I think that gaming is more inclusive than you are implying, however, there really isn't much to debate there. It would really just be my experiences and my view of games as an "outcast club" vs. your experiences and your view of gaming as a "boys club" (while there is some degree of truth to the fact that gaming is dominated by males, I don't think that is due to elitism and exclusivity).

How do you think an academic study would help this in any way though? I think that the gears of change are already in motion in a lot of places and I believe that we will see more women in games as our society continues to push away dated gender roles. However, I do not think that anybody saying "there are a lot of sexist gamers" will help anything. Additionally, I think that in an academic scenario, that would be difficult to judge. I think a lot of the sexism seen is "general harassment" as opposed to sexism, meaning that people throw words around just to be a troll. In a situation outside of the safety of the internet, I think we would see a lot more normalization of opinions, as opposed to the hyperbole that is common on the internet.

Sexism is prominent, the gap in pay between men and women is WAY too big...


in porn.

So, why aren't you targeting religion?  Here's the problem, you pretend that these issues are gaming issues.  But they're not.  They're people issues.  They're real world issues that have to be dealt with in the real world, where legislation, slavery, sexual violence, murder etc... actually happen.  Yes, that's a very very difficult proposition.  But, things worth fighting for, generally are.

Unfortunately, merely targeting gaming forums and online gaming changes nothing, and will only create frustration as your attempts fail over and over, because you're not actually tackling where it's coming from.  Merely trying to band-aid the result.

I don't quite understand the thinking behind the bolded section. If you see sexism or racism or discrimination in any field, video games included, shouldn't you make an attempt to stamp it out? Why should the video game industry be free of self-examination?

I don't think an academic study would help. When I said the study was asking the wrong question, I just meant that the results are misleading. I'm not suggesting that some university or non-profit create a survey to determine why sexism -- or any other -ism, for that matter -- exists in the video game industry; I'm just encouraging people to admit there's a problem and not use these survey results as specious evidence that the medium and its fans are free of sexist thoughts and actions.

Frankly, I think it's good just to talk about it. Far too many video game fans don't want to acknowledge that many of their peers throw around some truly disgusting and threatening language, or they think, to quote an article on the subject, it's just "guys being stupid guys."

Obviously, I don't think the majority of video game fans are sexist monsters. My participation in this forum is proof that I love video games and love talking about them with my peers. But I do believe there is a serious problem with sexism in the industry, and I believe it's a worthy topic of conversation. If we really love video games and want to be inclusive, we need to lead by example, call out those who are intolerant and hateful, and start a meaningful dialogue on the causes and effects of sexism in the gaming community.

That'll shut up a decent chunk of people saying otherwise with this study. People love blowing things out of proportion and this whole situation is a great example of that.

I'm not pretending that these issues are specific to the video game community. I'm painfully aware they exist in all industries, across all countries, and in the hearts and minds of a wide spectrum of individuals.

But, as I wrote earlier, we're active members of this community. We can lead by example. We can have those difficult conversations. Yes, the problem is institutional and systemic, but there's no reason not to try to make things better in this specific community. 

Seems strange to me, I've never heard someone casually throw it off as 'guys being stupid guys'.  Among my friends, (admittedly PC gamers primarily) we have a disdain for it, and also zero tolerance for it on our vent server.  Which brings me to the solution, at least where harassment and online games are concerned.  If we're not willing to lift the veil, so to speak, shut them out.  Make them disappear simply by bringing far more robust voice controls to consoles.

But, as I said above, it still leaves the real world a mess and I don't believe it's something people just learn online (racism/sexism/homophobia etc...)

People have been having this conversation since we've been able to communicate online.  As far as I've seen the general consensus is don't feed the trolls.  You remove them from the equation.  As I said above, not having the capacity to set up your own servers/voice servers, play with just your friends, invite others in and most importantly, admin control to the server (ergo, banning authority) has really messed this up.  If you're given those tools, you can pretty much create your own online experience.  Which is really part of the fun.   Banding together with your friends, on your own servers, meeting new folks through other servers (places like After-Hourz) and inviting them in, etc... but you had the control to ban anyone.  And that's what really kept this issue in check.  When they removed that funcionality...yeah, that was pandoras box right there.  The other option is lift the veil, remove the anonymity...that's unfavorable to say the least.

Did that really need a study?

i have a question for you do you think that the solution to the problem is to have males threat women as they would other males?