SweetieGames

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I have seen a particular clip from a male gamer whose viral claim that since women have started playing games, the experience has become worse has been blasted on TikTok. The video may not have had the reception he expected, as most of the videos I have seen have featured both men and women pulling his gameplay in Marvel Rivals apart for how bad it is.

The creator of this video, CaponeVO, seems to have a reputation for being generally unpleasant to play games with, as those on the Marvel Rivals Sub Reddit are discussing how much they dislike him. And while I am glad to see men standing up for female gamers in the backlash to this video, it did highlight to me that the stereotype of certain men being unpleasant to girl gamers is still very much alive and well. The video wouldn’t have gone viral without some people agreeing with his take.

Something I found interesting in the Sub Reddit was actually a research paper that someone linked, which actually showed that men who are worse at video games are the ones who are more likely to be hostile towards girl gamers. This makes sense; in the deep roots of the patriarchy, there’s nothing more humiliating than a girl showing you up at something that is supposed to be a male activity. Their anger and frustration comes from a place of embarrassment; if they say wild claims like women make “the gaming experience” worse, it’ll distract from the fact that they’re not good at the game to begin with.

As I’ve said in a previous article, being bad at games isn’t a bad thing! There’s nothing wrong with being mediocre or even bad at a game, as long as you enjoy it. How else are you supposed to learn unless you’re bad at first? Everyone’s gotta start somewhere! But there seems to be this expectation to be amazing at video games, especially if you’re creating gaming content, but I feel like the enjoyment is more important that the skill level in a lot of cases. Sure, I love seeing people who are incredible at a game, but if they’ve put so much pressure on themselves to perform well, are they really getting much enjoyment out of the experience? Isn’t gaming meant to be a hobby first and foremost?

No, women don’t make the gaming experience worse. If they “soft throw” due to someone being rude towards them, like this creator claims, that is a sign to change your attitude and treatment of people in the gaming space. There’s a lot of pressure on women to perform well in gaming as it’s a space we’re still pretty unwelcome in, but men should check their own skills and outlook on gaming before making comments on other people.