Playing Overwatch as a woman is not so easy – at least when using the voice chat. Because then you get bombarded with hostility.
Unfortunately, hostility in Overwatch is part of everyday life. If you don’t play exactly how an aggressive teammate wishes, you quickly receive some harsh words thrown at you.
The YouTuber nweatherservice, who also regularly streams her Overwatch games, has compiled what she has experienced in recent months. There are numerous insults and hostilities – long before a match has even started. And that’s just because she is a woman.
“Go back to the kitchen?” – “Excuse me?” – “I don’t think I have spoken unclearly.”
Insults are part of everyday life in Overwatch
As almost always, this topic also causes controversial discussions in the community. While a large part of the players agrees that this behavior should in no way be tolerated, there are also a few dissenting voices. It is said that it was “just as bad” to respond to the insults and say something back.
There was also heated discussion about how a typically friendly player should react in such a situation?
Should one intervene and take sides with the lady? Then one quickly comes to be seen as a “White Knight” and might give the woman the impression that she is viewed as “weak” for not defending herself alone.
Should one therefore stay silent? Then it may convey the impression of agreeing with the flamer.
The best response is probably a brief, harsh reaction that this is not tolerated, followed by blocking the player. Just don’t engage in a discussion…
The corresponding post on Reddit received more than 26,000 upvotes and has now been locked because the moderators can no longer keep up with addressing the violations – which they regret very much, as the topic is serious and should be discussed.
Have you been or will you be treated like this in Overwatch regularly when you identify as a woman? Or do you think this is just a concatenation of individual cases that are “not representative” at all?
But we already know that the Overwatch community has “issues”…
