Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro team Ninjas in Pyjamas is in hot water for photoshopping the faces of the existing players with new names, long hair and makeup to "announce" their new women's team. Confusing, isn't it? It seems like the social media person for Ninjas in Pyjamas thinks that professional female gamers are... funny.
That's a bad look. When we chatted to CEO and founder of Code Coven, Tara Mustapha, she explained that the creation of these mentorship schemes specifically tackle the unfortunate fact that a lot of gaming spaces are unfriendly towards women and people in the LGBTQ+ community. "I wrote in a Google Doc the other day, 'How can we change this email to feel more like a big hug?'" she said. "I know that's so cheesy, but that's what it is, you know? It's just letting people know that they aren't alone." Indeed, a study discovered that almost 60% of players do not reveal their gender to others to protect themselves from harassment.
Resident Evil has some excellent characters who have transformed from their dated original renditions to become examples of capable, flawed and engaging heroes. Here's us challenging Kaya Scodelario and Robbie Amell who play Claire and Chris Redfield in the latest movie with their Resi knowledge!
This issue complicates itself with the games as products of a certain culture. "I think it's awesome that, for us, we can focus on a female protagonist in our line-up, we don't have a lot of that in our first-party [games]," said Phil Spencer about the new Perfect Dark title, starring Joanna Dark. "I think that Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities. I love to see the team focusing on having a strong protagonist." And, PlayStation showed off that lately there's been a "growing female interest in... gaming," with 18% of PlayStation users compared to 41% of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 users being women.
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You get it. Being able to play as your own gender in a game might not be a factor in your purchase of the latest AAA title, but for some, it is. Which is why showing your esports team with long hair and makeup to pretend they're your new women's team, and even renaming "Dev1ce" to "Dev1na," "Plopski" to "Plopskina," and "REZ" to "REZabelle," is a meme that is in extremely poor taste.
"Taking their team and photoshopping them into women for this tweet, is it meant to be a joke? I legit don’t get it. F*ck the boys club that esports is. Gross," said one, as another added that "this is so tone deaf I am physically cringing." The Tweet itself has been deleted by Ninjas In Pyjamas, and at the time of writing, there is no statement on the backlash to the joke. "There are a lot of women trying to break into the space who experience discrimination, harrassment [sic] and more. So turning your male players into 'attractive ladies' for a joke isn't cool," explained esports and gaming host Frankie Ward.
Featured Image Credit: NIPCS via Twitter, ValveTopics: Esports