Gena Davis institute on Gender in media tries to link violent games to mass shootings and police violence

[Dwarvenhobble]

The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming: An Analysis of Masculinity in Video Games and the Gaming Community

Explore the Geena Davis Institute's study in partnership with Equimundo on masculinity in gaming, detailing gender representation, diversity, and stereotypes in video games and Twitch communities.

seejane.org

From the full report

What are boys and young men being exposed to that is toxic in online gaming spacing, and why does this matter? They are mostly seeing white, male players enacting hyper-violent masculinity through violence and gun use. The ubiquity of white male violence in video games must be called out in light of mass shootings, white extremist violence and white male police violence against people of color. Video games in many ways mirror the worst of US violence and as such we must ask how they normalize it, and how they may contribute to re-traumatizing those exposed to such violence directly and indirectly

(Page 35 of the report)

Some more things in the report covered by

Thinking outside the Man Box

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media yesterday released its "The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming" report, w…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Davis said the Top 20 Twitch streamers were all men, with only one being a man of color and only one identifying as LGBTQ.

So it's now a problem in the games industry what people choose to watch so you gotta watch people who are diverse enough or somehow Twitch needs to give affirmative promotion more.

Also the expected stuff on how gaming needs better representation etc etc

Oh and there will be some panel / event on it as Anita is moderating it

 

[CriticalGaming]

Oh boy, another program hoping to generate money based off a false narrative.

I can't believe Anita would be involved in such a thing.

 

[Avnger]

The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming: An Analysis of Masculinity in Video Games and the Gaming Community

Explore the Geena Davis Institute's study in partnership with Equimundo on masculinity in gaming, detailing gender representation, diversity, and stereotypes in video games and Twitch communities.

seejane.org

From the full report


(Page 35 of the report)

Some more things in the report covered by

Thinking outside the Man Box

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media yesterday released its "The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming" report, w…

www.gamesindustry.biz

So it's now a problem in the games industry what people choose to watch so you gotta watch people who are diverse enough or somehow Twitch needs to give affirmative promotion more.

Also the expected stuff on how gaming needs better representation etc etc

Oh and there will be some panel / event at it as Anita is moderating it

You know what I find the funniest about this whole thing?

It's how you take these OPs from some outrage subreddit (or you're spending hours digging through twitter for it which might be even funnier), cherry pick the worst quotes other culture warriors can find (because you clearly very rarely actually read the articles/reports), and then act like some milquetoast first-year-of-undergrad level criticism of gaming will lead to the end of the hobby as we know it.

Oh, no! They're talking about how women are underrepresented as AAA protagonists; how long until they're recreating that South Park Mars joke but for reals!!!?!?!!?!!111!

--------------------------------------------------------------
If you disagree with any of the following, you're not living in the same reality as the rest of us:

1. The video game industry is demonstrably discriminatory towards women.
2. Online video gaming is demonstrably discriminatory towards women.
3. Online video gaming is demonstrably toxic in general.
4. Women are underrepresented as video game (non-fanservice) characters, protagonists, and developers.

Now, what to do about those issues and how to solve them is certainly up for discussion. That discussion is what this event looks to be about. However, I do put the odds of anything practical and useable in the real world coming out of this event near zero. That doesn't mean the discussion should be censored though.

 

[BrawlMan]

Oh boy, another program hoping to generate money based off a false narrative.

I can't believe Anita would be involved in such a thing.

Doesn't surprise me. She goes wherever the money train is. She doesn't fight her things she believes in. It's always been about the cash for her.

 

[Chimpzy]

Damn them feminazis coming to take away our games. Again. I'll be upset, but I'm too busy trudging through my backlog first. But for sure outrage after. Promise.

This was fun tho. Same time again next week?

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

You know what I find the funniest about this whole thing?

It's how you take these OPs from some outrage subreddit (or you're spending hours digging through twitter for it which might be even funnier), cherry pick the worst quotes other culture warriors can find (because you clearly very rarely actually read the articles/reports),.......

You know what's funny.
The fact that you pop up in threads then when I call out your claims you don't stick round and acknowledge you were wrong in any way and instead vanish then try this same thing again. I mean remember the last time you did it?

Scott Cawthon (FNaF guy) cancelled

Here is a full on discussion of CRT. Full on as is terminology focused, melding different theories together and a bit up its own ass . Much of it is overblown, as in, not everything is as bad as they say. But their critic on Sowell is spot on. And the more we know how Reagan demanded blacks on...

forums.escapistmagazine.com

How about before that?

Sony allegedly starting to censor depictions of violence in games starting with dismemberments

So are we supposed to all get our rage on or our panic on based on a "report" from a random internet user that some CEO allegedly made some comments that Sony, again allegedly, requested a single developer to remove a single instance of dismemberment from a single game that, being based on a...

forums.escapistmagazine.com

and before that

A few thoughts about January 6, 2021

Please do. Then the world can watch the madness of The Hunger Games play out in real life and all the city folk being very shocked. Your literary knowledge is apparently as lacking as your geopolitical... Dunning and Kruger would have had a field day with you.

forums.escapistmagazine.com

This is getting real boring you know that right?
But lets play once again

and then act like some milquetoast first-year-of-undergrad level criticism of gaming will lead to the end of the hobby as we know it.

Remember when people pushed back at the likes of Jack Thompson and others. Hell people even pushed back against Trump when he brought this up even if half heartedly because people knew that it was a distraction play most likely.

But no this time we can't push back against the people presenting themselves as experts I guess, why is that again? Oh right I won't actually get an answer to this anyway.

Oh, no! They're talking about how women are underrepresented as AAA protagonists; how long until they're recreating that South Park Mars joke but for reals!!!?!?!!?!!111!

Ah yes because the most popular AAA game on twitch are the entire market.

Do you get the issue with using that as a metric specially Twitch Streams?

The report comments about the sexuality of streamers in the top 20, well simple answer how do you know? Unless the report specifically asked them (not indicated) then it's based on assumptions about the streamers or whatever the streamer says publicly. For all we know some of them may be gay or Bi but prefer to keep a separation of their public persona and private lives because they don't want to be used as some symbol or be defined solely by who they want to shag.

They're also using twitch where in terms of sexuality on display for game characters it's worth noting the entire works of Robert Yang are banned on Twitch for sexual content.

The survey talks about revealing clothing but never defines this such that a dude in tight clothes or topless might not be counted as revealing clothes but a character showing some cleavage would be it's again not defined.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Part 2


It brings up fighting fuck toys and a trope but at no point asks well aren't some actual women fighters seen as attractive too?

*cough*
View attachment 4258 *cough*

They also seemingly used The 7 Pillars of Promundo’s Man Box Scale to actually mean toxic masculinity this the following is toxic masculinity on display in games (among others)

self-sufficiency
acting tough
physical attractiveness
Hetrosexuality

Oh and some added humour

Given the sizeable market for products, services, and experiences aimed at LGBTQIA+ consumers, it is surprising that the top video game producers would not be inclusive of this segment of the population. . Perhaps content creators are concerned that the hyper-masculine (read homophobic) culture surrounding video games would not be accommodating to more LGBTQIA+ characters, but new research on Generation Z (Americans born in 1997 and after) finds that a majority (52%) identify as something other than straight or heterosexual.74 There are too few LGBTQIA+ characters to analyze the quality of their representation in the dataset.

Remember these claims are based on 15 minute clips of the Top 20 Twitch Streamers only 1 of which the report claims is LGBTQQIA+

So to put this in context the report is claiming the mostly straight male gamers of Twitch aren't playing enough games about gay characters...........

Looking at the Top Twitch Streams now at this moment we have:
A guy playing Minecraft (sexuality not part of the game)
XQC doing chatting and nonsense
Some-one playing Apex Legend (characters of various sexualities)
Some-one playing CSGo -Sexuality not part of the game
A Just chatting Stream
A Minecraft Stream again
A Rainbow Six Siege stream (characters of various sexualities)
Minecraft again
Cod Warzone - (Sexualities of characters not mentioned at all)
GTA V - (one of the characters is Bi)
CSGO again
Valorant - Characters of various sexualities
Minecraft again
Slot machines
Fortnite (sexualities not mentioned)
Just chatting again
Road 96 (I have no clue it's very new)
Just chatting again
Just chatting again
CSGO again

Oh but it gets funnier

Gaming seems to operate much like heterosexual male peer groups in that cursing and sexist and racist comments are a way that boys play at being “bad boys,” to rebel against social norms without being ostracized or disciplined by adults—and to be accepted by the peer group. It is likely that some boys and young men signal that they know the difference between playing with sexism and The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming 36 racism, and truly harmful and lived sexism and racism. The challenge as educators and content creators is how to call out the harm in casual racist and sexist banter while understanding this is a “performance” that boys often do in front of other boys.

(Emphasis mine)

Yes swearing is now bad too along with the things people can likely say are actually bad.

How dare people swear eh?

Fucking hell this is the old puritanism bullshit in a new wrapper so very much. But I guess I'm not allowed to point out out am I Avnger?

--------------------------------------------------------------
If you disagree with any of the following, you're not living in the same reality as the rest of us:

1. The video game industry is demonstrably discriminatory towards women.
2. Online video gaming is demonstrably discriminatory towards women.
3. Online video gaming is demonstrably toxic in general.
4. Women are underrepresented as video game (non-fanservice) characters, protagonists, and developers.

Now, what to do about those issues and how to solve them is certainly up for discussion. That discussion is what this event looks to be about. However, I do put the odds of anything practical and useable in the real world coming out of this event near zero. That doesn't mean the discussion should be censored though.

Ok fine
1) Yes it is, and just like with Fearless girl it seems to be the companies and people who shout loudest about it who have the most issues happenng.
2) Happens both way in a good and bad way see people pretending to be women in games for free shit (yes this really happens)
3) So is Cis-Platin and that kills cancer cells
4) Entirely depends on Genre. There's genres that are 85% female protagonists out there

So the report fails to realise people can and will just play what they wish and what sells can and will dictate market directions.

The discussion shouldn't be censored. The Discussion can be had but it's going to be almost entirely useless as the research was based on Twitch Streamers gaming habits in part.

"Oh not the Straight white male Twitch Streamers aren't playing enough games about Black Disabled Lesbian women" is what this report pretty much comes down to lol

 

[McElroy]

Lots of statistics. Not sure if interesting.

In video games, only 1.5% of characters have a large body type. One of the top streamers has a large body type, and he is the target of sizeist comments from other streamers and viewers 50.0% of the time he plays

TimTheFatMan can't catch a break, lmao. It's even funnier that the title of his stream RIGHT NOW as I'm typing this is "fat". Poor Timothy. Sizeism hurts so bad he's appeasing the bullies instead of fighting back.

Also I wondered how the study gets that streamers use homophobic language in tenth of their streams (because that gets you suspended fast at least if you're popular on Twitch), and the answer was "suck my dick".

 

[CriticalGaming]

snip

Why do people care so much about seeing fat video game characters? I just don't understand that complaint at all. Of course, how many A-list celebrities do you see that are fat? The reason for that is fantasy, nobody aspires to be fat (or at least nobody SHOULD) and there is no legitimate reason to glorify it.

People like playing attractive characters, people like interacting with attractive characters and the vast majority of people prefer slim to average body types.

I find it funny that this literally only applies to female characters too, because women for whatever reason need justification for being fat. Meanwhile nobody gives too shits that every male character looks like an Ambercrombe & Fitch model at the slimest or the Terminator at their biggest.

Hot shirtless Ryu, nicknamed "Hot Ryu". Totally fine.

Lara Croft in a tank top and shorts.....fucking sexist.

 

[Wintermute]

 

[AnxietyProne]

*SIGH*

The SJW's and the Outrage Manufacturers are about to go at each other's throats again. Where the hell is my Tylenol...

 

[Gordon_4]

*SIGH*

The SJW's and the Outrage Manufacturers are about to go at each other's throats again. Where the hell is my Tylenol...

I took it. I needed it.

 

[Bartholomew]

4. Women are underrepresented as video game (non-fanservice) characters, protagonists, and developers.

What would be the correct proportion of representation? 50/50?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Wait. Geena Davis has a foundation? Now that's news to me.

 

[Gordon_4]

Wait. Geena Davis has a foundation? Now that's news to me.

You know I've kind of always wondered about the connection, if there is one, myself.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Oh no, how will this giant zillion dollar industry with millions of rabid fans possibly guard itself against this panel of meanies?

Also, it's calling out toxicity within the gaming space which is still a huge problem and still largely because of men and boys, NOT how violent videogames turn people into mass shooters.

Oh and AAAARGH Anita Sarkeesian, that evil person who got paid for work she did making some videos about games. Games she doesn't even like, how dare she!?

 

[McElroy]

Why do people care so much about seeing fat video game characters? I just don't understand that complaint at all. Of course, how many A-list celebrities do you see that are fat? The reason for that is fantasy, nobody aspires to be fat (or at least nobody SHOULD) and there is no legitimate reason to glorify it.

The study doesn't make a judgement on the matter itself but rather the dubious but I guess arguable claim that this sort of media can contribute to underlying attitudes. Some of the methodology is ridiculous, and so I hope people can be critical of this, focus on the parts that might matter most, and not draw the conclusion that Twitch is "sizeist" because of Timothy.

What would be the correct proportion of representation [of women as video game (non-fanservice) characters, protagonists, and developers]? 50/50?

While Dwarvenhobble memed about the other 3 points, for this one it's mandatory to look at the genres before making any judgement. For developers it's more complicated, because you can be developing parts of a game that you'd never want to play. After all it's a sum of many creative and technical decisions and so on. So never 50/50, and the solution in my opinion is to try to get young girls into computers and software instead of thinking it's only for nerds.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Oh no, how will this giant zillion dollar industry with millions of rabid fans possibly guard itself against this panel of meanies?

Didn't stop people calling out the bullshit when Hollywood was facing claims and accusations years back and that wasn't by any group with any real influence

Also, it's calling out toxicity within the gaming space which is still a huge problem and still largely because of men and boys, NOT how violent videogames turn people into mass shooters.

Is it now?


it's funny because one of the things the report presented as evidence of toxicity was people Cussing............As I said in a reply already Cis-Platin is also toxic but very much has a pretty good use. The days of the old COD lobbies are long past.

What we're seeing now is far less dealing with toxicity and far more trying to gentrify the space.

Oh and AAAARGH Anita Sarkeesian, that evil person who got paid for work she did making some videos about games. Games she doesn't even like, how dare she!?

Did she ever deliver those Kickstarter reward DVDs?

 

[Trunkage]

You know what I find the funniest about this whole thing?

It's how you take these OPs from some outrage subreddit (or you're spending hours digging through twitter for it which might be even funnier), cherry pick the worst quotes other culture warriors can find (because you clearly very rarely actually read the articles/reports), and then act like some milquetoast first-year-of-undergrad level criticism of gaming will lead to the end of the hobby as we know it.

I'll tell you why this is so aggravating for you. What you are describing wirh your reddit example is pretty much what cancel culture. (I.e. Taking a couple of quote and turning it into why we should hate them. Sending thousands of rabid culture warriors after people.) DH clearly gets up to his neck in this nonsense and then tell us how evil we are for canceling others.

I keep pointing this out to them but he just deflects. Cancel culture is only seen as being done by one side. Apparently.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Didn't stop people calling out the bullshit when Hollywood was facing claims and accusations years back and that wasn't by any group with any real influence.

Except this isn't that, it's about online gaming spaces.

Is it now?

Yes.

Did she ever deliver those Kickstarter reward DVDs?

I don't know, did she?

The only people I hear talking about what an evil schemer she is are the ones who already hated her from the get-go and refered to her as a "fake gamer", and started a pretty substantial hate campaign against her, so you'll forgive for not taking their word on this.