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from the perhaps-men-don't-like-losing-to-a-woman dept.
On Monday the e-sports industry awards take place in London to applaud the top players in the business but not one female player has been nominated.
Competitive gaming, also known as Electronic Sports or e-sports, is growing at an incredible pace. In 2016, revenues from e-sports are predicted by professional services firm Deloitte to rise by 25% to $500m (£406m). Its regular global audience will likely top 150 million people.
Unlike in traditional sport, physical advantages in e-sports are non-existent yet the most popular games are still overwhelmingly played by men.
Recent research by the Pew Center shows men and women are equally likely to say they play video games but men are twice as likely to consider themselves "gamers". It is when gaming becomes competitive that the number of women playing drops dramatically.
Steph Harvey is one of the most successful gamers in the world. She says that the number of women in e-sports is as low as 5% and the main reason is the stereotype attached to gamers. "It's still a 'boy's club' so as a woman you're automatically judged for being different," she says.
Online abuse has been prevalent in the gaming community for years and even led to a misogynistic hate campaign.
Steph has even received online rape threats in the past: "The way I get harassed is about what they would do to my body, about why I don't deserve to be there because I use my sexuality - it's all extremely graphic."
[...] Julia Kiran is the leader of Team Secret, which in October became the top female team in the world. She thinks this reflects a common attitude: "It's always felt that female teams are not a real scene. Male players see us as a side game that doesn't count."
One of the solutions has been the creation of female teams and female-only tournaments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @09:56AM
Guys aren't actually hostile to each other. The masculine "rough and tumble" play and it's social extension is more of a bond-making mechanism than actual hostility. Males are perfectly capable of cooperating with each other, and in fact they've evolved to compete with other groups instead of each other (ie the Male-Warrior hypothesis). There is fairly strong evidence [apa.org] to suggest that males have evolved to cooperate much better with other males than in female only groups or mixed gender groups.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:50PM
As far as I see, men are more able to compartmentalize than women are. We're not as in touch with our feelings, more able to ignore them and that's why when it's important more of us can work with some guy we hate so that all of us and our tribe don't get killed. You see in sports (or war) lots of guys are able to help someone they really hate, for the sake of the team or greater good. But I've asked a number of women and they say if they hate that person they can't do that sort of thing. I was actually quite surprised by this, I was like "but, but..." . Presumably the issues have to be resolved first (either the woman forgives the person, or they settle it or whatever).
Of course if a safe opportunity occurs for us to frag that hated guy and get away with it, then that guy might get killed. But that's usually only done when a) you've practically won or b) you're losing so bad that it doesn't matter any more.
But I suppose that's why more guys are sociopaths, CEOs and Dictators.
See also: http://www.nature.com/news/2003/030918/full/news030915-8.html [nature.com]
Only female monkeys show this pique, the researchers found. Males were much less sensitive to inequality. Their minds may have been on other things, says Janson: "Males care about sex, and females care about food. The males might not consider the food differences worth worrying about."
Either that or the males see the big picture, they're prisoners. Why kick up such a big fuss over a grape vs a cucumber? And seems if you don't play their stupid games at all you don't get toyed/trolled as much with as the silly females... Hmm looks like I got back on topic ;).