Sexual Harassment in Fighting Game Internet Series

[Loki]

http://penny-arcade.com/report/artic...fighting-games

“If you don’t like onions, you get your sandwich without onions on it, man. This is the fighting game community.” He then stated that sexual harassment and the fighting game community are “one and the same thing.” The voice belonged to Aris Bakhtanians, the coach of the Tekken team. “The sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community… it doesn’t make sense to have that attitude. These things have been established for years,” Aris stated. He then noted that making sexual jokes at StarCraft players would be inappropriate, so it’s unfair for anyone to tell fighting game fans they can’t viciously mock women.[...]

“That’s what you’re trying to do to the fighting game community and it’s not right,” Aris continued. “It’s ethically wrong.” This may be the first time in the history of video games that someone had said that removing sexual harassment is ethically unjust.

Yeah...

[Lady Kuno]

Wow what a complete dickbag.

I didn't read the entire article, though.

[Talon87]

This is an old news story, but the issue of misogyny in the fighting game community continues to come up constantly. From what I understand from the current gaming press, the misogynists in today's fighting game community are a vocal minority, with 90%+ of fighting game enthusiasts being normal, woman-loving folk. I haven't been a part of the fighting community proper for nearly a decade now, and the vast majority of my being a part of said community was spent online, not offline; but even when I was a part of the community, I don't really remember people acting like the misogynists you find in that PAR news story. So when Extra Credits or PAR or Polygon claim, often without substantiation, that "the vast majority" of fighting game enthusiasts are not misogynists, I honestly feel like they're right. Because I never encountered anyone like Aris when I hung around with people who did competitive fighting. In fact, my strongest memories from my days of being part of the fighting community online are of people who were renowned for being such kind-hearted, clean-mouthed players. These individuals were celebrated in our community (most were given mod or admin status on the forums I was a part of), and while I doubt that most of them would have banned a guy like Aris from speaking his mind (since they were very, very big on freedom of expression and all that), I don't think any of them would have supported him or his views.

That stated, I'm not trying to say that just because I've never encountered guys like Aris means that they aren't a prevalent problem in the fighting game community, or in particular in the tournament scene. It sounds like they are, and I agree that the problem needs to be fixed if fighters -- and the people who play them -- are to maintain a positive image.

[deoxys]

It's not just the fighting game community. I expressed this in my tumblr thread - misogyny in gaming is a big problem in general, at least in the FPS and fighting game scene. I didn't think the "women shouldn't be in video games" argument a few low lives were making made much sense to me and disregarded it, but the sexism in general, including rape jokes and such, they're a big problem.

I was reading the other day that during the demonstration of Killer Instinct at Xbox conference, one player (male) said to the other player (female) something like "Just let it happen, it will all be over soon" on stage. Now I personally didn't think of the link between that and rape, but apparently a lot of people got very upset and thought he was making a rape joke, which I honestly thought might have been stretching it, but I can see where they're coming from.

Gamers, it seems, on average, are pretty much good and level headed. The vocal bit tend to continuously be fairly vocal with little regard for the feelings of others, especially in terms of anything racist, sexist, or homophobic. It's a problem that needs to be addressed somehow. As I mentioned in the other thread, 343i has taken an instant permaban policy against anyone reported for sexism/misogyny in Halo 4 online.

[Loki]

So it is. Whoops. Sorry, clicking a bunch of links around I forgot to check the dates. The newer article talks about how the Fighting game community is trying to change their image now.

I really find it sad that so many competitive games have lead to such unprofessional manners, yet tries to take themselves as seriously as professional sports. It holds eSports as a whole, labeling progamers as childish or immature.

Thankfully, SC2 seems above this thanks to Korean professionalism. Acer.Scarlett, a girl from Canada, is one of the best SC2 players even making top 16 in WCS America, which is extremely impressive. She's also beaten Koreans, including 4 time Korean Champion LGIM_MVP.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

So it is. Whoops. Sorry, clicking a bunch of links around I forgot to check the dates.

No problem. One man's old news story is another man's recent discovery. No big deal. If you're interested, though, I remember from back when this event happened that pretty much the entire Penny Arcade family rained down upon the guy, not just PAR. So if you like CheckPoint, Extra Credits, or both, I would recommend looking through their video archives for episodes that came out shortly before or after the date of the PAR news story. They all talked about it.

I can't seem to find CheckPoint's episode on it (curse them and their unhelpful episode titles!), but here's Extra Credits' episode. (Note the publication date on YouTube is incorrect; it reflects when Penny Arcade moved all of their TV properties over to YouTube earlier this year. The actual Extra Credits episode would have aired some time around February 2012, as you can tell from it being a Season 4 episode and Extra Credits currently being on its sixth season.)

[Raves]

It's a general rule I run by that the average american gamer is the sort of person who should be shot to shit by the Taliban and nobody would miss, such is their lack of morality and my view of them as subhumans.

If you're going to be a pretentious misogynistic fuckwit in a game and encourage others to be the same, claiming that it's community nature, you really need to be smashed hard with the mallet of reality known as the Banhammer, then ritually humiliated in an argument to drive forward the point that folk like Aris are just attention seeking arseholes brought up by attention seeking arseholes.

Of course, FPS and fighting games are the only games 'competitive' gamers play, so their opinions automatically don't count as they're naturally aggressive bastards. A proper gaming community knows to treat everyone equally and to shun troublemakers.

[Amras.MG]

Originally Posted by seakittenyfool

It's a general rule I run by that the average american gamer is the sort of person who should be shot to shit by the Taliban and nobody would miss, such is their lack of morality and my view of them as subhumans.

And I guess saying shit like that somehow makes you better than them? You are insane.

On topic though: It seems like misogyny in the video gaming community is slowly getting better, at least among those people who frequent video game news sites, and could therefore be considered to be either hardcore or invested in gaming. It's always difficult to tell what the other 95% think.

[deoxys]

Yeah I have to say they may be scum of the Earth that deserve to get kicked in the balls but wishing death on anyone especially in the manner you just provided is seriously fucked up.

[Doppleganger]

Starting on Loki's post alone my impression was this was about sexual harassment in games. In fighting games, I thought of girls in Chinese qipao who have bouncing breasts when they jump and reveal underwear during a high-kick.

I'm pretty surprised it's the gamers that are inducing the sexual harassment. Pretty sure this only exists in environments where guys can easily get emasculated. Doesn't happen in the gym, that's for sure!