalent even before #gamergate and Anita Sarkesian’s critique of the industry’s practices came to light.
While the problematic portrayal of female characters in games is often considered to be the essence of the problem, the deeper lying issues come from the very environments in which these games are made as the fiction and the non-fiction often blur in such spaces in terms of social mores.
The recent legal claims against Riot Games and Blizzard indicate that the problem persists even in the largest gaming organisations.
As makers of games like League of Legends (LoL), Overwatch and World of Warcraft (WoW), these companies are household names and they have been accused of “gender discrimination, sexual harassment and pay decisions” in the case of Riot and “constant sexual harassment, including groping, comments and advances” with Blizzard (as reported by Kotaku and the California Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing). I wonder if it would be fair to surmise that the toxicity in gaming is not only among the playing community but at every level of the industry?
The investigations at Blizzard have brought several issues to light including something called a “Cosby suite” – a room that allegedly was used at company events and trips to find women. All activities in the said room were posted/hinted at on social media and then commented upon by colleagues. Actions indicating that the executives at Blizzard were “in on it” as long as they weren’t called out on it. Now that they have been called out, we can all sit back and watch as Blizzard tries to clear up the ensuing PR fracas.
Those at Blizzard include iconic developers like Alex Afrasiabi and Jesse McCree who were instrumental in developing significant content for Overwatch and WoW. Their efforts had been immortalized in-game lore as they had their likenesses recreated as characters in the game, Blizzard is now cleaning that up.
To have a character named after you is the highest amount of appreciation that can be bestowed upon a game designer as they are immortalised in the game’s lore and their imprints in the game are forever. These honours mean that Afrasiabi and McCree were allowed to rise the ranks at Blizzard despite the alleged harassment and the Cosby suite.
I firmly believe that scrubbing clean their presence at the organisation and in the games is at best a band-aid on a large gaping hole. The gaping hole being the constant overlooking and possible perpetration of discrimination and harassment. The damage seems irreversible and branding deep-rooted problems with harmless terms like “frat culture” is belittling not just the issue at hand but also civility, society’s understanding of gender and the respect due to another human being. How do we get out of this one?
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