Women in gaming

[csabnel]

I don’t speak out in general chat, I engage with only a trusted few players ever in this game. Today an incident occurred that while seeming minor is just another layer on a very large pile of minor incidents in my gaming life which can build to a point where it can impact on a person’s well-being.

I’m a woman, not a child, not a teenager, but a woman who has had a career and now nurtures a family. I enjoy computer games, Star Wars, and I’m a little bit of a geek. However, in game I very reluctantly admit to being female.

Initially I did and found that when people found out I was female I would get a range of responses. Obviously, denial was common but then once people realised the truth the range of responses went from humorously awkward attempts to chat all the way up to abusive in the most disgusting way. And not just once off but sustained. For this reason, I don’t play many online games and rarely admit to being female.

Awakening has been the exception to this, it has been my safe space for a very long time, the community has been welcoming on the most part and always accepting. With two exceptions, and the one today is the trigger for this email.

Today my husband and I were accused of cheating, of being the same person running two accounts to take advantage of the server. The person involved attempted to drag an npc on to our three toons. My squad leader was buffed but not wearing armour (keeps the action up so you can run the SL macros while you run around for 20 minutes killing bosses), hubby was on his flamer and I was on my doc swords for healing support.

To my great humour hubby got killed before I could heal him. When an overt Jedi toon of opposite faction turned up and tried to drag an npc on to our group. None of us have any LS protection so we all would have died quickly. Rather than get into that I set my toons to run, waited for the NPC to disengage and came back to revive my husband’s toon.

This is the point where we were accused of being one person with two accounts. While this might seem a reasonable accusation, on top of every other type of inappropriate behaviour towards me that I have had to endure elsewhere (note: it has NEVER happened on Awakening) I was once again accused of not being a real person, of being someone else, of not being me and by inference of not being female.

While this one interaction seems innocent, it’s a build up over time of constantly being on the end of accusations and inappropriate behaviour.

My ask of you is that you think before you type, there are really people on the other side of the keyboard, they have their own stories and journeys. Be mindful of this in your interactions and think twice before you accuse someone of something. If you do believe someone is cheating, take it to staff rather than abuse another player. If your right, they will deal with it, if you are wrong you are going to accuse an innocent person. Better to be wrong in private than wrong in public.

Ring and Rang

[RemusStorm]

Hi Ring and Rang.

I am Reemus, I am sorry that you have had issues In the past with other games (thankfully not on Awakeming).

Just here to clarify a few things, the "just report us and let staff sort it out" statement doesn't work. There is no way for staff to tell if it is 1 or 2 people playing those accounts, all it will say is that it's the same IP address.

I had no idea who was playing the characters in question, it had nothing to do with your gender. As you stated you hardly talk in gen chat if ever, you hardly engage in the community, just your trusted friends (that's your prerogative). So it was easy for me to assume you weren't who Airy claimed.

I'm sorry that you have had negative experiences in the past, but it isn't right to bring that up and lump that on 1 person. I didn't abuse you, I accused Airy. I didn't swear or call you names or do anything abusive.

Maybe your husband should also think about his accusations and and treatment. Posting something so serious in gen chat, Calling me a sexist bigot, when it was CLEARLY not that. What an insult to the real people in the world that are oppressed and abused in the world.

He doesn't know me, he doesn't know what I've done in real life, this is a computer game, not real life.

If what I was saying was really abusive, add my character to ignore, as you didn't do that, I guess it couldn't have been abusive, just accusing.

I would advise, if you don't want to hear what I have to say in game, add my characters to ignore, I can give you a list of all of them.

Reemus

[Cynar]

Women have been playing games just as long as men. It's just become more prevalent with social media and online gaming over the years. Yes, men act like pigs sometimes. It's because the internet provides them a level of anonymity so you see how they really are. This behavior wouldn't be tolerated out in the open in the "real world". So they take privilege and abuse it because of that somewhat internet invisibility shield. It's never a good excuse no matter what. I'm glad you've had a mostly positive experience on Awakening.

I would suggest that you guys talk it out, instead of holding it against one another. That's what Discord, Teamspeak ,and private channels are for. You don't have to be best buddies or anything, but most issues among sincere adults can easily be hashed out with a simple conversation. Hell, who knows, you might even make a new friend. Then again maybe not. At least there might be a little more respect between both parties towards each other in future engagements. Best of luck!

[RemusStorm]

SWG is a MMO + RPG.

Every now and then I enjoy role playing as a SITH, as that's what my jedi is, Dark Jedi Enforcer Rank 1.

Mostly there are no Rebels to kill, so when in character I enjoy dragging NPCs on to AFK squadleaders, so that they die.

Just part of the Sith lifestyle.

[abnel]

When you do it three times in a week to the same person it becomes a problem.

[RemusStorm]

Dathomir is a dangerous adventure planet.

I would advise not leaving AFK toons unbuffed on the planet, especially 50m from the Nightsister stronghold.

You aren't the only person that wants to kill NS.

You don't own a spawn or have privileges over it.

Be smarter, log your toons out mate, it's really not hard rofl.