It's Not A Man's Man's Man's (Gaming) World

Despite accounting for half of the gaming population in the United States and Asia today, the gaming world has not always been kind to females. Initial toxicity and unwelcoming remarks made it difficult for many to break the “glass ceiling”. In Malaysia, it is even harder for females to be heard and seen when the local gaming ecosystem is still small. Nevertheless, females have continued to step forward and take their place alongside their male counterparts in various parts of the industry.

Gaming Knows No Gender

Twenty-year-old Goh Weng Yan (left), or better known as Catppucino, has been playing competitively for five years before recently deciding to step down. As a pro at League of Legends and Valorant, Goh feels that there isn’t much difference between genders in terms of gaming performance, yet females still have to work harder than males to earn better positions and to be recognised by the gaming community.

“It’s harder for females because some Esports management tend to look down on females, thinking males can play better, or understand Esports better, which is not true at all,” Goh said, adding that female players often can only gain recognition via social media first.

While gender discrimination is a miniscule issue in the local gaming industry and Esports scene at the moment, it still happens. Goh shared an incident of how a random player threw sexist remarks at her when she was playing alone in a ranked Valorant game. The player had said: “You are a girl, why are you playing Valorant? You should be in the kitchen making me a sandwich.”

“I hope gamers out there understand that gender has nothing to do with gaming,” Goh said, reflecting on the incident. “Such a notion makes little sense at all because games are meant for everyone to play.”

Here To Play, Here To Stay

A 2017 Indiana University study showed that women streamers (particularly those on Twitch) were more likely to receive chat comments about their appearance, compared to their male counterparts whose viewers focus more on their gameplay. Although this sentiment is echoed by TikTok content creator cum streamer Fatin Nabihah Johari (aka Fatindesuu), she still holds that streaming has helped shift the perceptions people have towards female gamers.

“People will get to see first-hand the gameplay of skillful female gamers on their stream, so that would make them realise that not all girls are bad at the game,” Fatin said, adding that not all males are good at playing either.

Initially, the 28-year-old only documented her Valorant gameplays and posted them as clips on TikTok. Fatin then began live-streaming in mid-2021 after being encouraged by her followers. Although now everyone can view and criticise her gameplays in real-time, she couldn’t care less about such negative comments, especially those targeting her gender.

Screencapture of Fatin (Left) playing Valorant with her friends in a past livestream.

“There are comments saying like ‘Ew, is this how girls play games?’ Then there will be some telling me to stop playing Valorant, but it doesn’t affect me that much because I admit that I’m bad and I’m trying to improve on it.

“But the fact is, I don’t play for the comments. I play for myself, and I play for my supporters,” Fatin contended.

Casting Away Fearlessly With A Difference

A caster-in-training in the recent Season 9 of Mobile Legends Professional League Malaysia (MPL), Richelle Tan (aka Mon Chelle) reckons that the presence of females improves the chemistry at the casters table due the type of voice they have as well as their personalities.

“Males have a lower, deeper voice whereas females generally have a higher-pitched voice, so they balance out one another and create chemistry,” she said.

Tan first began her caster journey in IGN Sea’s Squad Up: Athena International January this year. While being new to casting is perhaps a reason why she is open to receiving criticism and scrutiny, Tan feels that people shouldn’t hold back from giving their feedback to any female working in the gaming industry.

Richelle’s (Right) first casting appearance was in the Squad Up: Athena International.

Photo Credits: Richelle Tan

“I think it’s fine to be critical and have harsh words thrown at us females, but it also depends on how the rest of the community, for example, your male colleagues, support and back you up; as in, how do they make sure you come back stronger each time you take a hit?”

“That is why a good support system is required. Because if you don’t have it, females will just quit when they can't handle the pressure and the cycle repeats itself,” Tan said.