A Four-Step Exercise That Will Open Your Eyes About Video Game Culture

Some people seem to think that gaming culture is equally welcoming to everybody and that those who are suggesting that gaming culture needs to be less hostile to members of some groups–that it could stand to be less misogynistic, for instance–are complaining about nothing. Once, I might have thought that way myself, but I had my eyes opened. I’d like to invite people who don’t perceive any aspects of gaming culture to be at all hostile to anyone to follow this simple four-step process that will open your eyes to the fact that some people are not exactly made to feel welcome in physical and online gaming spaces.

Step One: Be white and assigned male at birth.

Piece of cake. I did this without even trying, and I’m sure you can too.

Step Two: Spend a lot of time in physical and online gaming spaces while being perceived as a straight white male.

Go to arcades. Have consoles at home. Form friendships in which hanging around and playing video games together plays a big role. Spend lots of time talking about games with people. Notice that warm feeling of belonging you often get. Perhaps reasonably assume that this feeling of belonging is available to anyone who wants to share in the world of video games.

Step Three: In order to live a more honest and authentic life, transition and live as the woman you are.

Keep loving video games. Notice how things are different; how, for instance, when you play games online with strangers, you’re invariably mocked and ridiculed. Notice how that feeling of belonging you used to get is often replaced with the clear sense that many other people who would have welcomed you before really do not want you around, playing games with them.

Step Four: Get a job writing about games for a major gaming site.

Sit back, relax, and watch how, from day one, vile, hateful comments surface on just about any video you appear in or do voiceover on, and on most of the things you write, about how you don’t belong, how women in games media are supposed to be “attractive” because gaming sites and games are first and foremost for straight dudes. Think about how your gender and your appearance were never made an issue before when you were perceived as a cisgender straight white male, but now, the fact that you are transgender and a woman is always a huge factor in how people respond to the work you do. 

Really, I didn’t start out as an “SJW” or whatever. There was a time, many years ago, when I thought gaming culture was warm and welcoming to anyone who wanted to be a part of it, because it was warm and welcoming to me. Then it wasn’t anymore. Then I saw that it wasn’t for a lot of people, that I had been so privileged before. So if anyone ever asks me what led me to where I am politically within the world of video games, well, it was my own, personal, eye-opening experiences with how incredibly different gaming culture is if you’re seen as a straight white cisgender man or if you’re seen as a white transgender woman. 

I invite you to try it as well! If you do, report back and let me know how it went for you!