New documentary aims to expose sexual harassment in game industry

Shannon Sun-Higginson is a young filmmaker based in New York. As primarily a casual player, Sun-Higginson, until a year ago, was unaware of the extent to which women face abuse on a daily basis as players and as industry professionals.

"I immediately began researching and filming this documentary," she explains. "Of course not all gamers are trolls or abusers - many are kind, supportive, and equally disgusted by this type of behavior. But the fact remains that this is a real problem, and it's time that the non-gaming public know about it."

[Majin-vegeta]

Allow me to lighten up the mood. http://youtu.be/ZlHYegxrP8o

[Donnieboi]

Lololol

[JohnApocalypse]

That has made my day

[dark-hollow]

LOL smooth like butter.

[ijust2good]

i was on xbox Live yesterday and this guy was saying to a female in the lobby that he want to smell her pu*** and then...well u can guess what he said next.

Its astonishing how much sexism and perversity exist when playing via network gaming.

[spaceg0st]

i fail to understand how this is amusing.... this is the normal shit that happens on xbox as soon as a female speaks up. Everyone becomes rude and obnoxious, hitting on her and/or degrading her if she's any good. This guy sounds like the typical deusche you would expect to hear, nothing more.

[AnotherProGamer]

the reason some guys are sexist in games is because they don't have to see it to their faces

Everyone on the internet says stuff that they would never tell to a person's face

[fOrlOnhOpe57]

Does she think the non-gaming public would even be interested?

[RIPSKATEDESTROY]

It is a way to get them to cry out about the DANGERS of gamng again, how horrible we are and yaddayaddayadda. How about making a doc about all the good things about gaming if you are trying to get it to be a: "better place"

[cleft5]

Of course the non-gaming public will be interested. If you haven't noticed the media is constantly trying to demonize people who play games.

[2pacalypsenow]

so people think this only happens in video games ? lol

[Ogygian]

The internet is the last bastion of true freedom where people are allowed to speak their minds without consequences.

I HOPE THIS PROJECT FAILS.

[InTheLab]

It's the "without consequence" part that is the problem. There should always be consequences and gamers, as well as everyone on the net should own their words and eat them like Adam Orth.

And forevermore, i find it cowardly that people hide behind a keyboard saying whatever but wont say those same words to your face...

[dcbronco]

That's the funny thing about gamers. You can marginalize women all day long and most don't have an issue. But if someones says screw you if you don't have broadband and people go crazy.

For every 100 normal twelve year olds that marginalize females, there are ten or twenty unstable men that think that way. But the difference is those unstable men will be the ones that rape a women. Or beat their girlfriend. Or even murder a women that wouldn't do what they wanted. Everything seems insignificant until it applies to someone that is not all there. Then we see the extremes. And just because there are idiots like Rihanna doesn't mean you get to be stupid too.

@spartanlemur

Freedom isn't about getting to do anything you want. It's about doing anything you want as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else. Shoot yourself if you want. Just don't shoot anyone else unless you're protecting someone. Freedom in America has become the new all encompassing excuse for every dumb a-- idea that pops into the mind of a moron. There are consequences to anything that is unchecked. We should have learned that from capitalism on many occasions.

Americans are more enslaved than at anytime during the history of the country. And I'm including the slavery of blacks. And that is coming from a black man. And what makes it far worse is that it's voluntary. People allow themselves to get so caught up in silly ideas that they allow themselves to be manipulated by opportunist. You're only free to talk about being free.

[Ogygian]

I actually believe it's crucial for gathering data that the internet remains a place where people can speak freely.
I personally would very much like to see women treated equally, and that is the reason I oppose this documentary. I want to see women treated equally where it matters, such as in the workplace, in public and in education. In order to achieve this though, we need some way to measure how people *really* feel about gender equality, because if we just force people to think a certain way, we may push sexism behind closed doors where it may continue to exist on the sidelines.
On this, I feel it's important to keep the internet a place which reflects genuine attitudes in society rather than the fake attitudes which some people pretend to hold in order to be socially accepted.
I believe that a quick-fix would be to make the internet more transparent and ban people with views found unacceptable from engaging in debate, but the long term fix is to allow the internet to remain a reflection of attitudes found in mainstream society.

@dcbronco

It's incredibly hard to find the right balance between freedom and control, but I personally find that the right level is ensuring property rights are protected (the right to not be physically harmed, robbed, have personal property damaged, eggs thrown at you etc. - that should all be very much illegal) while completely disregarding verbal abuse among adults (as children are not fully-fledged citizens, they need more protection than adults, and thus bullying must be stamped out), as if the government can't trust us with our own mental independence, where do they draw the line on control?

[FunAndGun]

@spartanlemur

You sound like a coward. If you don't feel comfortable saying those things in public, why is it okay to say on the internet.

There is still true freedom to say what you want in public, just as there is freedom for those around you to look down on you in shame.

You just want the freedom to be a prick without the shame.

[Ogygian]

I don't get looked at as a prick when I talk of equal opportunity for women, as I know few people who look down on such views.
I disagree with genuine sexists, but I don't despise them.
I do get looked down on for engaging with sexists and trying to persuade them of my views rather than insulting them and socially isolating them.
I don't look at sexists, racists or homophobes as evil people who deserve social alienation, but rather as misguided people who need their beliefs challenged in a constructive, civil manner.
Also, I'm British, and here you can get locked in jail for saying what you want in public if it offends someone, and even for creating similarly themed twitter posts.

What I'd like to see is people continue to make such comments on the internet so that we might try and engage in debate with the people who post them. If they stop posting their views on these issues, we have no way of trying to change their minds. Also, sexual harassment IMO is physical and MUST be cracked down on at a government level.

[IIC0mPLeXII]

After all the shit with games creating murderers and now this its no wonder our thing is viewed in such a negative light. When are people going to stop blaming other outlets and just accept the fact that human beings are just fucking terrible in nature. Period.

[kreate]

exactly! blame the ppl, not the games, guns, movies, music, etc.

[Captain Tuttle]

I see that the maturity level of N4G hasn't changed :/

Glad she's doing this, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

[cleft5]

Good luck to her with the documentary. But I hope this turns into something real and more than just a propaganda push. It's great that she is presented the problem, but I hope she presents some solutions as well.

[BlackCarrot]

Right, sorry, can't disagree or point flaws out in an argument in case I'm labelled as immature... dear me.