Steve the Pocket said:
Jeezus. And I think it's bad enough that real sports are gender-segregated, but at least those have the excuse of not wanting men and women together in the locker rooms. What the fuck is these people's excuse, seriously? No. I don't want to hear it. They're fucking assholes. Every last one of them, without qualification. If any of them object to me calling them a fucking asshole, they have two options: Demand this be changed, or quit. Period. I'm just... I want to hit people with something hard and loud right now.
Actually in real sports genders are segregated because women can't seriously compete with men physically. Taken to the limits of physical development like pro-athletes are, men will always top out higher. This goes for anything from Martial Arts, to Pro-Football. While it was decades ago now, they at one point gave a woman a chance to prove she could compete in Martial Arts against a guy, she was ranked #1 in the women's leagues and they put her up against some dude that was ranked like 20th for men or something like that. A lot of people actually expected her to win, but the dude threw her around like nothing, and even pretty much stood there and gave her a chance to try anything she wanted. The bottom line is, it's not happening. Your not going to see even Rhonda Rousey beat a fairly has-been fighter like Brock Lesner in the Octagon (if he came back) if they decide to really go at it. The size, weight, strength, and yes even speed, are just too different.
When it comes to E-sports it's a touchier subject because it's all mental and fine-reflex based, where it's generally agreed there are no differences between men and women.
The problem as I see it is that it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" equasion. When you get down to it men and women think differently, and while there is overlap or even those who think in ways that coorespond heavily to the other gender, the exceptions tend to be fairly rare. Psychologists, Sociologists, and others have gone on about this for decades, and the bottom line is as the book put it "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus". You even see this in gaming where it seems a lot of the ladies go on about how a lot of these games are giant testosterone-fests and that has nothing to do with who the protagonists are. At the end of the day men tend to be far more aggressive, and directly competitive, as well as do a better job of thinking tactically or strategically when it comes to destroying or overcoming someone or something. The whole thing where men are naturally the warriors and protectors and women are the nurturers and providers so to speak.
The point here is a little different from what you might think, while there are some women who are going to be able to game the same way as guys, that's going to be fairly rare. I honestly don't think women are hitting a real "wall" in E-sports for the most part so much as having limited interest by the numbers when it comes to that level of competition. Indeed all-girl gaming teams like Ubisoft's "Frag Dolls" and the infamous "Team Siren" (actually fairly low ranked) have been around for a while. If you just have one set of competitions a general "league" your probably going to see women poorly represented simply because of the limited interest, combined with the fact that those who are interested are going to be decimated by guys when it comes to most competitions which involve various kinds of combat simulation which the male psyche is better in tune with. As a result a few girls will step up, but you might see long droughts without any on the highest levels, and of course people will scream "sexism" and raise the spectre of political correctness, and of course that same controversy will lead to questions when a girl DOES rise through the ranks, especially if she's highly marketable (attractive or with an appealing personality), leading to allegations of game fixing and so on. Separate leagues mean the girls who do game can get together meaning the limited numbers can gather without anyone being forced out by the competition, and most of the players will be thinking within the same basic guidelines. Of course the top girls in such leagues will probably be more than capable of playing against guys, and that's what exhibition matches and multi-league championships are for. If I was setting up a large E-gaming league I would gender segregate the general competition, but make the finals something each league sent their best people to. Or end things with a final match to crown a grand champion where the men's champion plays the women's champion or whatever else.
I don't expect a lot of agreement here, and maybe even some attacks, but I understand the thought processes involved, and can't say I entirely disagree. In this thread I doubt the points will be popular or acknowleged but I don't think general competitive leagues would have the result people think.
Of course to be fair, this might change if we start seeing games that don't involve simulating some kind of battle (which even Hearthstone does) become popular enough internationally to spawn competition. Some women have a killer instinct, no denying that, but it's a lot more rare than the media would have you believe, and really I think a big part of the behavior during these tournaments and high level play comes from the fact that you have to be really aggressive and have predatory instincts to get that far.... and honestly a lot of the trash talking is designed to get to people (aggressive/predatory behavior), and is all about using anything and everything you can to distract or get a rise out of the other person playing. The very fact that there is complaints about sexist comments and such and demands that they be "off limits" sort of makes the point, if your that easy to hurt or offend, for ANY reason, then your mind is probably not in the right place to be operating at this level. Being able to deal with that crap is part of the talent. Sort of like how in real sports the players go out of their way to try and intimidate each other, your typical scrimmage line isn't exactly a friendly place.
When it comes to competition, to be honest my basic attitude is racism/sexism/bigotry or whatever else only works if the guy on the receiving end has a complex about it to begin with, or is easily offended. When you walk into a competition knowingly, you should kind of expect the other guy to do anything he can to get into your head. If you can't deal, you don't belong there. Of course this does NOT apply to more general play, for example this kind of garbage doesn't belong in your basic MMO or whatever where there isn't any kind of prize or meaningful ranking on the line. Even in a PVP game someone getting like this is an idiot, but if your in an official CoD, LoL, or whatever tournament, expect it.... and let's be honest, the more public you are, the more personally the other guy is going to tailor their attacks.
I'll also be honest in saying that complaints about racism and sexism seem to be generally American phenomena, or directed at white guys who say stuff. For the most part it's ignored in the other direction. You have Japanese players using terms like "Gaijin" (which despite what you might think is derogatory), and of course Chinese call non-Chinese "dogs" (indeed the character for Foreigner and Dog were the same in Chinese writing until fairly recently). I have a hard time when it's such a dual standard and given the heavy Asian participation in a lot of these tournaments. Call an Asian a slur your a bad guy, some Asian calls you a dog and he's just doing his thing.
