It has been revealed that a large LAN party to celebrate the launch for upcoming military style shooter Battlefield 3 will be a “gentlemen’s retreat.” This is the second step in an attempt to cover up the fact that the event is not allowing girls to attend because of predicted reactions from their male attendees. The original statement from the party FAQs was as such: “Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of tension, both of which can result from mixing immature, misogynistic male-gamers with female counterparts. Though we’ve done our best to avoid these situations in years past, we’ve certainly had our share of problems. As a result, we no longer allow women to attend this event.”
It is far fetched to say that segregation of any sort is the answer to the problem. What may be a better choice is to penalize or remove offensive party guests. Hmm, let’s think: has segregation in the past ever ended well? You know, I do not think that it has. Women and men should be able to co-exist at such events. Furthermore, women are not going to cry if such insults are thrown at them. If these women play any Battlefield title, or any other type of online shooter for that matter, it is guaranteed that they have come across these types of people before. I’m sure they could handle themselves in a confrontation with immature little boys who can’t handle girls playing games.
The real point, though, is that they should not need to. Can men not be civilized enough to talk to women about a common hobby? As a girl gamer, I really don’t think the appropriate action was taken for this LAN. Removing the offenders would have been a smarter choice. What do you think, gamers? Do you think they should have taken this step?
[Sources: Border House Blog and Kotaku]
