The gaming industry has always treated women poorly. With hundreds of stories of harassment, cyberbullying, and abuse, women have just recently started to talk about the toxic gaming environment. In many cases, the gaming communities even gaslighted or belittled the women who tried to raise awareness about these issues.
So, are women safe on Siege then?
Short answer – yes, they can be if they take a few precautions.
In this article, we’ll talk about toxic behaviors you might experience when playing Siege and a few solutions that might help you avoid these toxic people.
Why Does Siege Such a Toxic Community?
Women have always had it rough in Esports. And the ugly truth is that it’s not just Siege – you can meet toxic players in any other online game.
If you put things even more into perspective, you’ll see that this isn’t just a problem happening in the gaming industry. Even on social media platforms, women, non-binary people, and the LGBTQA+ community receive a lot of hateful comments from fake or private accounts.
Studies revealed that being online lowers your inhibitions. Some people believe that they can say whatever they want on the internet because it’s… the internet and because the online environment gives you the opportunity to hide behind anonymity.
These people often display toxic behaviors online because they’ve made a clear distinction between online and real-life in their heads. You can’t go to a stranger on the street and yell insults at them and hope nothing happens. The police will be there in less than 1 minute making sure you’re not disturbing anyone.
So, in real life, they act normal and polite because toxic people know their actions have immediate consequences.
And because there is no police or a fine to pay because you said something on the internet, toxic people believe they can start treating others poorly.
How Can You Recognize Someone Who Displays Toxic Behaviour?
Toxic gamers might display different behaviors in Siege so it’s important to recognize these red flags right from the start.
Here’s a short list of the most common toxic behaviors you shouldn’t tolerate:
- Team-killing
- Refusing to help teammates so they won’t get more points than
- Kicking somebody out of the team for no reason
- Abusing and harassing players on the voice chat and in direct messages
- Being forced by someone else to do something against the community’s rules
- Making sexist, misogynistic, or homophobic comments
- Reporting other players even if they did nothing wrong
- Stalking and harassing other players outside the game server (on social media platforms)
But this is just a quick list of the toxic behaviors you might experience in Siege. There are high chances that toxic people do more than that and they’ll always try to find loopholes so they won’t get banned from the gaming server.
Most toxic gamers won’t even try to hide the fact that they hate women, so they’ll belittle you right from the start when they hear your voice in the chat. So don’t make excuses for toxic players when you meet them in a match!
Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers ready to press that Report button for when you might meet them!
The Siege community (the good and well-mannered one) admitted that on casual mode there are more likely chances to be harassed by toxic players than on ranked mode.
However, this isn’t set in stone. Make your online safety a priority and don’t let anyone treat you poorly in a match no matter if you’re a pro gamer or a newbie.
How Do You Remove a Toxic Player?
Ubisoft has automated a few game bans that get activated as soon as someone types an obscene word. If they’re on their first offense, they’ll get a 1-hour ban. If the toxic players continue to violate community rules, they might get banned for a period of up to 15 days from the gaming server.
Yet, a permanent ban is something extreme and unlikely to happen. Only after an official investigation takes place, the toxic player might receive a permanent ban. In fact, many users complained that toxic gamers are still allowed on the game servers even after endless offenses.
So, until Ubisoft enforces time-limited bans even more on their servers, you have 2 options to deal with toxic players in a game.
1. Mute the Players
When you’re in a match, tap on the Player menu. There, you should see the microphone icon.
Once you select the player you want to mute, a white line should be visible through the mic icon. That means that you’ve muted them successfully and you can’t hear them again.
However, keep in mind that they can hear what you say unless they decide to mute you too.
2. Block the Players
First, you’ll have to select the user that you want to block. After that, press the A button to open their profile. Next, select the Menu button and choose Block.
Conclusion
Women can play Siege and stay safe at the same time as long as they’re aware of certain risks.
The only thing you should remember though is to not let those petty comments get to you. Besides, you shouldn’t force yourself to stay in a match with toxic teammates or rude players just to prove them wrong.
Alternatively, other players suggested that Siege is a game that should be played by taking breaks from time to time. So if you feel that this game is taking a toll on your mental health, pause it for a while.
Talking about these issues is a big step in raising awareness, so if you have any experiences that you can share with our community or any advice that can help other women feel safe just leave your feedback in the comment section!
