Empowered Fire

Harassment in Warcraft

As some of you may know, Ais and I met through a community of women who play World of Warcraft. With over 7500 members, ranging from completely casual to the hardest of hardcore raiders, a lot of topics crop up repeatedly. Unfortunately, one of the issues Ais and I see all too often is about in-game harassment. Week after week, there will be a post from a woman discussing someone who is making her gaming experience miserable.

The saddest thing of all, however, is the fact that the woman very seldom identifies it as harassment or talks about how Blizzard would respond to it. She’ll say that the harasser will call her a slut in the trade channel, or whisper her from level one alts about how she deserves to be raped, or that he’ll stand in Dalaran /yelling that she’s not a real woman and a horrible bitch. The poster will talk about how she doesn’t feel comfortable signing in or that she’s worried other people will think less of her, but she doesn’t ask what to do about it. The attitude inherent in these posts is that she put the person on ignore (and any alts he happens to roll), but what else can she do? Most of the time the posts are filled with caveats: he called me a whore in Trade, but it’s not like he’s threatening me; he told my old guild that I was a bitch and no one should group with me, but I did just leave them for a raiding guild; he rolled alts to call me names, but I can’t be sure it was him. So much is done to minimize the extent of what he’s done, and there’s usually a lot of apologizing for even bringing it up as it’s “probably not a big deal”.

It is a big deal.

Every time I read a post like this, I feel both sad and angry. I hate that we live in a society where not only are women harassed and threatened even while playing a video game, but that those women are made to feel that even complaining about the harassment is just “overreacting”. I’m susceptible to it, myself: I was hesitant to address my own issues with a man in my guild because I was afraid of making a big deal out of nothing. I felt uncomfortable while playing a video game, and yet I didn’t want to complain about how I felt because I thought I should just deal with it on my own and not make waves. While the women posting to the community don’t think that the harassment is just an expected part of playing Warcraft, there is the underlying notion that if they were stronger or thicker-skinned that it wouldn’t even be an issue. That, ultimately, the victim of harassment is herself at fault for being bothered by the harassment. “Yes, he called me a bitch, but it’s just a video game, it’s not real. It shouldn’t upset me.”

But it doesn’t matter that the abuse is happening in a virtual world instead of the real one: the words are designed to hurt, upset, and make you feel unsafe. Someone is using the anonymity of the game to make your experience less enjoyable. It is a big deal, and it is okay to feel upset when it happens.

The question now is, what to do? The common response is to put the person on ignore and to open a ticket to report the harassment, which is good advice. However, there are certain things you can do to help the GMs better assist you:

• Put the person on ignore. No, seriously, do it. I know that some people want to allow the person the chance to come to their senses and apologize, and I know that some of us have a morbid curiosity and want to know what horrible things the person is saying. But putting the offender on ignore will help minimize the amount of upsetting things you see and will also show Blizzard that you have done what you can to fix the problem yourself.

• Mention where the abuse is taking place. “Public” abuse (Trade or General chat or even /yell) is regarded more seriously by the GMs since more people are witness to it.

• If you are reporting a repeat offender, make sure to ask that the GM review your tickets prior to responding as this is on-going harassment. GMs do not typically review your entire case file before responding; asking them to do so ensures that they have more information and can better help you.

I wish that this didn’t come up as often as it does. When Ais and I were discussing this post she wrote, “There is no place in the world where harassment is okay. Not online, not in real life.” It does not matter that the abuse is taking place on the streets of Dalaran instead of in your home town: it’s still harassment. What’s happening to you is not your fault. Don’t feel bad about asking for help, whether it’s from the GMs or just support from a friend. It is not your fault and any emotional reaction you have to it is okay.

Don’t despair.

Tags: gm-ticket-harassment, online-harassment, reporting-harassment-wow, warcraft-harassment, wow-gm