The Player

A recent incident has focused on misogyny in the group gaming community, reports JOE GRIFFIN

A STORY EMERGED last week that prompted much debate in the online and gaming communities.

To summarise: Capcom organised Cross Assault, a week-long tournament between Street Fighterand Tekkenplayers. Not long after it began, one gamer, Aris Bakhtanians, made a series of inappropriate comments to a teammate, Miranda "Super Yan" Pakozdi. Among other things, he repeatedly asked her to remove her shirt and discussed her bra size and thighs. Search for "sexual harassment on Cross Assault" and you'll find the video. Pakozdi eventually quit the tournament.

“Sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that . . . it’s not the fighting game community,” Bakhtanians said later in the tournament. He went on to argue that taking gamers to task for such comments is (wait for it) “ethically wrong”.

It's undeniable that standards vary hugely from tribe to tribe. Jared Rea, the community manager for the event, had previously spent time with the well- behaved players of massive multiplayer online game StarCraftand was shocked.

Later, Rea asked Bakhtanians if shouting “Rape that bitch!” at a match (which has happened) is acceptable. Bakhtanians replied: “There’s nothing unacceptable about that . . . we’re in America, man. This isn’t North Korea.”

Capcom was forced to apologise for the incident, but strangely, online opinion varies. Pakozdi later said that such behaviour “hurts the community” but some argue that the comments are tolerable in the heat of the moment, and that the fighting game community is a place to relax and not be “politically correct”.

Apart from the grotesque misogyny, the biggest transgression is to the gaming community as a whole. Many online gaming groups don’t behave that way, and wouldn’t tolerate aggressive, sexist exchanges.

Talking to me last year, James Spafford, community manager for Little Big Planet,said: "It's the most pleasurable community that you could ask for. The range of people is amazing, going from little kids to grandparents, men, women, teens, everyone. Everyone's a joy to work with. A lot of other games have a really targeted audience, but we're all over the place so it's fantastic working with everyone."

So not a welcome home for rape jokes, one imagines.