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ReviewWarning: Overwatch
I have played Overwatch every single seasons since it came out and all of the prominent WoW expansions Blizzard had until now. I have say through every era where there has been annoying trolling levels of sexism, but Overwatch now might literally be unplayable for women. Men immediately complain about my voice, my call outs, my playing, everything. They gang up on me, use misogynistic terms and will even ID as trans over the mics and when I tell them they're male they scream that they're reporting me for transphobia.
Comp is a cesspool of men who cry, complain, and I now just leave matches when I have to deal with their bullshit. It doesn't matter how you act, they are toxic.
I really love the game. I look forward to OW 2, but the men that make up the community (if you can call it that ) are arguably the worst around. No community even in Apex or League has left the lasting bad taste like the consistent high ranking sexism in Overwatch.
Let me make it clear: women can do well in video games, but like most male dominated spaces they use abject misogyny to keep us out.
I wouldn't waste your time in competitive with this game. They really will eat even the strongest woman alive.
I use a voice mod or never turn on the mic. this is the one I use; https://screamingbee.com/product/info/65543
This is amazing, but omg, I just cracked up reading this in a cool guy 90's commercial voice in my mind. 😂
REAL COOL MALE VOICES
Change the way you sound with Male Voices. This add-on for MorphVOX voice changer includes six quality male voices. Whether you want to sound a like a growling tough guy or a whiney pencil-necked nerd, this voice pack has what you need.
Voices in this pack include: Mister Voice, Nerd, Old Guy, Radio Announcer, Teen and Tough Guy.
This is an amazing resource to me. Thank you.
I’d be curious to see just how differently you’re treated when using this voice mod in Overwatch. I’m sure it will be night and day. Male misogyny is so fucking gross and imbedded in gaming culture. It’s the singular reason I avoid all PvP gaming. So telling that the incels are pulling trans cards to abuse you too. Such an abusive male incel thing to do.
They usually suspect I have a bad mic when I use it, they usually just forget that I’m there. When I have it off and just my normal voice I’ll always be the center of attention.
Holy crap, that's freaky. Nerd & radio announcer sound like actual men. Teen kinda does. The others sound like voice changers. But sheesh the first 2 creep me out, they're so good xD
I know! I hit a real streak of luck when I found them. Haven’t had an issue so far.
My brother plays this game a lot an he's the biggest asshole I know so I don't doubt it at all.
I play a different game called Transformice, and if you dress your mouse even vaguely feminine you get harassed by a bunch of horny teenage boys, which is disgusting for many reasons a big one being I'm a fucking adult and they're minors. When I beat boys in the game, theyve sometimes sent rape threats just for it. Males make video games and communities so unbearable and toxic and wonder why a lot of women aren't interested in playing them.
Yes, I stopped playing competitive mode years ago and now exclusively play mystery heroes with voice chat off. People take it a lot less seriously, and if anyone gets mad, they'll usually get trolled for being a try-hard in arcade mode. And now I get to play all the heroes and don't have to worry about teammates getting mad about a hero pick. 😄
Many people with values abandoned their Blizzard accounts during the fiasco, including myself. Wonder if that made a difference.
To say that those of us who didn't leave don't have "values" negates the years of community, experience, and ground breaking development that came from WoW and OW. There are women in WoW and OW and regardless of company policies; I will always fight and demand for our respect. Especially in e sports which have the potential to be a great equalizer for women in sports if we were alotted the same respect a man gets for putting hours of our life into "getting good".
Eh, I feared this response. That's why I said "many" - to mean "not all". I understand everyone has their own circumstances.
Edit: I mainly meant that it's likely the toxicity has gotten even worse given that quite a few well-adjusted people have left in protest.
Yup, I used to LOVE playing COD but the overt misogyny from loser sweaty males was boring and gross.
If we end up with a Ovarit Overwatch PC group, invite please! 😄 I've been playing for the weekly loot boxes for years now on mystery heroes, and I'm pretty comfortable with a lot of heroes, but would prefer to play support or dps. Before I quit comp, I played support and was gold after falling from low plat.
I have more hours on OW than I care to admit (quit in 2019 because I'd otherwise still be wasting my life on it) and there is a vast difference in how I was treated in OW than in other games. I use mic all the time in Team Fortress 2 and have never had to deal with half the amount of toxicity I encountered in OW, in fact I can't even recall any at all lol. Jesus fuck! Is it OW that's this toxic, or is the TF2 community just that much nicer?! This is all EU servers btw, can't imagine what hell playing OW NA would be!
On a side note, I kinda forced myself to uninstall because of the whole Activision fiasco, the China deal and I couldn't deal with all the CC... It was a love-hate relationship, spending all my free time but enjoying none. And the queue times! I remember a 75 minute queue I had for competitive during day hours. Sigh. I do miss Mercy though :<
Ahh yes, nothing in video games is more satisfying than popping Valk and getting a 3k with the ol Mercy glock. I love her ❤️
I love love LOVED Mercy! GA prefers beam target on cliff trolling and dying because my target walked away slightly, meticulosly superjumping into Widow sightlines and getting myself abolished mid-valk at their spawn trying to kill their supports was basically my gameplay 😅
When there's a decent Widow on the enemy team I fucking love Valking and killing her ass first. Widows get so scared when you get up in their grill with the pew pew, and you can just see them panicking 🤣🤣🤣
I have some POTGs saved on my console where I got 3k Valks. On the last point in Junkertown, I popped Valk, flew over that area with the under pass, and took out both tanks from behind as they were coming out of spawn once. I was laughing maniacally the whole time because I knew they were probably scrotes and super salty about getting killed by a mercy 🤣
Whenever I want to try on multiplayer (any at all), toxicity is the first thing I try to find out. It's nice to go here and find a trustworthy review immediately, and not to have to judge whether "toxic fanbase" means "gamebreaking griefer" or "edgy 13 years olds" or "racist/mysogynistic shitfest". Thanks for letting us know.
Overwatch is 150% the third option. Especially on pc where the "match chat" is actually used. It's a fucking cesspool and i wish it wasn't because it's really a fun and addictive game.
There's always the option to turn off match chat, voice chat, etc and play that way. It's just if you actually enjoy competitive and want to win, communication is key.
I always read about OW being particularly toxic for women on the girlgamers sub. It's upsetting that half the population isn't allowed to play these types of competitive matchmaking games.
Do you still play wow? I'd love to have some radfem friends on bnet! I only play wow classic at the moment though
Yes. To everything you've said. I've got an embarrassing number of hours in the game as I've played since 2017; it really is NSFL if you're a woman who uses a mic. I made a post about misogyny in gaming a while ago, which is mostly about my experiences in Overwatch specifically.
I wish we could have a female comp team because I'm so competitive (although if I start getting mad, I'm not toxic--I just turn the game off) and I truly love this game :( the teamwork aspect, the different specializations. I love it so much. But I hardly ever play anymore.
Also, I used to play on console and switched to PC, and it just became worse. My theory is that console is more casual, cause buying a gaming pc takes a certain level of commitment. The "PC Master Race" bros are the same bros who sit on Reddit/porn sites in their mom's basement all day.
Dm me directly for my blizznet stuff. I am a plat player but men have been tanking my games last 5 games and now I think I'm gold. Would like to get back to diamond.
I was in plat on console, I'm gold on pc (learning keyboard and mouse after playing consoles for 25+ years is hard lol). Although I think I dropped to high silver right before taking my latest break from the game.
Like you said, the males who play comp are the worst. I wish I had kept track of the number of games I lost due to my teammates being crybaby rage-quitters, throwers, etc. Some guys will even start out by playing seriously, but then throw the game when they find out there's a female in the lobby just out of spite.
I play support mostly, Ana and Bap are my go-to mains unless I'm super stoned, then I just play Mercy cause I don't have to concentrate so hard 🤣