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
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,