As I said, I can only talk on my experiences. I have thousands of hours in OW and other competitive games.
I am aware however I don’t have the whole picture, I can only talk firsthand.
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So don’t express an opinion. Get informed first. You don’t lose points for saying “I dunno!” That’s what I often find myself doing. ![:slight_smile:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
And I am merely pointing out that if it is as bad as you may suggest, I think I may have witnessed it playing countless hours with a whole host of individuals, male, female, black, white, gay, straight etc.
I also don’t think getting told to kill yourself, or to “get cancer”, is any better than what you point out, they are both pretty damn bad.
But you just mute or ignore it. That’s literally the only solution as gaming has way too much toxicity regardless.
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Your experience is perhaps misleading, as I say - which is where those secondary sources come into play. Those girls you play with and rarely witness toxicity towards are likely used to playing in a group because they have a better experience that way. Because the alternative, which you, as a guy, NEVER SEE is horrific abuse. In many cases, those silent people who stubbornly never talk on the mic - the ones you forget about afterwards because they failed to make an impression - are the very vulnerable people who are trying to avoid abuse. You don’t see them getting abused because they’re taking steps to avoid it.
It’s an incredibly common custom for girls to play in a group, and that’s not a coincidence. Scratching a little beneath the surface may offer some compelling reasons why, which put an entirely different complexion on what’s happening with you and your friends. So yes, by all means, keep playing with them, be nice to them and enjoy their company! But don’t be under any illusions as to why other people are leaving you guys (and gals) alone - it’s safety in numbers, plain and simple.
I wonder if not supporting OWL would actually work. Companies really love backwards logic so they’ll probably just think “wow, people don’t like this one particular event so clearly they don’t like the game it’s based on” and then fire a bunch of people for no good reason.
Well at the rate they’re going, they’ll CEO-logic themselves out of a business, so I don’t think it makes much difference either way, sadly. ![:frowning:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/frowning.png?v=6" ":frowning:")
I think this is the only way to have the developers hear us out. Kinda sad.
Overwatch is literally NOTHING without OWL
Did you see my post? That post is me, a woman, advocating for more women playing games. And I don’t just do it here, I’ve been advocating for more women in gaming since MTG was in beta/unlimted release and I was working conventions selling CCG singles.
Women don’t see gaming as less important or less fun than men. Women avoid disclosing they are women while playing online games or avoid gaming with strangers because they feel threatened.
Your sisters likely decided that gaming (and comics and other nerdy things) wasn’t worth it as teens because by the time girls are 13, most of us have been sexually harassed by some old geezer. By the time we’re 18, 30% of us have been assaulted or raped. AND society teaches us that it is our fault for being too attractive and that avoidance is the our only acceptable defense.
Add to all of the above, the low key sexist attitudes that assume girls aren’t as interested or as good at gaming or that by gaming you aren’t being girly enough… pow, you have teenage girls leaving gaming.
The good news is that teen girls do often return to gaming as women, but they do it via Amazon (or, now, Target) rather than socially through local comic/game shops because they don’t feel safe there. (My approach was different …and violent… but I had years of MMA/jiu-jitsu training.)
That could be the case.
In my sisters case we live in a particularly safe are of the UK, you don’t have people even look at you funny here (fairly sure I have never even seen a police car with sirens on outside of vehicle accidents and I have lived here for 15 years). And they traded in gaming for going out and underage drinking, so they certainly weren’t afraid. (If they were, surely gaming, competitive or casual, would be a safer and more attractive space?).
The reason they dropped it was that it simply wasn’t “cool”, their other friends were out shopping, going out for fancy lunches, going out drinking etc, so they turned away from gaming even casually, despite the fact they loved it earlier. Even despite me trying to get them back to have a few games.
Is this the new #reworkMercy movement under a new name?
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Correct, no woman has come forward with a minimum 20mil buy-in to own a team, then risk populating it with an all female roster.
That doesn’t mean women aren’t wanted in the league though. Not even tangentially.
Your accusation as such is outright laughable.
Money has no gender. And, as most people can tell you, they (active blizz amazon, nearly any business) doesn’t care where the money is coming from, so long as its coming in.
Not to mention the women working in marketing, makeup, design, chefs, etc. Etc.
AFAIK Heidi is the fusions biggest reason for success, and the only reason anyone looks even remotely good on set is because of mama Rosa, heck even a large number of the tweets about the league and community events are written by Driscoll.
I mean, or you aren’t a fan, and don’t know anything about it, refuse to get involved with it all because of a baseless assumption and subsequent accusation.
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Too bad your name isn’t Robert Kraft and haven’t handed millions of dollars over to Blizzard for OW development. Money talks, that’s how Businesses/Corporations work.
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That sounds like it falls under the purview of gaming isn’t feminine enough. Obviously, I can’t speak to your sisters personal experience or your hometown.
But sexism is ubiquitous and has far reaching consequences… from mundane things like men being unable to find gamer-women to date/marry to terrorist movements like gamergate being dismissed as a controversy as women with professional careers in gaming industry decide they need to seek safer jobs.
(Prior to gamergate, I worked at a company that was eventually acquired by IGN. At least 5 women I know decided because of gamergate to shift industries because they could keep playing games at home, no one would ever consider doxxing them, and bonus: better pay.)
Sorry to hear that you’re one of those rare guys whose voices will keep cracking forever. I do know they get harassed a lot, and it sucks.
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Am I the only one excited to watch OWL? Can’t wait to see the new teams, AND can’t wait to see Valiant take it to the Finals (hopefully) 
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This shouldn’t make harrasment acceptable though. It’s not cool. MW2 lobbies were gold tho lol god I miss old CoD
One can dream.
I am just dying to see Pine popping off with NYXL this season.
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Yeah I saw that lol, anyone can feel free to disagree y’know it’s cool
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Jokes on them. Their esports scene is boring. I’ll stick to smash bros.