Misogyny Witnessed in Game

Last week while getting one more LFR run of Siege of Orgrimmar in the raid was on Siegecrafter Blackfuse and the raid leader was calling for a ranged DPS to take belt duty. For almost half of the group it was their first time on this boss. It was only my third time taking down this boss, since I came back to WOW so late in Pandaria. While the raid leader was trying to get someone to volunteer I witnessed some of the worse misogynist comments I had ever seen in game.

One player started saying in Raid Chat that a mage with a female avatar would take Belts. The mage did not immediate respond so the obnoxious player started saying it was her duty. Then he went on to graphically describe that it was her duty to engage in intercourse. He threw out a few more slurs to cement everyone’s impression that he was a misogynist jerk. Everyone was shocked into silence for a moment.

Even though it was only a LFR group the Raid Leader called him on it and told him to shut up. Several other characters called him on his comments and I immediately reported him for language. I really hope others took this step to report players who engage in such harassment. Nearly half of the WOW players I know in real life are women. Everyone should be able to enjoy playing the game without having to fear being harassed.



This brought to mind all the discussion on Twitter and across the rest of the internet concerning “Gamergate”. "Gamergate" claims to be about ethics in gaming journalism, but it also provided an excuse for a number of unidentified social media trolls to spew hatred toward women. A subset of gamers feel threatened by the changing demographics of gaming.

“Gaming is fast becoming more diverse than ever. Women now make up nearly half of all video-gamers, and that makes some gamers upset that their boy's club will never look the same.” – Susan Rohwer, LA Times

All gamers should stand united in support of our shared hobby and make the culture we build in game to be welcoming of all players.