This week’s text, My Life as a Night Elf Priest, was like reading an account from a neighboring town. The names of the people and their activities might be different, but the general sentiments were spot on. I have lived and breathed this particular subculture since middle school, having been involved in multiple gaming groups and played countless hours of hundreds of multiplayer games. This book does one thing that stood out to me, and that was an even handed examination of sexism, homophobia and, to a lesser but related degree, racism in gaming communities.

Sexism in gaming is, frankly, embarrassing. It is so much of a problem, it has literally become a joke. When gaming together as a group, for fun we have intentionally played poorly through the first half of a match with another female member of the group on the mic, only to have our best player take over and win the game. The amount of anger and bile that this results in is amazing. The mere act of being beaten by a girl is profoundly troubling and infuriating to far too many players.

Nardi does a great job of tackling this unpleasant subject. Her framing of casual sexual and flirtatious banter as loaded play with “a built in escape hatch (162)” was an interesting take. Nardi interprets the banter as a convergence of the innate social desires for more sexually explicit language as well as the safety in anonymity and the aforementioned escape hatch.

I would largely agree with this outlook. Normal society constrains make it unacceptable to talk to people in the same manner as you could in a game. The forces of ostracization force people into more humane interactions. These same forces do occur in game and gaming communities though, and this is something that both Nardi shows and my personal experience backs up. She shows, on page 157, an exchange where a more well regarded female player calls out another male player on his harassing language and, because of her social standing, alters his behavior. His language changes and his behavior to the woman is far more genial from there on out.

This same interaction has happened with my social group. There is a distinct hierarchy that forms, partially based off of interpersonal relationships and partially off of skill. Better players are able to admonish and punish other offending players, often leveraging in game prowess. Within my social group, there is a particular subset that tend to exhibit the toxic male hallmarks that Nardi talks about. Their attacks, however, are not uniform across all the women within the group. For one, their behavior to people within the group is by and far more muted than how they interact with others online, both male and female, but there is a distinct reverence they give to the more skilled female players.

One player in particular has a mastery of the game that surpasses most of the people in the group, regardless of gender. Her influence, both interpersonally, in that she is a nice person, and in the game, in that she helps decide the outcome of matches with her presence, makes her largely immune from harassment. Keeping in her good favor means that she is more amenable to playing with you rather than against you, leading to a higher chance of you winning and looking good in the eyes of the larger group. Beyond that, purposely angering her, or any other higher level player, means that you attract their negative ire and can lead to you being targeted during matches, either consciously or subconsciously.

Gender and gender relationships in games is a problem, but the hostile nature can be broken through. I see some glimmers of hope that the playing field might become more egalitarian in the future. Skill seems, at least from my experience, to transcend the knee-jerk reactions against women in games and this at least offers a foot in the door, an avenue with which to attack rampant sexism. Comparisons can be drawn between the skilled women players and the larger majority, allowing value to be placed on their presence. I wish this were not necessary, but at least it offers a potential route to a better gaming experience for all.