1. “Before I began…”
Usually when someone sits down to write an essay for a school assignment, coming up with an interesting topic to talk about is probably one of the hardest things to do. The topic has to be something of interest to you, while having enough content to discuss, while also not boring the reader of the essay as well. I was thinking about what topic to choose, when I remembered an issue that’s been popping up a lot on my social media. On Twitter, I follow a bunch of female streamers who play this game called Valorant. Valorant’s a first-person-shooter game where players run around a map trying to shoot each other down — which isn’t really important. The important thing is that in the game, players within the same team communicate with each other through voice chat, as keeping track of locations of the enemy team is a very important aspect of the game. However, this is where the issues come up. In most games, players will use the voice chat productively to help the team out by calling out the locations of the enemy team, until a female player speaks up. As soon as players realize a female is in the same team as them, sexist remarks start flying in. Many of these female streamers have posted clips showing these misogynistic behaviors of these players in-game, and some of the things that have been said to them are just downright disgusting. Toxic comments are never warranted but toxic comments stemming just from the basis of one’s gender is even more rude and unnecessary. Along with these female players, I have also experienced these behaviors while playing Valorant as well. Playing video games should be an enjoyable activity for all parties involved; however, when I experience things like this, it makes me upset and embarrassed for playing the game.
By talking about this issue, I want other players to be aware of this problem that’s going on — which isn’t just the issue of toxicity in this specific game called Valorant. I want to talk about sexism and misogyny in the gaming community as a whole. These sexist beliefs not only just pop up within these multiplayer games; they exist in the real-life world as well. While researching the topic, I realized that these beliefs carry out in our workforces as well. A large, well-known gaming corporation called Riot Games has been outed multiple times for their sexist practices as well. I want to create a community that welcomes everyone and accepts all genders and the first step in creating change is bringing awareness.
To be honest, if you personally haven’t been a target of these behaviors, it’s hard to sympathize with these players and want to do something to create change. This is why I’ve decided on making a podcast to talk about this and hear the stories of these women that have been affected. In my opinion, hearing the stories from these individuals would have a much stronger impact on the audience rather than reading some text on a piece of paper. Listening, rather than reading the stories of these individuals allows the audience to get a better sense of the emotions and feelings that the person was experiencing during that time, which could allow the listeners to sympathize with them a bit more easily. Also, considering the topic audience, they’d probably much rather listen to a podcast than read an interview or a research paper on this topic. Listening to a podcast is something that can also be done wherever, such as while running errands or while driving, which fits the lifestyle of the young, gaming population as well.
Especially since podcasts can be found anywhere online, even in places such as Spotify nowadays, it could be seen by a large demographic of people all over the world. Even though all these considerations have been made to try to appeal to our target audience, these efforts probably won’t instantly change the attitudes of the people in the community, but it would be a step in the right direction for positive change.
(I can’t really write about the other two sections because I haven’t started making my podcast yet…)
