Dr. Noh Chimes In On Sexual Harassment

Ben’s Kuchera’s recent article on sexual harassment in the fighting game community has created quite a stir. Much of the controversy comes from remarks stated by Aris Bakhtanians in IGN and Capcom’s web-based reality fighting game competition: Cross Assault.

“The sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community… it doesn’t make sense to have that attitude. These things have been established for years,”

What this really boils down to is the nature of competition. A vast majority of video games have inherent in them, a thirst for competition. On an extreme end, this can cultivate what Aris explains in the quote above or what I see as competitive gaming with a sense of sportsmanship. “GLHF” (good luck have fun) and “GG” (good game) are examples of what I commonly typed during the start and end of an online gaming match. Depending on the game, it can be seen as poor sportsmanship to not type these acronyms, especially at high-level play. Competitive gaming has been around since the origin of video games, but we’re only starting to see wider acceptance of it as a spectator sport. I understand that trash talk is part of a competitive nature, but a line must be drawn. Sexual harassment is obviously one of those lines. I’m dumbfounded that anyone could convince themselves that such behavior is not only acceptable, but is necessary. Aris doesn’t seem to understand to that human consideration should override what he thinks competition and the fighting game community is. I’m tired of a certain attitude amongst game fans that feel gaming is theirs to protect from wider acceptance and maturation. As game fans, we should be the ones to set an example, to show the uninitiated the joys of what gaming have given to us. For too long, video games have been created by and appealed to a very specific demographic of young men, thus you have someone like Aris. Maybe characters like Aris make for compelling reality programming, but ultimately it reflects poorly on the fighting game community and game fans as a whole.

Image Source: 1