This weekend I had the good fortune to attend NYU Practice, a fantastic in-depth conference on game design. I was repeatedly surprised at how clever the solutions were to the presented challenges. The lessons were both insightful and, more importantly, applicable as a game designer working for a social games startup. The NYU Game Center really hit the ball out of the park, and I canât wait to attend next year.
If I felt a sour note over the course of the weekend, it was only during the panel on Street Fighter, a moment Kotaku covered earlier this week. The Q&A had just opened up after a great discussion about the hypertuning required to balance a competitive fighting game for tournament-level play. The first question, lobbed up by professor and game designer Matt Parker, was about misogynyâs damaging effect on the Street Fighter community.
https://lastchance.cc/he-asked-about-misogyny-in-street-fighter-and-the-game-5854819%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
The tiny exchange between us was an acknowledgement of an incredibly unpleasant incident that had taken place roughly a month before. At an informal meetup of aspiring game designers, the misogynist undertones that permeate game culture escalated. For the first time in my shiny new career as a game designer I watched a welcoming environment turn hostile. When I couldnât take it any more I made for the exit, the chant of âNo Flat Girlsâ filling the room. Since then the NYU Game Center has assured me that they take this problem very seriously. Unfortunately, no matter how inclusive, a university departmentâs policy canât change entrenched attitudes overnight. I rest easier knowing that they are actively responding to this behavior on the rare occasions that it crops up within their walls.
That incident was sparked by a discussion on fighting games, so when âWhy so sexist?â was posed to a panel including Capcomâs Seth Killian, the face of the modern Street Fighter community, I couldnât help but take notice. I was excited when Killian opened with a promise to âtake that one on the chin.â Would he, really? Was he going to take responsibility, even a little bit, for the current status quo?
Sadly, no.
His first response wasnât only to pass the buck to Japan, but to set the tone for the topic with a joke. âJapanâs a very different place,â he explained, pausing for the laughter which promptly rose from all corners of the room. (Street Fighter games are primarily made by Capcom in Japan.)
Blame Japan. And, well, why not? Itâs easier to imagine that vicious cultural problems are solely the product of some Over There place halfway around the world. Within the same minute Killian made another joke, this time dismissing the gratuitously sexualized camera angles used for female characters as a sign of improving technology. Again, the crowd laughed.
I hoped for the âBut seriouslyâŠâ moment that sometimes happens after someone makes a joke about an inflammatory topic, but it never came. There was no sobering transition to give the issue the weight it deserves. No examples were offered to show whatâs being done to address the problem. The moderator pointed out that this isnât just a problem in Japanese studios or with fighting games, citing StarCraft as another example of a game whose representation and community struggles with sexism. When nobody stepped up to challenge Killianâs comments further, it was on to the next question.
Why didnât you say anything?
Thatâs the million dollar question. Itâs what everyone asks when they hear stories like these. Why didnât I speak up when I experienced sexism at the hands of some game design students? Why didnât any woman speak up and challenge Killian? Why did no one demand an answer that didnât conveniently absolve him of all responsibility for the misogyny within the Street Fighter communityâa community heâs tasked with cultivating, and presumably, pruning?
If youâve never experienced what itâs like to be on butt end of systemized objectification and exclusion, the reason can be very hard to understand.
A culture of misogyny doesnât strike once, but twice. The first blow is the act: hypersexualized female characters, or some guys snickering about what theyâd âlike to doâ to a woman playing on a stream at a tournament.
The second blow is dismissal. Itâs foisting the entire problem off on silly old Japan. Itâs the jokes made, and laughed at, to ease the tension in the room. Most guys, especially creative professionals, in no way want to be associated with misogyny. Itâs less scary to blame a distant society and showboat for laughs than to seriously address what is (or is not) being done to fix an upsetting problem in the industry.
Dismissal in this context is an ugly thing. Women are not-so-subtly informed that their concerns will be sidestepped and possibly also made into a punchline. Worse still, any young guys like the ones I recently had trouble with can walk away feeling vindicated that destructive sexist behavior is No Big Deal. As far as I see it, neither of these things are worth our ability to chuckle in comfort.
Ultimately, Iâm glad that these issues are being addressed at all, and that folks like the NYU Game Center staff are on the forefront of inspiring difficult, thought-provoking discussions. While I took issue with the way Killian shifted the blame, he did suggest that we may be at a âtipping pointâ for women in fighting games. Hopefully we have reached a critical threshold for women and girl gamers, and itâll be a downhill fight from here. Until then, Iâm incredibly proud of my Alma Mater for working so hard to make gaming and game development a safe space for everyone.
Nicole Leffel is a recent NYU graduate and active member of the game development community in New York City. In her free time she writes a guest series for the NYU Game Center about her experience turning a game design internship into a full-time position at social games startup FreshPlanet. For more reading on the problems women face in competitive fighting games, check out this post on iPlayWinner
