The well-known Twitch streamer MonteCristo commented on sexism in a stream with colleagues. He criticized that developers often take too few or the wrong measures to combat sexism.
Who is this? Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles (33) is considered one of the formerly best Overwatch players in the world. He was a caster at the start of the Overwatch League. For many, he was “the face” of Overwatch.
MonteCristo has been a well-known figure in US esports for many years and made a name for himself back in Warcraft 3, later being active as a commentator in LoL. His work as a caster together with his partners was considered top-notch at the Overwatch League. He is now working for the CS:GO League Flashpoint.
In short: MonteCristo has seen a lot of the gaming world and especially the esports scene. In a livestream from The Four Horsemen, he spoke with his colleagues Duncan “Thorin” Shields and Richard Lewis.
The discussion was about esports tournaments for women and why, in MonteCristo’s view, this will not be enough to combat sexism in gaming.
MonteCristo believes: Developers do not tackle the fundamental problems
This is what he sees as the problem: MonteCristo views esports tournaments for women rather critically. Not because of the subject itself, but because in his opinion it does not change much about the actual issue.
Just because there are tournaments for women does not mean that sexism will stop. He sees the difficulties and especially the responsibility lying with developers who need to actively free their games from sexism.
Because just because the esports scene promotes equality, these measures do not yet reach the mainstream. Women are still often subjected to sexist insults or attacks in chats.
I feel that many of these initiatives are just a pretext to obscure the fact that developers are either unable or unwilling to fix the issues with harassment in voice chat that deter women from playing… […]. They promote these programs because they do not address the underlying problem, which is that it is extremely unappealing for women.
It’s like blaming the NBA because a woman was harassed at a basketball game in a park in New York City. That’s a ridiculous idea, but basically, that’s what we’re trying to solve here.
He demands that developers should take “the damn responsibility”. How he envisions this, he revealed on Twitter. He suggested that developers should “moderate their games better” to sustainably solve such problems.
Furthermore, the fear of declining player numbers should not serve as an argument for taking action against players who insult others in a sexist manner.
Under his post, he received a lot of support, and many believe that not enough is being done to address the problems.
Why is this such a big issue? Sexism is a constant companion in the gaming industry. Recently, there were massive scandals surrounding sexism within well-known companies like Ubisoft or Activision/Blizzard.
But even among the players themselves, this is often a serious issue, especially in the esports scene and on Twitch.
However, MonteCristo addresses an important point: How widespread sexism is in gaming and how often the spotlight is on well-known figures, companies, or esports while it can be a common problem in the mainstream.
Is MonteCristo right with his criticism? Should developers take more active measures against it?
