This is partially a venting of frustration.
Background: I'm going to preface this by saying that I've been gaming online for fourteen years or so. I learned fairly early to avoid letting anybody know that I was female because of harassment. I remember buying the Warcraft 3 collector's edition and being offended when the cashier assumed I was buying it for my brother (though I was alone and gave no indication it was for anybody but me). A few months ago I wondered if the atmosphere in gaming had changed to be more accepting of females. As it appeared it had, I decided to change my name to Lady Luck. I felt great to have a name I want without concern of harassment. Overall, the community has been great. I rarely receive comments about being female - and I'm glad. I'm happy to be just another player.
However, today I had a particularly bothersome game. Some of the reason it bothers me is because I wasn't expecting it. I've grown comfortable on this account. The entire game I was being harassed for being female after I gave up first blood. In an ARAM. "Dumb girl" and "eat my dick" were repeated with the most frequency. I asked for advice since I wasn't playing as well as they wanted, and was told to go play checkers because LoL was "too fast" for me. The game was constant harassment from one player. The rest of the team said nothing about his comments. One player continued playing as normal - which is fine. One just danced behind a turret most of the time. I know somebody criticized the player's reactions to fights, but nothing about what he had to say. By the end of the game I was upset by the fact that this player could spend the whole game throwing sexist insults and it appeared acceptable. That is what bothered me. Nobody else seemed to care about the barrage of unhelpful, demeaning comments. If somebody had said something, even if it was just telling me to ignore him, I wouldn't have been so upset by the game. By saying anything, it would have given the impression that his behavior was not acceptable to the teammates. Instead, the silence says that this player's behavior is perfectly fine and dandy.
When I see teammates get berated senselessly I've often felt the need to either tell them not to worry about the person or to explain potential thought processes to the instigator. It's something I've wondered in the past if it was helpful, but after watching twenty minutes of silent teammates I've come to the conclusion that it really does help.
So please... If you have a teammate being berated say something. Let them know that the person's insults are not socially acceptable. It really does help.
