[2020] Last night I was repeatedly team killed.

people get so weird even a girl is playing

There's a really interesting theory about why men and boys behave this way, and personally I think there's a good deal of truth to it. The idea is that men, especially white men, a feel possessive of online gaming. They think it's "their" space, and harassing women is done to drive women out. You can read more about it here.

It's an interesting idea because it throws out hand-wavey reasoning about immaturity or competitive environment or the actions of a few malicious individuals and suggests something far more systemic. If it's an unconscious bias, it could even be affecting people who don't act out like this in subtler ways that we don't even notice without looking. For example, how many of us call our teammates "boys" by default?

Where I get stuck is that women need to be represented in gaming in order for their participation to be normalized, but in order to participate to that extent women who do venture into gaming have to wade through so much crap. While we can continue to punish bad behavior, there are practical limits on how much bans can shift social forces. What I think works in the long run is to continue to provide safe passage for women where we can. Contextual ping systems and ping wheels afford voice-less options, and we can continue to support safe spaces like the GALorants Discord server and female-only esports.

I think the greatest potential for change, though, comes from the community and how we choose to treat the people in our games. We have an opportunity to make VALORANT distinct in the FPS space by treating teammates like teammates and encouraging everyone to participate.

This is a terrific example of why creating an atmosphere of psychological safety is not only vital but also the responsibility of the whole community.

Calling out white men isn't a cheap shot here. Racism shows up too, often based on nothing more than an accent. So does homophobia, transphobia, religious prejudice, pretty much every prejudice out there.

Let me give an example. If you're online in a multiplayer FPS and someone says on comms "I'm about to say the gamer word," you know exactly which word that person has in mind. That's how commonplace racism can become in the gaming space, and white men are pretty much the only ones who don't need help to feel accepted.

That's a fair question. Safe spaces aren't the same thing as forcing the community apart. They're a place for members of marginalized groups to reconvene and recuperate in a supportive and inclusive environment.

Consider the alternative: if the community insisted everyone interact all the time then we're actually asking the marginalized groups to bear more of a burden by putting up with abuses that those with privilege don't have to worry about.

Edit: change the word forced to insisted to clarify my point.

It's not one or the other. Racism and sexism will continue to be met with punishment, and VALORANT has has spun up an entire team focused exclusively on player behavior and social dynamics.

Punishments, however, only treat the symptoms of the broader social disease. What I'm talking about is attacking these social problems, which run way way deeper than just one game, at their source by finding ways to make gaming communities more inclusive and also by investigating our own privilege and prejudices.

https://reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/ix5mqp/last_night_i_was_repeatedly_team_killed/g670hxq