Hundreds of game developers recently started an open petition to halt misogyny and hate speech within the gaming community.
Game developers start an open letter
Game developer Zoe Quinn and Feminist Frequency blogger Anita Sarkeesian have experienced much of the harassment as of late. This is just a smaller part of the harassment women receive when challenge misogyny in the gaming world. This prompted independent game designer Andreas Zecher to start an open letter to the gaming community to encourage people to stop this behavior. He’s already received hundreds of signatures from both indie game developers and big companies including Ubisoft Entertainment SA (EPA:UBI) (OTCMKTS:UBSFY), BioWare, and Traveller’s Tales.
Zecher explained that they believe everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or religious has the right to be involved in the gaming community without being harassed. He believes it is the diversity of the community that helps the games flourish. He reminded gamers if they see harassment or threats on social media websites on YouTube, Twitter, Steam, Reddit, or Facebook.
The Trope vs. Women Video Game Project
Late last month, blogger Sarkeesian posted a 2- part video series called Trope vs. Women Video Game Project. In the posts, she reasoned why it is wrong to degrade women in video games. In the second video she referenced many games including Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Dead Island, Dishonored, Dragon Age: Origins, Fable 2, Far Cry 3, God of War 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V and any more.
Zecher’s letter did not name any specific names, it addresses the entire gaming community as a whole. The letter was designed to remind everyone their role in fighting harassment by speaking up against it. The more positive voices there are and the more people speak out against harassment, the better off the whole community is for everyone. It will take a collective effort, but this letter is a start.
