Female online gamers facing prejudice

A majority of women, while gaming online, are compelled to conceal their gender in their bid to avoid harassment. Female gamers are still not overtly welcomed with open hands to the industry and culture of video games. They often find themselves enduring everything – from subtle jabs to full-on death threats.

Last month only we saw a Chennai-based YouTuber engaging in vulgar commentary and obscene language towards women in a banned game in India. Almost all women gamers have experienced such gender-based discrimination when gaming. Many, in fact, conceal their gender while playing games online to avoid harassment. In fact, the gender bias in gaming is prevalent at global level.

As per a Reach 3 report, women make up 41 per cent of the gaming community. But, 77 per cent of these women have experienced gender-based discrimination while gaming.

These experiences range from being called names to having someone mansplain to them.

Due to how common these interactions are, 59 per cent of women mask their gender, while 55 per cent use either non-gendered or male gendered identities when playing online, the report adds.

"Biasedness in the industry prevails due to the unwelcoming nature of developers and publishers. Even the most elite tournaments do not have an equal gender ratio. To see a gender-neutral gaming world, studios and developers will need to step forward and take charge," Danish Sinha, Founder, Gamestacy, a game developer company catering to women gamers' passion and entertainment, told Biz Buzz.

The gaming industry must work actively towards making the community toxic and abuse free, he said.

Gamestacy is focusing on bringing in bringing in diversity along with an increased women representation in the industry. The games under its banner show no gender biasedness as all in-app items and images are kept gender neutral. They also cross borders of racial colours and ethnicities as in-game characters are diverse with equal credits. Moreover, to keep all in-game conversations free from harassment, hate speech or abuse, we have in place a system where gamers can interact with each other only through pre-set responses in a chat-box-like experience, he said.

Gamestacy has seen tremendous growth in the last one year. Enthused by the success of its flagship gaming, 'Influenzer', the company is gearing up to launch six unique games, out of which two are already in the beta testing range in India and Indonesia.

According to Sinha, "re-launched after the pandemic, we are already working on five games in parallel and has already partnered with leading investors in development, sales and marketing. We are focusing on training and empowering women gamers to become industry leaders as we hope to see a more women-friendly gaming community. We are gearing up to launch six unique games, out of which two are already in the beta testing range in India and Indonesia."

The global video game industry is thriving because of increasing popularity, particularly in the mobile sector, the release of a new generation of consoles, and of course, during the pandemic, it let people find social connections at safe distances. With this boom, we can also see that women gamers are on the rise; they are becoming active patrons of the video game industry.

Even in Asia, the number of women playing video games is increasing at a faster rate than their male rivals. According to data commissioned by Google and Niko Partners, women now make up 40-45 per cent of the Asian gaming population. While not all game developers and publishers have caught on to the trend of the rising women tribe in the industry, many companies are rooting for women to enjoy games and become a part of the gaming community with more of an identity than ever before. Gaming companies nowadays are mindful of the importance of diversity and equality and are focused towards creating a more inclusive environment.

With this, the gaming industry has also caught on to the trend of the rising women tribe in the industry. Companies today are rooting for women to enjoy games and become a part of the gaming community with more of an identity than ever before. Game developers now-a-days are mindful of the importance of diversity and equality, and are focused towards creating a more inclusive environment.

What are the safety measures that women players should use while gaming?

Games, Sinha says, should provide safety measures for women, not the other way round. I believe if there is a free chat feature, there should also be a report button that ensures immediate action against the perpetrator. There are many games with the report button, but no proper actions are followed up which entirely defeats the purpose of it. This is one of the foremost safety measures to ensure an abuse-free community.