Video game conventions are still hotbeds of sexualized abuse:
While organizers and attendees became much louder in their repudiations of inappropriate behavior towards women and femme-presenting people at cons in the years leading up to and after GamerGate, the behavior clearly continues, according to nearly a dozen interviewsThough covid-19 forced in-person conventions to go virtual after PAX East 2020, they are slowly returning, and with them, a worrying return to form when it comes to women’s experiences.
Any woman on her own, lingering around any place too long was gonna have to deal with men being weird — Anonymous GDC attendee Noel Steslicki, a full-time Twitch streamer, shared her frustrating experience at PAX East 2023 on Twitter. A potential partnership fell through after her contact at the company asked her out on a “personal dinner.” Though the conversation seemed professional at first, with the company letting her know what booth they’d be at on the convention floor and making plans for a business dinner, the employee eventually said it was “like a date.” Steslicki said she ended the professional relationship, and tweeted “don’t ask your clients out on dates. Please.” At this year’s GDC, a 24-year-old first-time attendee who works in marketing spoke at an officially sanctioned talk. She was “buzzed for the experience,” but toldvia Discord DM that it quickly became clear that “any woman on her own, lingering around any place too long was gonna have to deal with men being weird.”Though it was a business trip, she says she was continuously hit on by male attendees. “Day one on my own I had two people ask me out—one within the conference, one right outside. Both times were super uncomfortable,” she explained. “Chats that I thought were professional turned into ‘let’s get lunch / give me your number’ type things.” It was only on the second day, when she was accompanied by a male colleague, that she noticed a discernible difference. “Of course everyone was polite, nice, professional, and not weird.”Convention afterparties, often sponsored by brands and set in local bars, clubs, and restaurants, are as much a part of the experience as the on-site programming. They’re important places for networking, At some of the leading gaming conventions, women warn each other to stay alert and always keep an eye on their drinks. Even before this year’s GDC, where a woman had her drink spiked , similar stories played out at other top gaming conventions. At Pax East 2020 in Boston, Twitch streamer and gaming specialist at the Wounded Warrior Project Sam Seum says she attended an afterparty for a major company and accepted a drink from a man who one of her female companions knew. That’s when things got scary. “I remember going up to [one of my guy friends] because I started not feeling very good, and asked if he could get a Lyft back to the hotel,” Seum tellsover phone call. “And as we headed down the staircase, I tried to take the first step down and I just couldn’t. I felt like I was losing my ability to walk or stand.”I became so frustrated that event organizers were not making a change to improve our spaces and decided to take action myself. — Twitch streamer Artiie Her friends helped her into a taxi waiting for them outside the venue. “Before we even took off, I guess I fell onto [one of my other] friends…he did what he could to try and wake me up, he even tried to check my breathing, and it was really shallow to the point where he thought it had stopped.” Her friends called an ambulance. Seum remembers waking up in the hospital seven hours later.: “We were deeply troubled by the reports we saw on Twitter about assaults at PAX East and the Predator After Party in 2020. The safety and well-being of all our guests at Acer and Predator events is absolutely paramount.” Emard said the team “reached out to Boston law enforcement to try to alert them about the situation.” At that particular party, Emard assuredthat steps were taken to ensure drugs weren’t taken in, including “pat downs and bag checks…at the front door.” On Twitter and in private Discords, women attending gaming conferences are warned about attendees spiking their drinks. In fact, this kind of illicit activity is so commonplace that“I became so frustrated that event organizers were not making a change to improve our spaces and decided to take action myself,” she explains via email. She usually attends all convention events as part of a group, to further ensure her safety. But before an event, she says she’ll spend some $300 for over 250 kits. (Amazon
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