A lot of this week had to do with communities and community building. Minecraft is a prime example of different communities. It allows servers, which provides a platform for people to come together and cooperate in a space they enjoy. It is capable of more than survival, but also creative modes that focus specifically on making whatever you want. Servers can supply both toxic and safe spaces. So it is important to recognize that not every area is beneficial. In the same way, not every group is going to be welcoming. In a group full of the majority, the minority may never find a space comfortable.

Today, I’d like to relate welcoming spaces for minorities to my own experiences. Tabletop Simulator is a game that allows a community driven workshop of multiple board games to be played online. As a female, I have a group of exclusively males friends and we play a deduction game known as Secret Hitler. Although my friends are quite inclusive, being a minority within a group ultimately singles you out. In a game built on trust, if you are the minority, you stand out and people will pin you or deduce you as the enemy. However, if one chooses to not speak, nobody suspects who you are, but at the same time, you can’t provide any valuable information to any other members on who the enemy is. It brings up the question that even if a community is inclusive and tries to create a safe space for females or a minority, does it truly deliver a comfortable or fair environment?

I’d like to relate this to hackerspaces. Hackerspace is a word and thing that I’ve never heard of before. They “are volunteer-run spaces where one can tinker with hardware, software or any other types of technology and socialize.” Many spaces have opened up with the goal of creating a safe space for women. In the process, it provides women with a new outlet to explore STEM and level the heavily male dominated playing field for computer science. The feminist hacker space is not exclusive to only women, but it is welcoming to women. More STEM focused groups should be produced in order to give females the capability to explore more hobbies and occupations. If a space is feminist friendly, it doesn’t guarantee that the space has the majority as females. Let’s say it is though. Although we solved the problem by making the majority into the minority, who is to say that the environment doesn’t create a new minority? For example, one minority could be the least knowledgeable versus the highly experienced individual. It is intimidating to be the odd one out in any situation.

In general, when will there be a place that the majority can’t intimidate or pick out the minority unconsciously? Even if the location is inclusive, it will never take away the fact everyone lives with unconscious bias. A group will single out someone who isn’t like them although they can try to be self conscious, they will cause a new bias in the wake of their old bias.

Works Cited

Payne, Matthew Thomas, and Nina Huntemann. How to Play Video Games. New York University Press, 2019.

Toupin, Sophie. “Feminist Hackerspaces: The Synthesis of Feminist and Hacker Cultures (2014).” Journal of Peer Production, http://www.academia.edu/24232869/Feminist_Hackerspaces_The_Synthesis_of_Feminist_and_Hacker_Cultures_2014_.

One of the topics from class, domesticity, brought up some interesting points in regards to video games. “Domestication also refers more literally to the integration of the novel object into the home.” Videogames were slowly domesticated and transferred into the home and our lives. The first main consoles like the Atari infiltrated the home with their basic games that had no real niche audience. They were very abstract. This domestication happened during a point where games weren’t created completely with the gender in mind, but also it was quite difficult to make a game to fit gender with the few pixels they had. As stated in HTPVG, the ball and paddle games were meant to bring the family together, that was their marketing strategy, the family. Specifically, both genders were advertised to and this was a time period, where games had equality and more representation for women compared to the following years. Now games don’t have to worry about what specific audience as much as they worry about trying to appeal to every audience. It may be impossible to appease everyone, but it is very apparent that companies will try to incorporate as large of an audience as possible.

In the same way that domestication occurred with the ball and paddle games, we can see a similarity as casual and mobile games attempt to integrate themselves into a broad audience, that will spread gaming as a whole, versus the setting of the home and family. Domestication is similar to ludification. “The focus of ludification is on the spread of play as a practice, playfulness as an attitude and the supposedly growing role of playful designs in our everyday reality.” Mobile games have been at the bottom of the “hardcore” gaming caste system. However, the creation of games like Pokemon Go have allowed more hardcore gamers, previous lovers of Pokemon, and casual gamers to join together. There are elements within Pokemon Go that could be deemed hardcore. Elements like grinding can be considered hardcore and Pokemon Go definitely takes long hours and time to become a high level and obtain good pokemon. However, the easy accessibility and playability of it confirms Pokemon Go as a mobile or casual game. There are four elements of a mobile game that makes it what it is and those are “gameplay accessibility, software accessibility, everyday ubiquity, and variable monetization.” A phone is quite accessible already, but Pokemon Go is free, a simple download, has an easy interface and is overall basic for anyone to start playing.

Overall, the process of ludification and domestication both are an integration of games into an audience. Although, ludification is on a much larger scale. It is the push for gaming in everyday life. One could say that ludification is negative. Games shouldn’t consume our everyday life or else we would jeopardize productivity, which is true in many scenarios. With the addition of social distancing, people can end up forgetting their daily duties and hope to just stick to the luxuries of homelife.

Works Cited

Mäyrä, Frans. “Pokémon GO: Entering the Ludic Society.” Mobile Media & Communication, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, pp. 47–50., doi:10.1177/2050157916678270.

Payne, Matthew Thomas, and Nina Huntemann. How to Play Video Games. New York University Press, 2019.

In class we played through Dys4ia. It focused on a character’s experience with gender dysmorphia and the struggles throughout transitioning. Interestingly, the game never shows the character with a face. It allows the audience to empathize better as the character has no inherent race or body. Sometimes the character is a shield or sometimes a strange blob, which we play through many minigames with. The uniqueness of this game is that it is inclusive and also quite aged in a sense. The old school feel is interesting and allows the previously mentioned blob to be easily implemented because the game doesn’t have the normal extremely detailed graphics or style that is used today. The topic of diversity transitions well with the article from class.  “they’re all trans sharon” talks about minorities and their use of fanfictions to re-express themselves into video games. Although we can find games like Dys4ia, which directly displays a minority, many modern games don’t include minorities as protagonists nor do they create intensely diverse environments. Normally, the protagonist is the generic straight male. 

So, people find new ways to represent themselves within those games. I’m familiar with Undertale and its very expressive community, where there are side characters who are already lesbian and are written about quite often. This is mostly in the realm of shipping, which is seen in more than just games. In shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock and Supernatural, it is common to see male characters paired with each other, regardless of their actual sexuality. Its hard to tell though if this is just fetishizing gay men or lesbian women. I´ve never heard of men publicly writing stories of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson together. It’s obvious that many women like to combine male characters. In the same way, men like to put two female characters in a relationship together. Would this be actually inclusive or are we just creating a new problem? It’s not new news that people enjoy drama and romance. If someone likes men, why wouldn’t they want to see their favorite male characters together in a romance? “Fan fiction provides an opportunity to critique a game by rewriting or expanding on its different elements (Dym, Brubaker, Fiesler).” This is the positive way to look at it, but then again everything might have some sort of drawback. Another thing to note is the writers uses of tags to critique the failing of companies to include more diverse characters. Many tags focus on the idea that everyone in the world is trans or some specific sexuality or characteristic that is not within societal norms. This is definitely more in the realm of what the article had in mind, but it is essential to note that not all fanfictions are overall positive.

In general, Dys4ia is the example of a game without the stereotypical video game protagonist. It is a step above fanfiction. However, the fanfiction is capable of expressing personal experiences like Dys4ia. It does not just fight for equality. It has some negatives as characters are paired for fetishing and not due to diversity. However, how does one pinpoint a fetish versus diversity? It is a topic I hope to understand more about.

Work Cited

“Game Studies.” Game Studies – “They’re All Trans Sharon”: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction, gamestudies.org/1803/articles/brubaker_dym_fiesler.

The audience of a game is always going to be the first thing a game designer has in mind because without the audience there is no one to buy the product. For video games, the male target audience is in the forefront, but as we can see, there is an existing female audience. It is not only an activity for men. Even with some acknowledgement of the audience, women are still placed into a stereotype. Chess explains that the market fails to realize them as an audience and decides to determine them as just a genre of games.This genre is pretty much what is known as female games, which was given a set of components that determined what made a game feminine. The list of characteristics, that Chess included from Sheri Graner Ray’s book, is as follows: less risk, cooperative play, avatar customization, forgiving game designs, indirect competition and less moving objects. So, this is why many mobile games are deemed convenient for women as they are less time consuming, less violent and more convenient. For example, Farmville incorporated a lot of these aspects. There was avatar customization through your farmer. You couldn’t die and the only real risk was your plants withering. Also, there weren’t any moving objects like a first person shooter. These types of games are widely popular and this is why the mobile game market is the size it is today.

With the realization of this new found game style, more games became appealing for women. However, mobile games were the female genre and the female audience couldn’t see the light of day. As women are stuck as a genre, they are never broken down into the many communities that actually exist. They are forever stuck as stereotypes like fashion, shopping and mobile games. On the other hand, we do see games try to appeal towards the female audience instead of just focusing on the game as a genre. One game, Life is Strange, is very ambiguous as there are plenty of female characters. The protagonist, Max, is not just your average feminine girl. She appeals to the tomboys, hipsters, and outsiders. She plays ice hockey and is very passionate about photography. Also, the game has very simple mechanics and time management, which would fit into the list of female game characteristics like non threatening and risk free. This game isn’t just for women though and seems to be playable by other audiences, due to the appeal of an intriguing narrative. Not to mention, it’s not a mobile game, which definitely helps it rise above being just a female game and helps justify itself within the male dominated communities.

As we look towards the future of games, we can only hope that the female audience is expanded upon and dropped as only a female game genre. It is clear that females are very avid gamers, regardless of the political connotation and fear of labeling themselves as one. They do exist even if nobody wants to admit it. Personally, i’d hope to see the female audience have more debuts within the hardcore communties because games are getting quite stale.

Work Cited

Chess, Shira. Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Gaming has always had some sort of gendering as a means for companies to profit off a target audience. Previously as seen within arcades, games were marketed towards adults, but it was normally males. Brought up by Kocurek, gendering had a foundation in arcades as businesses began using the themes of violence and sports, which were considered a male activity. Then as the arcade business began pursuing a change in marketing towards toys, video games had to be gendered more between boys and girls like soldiers and dolls. So, pink games were what girls were given. Eventually pink games died out, but it was quite evident that in magazines like Nintendo Power, males were targeted much more heavily than females. Imagine how games would have progressed if they were only marketed towards girls. Would games be themed differently?

Pink games had barbies and bright colors, which is what we see in Kirby minus the barbies. Character customization might have been all the rage, while violence and sports would have been ignored. However, maybe video games towards females would have failed horribly, due to these restrictions. Like any industry, they would have to branch out towards different topics to get more viewers. It would be impossible to stick with only females and their stereotypes and that is why we find more games trying to be inclusive and diverse today.

Most multiplayer games have some type of female character that can be played, which reminds me of the ever controversial playable female characters in Battlefield V. The argument was that it was not historically accurate to have females fighting in WWII. They didn’t take them out, regardless of the backlash. This does bring up a topic that we have mentioned before in class. It’s the topic of pandering, but I don’t know if we specifically used that word. For example, when Overwatch’s face of the game, Tracer, was pronounced gay through a comic, a lot of people were upset, but mostly because of the whole pushing the agenda of diversity and ruining games in the process conspiracy. It was evident that maybe Tracer wasn’t originally homosexual during the planning of the game and actually was made that way for publicity and expanding their profits into the lgbtq community. Doing this isn’t inherently horrible, but it does just look like companies want a quick cash grab. Going back to the original arcade industry, it seems that it was all about a cash grab. Isn’t that what industry is all about? Money. They want to make the consumer happy, but they have to make profit doing so.

Overall, the act of gendering things might appear convenient at first, but it could be less profitable. It’s much easier to market towards a key audience and age and gender is probably the easiest and broadest demographic to use. It doesn’t completely explain why we see companies branching out. I assume that once they have a solid fan base then they can focus on other groups because there is only so much a fan can give after they bought the game. Even if it is considered pandering, it does satisfy the needs of this modern day and age. There is always a need for representation, but if it’s bad representation, maybe we don’t need it so much.

Works Cited

Cote, Amanda C. “Writing ‘Gamers’: The Gendered Construction of Gamer Identity in Nintendo Power (1994–1999).” Games and Culture, vol. 13, no. 5, July 2018, pp. 479–503, doi:10.1177/1555412015624742.

Kocurek, Carly A.. Coin-Operated Americans : Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/lib/buffalo/detail.action?docID=4391801.

Empathy is normally described as a good thing. Placing yourself in someone else’s shoes creates a lot of incite towards another person’s perspective, but it is limited. A game or any type of media can’t fully immerse oneself into another person’s life. This is why many people hate when others say they can relate to what they are feeling, because if they aren’t them, then they really can’t. This is brought up by Teddy Pozo and that not only can this type of empathy accomplish less for the empathizer, there are always drawbacks, especially when the empathy causes more realization of distinct differences between the issue being explored and the people trying to empathize with it. It’s not only negative. It can also be beneficial like bringing awareness on an issue, but it almost seems like there could be a hint of danger with empathy. How far can empathizing go within gaming?

It is from queerness that we are confronted with empathy being essential not only within the game, but trying to connect from the controller to the game. Controllers do not fully connect us to a game. They are an extension of us, but there is no physical feedback except maybe the rumble pack in a console controller. Miguel Sicart stresses the importance of queering the controller. This would mean to have actual feeling from it. Miguel specifically compares how sex toys are made with the body in mind and that video game makers should think similarly. When reading Sicart’s article, all I thought about was in the movie Ready Player One, where the main character received a suit where he could feel everything in virtual reality. This reference is what I got out of Sicart’s interpretation of a queer controller for some reason. Now a bodysuit in virtual reality sounds pretty cool, but also to what extent could games become quite horrifying with this invention. There is something that could be quite amazing with being able to feel something in a game, but also there are plenty of terrifying events that could happen that nobody would want to actually place themselves fully into. I believe maybe games have no place in being a fully connected experience. In positive ways, it would be fine, but how far can we go before your controller becomes a torture device. Interactivity like pleasure and temperature are quite tame for a controller. It wouldn’t be a deathtrap and it would allow a greater experience for the player and their body. It could create better empathizing within games, but as I said earlier, we can’t experience the real life feelings of others.

Overall, when controllers provide the player with a deeper connection. It allows greater empathy. This is positive for a fictional narrative, yet people might find themselves becoming too close to the fictional or nonfictional experiences. They might feel like they know what another person has felt, which is never truly beneficial. The differences between the empathizer and one who is empathized with, would be lessened, but not everyone will see this as an opportunity to learn and spread awareness.

Works Cited

Pozo, Teddy. “Queer Games After Empathy: Feminism and Haptic Game Design Aesthetics from Consent to Cuteness to the Radically Soft.” Game Studies – Queer Games After Empathy: Feminism and Haptic Game Design Aesthetics from Consent to Cuteness to the Radically Soft, Dec. 2018, gamestudies.org/1803/articles/pozo.

Sicart, Miguel. “Queering the Controller.” Analog Game Studies, 23 Dec. 2019, analoggamestudies.org/2017/07/queering-the-controller/.

Women in gaming communities have found discrimination and hate in a variety of ways. One of the main ways is trolling. Although it is not just a gender problem, the issue is that the comments utilized are targeted specifically against the minorities’ characteristics. Women are flamed for their gender, which is a strong reminder of their oppression. I personally do not feel the harmful effects of the comments as others do. So at times, I believed that the method of an eye for an eye would work in treating these flaming situations, but in the end, it can always simply worsen the issue. The stigma of women not being real gamers or unable to play certain roles derives within flaming and can be noted in other environments besides just the game lobbies. One issue, due to the rise of streaming platforms, is the label known as cam girl. In the article, “Nothing but a ‘titty streamer’”, the notion that women abuse their looks for views is a complicated problem. Many people who find these females as a difficulty believe that the streamers do not play enough video games. They cover their screen with the majority of their camera or wear “scandalous” clothing. There are some cases that accurately describe this, but in other cases, women are judged just for their appearance alone. This unnecessary discrimination against females only justifies the existence of a power struggle to uphold gaming masculinity. 

The combination of masculinity and the spectacle of women’s breasts/physiques is seen throughout gaming. It is not only notable through the harrassing from twitch viewers, but it is a part of many games’ designs. An example is the troll character model within World of Warcraft. The alpha models have females and males looking strictly similar with only minor changes. This contrasts greatly with the new models that have women looking quite generic as if they were ready to head onto a fashion runway, while the males look like they were hit with an ugly stick. The forced addition of large breasts and wide hips leave nothing to the imagination. Creativity is stunted in order to appease the target male audience. The sexualization of women is profitable. Maybe if personality was considered sexy in the market, characters could be profitable and have a wide range of body types and designs that attract a larger audience. The belief that male sexual desires have to be catered for in order to attract and keep people playing is just a stereotype on men that hurts them as well as women.

Overall, if designers chose to produce more abstract female characters, there would be a change in attitude towards women in some ways. Maybe the change from objectification to humanization of females might adjust the gaming community in a direction where people no longer find women with skin showing as pandering and sexual. However, there are still other forms of media that present women as a spectacle and treating this problem at the source may be much more complex than realized.

Works Cited

Bonnie Ruberg, Amanda L. L. Cullen & Kathryn Brewster (2019) Nothing but a “titty streamer”: legitimacy, labor, and the debate over women’s breasts in video game live streaming, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 36:5, 466-481, DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2019.1658886

Representation is one of the ways that diverse characteristics of people and cultures are displayed. It is seen in all forms of media. However one of the many problems with this is that representation isn’t always positive. Media like games and tv can represent someone in a stereotypical way, which is a negative representation. Games in particular have difficulty with breaking from traditional characters and stereotypes that conform to hegemonic masculinity and femininity that is inherently submissive and lacking of any independence. The representation of masculinity and femininity is therefore negative.

 Within games and game culture, shows like the Guild, mentioned in “Gamers, gender, and cruel optimism”, although at first glance appear to be progressive with a main female protagonist and a diverse cast, falls flat to be as such. Zaboo, one of the members and gamers in The Guild, tries to impress codex, the female protagonist, by becoming independent and gaining muscle mass. While doing this, he attempts male bonding with Vork, the leader of the group. These few acts signify Zaboo’s need to be within male gender expectations. In the same way, our female protagonist fails at any attempt to be more than just skittish and indecisive. Besides some minor feats, she refuses all opportunities to grow, especially when given the opportunity to be a guild leader. The Guild presents its characters consistently in a bad light. 

On the other hand, we could say shows like Video Game High school provide a better side of femininity, not necessarily masculinity. Although they do not inherently try to be progressive, characters like Ki have some sense of leadership and independence as she attempts to become a better programmer. There is also Jenny Matrix who is feminine, but a hardcore esports gamer that expresses her own needs before her love interest, which breaks standard norms. The problem is, even those two do not compare to the main character, Brian D., who progresses from a clumsy kid that doesn’t know what he is doing to an esports professional. He accomplishes much more, but he is the protagonist. One could say that the main protagonist could be a female who takes on the same tasks, but with the toxicity of online gaming communities, the show would most likely receive harsh reviews by the male gamer target audience. 

On to the topic of games, we do have progressive attempts and many of them do succeed. However, a lot of games that have been mentioned focus on many masculinity stereotypes. In the Last of Us, Joel has many characteristics of strength. Muscle mass and leadership are two of the connections to masculinity that prove the continuous focus on a strong male protagonist. Although we do see new trends like dadification which represents a more positive aspect of males, this still diminishes the strength of Ellie, the young female working beside him. Luckily, this modern representation is far less negative than Leisure Suit Larry and its stereotypes of the LGBTQ community.

Without proper representation, gaming culture will never change. There will be backlash within the community from it. There will also still be negative representation in games regardless of the positive. However, if there is an attempt at change, things might be more inclusive and diverse within these communities.

Works Cited

Amanda C. Cote & Cody Mejeur (2018) Gamers, gender, and cruel optimism: the limits of social identity constructs in The Guild, Feminist Media Studies, 18:6, 963-978, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1376699

Payne, Matthew Thomas, and Nina Huntemann. How to Play Video Games. New York University Press, 2019.

The game world can be more than just a game. World building is a never ending task. Every last detail can be scrutinized and in the end, it supports the overarching plot line that has a complex narrative structure. In a game like Bioshock Infinite, there is a diverse and beautiful world with museums, dialogue, and views that expand the world for the player, even if they don’t care for it. However, every small thing they take in has some effect on a player, which can be see in hidden morals or critiques on society. The background of Bioshock Infinite incorporates the corruptness of history within a government. The player might not notice it but it might embed itself so that when a person gets out of the game, they’ll hopefully make a connection between the game and reality. Now, for Bioshock, the corrupt government isn’t the main goal of the story. The goal is to find Elizabeth. 

However, games like Assassin’s Creed have a much heavier focus on corruption, which is seen more within the goals. In Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, there are two story lines, one for Desmond and one for his descendent, Ezio Auditore. Both are fighting a corrupt legion, known as the templars, which the templars can represent not only the rich, but societal norms. Assassins are the robin hoods, fighting for the greater good. This is similar to the later games, where the assassins are pirates,which have a code of respect and equality. They are outlaws, but their reasonings are not corrupt like the law. World building and plot is more intertwined with social critique of wealth and the corruption that comes with it. Even though the utilization of world building presents the player with morals and concepts, a nonbeliever of games might not see it, due to their view of games as childish or violent in some way shape or form. However, it can be noted that games are as valuable and eye openings as literature.

From world building, a narrative is supported and broadened, which can have two different types. In Shira Chess’s article, they explain that one of these types, the queer narrative, which is story telling focused on the journey and not the climax, is beneficial and better for games. At times it appears as if most games could be classified as a heterosexual narrative, but its confusing. Most modern games like Assassin’s Creed have a climax, yet there are moments where you find many side quests and enjoyment in just sailing the seas or exploring vast cities in worlds you could only dream of visiting. I’d say many narratives are mixed and try to keep a balance between both because the only pleasure of a climax might be too boring for some players.

In general, world building gives a story more depth. A player can more thoroughly enjoy that plot and in turn, critiques of different topics can be brought to their attention. The narrative can determine how world building is advanced with more side quests or gameplay, while the climax could also be heavily focused, which leaves the player with less pleasure during the journey. However, both types can still be expressive and enjoyable with expanse worlds.

Works Cited

Payne, Matthew Thomas, and Nina Huntemann. How to Play Video Games. New York University Press, 2019.

Shira Chess (2016) The queer case of video games: orgasms, Heteronormativity, and video game narrative, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 33:1, 84-94, DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2015.1129066

Harassment and casual trolling are two words that are consistently involved with each other, yet they’re both separated by a gray area because not all trolling can be harassment. However, they’re easily found in the same place, for instance GamerGate. GamerGate was an unexpected explosion in the online community that brought online trolling and harassment to the forefront of news. It started with a small, yet long 10,000 word manifesto of pure hate and invalid sources. It was posted on forums, which anonymous people jumped on the hate bandwagon or as Anita Sarkeesian called it, an online mob. In my opinion, a lot of the mob mentality within situations like GamerGate is instigated by trolling. Although trolling is defined more like minute negative acts, which aren’t as extreme as the horrific death threats towards Zoe Quinn, something could be said about the evolution of trolling. Some versions of trolling like body blocking and in-game obstruction can be semi harmless, but when done in bad taste, it’s detrimental. 

Insults are an example of harmful trolling. During GamerGate, users on anonymous forums, like 4chan, were the harassers and many 4chan users would categorize their own harassment as trolling, but this could be a harsher form. Other words like flaming and griefing are discussed as a variation of trolling instead, where they teeter on the edge of harassment and trolling. Regardless, trolling is a form of sadism (Cook). In the minds of the troll, there is almost no end to how far their sadism can go. Therefore, can trolling evolve into a form of sexual harassment or abuse? 

It could be the case, but what can be done to combat this? 

The Center for Solution of Violence demonstrates extreme promise. Not only does it provide resources for victims of harassment, but it informs potential abusers, which appear beneficial in fixing the root of a cause. Resources can be quite efficient, but stopping the problem at the source would end more need for resources. Not everyone starts off as a harasser. It could truly be anyone. Trolling can start as a game for many. The attention and reaction is one of the more popular reasons for trolling (Cook). Harmless actions, like blowing up your friend’s house in Minecraft, can be fun and games, but the reasons behind the actions determine the issue. If the person is doing it to see the reaction of the other person and the distraught they feel when all their hard work is lost, it could be a sign of something small or maybe nothing at all. Whatever the reason, informing others of how to nip these problems at the bud would be helpful for the possible abuser and victim.

In conclusion, harassment and casual trolling are once again similar. Trolling can appear harmless, yet become more than just a game. For some, it might start as a game and end much worse. With all this in mind, it’s up to us to report findings and take action before things get out of hand again, like GamerGate.

By: Samantha Reeb

Works Cited

Cook, Christine, et al. “Under the Bridge: An in-Depth Examination of Online Trolling in the Gaming Context.” New Media & Society, vol. 20, no. 9, Sept. 2018, pp. 3323–3340, doi:10.1177/1461444817748578.

FemTechNet, femtechnet.org/about/.