Warning: This post contains offensive language.
Misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ bigots are fuming at the idea of a woman having the lead in a new video game. At this year’s State of Play livestream, an event hosted by Sony that showcases new video games for the Playstation game console, a trailer for the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, titled Ghost of Yotei, was released. The trailer garnered positive reactions, albeit with some on the far right, specifically misogynists, targeting the game for including a woman as the main character, and using Erika Ishii, a member of the LGBTQ+ community as the lead actor.
An ongoing trend of attacking women in the gaming industry was re-kindled this year by “Gamergate 2.0,” a follow-up to the hateful #GamerGate campaign in the 2010s which included virulent antisemitism, misogyny, racism, and calls for violence against those seeking to improve inclusive and positive representation, particularly of women, in gaming. Over the past several months, gamers have been targeting game production companies which encourage representation of women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color as “woke” or “pro-DEI,” terms often used as replacements for, or in conjunction with, slurs. The trend continues with every new gaming announcement, most recently with the inclusion of a Black woman in the recent Minecraft movie trailer. When hatred in gaming spaces goes unchecked, it can lead to relentless harassment and even influence targeted violence, such as several mass shootings, and a recent stabbing at a mosque by a Turkish neo-Nazi, who utilized several gaming references in his manifesto.
While the usual fringe platforms like 4chan, the Fediverse, and Telegram saw sexist comments flourish, increasingly, common acceptance of hate speech by mainstream social media platforms meant that plenty of gamers took to Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to express their discontent at a lead female character and direct slurs at Erika Ishii.
Across fringe platforms, several users expressed disdain for having to play as a female character. On 4chan, commenters said the new game’s lead character is an “ugly tr***y,” and an “ugly female.” On the Fediverse, a decentralized group of online forums, users called Ghost of Yotei a “DEI” game and disparaged the decision by Sucker Punch, its developer, to make the main character “some random woman.” Neo-Nazi Telegram channel Alt Skull’s Charnel House made a post decrying Ghost of Yotei for “destroy[ing]” the franchise by “shoehorning in an ugly, masculinized female as the protagonist.” Sexist attacks against “masculinized” female characters are common with misogynist gamers, with other games like Horizon Forbidden West’s main character, Aloy, “flamed by sexist gamers for being made too ugly.” In the comment section of Alt Skull’s post, users claimed the main character of Ghost of Yotei “looks like [a] dude with boobs,” attacked Ishii for being a “dyke,” and called anyone who wants to play the game “f*****s…buying woke trash.”
On Telegram, a large neo-Nazi channel targets Ghost of Yotei and Ishii as “shoehorning in an ugly, masculinized female as the protagonist” (Source: Telegram)
On Twitter, YouTuber “Endymion” posted several tweets in a rant about both the inclusion of a female character and Ishii’s casting in the role. He starts his string of tweets by claiming video game developers “can’t help themselves until every franchise that was built on masculinity is replaced by women” before expressing how “sick” he is “of the forced girlboss narrative.” Other commenters supposedly had “no problem” with Ghost of Yotei’s protagonist being a woman, but were worried about the off-chance that she is a “Mary Sue,” a derogatory term often incorrectly used by misogynists against powerful female characters in fictional media. Several other commenters criticized the game’s inclusion of a woman by calling it “Ghost of Woke,” “Woke of Yotei,” and claiming the decision was fueled by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. One tweet used a screenshot showing Ishii’s identity as queer and pansexual as proof that the game is “cooked,” which is slang for describing something in a negative way.
YouTuber Endymion makes a post talking about Ghost of Yotei being part of a larger conspiracy to “replace” men with women in video games (Source: Twitter)
On YouTube, several videos were posted following the State of Play event. Videos attacked Ishii for their activism, calling it a “major problem,” and calling them “woke and unhinged.” Accusations of women as “unhinged” are directly related to age-old attempts to undermine women as “hysterical” or “crazy,” at times used in contemporary politics. Many of these videos took issue with a female lead character being able to “take down armor-clad soldiers twice her size,” citing “immersion” as a primary reason for their concern. “Immersion” is often used as an excuse by the far right and misogynists when justifying the exclusion of women or people of color from video games. Other videos cited Sucker Punch’s hiring of Ishii, who identifies as genderqueer and pansexual, as a sign that “studios change over time,” raising “question marks” about the quality of Ghost of Yotei. YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit the publication of any videos “that targets someone with prolonged insults or slurs based on their physical traits or protected group status, like age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or race.” Many content creators, in an attempt to evade moderation, have adapted to these guidelines, avoiding outright slurs in favor of “DEI” and “woke” as masks for derogatory insults against people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
A thumbnail from a YouTube video targeting Ishii as “woke and unhinged.” Accusing women for being “unhinged,” “deranged,” and “crazy” are age-old attempts to undermine women (Source: YouTube)
The comment section of Sucker Punch’s Instagram post announcing the game was full of the same misogynistic rhetoric, with many disparaging comments about a female lead character and calling the game “woke.” In some cases, commenters’ intentions are overt, saying “nobody wants to play as a woman,” while others are thinly veiled, saying the “woke agenda came after Ghost of tsuashima (sic)” and insinuating a larger “woke” conspiracy by claiming “a female for protagonist was pushed by Sony.”
Instagram users target Sucker Punch and Erika Ishii in a post showcasing the new game’s trailer (Source: Instagram)
As the far right continues their bigoted tirade against the gaming industry’s attempts to be more inclusive, in many cases being able to normalize their hatred on social media, major social media and gaming platforms must adapt to this evolution and change and enforce their content moderation practices accordingly.
