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Misogyny in gaming is a hot topic, these days its front page news. When gaming starts gaining publicity en masse for positive things like The New York Times' article “



As a woman who is a self-proclaimed gamer and has been for many years I have seen the good, bad and ugly of the gaming community. Honestly, it also boils down to the old “jerks will be jerks” mantra and although it is still very true, some progress has been made. Over the last ten years the gaming community has transitioned away from immature misogynists as the gaming community has aged and matured in its own right.



A few months ago I had a whimsical idea to have some guys experience what it was really like to play video games as a female and all that it entails. From there several male friends start playing their favorite games as women. They used voice modulators, changed their in game names and profile pictures. Volunteers were asked to play the games of their choosing while keeping a running tally of how they were treated and answer a forty question survey once the experiment was finished.



Several times I have been asked “Why have men do it? Why not just record what happens to women?” The answer is simply that those who care about how women are treated in games have already seen that and those who should be listening tend not to care what a woman has to say about how they're being treated. Also, let’s be real, this was a lot more fun.

Misogyny in gaming is a hot topic, these days its front page news. When gaming starts gaining publicity en masse for positive things like The New York Times' article “ Virtual Games Draw Real Crows and Big Money ” highlighting the DOTA 2 International competition, there is bound to be a negative backlash from those who don't see gaming as a sport or those who feel gaming is something for teen boys to waste time doing. Unfortunately misogyny in gaming has been a problem for a long time and now because of gaming becoming more mainstream, so is the backlash against gaming culture.As a woman who is a self-proclaimed gamer and has been for many years I have seen the good, bad and ugly of the gaming community. Honestly, it also boils down to the old “jerks will be jerks” mantra and although it is still very true, some progress has been made. Over the last ten years the gaming community has transitioned away from immature misogynists as the gaming community has aged and matured in its own right.A few months ago I had a whimsical idea to have some guys experience what it was really like to play video games as a female and all that it entails. From there several male friends start playing their favorite games as women. They used voice modulators, changed their in game names and profile pictures. Volunteers were asked to play the games of their choosing while keeping a running tally of how they were treated and answer a forty question survey once the experiment was finished.Several times I have been asked “Why have men do it? Why not just record what happens to women?” The answer is simply that those who care about how women are treated in games have already seen that and those who should be listening tend not to care what a woman has to say about how they're being treated. Also, let’s be real, this was a lot more fun.

Elise “Hyasiance” Stevenson

The experiment popped up on Reddit, and the first wave was done by tournament admins, casters, and personalities including Sir Action Slacks, Pyrion Flax and our very own Gorgon the Wonder Cow, with help from founder of the Standard Deviants (the North American Dota 2 statshouse) That Phage Guy.Lady Day by SirActionSlacksHow to contributeHyasiance managed to collect data from the dozen participants, but believes to make the results significant then she hopes more gamers will join the experiment. In order to join you need to be male, able to use in-game voice chat, and are required to complete ten matches as a "woman", and then compare it to ten matches as your own charming self. Then simply fill in the questionnaire - and submit media if you like, to make your contribution. For the full list of how you can take part you can visit the play like a girl homepage set up specificially for the experiment.Hyasiance described the motivation behind the experiment:If you're interested in taking part you can sign-up here , also be sure to check out the post-gaming questionnaire This article was written byLawrence Phillips, joinDOTA's Editor-in-Chief.Malystryx has been in eSports since 2004 working as eSports Editor for Razer and was Editor-in-Chief of SK Gaming in the glory days. He misses the days of Warcraft3 but makes do with the world of DOTA 2. Location: Bristol, UKFollow him on @MalystryxGDS.