Zoe Quinn's Use Of Sexism In Video Gamergate

The videogame industry has grown substantially since its conception. It has grown from a fun little project that students did for research or just to do something different to a multi-billion-dollar industry. This growth has led to more jobs and publicity not all of which is good. Sexism and racism are two of the largest problems that people accuse the videogame industry of having. While at the inception of videogames these accusations rang true, in current time they have become a point of heated debate. Videogame main characters are primarily of a white complexion. Even in games where the player may customize their character, the default and therefore the box art is a white male (Conditt, 2016). This whitewashing of videogames can make
it seem like there is a disproportioning amount of racial diversity in the industry, and if one looks purely at the numbers, there is. But numbers do not tell the full story, by taking the percentage of Americans that are white (72.4%) and compare it to the percentage in the videogame game industry (67%), the numbers show that the racial balance is in check (Cheong, 2017). While the diversity in the industry may be all and good, the games themselves that are produce a much larger racial divide. When people think of games they tend to think of the AAA games, from the larger companies, such as Call of Duty, Halo, Skyrim, Mario, and others. These games, while sometimes including a racially diverse cast, all star a white male as the main character or box cover representation of the main character. This bias towards white protagonists only has minor opposition in the AAA game line up from games like Assassin’s Creed 3, Walking Dead, and GTA: San Andreas. Even in supporting roles, where the cast is much more diverse, most characters are given roles or personalities that go along with existing stereotypes. One example of such a stereotype is Cole from Gears of War, who is a black athlete turned soldier with a boisterous personality constantly cracking jokes, cursing, and talking smack to the enemy, while all the other characters, all of whom are white, crack jokes and talk smack only in moderation. Outside the AAA games companies, the Indie market, games made by smaller companies or just a single person, has a better spread when it comes to diversity. This spread can be partly attributed to the Indie market’s lack of expectations of the protagonist’s race, and gender. In the AAA market, it is seen as safer to keep the white protagonist because they are still selling well and why change something when changing it might decrease sales even if the chance of that is low (Cheong, 2017). When it comes to racial diversity in the gaming industry, there have been great strides towards equality but it has not reached the end of the journey. The involvement of women in the gaming industry shares many commonalities with that of racial minorities. The worst portrayal of female characters in videogames is that of over sexualization where the character design is made so that it emphasizes the character’s breasts and or butt through either making them large or giving the character a skimpy outfit as seen in games such as Mortal Combat and The Witcher. While not always the case, this is usually parred with a seductive or submissive personality. The vast majority of the time these traits are saved for the supporting female characters where the player can interact with them at their discretion. This trend stems from the stereotype that most gamers are males, and while the majority of players are male, about forty-four percent are female (Kelleher, 2015). This is by no means a small enough minority to be discounted. As far as female protagonists go, they can range from modestly dressed to skimpily clad as seen by Samus form the Metroid series who is usually in an androgynous suit to Bayonetta from the series with the same name whose attacks can look like something from a strip club. These default outfits can help embellish the character’s personality. Samus being a bounty hunter who wants to get her job done is complimented by the androgynous suit that looks functional rather than going for an appealing design, while Bayonetta’s personality is one of not caring what others think about her and using any advantage she can to help in a fight.
Outside the video games themselves, female designers and gamers must surpass an environment that can be quite hostile to them.
Zoe Quinn, a designer that has been constantly harassed by a group called Gamergate because she is a woman, is an example of someone who has surpassed an environment that might be one of the worst. This group constantly threatens her for being a female designer, her response has been to continue making the games she loves and use her story to inspire others to keep pressing forward (Kelleher, 2015). While Gamergate represents the worst of the gaming community, many players feel similarly if not to the same level. Playing online games, many women will not use a microphone to communicate with their team for the sole reason of not wanting someone to insult them saying stereotypes such as,” Why are you playing a game when you should be in the kitchen?” Sadly, people like these are normally very vocal compared to accepting players and thus keep the fear alive. More recently, companies have made pledges to help alleviate the hostility that women receive. These pledges range from setting aside money for diversifying the workforce with more women, to creating in-game filters that move misogynistic and sexist gamers to one server while keeping everyone else in another lessening the negative impact of them in chats (Kelleher,
2015). Even though these are the more vocal views, many gamers and designers want to see minorities and women as equal in videogames and the industry surrounding them. These supporters do this through shooting down in-game attackers, not letting gender and racism leak into the game or workplace, and trying to see if there is a way