Daily Archive

   This is a post based on a personal experience.  The general topic of the sexist nature of video game culture can be found here.

As of late, I’ve been on a bit of League of Legends binge; a fact the Intransignet One can well attest.  The problem with League of Legends (LoL) is that the competitive aspects of the game makes it very rewarding to win and thus, difficult to not to play.  It is a strategic game based on skillful play and teamwork – it rewards the teams that communicate and work together.  Thus, voice over IP in the competitive stream, provides a definite leg up on those who do not use voice communication.

Ah the glories of voice communication… it exposes one to other gamers with different backgrounds and social experiences and therein lies the problem.  What do you do when one of your teammates, as a part of their regular vocabulary, uses the word ‘rape’ to describe what is happening in game?

As in:  “We are raping hard right now!” as a descriptor of our team doing very well or, “we’re getting raped” when we happen to be losing.

Here is where I pause because I’m stuck and I know I should not be.  Rape is traumatic, horrible crime that should not be normalized in gamer talk.  Yet, when I was confronted with it, I sat passively by and said nothing (tacit acceptance, if you’re keeping score).  There were five people chatting and they noted that those darned Canadians were a quiet polite lot.  Little did they know the social struggle going on within me.

The pressure to accept the normalized use of the word rape was stifling as it would mean, on my behalf, requesting that said individuals please refrain from using that terminology in chat.  I was part of a social group and we were all having fun playing a game – and it would mean harshing that particular mellow.

In hindsight I can see that all the social baggage that prevented me from speaking up was/is utter bullshit.  There is no excuse for not calling out rape culture when it is staring you right in the face, yet I declined to act, thus propagating and encouraging the rape culture that I vigourously campaign against in other facets of my life.

This is a personal failure of integrity and will.  It leaves me feeling disappointed in myself and my culture.