U3 A1 – Research Dissemination

The question was: What was your motivation for doing these studies on female online harassment?  And Dr. George Veletsianos acknowledged by replying he had heard personal accounts from colleagues, and there had been several instances in the news during the last two years referring, for instance, to the Gamergate (Lees, 2014).

Similar to the article on Gamergate, at the UBC conference “Representation in Gaming and Technology: The only winning move is to play” (Kinnunen, 2016), Kayla Kinnunen shared her experiences playing MMOs, or massive multi-player online video games.  It was very interesting as well as stunning to hear about other players’ behaviours.  Kayla is no ordinary player since she has a career in the industry, and at the time of the conference she was Game Director at Roadhouse Interactive. When playing, one chooses the character as male or female which does not affect the on folding of the game.  So there is nothing wrong if a man playing chooses to play with a female character or, supposedly, vice versa.

The most relevant fact was the immediate change of behaviour of other players she not only perceived but even felt the moment they knew Kayla was actually a woman, and they learned that because Kayla told them so.  Instantly, from being amiable opponents who valued her playing skills, they turned into extremely aggressive and mean enemies to the point where leaving the game was the only way to end the attack.  I found the link related to the Gamergate Dr. Veletsianos mentions to be totally aligned with the social phenomenon Kayla referred in her conference.

References

Kinnunen, K. (2016, January). Representation in Gaming and Technology: The only winning move is to play. Conference presented at the University of British Columbia. Vancouver. BC.

Lees, M. (2014). What Gamergate should have taught us about the ‘alt-right’. The Guardian. December, 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/01/gamergate-alt-right-hate-trump