Sexism within the games industry has reached a boiling point today, culminating in the trending topic #1ReasonWhy on Twitter. #1ReasonWhy is what men and women alike are tagging their posts with to tell stories of discrimination against women in the games industry.
While it is a topic that we have covered before and high-profile developers have made gaffes in line with this conversation, this particular event does not seem to have been perpetuated by any one specific issue. As far as I am aware, this is not in response to a games announcement, trailer, or specific news article that may have demonized women in the industry.
It should also be noted that the topic of conversation is less about the sexism within games themselves and more about the discrimination of women behind the scenes – the developers, programmers, artists, writers, producers, journalists and gamers themselves are the focus. This is in no way a new topic of conversation, but that doesn’t make it any less important to discuss.
Games journalist Katie Williams wrote up a blog post titled Too Many Reasons Why. In it she lists aspects of the gaming industry in which she and other women with prominent roles are looked upon as less-than-capable. Reading through the hundreds of other stories with the tag, one can find a plethora of accounts of alleged abuse, discrimination and mis-judgement based on gender.
What are your thoughts on the #1ReasonWhy campaign? Is this a real problem that we are facing in the games industry or is this an overreaction? Would your opinions on your favorite games change if you found out that they were largely created by women? Would you think any less of Daily Reaction if Seb and Dan were women? While keeping in mind commenting rules, share with us your opinions about this issue in the comments below.
