Traversing the world of online gaming requires a mental filtering system that weeds the bastion of uncensored palaver that makes up Xbox Live. The ability for users to hide behind their gamer tag and spew any and all forms of bigotry with relative anonymity is commonplace thanks to net neutrality. Rarely are there ever online arguments that don’t involve the game somehow; usually any sort of verbal interaction degrades into someone calling the other person gay, then everyone moves on.
Many find it hard to believe that I find comfort in curling up on my couch and playing a couple rounds on Xbox Live. Every day, I can’t wait to get home, strip off my work clothes, and peruse my friend list to see who’s playing whatever is in my console at any given point. Call of Duty happens to be one of my favorite online multiplayer games mainly due to its inherent need for awesome reflexes and a killer instinct, and luckily for me, World at War is still fresh in everyone’s Xbox.
Until yesterday, I never really contributed much to online conversations; I just wanted to play the game with people around the world. No one ever talks to you unless you have a headset, much less know you’re a girl who inevitably ends up placing top 3 in several rounds. As such, I felt like taking my XBL community status to the next level by purchasing a headset, because I figure I might as well interact with my fellow gamers if not conduct a social experiment.
And a social experiment it was indeed. I figured that a 10 minute round of 8-person Free-for All, where no-holds-barred killing is your only objective, would in fact be the best arena to start off in considering no team communication is required. Just some good old fashioned free flying swearing and racism would be enough for me.
At first I started out pretty poorly, but I slowly worked my way into the pack of higher-scoring players about 6 minutes into the round. During that 6 minutes, one individual who was clearly dominating the round felt it necessary to call everyone of his victims a faggot, which all gamers know is just innocuous chatter. By the time I started gaining some ground, I decided I should start talking. Upon hearing my voice, 3 headsetted players noticed that I was in fact a female, to which they seemed utterly surprised. “Hey Strattacaster, are you a chick?”, they’d say, to which I proudly confirmed. “Oh, cool”, they’d say as they shot my head off with a double barrelled shotgun.
After a few questions, I was interested to find that the macho talk basically stopped. Everyone was back to business, knifing each other in the back and blowing each other up. It wasn’t that I expected anyone to treat me differently knowing that I was a girl, since its pretty obvious that females make up a large percentage of gamers these days. In all honestly, I was a bit saddened to hear the chatter stop, because at one point or another I wanted to get involved. I find it not so much a challenge but at the very least a method of harmless flirting.
This singular instance is by no means indicative of every online experience I’ve had, but to say that this particular round could inspire profound psychological analysis would be an understatement. After I came in second that round, the unusual impending silence made me only hope that I hadn’t alienated my fellow gamers by warrant of my gender, much less my skill. Naturally I am well aware I am not the only relatively skilled girl that plays online, I just may be the only one that finds the whole scene fascinating in a socio analytical perspective. At the end of the day, I feel like I’ll continue to use the headset. Maybe not to contribute to any inane displays of machismo or pigeonhole myself as the “chick in the room”, but just to get clued into to the mentality of my online enemy and allied gamer.
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