Inspired by a discussion I had elsewhere and the article “Women in Games swaps male and female voices to highlight harassment in gaming”, how about we start a voice modulation challenge where you have to play at least one online game with a voice modulator to sound like a girl?
I’m curious what the experiences would be like.
Dunno that we need much more experimentation, we all know what the outcome will be - Loads of sexual harassment and misogyny.
Also, the stastically correct way to “sound like a girl” is to mute and never speak up. Last time i read something on this topic, the gender balance in a lot of games is better than we think, but women overwhelmingly stay muted to avoid harassment.
The solution isnt more education/experimentation. Everyone who cares already knows what the problem is. Games need better moderation tools and clear community standards.
I was very glad to read the last sentence. I agree fully. Easiest would be a report button that saves the last 60 seconds of voice, analyzes it with ai and check if something illegal/harassing was said and autokicks the person who said it.
Would not require more top down systems.
Not a voice mod, but my voice passes as fem now, so I started talking in VC.
Started playing phasmophobia and it’s a lot of fun, but sometimes you get one or two dudes that start making “funny” mysogynistic comments and it’s pretty annoying cause it’s the Same. Thing. Every. Time.
“Oooh it’s in the kitchen, must be a woman ghost!” Looks at me to gauge my reaction.
Joins room I say hi “A FEMALE??? I’m not playing with a female” disconnects
And more. Spawntaneous is a youtuber that has a series of videos about being a “girl gamer” and it’s very eye opening. You don’t get that kind of people every match, but you do get them every couple hours you play, and even if you somehow find it funny the first time, it gets old really quick.
Online games that let you talk to strangers aren’t great when you’re a guy either. Not because of targeted harassment, but because you often enough just end up with people screaming into the mic or repeating the N word over and over again for no reason. The last time I turned on voice chat with strangers was 7 years ago, with PUBG, and I quickly turned it back off. (It feels wrong that that game is somehow 7 years old.)
I’m sorry but it is definitely nowhere as close as the kind of harassment women receive. They have to deal with insults based on their gender, sexual harassment, digital stalking outside of games, etc
