My Worst Gaming Experience Ever

Dear Vocal Readers,

Oh, the gaming community, what a lovely mess of amazing people mixed in with attention-loving assholes. That may sound harsh if you aren't used to the typical gaming atmosphere, but if you have played online games you have most likely seen the toxicity that spews from the keyboards. So, imagine the horrible environment that already exists, and then imagine being a girl on top of that. I remembered my first few experiences gaming with my microphone on and how if anything I expected that the others playing might actually be nicer to me because of my gender. Boy was I wrong. Yes, there are some of those guys that have been labeled as "Simps" but the majority turn against you. I could tell you about how I've been told to cheat on my boyfriend because he would never know or how someone who I thought was a friend ended up participating in the harassment as well (which was such a bummer), but I have saved my very best story for you all.

Let's get right into it gamers. This experience took place on the game Overwatch which happens to be one of the few games I play on PC. The game started and I began with my usual "glhf" which stands for "good luck have fun" and saying hi to my team on the microphone. I heard someone in my group using their microphone and they were using the most obnoxious and mocking feminine voice they could muster up. This was a quick mute for me and stupidly I had shared with the group that I muted that person. When they asked why I did this I told them that it was due to them acting the way they had. The user replies that this had actually been his younger sister on his microphone and things calmed down. Eventually, I unmuted him, which was another big mistake. I chose to accept this younger sister story and hope it was true. But the second I use my chat and have the chance to hear him again, he mocks me.

As the game goes on I mute him again, as I won't put up with this kind of bullying. I have one teammate who acts kindly to me but the rest follow the lead of the one mocking me. They decide to camp out at the enemy spawn and not help move the payload (which is the only thing you have to do in this game) and since I stayed where I was supposed to they harassed me for not healing them. I tried to explain that I was busy healing our teammate who was actually doing his job on the payload but this was not good enough. The round finished and this is where it began to get really bad. The toxic teammates began to use the chat that everyone in game can see, and told everyone to report me. They claimed I wasn't doing any healing and I tried to defend myself against this as the other team had no idea what was actually going on. Getting reported is a real threat that can get you in trouble, and I wasn't going to get reported for doing nothing wrong.

Then, the next round starts. At this point the toxic team members have completely given up on winning and have made it their mission to sabotage me. They trap me in the spawn room over and over, and proceed to block any of my attacks from getting out. They even wait for me instead of going ahead to actually play. At this point I feel like giving up and crying but I try to enlist the help of the one positive teammate. He sadly was too interested in playing and didn't take any time to help me, which was understandable. Then I tried to explain to the other team what was going on to get some help, which resulted in my teammates telling them to report me for staying in spawn. Of course my staying in spawn had been their fault, but they used this to their advantage.

I was beyond relieved when the game ended, even though we inevitably got defeated. I have no idea who the other team believed and can hope nobody actually reported me. But this left me so demoralized. This had all stemmed from them hearing my female voice and mocking me in the first place. I do not understand why people are the way they are sometimes, but the fact that multiple people joined in on the bullying really saddened me. The rest of the night was spent trying to avoid using my microphone because I was scared of any further harassment. I ended up using it again later because I didn't want those scumbags to stop me from trying to have fun.

I guess all I can say is be careful, and be kind. Be careful of who you play with, and just be kind in the first place. If everyone were just kind in general think of all the issues that would never even begin.

Sincerely from my bullied little self,

Kacie