this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025

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Women experience guilt, shame and exclusion in gaming culture, study finds (www.stir.ac.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I read somewhere that "Dead by Daylight" has a (relatively) high percentage of women, because there's zero voice chat.

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[–] warm@kbin.earth 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's not a voice chat problem, you can always turn voice/text chat off. That's not the reason some games have a relatively higher percentage of women.

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[–] underreacting@literature.cafe 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It was the reason I started playing it.

It's one of the first things I bring up when recommending it to other women who aren't playing online multiplayer games usually.

Most women I know who play it don't play any other multiplayer games online, at least none with VC.

Games with VC usually do have the option to turn it off, but doing so you'll have less information than players who use it. You'll be a detriment to your team if they would otherwise have had efficient comms. You are turning off a feature, where the game is built on the expectations that it is turned on. I'd rather not have that option at all and instead have everyone be on the same page, with no expectations of comms with strangers. One less thing to consider, say no to, to disappoint others with.

Nowadays I'd probably use VC if they had it, but I never would have started playing if they did, so I'm glad there are still games where it's not even an option.

So I'd say for a fair percentage that absolutely is the reason. That, and the horror icons.

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[–] warm@kbin.earth 2 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

I see that and it certainly takes that initial worry out, but DBD isn't that competitive, so there would be no pressure to talk really even if it did exist (different for each person I guess, how they feel about that). It's a more chill game and the community in my experience is a lot more open-minded than your hyper-competitive games like CS where you find all the degenerates, I think that's why its mostly more welcoming.

Text-chat has been way more toxic in my experience anyway. Usually they stop talking on the mic and start typing.

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[–] underreacting@literature.cafe 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

Without voice or text chat enabled that expectation of "should use VC to not be a burden on your team when they're trying to communicate" is if course a projection, but it's still powerful, and there's no way of knowing how true that projection is without actually hearing from your teammates. So there's really now way out of it besides "get over it" (which isn't easy after a lifetime of learning to cater to others unspoken expectations)... Or by playing a game where there is no option of VC, so there cannot be any possible expectations of it, and no downside of not enabling it.

For something one does to unwind I don't feel like unpacking and facing deep-seated psychologically ingrained issues and the level of discomfort that brings, so it's easier to choose games where that issue isn't an issue.

And now, after playing for a few years I feel confident enough to actually consider playing games with mic on. But I wouldn't get there if those were the only ones available, I'd just find a different hobby or play offline.

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[–] warm@kbin.earth 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I get that. It's awesome you are open to it now.

I've made some good friends on dbd and it's nice to be able to speak to them, I think maybe the game could benefit from a mode with voice enabled, so there's at least the option. But maybe that would fragment the playerbase a bit or eventually turn the game more toxic. It would be hilarious though if the survivors and killers had proximity voice, thats something I would love to try!

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[–] underreacting@literature.cafe 1 point 1 year ago

I would absolutely love a game mode with proximity chat! As a temporary game mode with a separate queue, just to let us try it out. Maybe it could have a dB-manager so people (or at least survivors) were only able to murmur or whisper and everything with loud talking or screaming would be muted? It's be really fun to frantically whisper "the killer is coming, run" or murmur "I'm gonna get ya!" in a chase, or hear a survivor whisper some instructions and then their audio cut out from screaming due to a jump scare.

I think it could be a sort of middle road if there was a voice option for added friends in the game so that people can chat with their friends across platforms. That way people who want to chat with strangers can add people to their friends list while in any lobby (maybe with a category for "besties" or favourites to be able to sort irl-friends into), with the extra step to VC with in-game friends still keeping away the expectation that everyone can/should freely VC with strangers.

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