Reinessa and Machine sit down for a talk about female gamers and everything related to being a woman in todays gaming, more specifically in esports. Everything from growing up and experiencing different expectations from adults, importance (and having only but a few) of role models, opportunities, harassment to biological differences and more.

Reinessa already wrote about this in her Women in Gaming: Can Role Models Change the Odds piece but we felt like the best way to educate the overwhelmingly male audience in esports would be to involve someone like Machine, who can ask the right questions and provide a bit of a different perspective.

Skip Ahead:

  • 1:02 - Introduction
  • 4:30 - Expectations (differences between boys and girls)
  • 6:54 - Esports (i.e. a non-casual space) and opportunities
  • 7:35 - Role models (Scarlett, Geguri, Sheever, etc.)
  • 13:15 - Machines story of how he started
  • 14:20 - Leaders and those who need a leader
  • 17:25 - Harassment, flaming, abuse, handling "hate" online, cyberbullying, typing vs voice chat
  • 22:20 - Really horrible circle we are in feat. Machine
  • 23:31 - Newer, more casual games = more % of women in the playerbase, requirements to be a pro gamer
  • 26:20 - Male and female leagues in esports?
  • 28:45 - Why are the prize pools for male/female gamers leagues so different?
  • 33:00 - Problems with mixed teams / differences between genders
  • 35:25 - (editor: if memory serves me well it was Axx playing for Newbee)
  • 37:25 - Being unaware of gender
  • 39:45 - Parallel in interest?
  • 47:40 - Success based on looks?
  • 51:30 - "You get the chat, and the followers, and the community, that go with who you are."
  • 1:00:55 - Everybody has to deal with something
  • 1:04:40 - What gaming looks like from a different perspective?

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