Maybe because not all women are hypothetical and we have real experiences that should be free to express. I don’t use voice chat either. I wouldn’t use it in VR for reasons that are obvious.
There is no “we”, just as I also don’t talk for all “men” and every time people like her or in this case you try to talk for everyone else alarm bells ring. It also reinforces a certain men vs women narrative (why is everything a gender war nowadays?) that is too far removed from reality.
I for example also don’t use voice chat for the same reasons despite being a men, shocking right? Yet I still know enough female gamers and have gaming communities in which female gamers are in skype, teamspeak and so on just like everyone else and it has never been a problem.
That’s the thing, you can choose the people you interact with and more importantly you can DO something about it and I know enough female gamers that create their own groups.
Maybe we should rather talk about them instead of just talking of female gamers as victim and creating the picture that no female being can survive on the internet?
It’s great and at all that your female gamer friends aren’t harassed, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a huge problem. If you need an example, just look at any number of women on Twitter, from journalists to gamers, the crap they put up with horrible. Rape and death threats are common.
Did you read the article above? The one about VR and groping?
CNN wrote a follow-up article:
Stanton reached out to me after I wrote about Belamire’s experience on Monday.
I received many angry emails in response to my story. I was told I was a feminist who knew nothing about QuiVr; that it was impossible to assault someone in that particular game, or more generally, in the virtual world. I was more than curious to hear what Stanton had to say.
Stanton, whose day job is in software development, told me those attacks [on the journalist] were “absolutely incorrect.” What happened to Belamire (a pseudonym) was possible in QuiVr and in other virtual reality games too. It’s up to developers to create controls to make players feel safe inside the world that they’ve brought to life, he said.
As I posted upstream VR developers have been aware of this issue for awhile now. It’s absolutely real but more attention has been paid on just getting the industry jump started than fixing an issue that will only be a problem if they succeed.
Just how big is this bandwagon going to get?
Jesus, I didn’t even consider all these neckbeards online would use it to harass women. They ruin every single new innovation, don’t they? Maybe ruin is too strong a word, but … sully? Dirty?
I’ve had creepy dudes show up at entrepreneurship and business meetups to try and meet women who’s profile picture they liked. One guy showed up and when he found out the girl he wanted to harass wasn’t there he bounced immediately. There are creepers everywhere. Triply so online where they have anonymity.
Owning an Asus gaming laptop I’m interested in seeing what they do with Microsoft VR.
I am sooo surprised that there was a group that attacked and harassed the people involved with the article to claim that, of course, no one attacks or harasses. Heh.
That Microsoft one looks pretty good, although I haven’t yet read the fine print. $300 and it doesn’t need external cameras/sensors (a big deal for me in this smallish room)! I am hoping/assuming that it will play most of the Oculus/Vive games out there.
And of course, this happened:
Are they not wiping these things down between uses? A VR headset can’t be any worse than the stuff you do at a regular eye exam, can it?
This has been pretty well debunked already, I don’t see the point in posting it here.
Hmmm…
[quote]
It’s “highly unlikely, but not absolutely impossible,” that someone could get ocular herpes through a VR headset, says Todd Margolis, chair of the Washington University School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. “The odds would be like the odds of transmitting herpes on toilet seats.” It’s more probable, he says, that the developer in Drift0r’s anecdote was already infected and had simply experienced a reactivation. “It is also more likely that he was kissed by somebody at the meeting who had an active cold sore and was shedding infectious virus.”
Sharing virtual reality headsets can certainly carry health risks. In addition to dirt and sweat, headsets could hypothetically play host to lice or harmful bacteria and viruses — including the one behind non-herpes conjunctivitis. “Adenovirus is very infectious and unlike herpes, survives quite well on inanimate surfaces like plastic,” says Margolis. In order to prevent someone with an active case of pink eye from passing it on, exhibitors would need to wipe the headset down, preferably with soap and water — Margolis says that alcohol is less effective for adenovirus, although it’s very good at killing herpes.
Many VR developers keep antimicrobial wipes or covers around show booths, although there’s no standardized hygiene policy.[/quote]
I think I’ll keep wipes with me at these events. Thanks anyway.
This wouldn’t be any different than people getting lice from SamGoody and all those other stores that use to let you put on headphones in store to listen to sample tracks. Good ole days.
Risking ocular herpes might be worth it for…
Where’s VR Sneak King?
I always dreamed of battling Doritos. What a terrible nightmare.