So the #GamerGaters are mad about a new study that suggests that some of the most dickishly misogynistic male gamers are quite literally losers. That is, men playing video games like Halo and Call of Duty online tend to lash out at women players when they’re doing their worst.
Looking at the behavior of a number of men and women over the course of 163 games of Halo 3, researchers Michael Kasumovic and Jeffrey Kuznekoff from the University of New South Wales and Miami University found that
lower-skilled players were more hostile towards a female-voiced teammate, especially when performing poorly. In contrast, lower-skilled players behaved submissively towards a male-voiced player in the identical scenario. This difference in gender-directed behaviour became more extreme with poorer focal-player performance.
In other words, the more of a video game loser they were, the more of a misogynistic loser they became.
We suggest that low-status males increase female-directed hostility to minimize the loss of status as a consequence of hierarchical reconfiguration resulting from the entrance of a woman into the competitive arena.
In other words, they hate losing … to a girl.
The researchers argue that the entrance of larger numbers of women into the dude-heavy world of video games is especially threatening to “[l]ow-status and low-performing males,” who
have the most to lose as a consequence of the hierarchical reconfiguration due to the entry of a competitive woman. As men often rely on aggression to maintain their dominant social status, the increase in hostility towards a woman by lower-status males may be an attempt to disregard a female’s performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank.
If this all sounds to you like a plausible explanation for a lot of the anger driving #GamerGaters, you’re not the only one to see the connection.
A recent article on the study on Yahoo News suggests that,
[a]s gaming has traditionally been a male-dominated pastime, these findings could go some way to explain 2014′s Gamergate furore. Several high profile female game developers were targeted with a torrent of misogynistic abuse, including rape and death threats, coordinated by factions of male gamers using sites like 4Chan and Reddit.
And this is what has the #GamerGaters on Reddit’s KotakuInAction subreddit pig-biting mad. In a thread complaining about the Yahoo News piece, the regulars show just what losers they really are by lashing out at … women.
Evidently forgetting that the study in question was conducted by two men, a Redditor called Katastic_Voyage won more than 130 upvotes with a lovely rant declaring that
There’s a huge freaking difference between shit talking, and bullying.
But most of these articles and “papers” are written by women, who live in a woman’s world, and don’t understand the first thing about what it’s really like to be a man. The others are by men who are basically women but doesn’t realize it–they were likely forced to grow up in a woman dominated, catty, passive-aggressive world.
Ok, my bad. The researchers might appear to be men, but are probably “men who are basically women but doesn’t realize it.”
And somehow this all has something to do with metal music:
Woman call all men “dumb” because that’s what they call anything they don’t understand. It’d be like someone who likes classical music calling metal dumb. Even if they’re actually related. Even though there’s plenty of beauty and complexity in metal… they don’t ever dive into it so they deride and dismiss it.
It IS real music, mom! (Sound of bedroom door slamming, followed by the muffled intro to “Enter Sandman.”)
So they take things like:
The need to compete? They think it’s violence.
The need to shit talk? They think it’s bullying.
The fact that men can look at other women and not cheat? It blows their minds that men can actually feel pleasure just seeing a woman of beauty… and that’s it.
Uh, I thought we were talking about video games. Did some mean lady just break up with you?
A fellow called Zakamaru, replying to Katastic_Voyage, decided to show how not mad he was about women invading “male spaces” by getting mad about women invading “male spaces.”
It’s what happens when a bunch of women get into male spaces and some fail to understand it.
Gaming has always been competitive. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I was called various names and derogatory remarks, but it doesn’t fucking matter. You get insulted all the time, and it takes a special type of person to actually take offense to that. …
It’s not that we hate women. With gaming being a predominantly male hobby, it’s going to have elements of masculinity, competitiveness, and testosterone floating about. When people shit talk, they will use any sort of “weakness” that you have and attack it. If you’re unskilled, you’re a noob/scrub. If you’re an obvious underaged child, you get called a kid. If someone needs a quick all-purpose insult, you’re now a faggot.
When some women see this, they immediately think that it needs to change to fit their worldview. To them, these insults are simply unacceptable, and are “x-phobic” or whatever tumblr buzzword they feel like using today. Never mind the fact that gaming was born from a bunch of socially awkward men who carved out their own space with their own culture and lingo. No, now you have to cater to ME, because I’m a GIRL.
Boy, you guys really put those dumb lady researchers (who aren’t ladies, but who maybe sort of really are) in their place.
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I also wonder if this study can link to my experiences in boys vs girls games, all the way from youth clubs to my previous job when we were just trying to play a game of Pictionary on whiteboards. When we played, the boys would be try to cheat, gloat aggressively when they won, whine and accuse US of cheating when we won, and generally be a pain in the ass. I say “boys” not too lightly because in the last job most of them were around 20 years old.
Fellas, can you explain this? It kinda baffled me that they would behave that way.
@sunnysombrera The beauty and complexity of shouting insults down a headset.
@level14boss
Sorry should have clarified: these were meatspace games, not online ones.
Oh my god. Are hashtag gamergaters still around? Are they still convinced they’re “winning”? Newsflash, hate-stuffed shit-tomatoes, no one gives a flying crap about your “Zoe Quinn is a ***** but it’s actually about ethacs in vidya zurnalism” shtick. You’re over. Finished. Yesterday’s news. You’re about as relevant as the paper tissue I used to wipe my snot last week.
Okay, okay, that comparison was really unfair and I apologize. The tissue served its purpose excellently.
BTW, I’m a man and I greatly dislike competitive games, always have. My little brother and me used to rock the hell out of Bubble Bobble co-op mode back in the day, and I’m always looking for good split-screen shooters to play with the SO these days (we’re currently playing through Borderlands 2). But I guess I’m one of those “men who are basically women but doesn’t realize it”, so, you know, whatevs.
Random funny thought:
The first movie I know of to have a competitive gaming tournament in it, The Wizard, all the way back in ’89… One of the three finalists was a girl. The lib’rul SJW Femilluminazi conspiracy has a time machine!!!1one
@sunnysombrera Personally I think a lot of it has to do with insecurity and self image. A lot of men and boys are taught that competition is a way to prove your strength. And since if you’re beaten by a girl or woman that means you’re weaker than them that means you’re not strong and by extension less of a man. In my experience it’s strongly prevalent in younger men, late teens through mid-twenties or so, because at that point they’re still establishing themselves, they don’t generally have a great many life accomplishments yet so those games and such become much more important to their self identities until they have more significant accomplishments to measure their worth by.
Of course I’m speaking in broad generalities so your mileage may vary. Some people are just assholes.
@sunnysombrera I remember when I was younger, early to late teen years. I didn’t mind not winning but I felt a weird sense of shame about losing. Now if I’m playing games of any kind I’m in it for the fun and it’s a lot more enjoyable.
As for trying to explain it, is it maybe they have a black and white view of the world so winner = good and loser = bad and there’s no room for nuance in that?
@sunnysombrera. Actually no need for clarification. I was replying to your post that quoted the GG mentioning ‘the beauty and complexity of metal’. I should have made that clearer. So apologies.
O RLY? That’s funny, because to anyone on the receiving end, it all sounds the same. Because it all IS the same, duh.
And while this sore loser won’t admit it, it all serves the same purpose, too: to intimidate the person you just lost to (whether a game, or an argument on the internet) into leaving the space you think is yours to dominate.
Wrong again. They were written by scientists — MALE scientists, even — who were trained in a scientific, studiously impartial world. And you’re sore because they just proved you wrong.
But keep telling yourself that, eh? Because it sucks to lose, even on a scientific front, to anyone who confirms what we “girls” have long been saying!
Dude, the reason we won’t dive in is because morons like you are lurking around, just waiting to fuck it all up for us. Shut up and let us talk for a change. You might be surprised, if you actually listen, to what you will hear.
Yes, that’s right: Female talk is classical music AND metal. And you just projected your “dumb” dismissals onto us! NOT SMART, BRO.
Orrrr maybe it’s just your good ol’ sexism, further conditioned and pandered to by videogame after videogame full of female non-playing characters that are all jiggly boobs and no substance, and we’re sick of it. And we’re also sick of how you feel entitled to just gawk in all directions while ignoring us even when we’re right in front of you, trying to have a normal conversation. Ever think of that?
No, of course not. Gamerdudebros are allergic to thinking, and to women who demand that they think.
No, it’s what happens when men only think those spaces are theirs (they’re NOT) and can’t handle the presence of women, so they get all mouthy and whiny and generally eager to confirm our worst opinions of them.
If these guys ever sat down and shut up long enough to hear what WE say when they’re not around, it would turn their hair fucking WHITE.
I got some of my FPS gaming-chops in highschool, in an all-boys dorm, playing endless bouts of Halo. Halo multiplayer, competetive as all hell.
There really wasn’t that much shit-talking, the way these dudes want to make it seem. It was not progressive by any means, but comments along the lines of, say, the ones you see on Fat, Ugly, or Slutty were unheard of. Mostly it was accusations of screen-cheating.
When I was in high school I used to baby sit a little boy who thought I was the coolest big girl ever because I would play video games with him. I can only hope that sweet kid who loved playing Street Fighter with me didn’t turn into one of these pud pulling, curse spewing, rage monkeys.
I love how they completely ignore that the study points out that the men who were losing to other men didn’t shit talk them but became SUBMISSIVE to the guys who were doing better than them. When it was a woman doing better, they became hostile.
So no, this isn’t some equal opportunity shit talking. This is rather obviously pissy little boys getting mad about being beaten by girls.
My favorite joke along these lines was a tweet I saw a couple weeks ago, that read,
@jiillhorton
Not to #notallmen your post(as I’m not trying to justify the wider culture of violence), but the reality is that the odds are quite in favor of your little friend turning out okay. Gamergate types are marginal even among the young white guys demographic that is so incredibly overrepresented there.
Did one of them seriously use the DSP defense? Since the thing about Darksydephil for those that don’t know is that he is completely shit at games and when it comes to fighting games (or anything with a competitive multiplayer for that matter) when he is losing he will usually insult his opponents skill even as they give him a beatdown while also blaming lag for his sucking. Granted the difference between him and these guys is that Phil hates everyone.
@pendraegon:
It’s just posturing, but it’s very, very hurtful posturing, because it depends on pushing others down to pull yourself up.
lkeke35:
Yeah, fuck that attitude. That attitude cost us (among lots of other things) awesome cartoons like Young Justice, which was axed because too many girls were watching it.
@sunnysombrera:
The best I can do you is entitlement and socialization. Losing to girls is just the worst thing outside of actually being a girl, so anything goes when boys are up against girls. Which is just an awful attitude.
W/re: Sunnysombrera’s post about young men and tabletop board games:
When my dad taught me to play chess, he instilled a couple lessons:
1: You’re going to lose, a lot. This is because there’s always someone better, or having a better day than you are. Don’t play any game you’re not willing to lose. Also, if there’s a wager involved, ASSUME you will lose before agreeing to the bet.
2: Be grateful for every lost game, because you can learn something from it to make yourself a better player. Getting better is all about understanding your own mistakes, and seeing what tricks your opponent comes up with.
I’m suspecting that a lot of those douchebros you were playing with never had a family game night where these sorts of lessons got passed on.
For anyone who hasn’t had enough pretentiousness in their life recently, here’s something recently released on the metal/classical front 🙂 It’s from Luca Turilli’s “Symphonia Ignus Divinus”, which is Latin for “Music for Complete Wankers”. (And I love it!)
“See? This proves that GamerGaters aren’t real gamers! Because how much you slag on women in games directly correlates to how badly you suck, and no one could devote a major part of their life to video games and still be a complete scrublord!”
How bad an idea would it be to say this at every opportunity?
Haha! They really ARE losers on so many levels!
Never understood the “shit talking” thing. At all.
Ninja’d by pendraegon!
@level14boss:
An insult is something intended to cause offence, captain. This reminds me all too much of the greatest lie in the world, “Sticks and stones…” It’s seriously damaging to believe that – and personally I think that being bullied throughout childhood and having been told to “just ignore it”, as if my hurt didn’t even matter, is what led to me having to be treated for anxiety later in life.
Curse you, blockquote mammoth! I will hunt down every last one of your kin in Skyrim and exact my vengeance upon them! This I swear!
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