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Really interesting read. I appreciate that it highlights the problems with the data and doesn't reach ridiculous conclusions based on junk data. Anecdotally I'

Really interesting read. I appreciate that it highlights the problems with the data and doesn't reach ridiculous conclusions based on junk data. Anecdotally I've found a noticeable improvement since Endorsements, which this data missed. Also the rise of Fortnite and more recently Apex Legends has led to a further decrease in toxicity that I've seen. A lot of toxic kids left for BR pastures. That's on PC in the EU region on a high-silver current, low-gold peak SR account, casual QP-heavy play but some comp, pure flexing (as I prefer to fill rather than focus on maining one or two characters. Maining is arguably the best way to climb out to Plat). I'm an almost ridiculously positive player with a gender neutral name and I've found being overtly positive vastly improves the experience. It does prompt a couple of toxic responses ("kys", "fuck off" etc) but the majority is really positive. (I generally just report any toxicity.) Playing without voice in Comp is sub-optimal, as winning is much easier with some kind of synergy. Even a basic PharMercy combo, or ultimate combos like a EMP+DVa Bomb can be highly effective. I normally Solo Q, but playing paired with a friend in QP yesterday I had a surreal experience. One player on the enemy team insulted my friend (sexual but not specifically-gendered insult). She was playing with a non-gendered name, as Moira, and the toxic enemy player complained she was carrying us. All the players on both teams turned on the toxic player, calling them out and highlighting why they were actually losing. I have not seen anything like it before but it was hilarious. Stay As A Team is great in theory, but a team of 6 randomised will get rekt by a pre-made 6 stack on Discord with each other, and the matchmaker doesn't seem to take that into account. I wonder what region author was playing on?

kfwhp 8y ago
Every time I see a feminine name in a videogame I think the person is just fishing for attention. This is important because most players of both genders use neutral-looking names. The study doesn't account for this.
- SolaceQuantum 8y ago
  Honestly, I don't really see such behavior directed towards male names though. Stuff like LucasJones or MikeAtLarge or LordOfKilling doesn't get the same attention that SuzieHealsU or CuteLamb or PrincessHurtful might. If it was equal, I'd expect 'MrKickass' to be questioned and assumed to be grabbing attntion that 'MsKilljoy' gets... but in my experience this distinctly isn't the case.
  - kfwhp 8y ago
    I agree with you on this. What I meant to say is that people who use gendered names are going out of their way to show what their gender is; an overwhelming amount of people use completely neutral names. This is, regardless of the treatment you receive because of your gender.
    - SolaceQuantum 8y ago
      I also am saying that I don't believe male gendered names get nearly the same attention as female gendered names. 'PrinceJake' doesn't get the same derision as 'PrincessEla' which is what the study is trying to explore.
    - ggggtez 8y ago
      This isn't true, because if you receive harassment for having a "feminine" name, but no harassment for a "masculine" name, then when you go create a new account for a new game, you might be discouraged from using the feminine name. You really need to consider how to account for experimental variables that affect each other.
      - kfwhp 8y ago
        This isn't true in my experience, because in that case there would be many more players with masculine names than with feminine names, which is not the case; I'd say the amounts are similar, with an overwhelming majority of neutral names. Important: this coming from my background, which is WoW, and not any of these modern games and communities. Maybe things have changed? The average WoW player is definitely older than the average Fortnite/OW/whatever player.
        ggggtez 8y ago
        I have no idea what you consider a "neutral" name, but I'd caution you that if you only work based on your own personal perception instead of talking to others, then you are not going to see your own biased perceptions. Certainly women play video games, and one only needs to talk to them and ask them why they choose one name over another to quickly accumulate first hand stories. If you do this with people you know in real life, you may find some clues as to what you aren't seeing first hand. Edit: and, for what it's worth, you may forget that WoW has some unique rules on names compared to other games. No idea how that may affect things.
- ggggtez 8y ago
  The thing you are saying doesn't even make sense as a criticism of the study. You are complaining about something the study didn't even try to measure (the "why"). The study only tried to measure if there was a difference at all, and whether it was measurable. As a side note, I recommend meditating on why seeing a female name on the internet upsets you, when you should be well aware that 50% of human beings are female. If players didn't get upset and force females to play under male/neutral names, maybe it wouldn't be as shocking to notice when they don't.
- Vector919 8y ago
  > This is important because most players of both genders use neutral-looking names. The study doesn't account for this. Is this true broadly? I'd be curious to know if there's any data on that besides for anecdotal evidence. also, a "neutral-looking" name can be really subjective, I would guess that there's a lot of player names that use adjectives that might be inadvertently related to a particular gender based on the cultural context. I'd be curious to know what the names are in this case.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- gbrown 8y ago
  Why should a gendered name invite more attention in any way? People are often given gendered names at birth, after all.
  - justtopost 8y ago
    The game is gender agnostic. Dragging your personal identity into a game is a factor. JulieSmiles, Dankweedgamer666, and BeatlesFan1974 are all going to be treated differently.
    - fwip 8y ago
      JulianSmiles gets treated different than JuliaSmiles, though. That's the whole point of this research. "Dragging your personal identity in" only seems to apply when that identity is different than the assumed default (male), hmmm....
      - gbrown 8y ago
        exactly, some biases are showing here.
ben_jones 8y ago
Overwatch remains one of the most toxic games I've ever played. I've put well over 1,000 hours into that game but haven't played for about 9 months now, and honestly its a breath of fresh air (to not deal with it anymore). There's something about the rank structure of the game (and others I've heard about like LoL and Dota) that encourages beratement. Apex Legends conversely has been amazing in comparison. Maybe its because its new, the tagging system, that its a free game, or that there is no ranked structure (yet), but I've met nothing but cheery people and the occasional crude drunk. I've played with a couple shy women, but (anecdotally) have seen not one iota of what i've seen in Overwatch (aside from crude usernames that are prevalent everywhere).
- kfwhp 8y ago
  >that its a free game Wait... Shouldn't it be the opposite? Paying for the game should make you more reticent to being an ass because losing access to it means you've lost money.
  - ben_jones 8y ago
    Optimistically I believe humanity is generally good such that if you get a massive number of users the good overwhelms the bad. Contrast this with Overwatch who (IMO) has a shrinking userbase of increasingly hardcore/invested players, and the worst tends to shine through. I wonder if this suggests that hardcore/invested gamers tend to be less kind than casual gamers or if this is anecdata.
    - doktrin 8y ago
      > I wonder if this suggests that hardcore/invested gamers tend to be less kind than casual gamers I can't prove this scientifically, but yes absolutely of course "hard core" gamers are more likely than casuals to be raging toxic asshats in any kind of competitive environment.
  - Glyptodon 8y ago
    When I used to play games more the open source/free ones always had pretty decent communities and behavior, though it might have been an instance of finding servers that managed things appropriately and then ignoring the rest.
baud147258 8y ago
> I wonder what region author was playing on? I think it's North America.

kfwhp 8y ago

Every time I see a feminine name in a videogame I think the person is just fishing for attention. This is important because most players of both genders use neutral-looking names. The study doesn't account for this.

SolaceQuantum 8y ago
Honestly, I don't really see such behavior directed towards male names though. Stuff like LucasJones or MikeAtLarge or LordOfKilling doesn't get the same attention that SuzieHealsU or CuteLamb or PrincessHurtful might. If it was equal, I'd expect 'MrKickass' to be questioned and assumed to be grabbing attntion that 'MsKilljoy' gets... but in my experience this distinctly isn't the case.
- kfwhp 8y ago
  I agree with you on this. What I meant to say is that people who use gendered names are going out of their way to show what their gender is; an overwhelming amount of people use completely neutral names. This is, regardless of the treatment you receive because of your gender.
  - SolaceQuantum 8y ago
    I also am saying that I don't believe male gendered names get nearly the same attention as female gendered names. 'PrinceJake' doesn't get the same derision as 'PrincessEla' which is what the study is trying to explore.
  - ggggtez 8y ago
    This isn't true, because if you receive harassment for having a "feminine" name, but no harassment for a "masculine" name, then when you go create a new account for a new game, you might be discouraged from using the feminine name. You really need to consider how to account for experimental variables that affect each other.
    - kfwhp 8y ago
      This isn't true in my experience, because in that case there would be many more players with masculine names than with feminine names, which is not the case; I'd say the amounts are similar, with an overwhelming majority of neutral names. Important: this coming from my background, which is WoW, and not any of these modern games and communities. Maybe things have changed? The average WoW player is definitely older than the average Fortnite/OW/whatever player.
      - ggggtez 8y ago
        I have no idea what you consider a "neutral" name, but I'd caution you that if you only work based on your own personal perception instead of talking to others, then you are not going to see your own biased perceptions. Certainly women play video games, and one only needs to talk to them and ask them why they choose one name over another to quickly accumulate first hand stories. If you do this with people you know in real life, you may find some clues as to what you aren't seeing first hand. Edit: and, for what it's worth, you may forget that WoW has some unique rules on names compared to other games. No idea how that may affect things.
ggggtez 8y ago
The thing you are saying doesn't even make sense as a criticism of the study. You are complaining about something the study didn't even try to measure (the "why"). The study only tried to measure if there was a difference at all, and whether it was measurable. As a side note, I recommend meditating on why seeing a female name on the internet upsets you, when you should be well aware that 50% of human beings are female. If players didn't get upset and force females to play under male/neutral names, maybe it wouldn't be as shocking to notice when they don't.
Vector919 8y ago
> This is important because most players of both genders use neutral-looking names. The study doesn't account for this. Is this true broadly? I'd be curious to know if there's any data on that besides for anecdotal evidence. also, a "neutral-looking" name can be really subjective, I would guess that there's a lot of player names that use adjectives that might be inadvertently related to a particular gender based on the cultural context. I'd be curious to know what the names are in this case.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
gbrown 8y ago
Why should a gendered name invite more attention in any way? People are often given gendered names at birth, after all.
- justtopost 8y ago
  The game is gender agnostic. Dragging your personal identity into a game is a factor. JulieSmiles, Dankweedgamer666, and BeatlesFan1974 are all going to be treated differently.
  - fwip 8y ago
    JulianSmiles gets treated different than JuliaSmiles, though. That's the whole point of this research. "Dragging your personal identity in" only seems to apply when that identity is different than the assumed default (male), hmmm....
    - gbrown 8y ago
      exactly, some biases are showing here.

ben_jones 8y ago

Overwatch remains one of the most toxic games I've ever played. I've put well over 1,000 hours into that game but haven't played for about 9 months now, and honestly its a breath of fresh air (to not deal with it anymore). There's something about the rank structure of the game (and others I've heard about like LoL and Dota) that encourages beratement. Apex Legends conversely has been amazing in comparison. Maybe its because its new, the tagging system, that its a free game, or that there is no ranked structure (yet), but I've met nothing but cheery people and the occasional crude drunk. I've played with a couple shy women, but (anecdotally) have seen not one iota of what i've seen in Overwatch (aside from crude usernames that are prevalent everywhere).

kfwhp 8y ago
>that its a free game Wait... Shouldn't it be the opposite? Paying for the game should make you more reticent to being an ass because losing access to it means you've lost money.
- ben_jones 8y ago
  Optimistically I believe humanity is generally good such that if you get a massive number of users the good overwhelms the bad. Contrast this with Overwatch who (IMO) has a shrinking userbase of increasingly hardcore/invested players, and the worst tends to shine through. I wonder if this suggests that hardcore/invested gamers tend to be less kind than casual gamers or if this is anecdata.
  - doktrin 8y ago
    > I wonder if this suggests that hardcore/invested gamers tend to be less kind than casual gamers I can't prove this scientifically, but yes absolutely of course "hard core" gamers are more likely than casuals to be raging toxic asshats in any kind of competitive environment.
- Glyptodon 8y ago
  When I used to play games more the open source/free ones always had pretty decent communities and behavior, though it might have been an instance of finding servers that managed things appropriately and then ignoring the rest.

baud147258 8y ago

> I wonder what region author was playing on? I think it's North America.