Introduction

Video games are often said to give their players an escape from the real world (both literally through exploring virtual worlds and figuratively through leaving their problems behind), yet many female gamers face the same kind of sexism and harassment while playing video games as they do in real life, if not more. Over 76% of female gamers have experienced gendered harassment, which includes behaviors such as belittling, sexualization, stereotyping, trolling, harassing, barring access, and presuming inadequacy (Passmore & Mandryk, 2020). Because of the nature of many video games that use in-game real-time voice communication, women that face these behaviors are not only dealing with harassment, but a reduction in the ability to play well due to the need to rely on their teammates who are perpetuating harassment.

Additionally, the tools that players are given that help mitigate harassment (such as muting, blocking, and reporting) do not account for specific types of harassment, such as gender or racial harassment. In this paper I will look at the problem of gendered harassment in video games using distributed cognition and feminist theory. I will first explain Apex Legends and its relevant features, describe the two theories I will be using to analyze harassment within the game, and explain how each theory applies to Apex Legends and gaming in general. I will then address the problem of harassment in Apex Legends using the combined theories, and discuss design and research implications within this area.

Apex Legends

As described on the EA website, Apex Legends is a “character-driven, squad-based Battle Royale shooter where teamwork is the difference between victory and defeat” (“Apex Legends,” n.d.). Battle Royale is a genre of game that combines survival with last-man-standing: many teams are placed in a large enclosed space together, such as an island, where they must look for gear and weapons, and then fight to be the last team alive in the space. In Apex Legends, players may play in teams of 2 or 3, either with in-game friends or with random players. Each player must choose a “legend,” or a character with special abilities (there are currently 19 legends), and there can only be one of each legend on each team. There are different types of abilities that reflect different playstyles - legend “classes,” or categories, include support, offense, defense, and reconnaissance. Because legends have unique abilities to suit their class, players must not only know and understand their own abilities, they must be able to communicate and interact with their teammates, and work together to counter the opposing team's unique combination of abilities. There are also many other elements of the game that require communication beyond attacking enemies, such as being attacked by third-party teams, knowing when to use your legends abilities, finding and sharing gear, and moving through the ever-shrinking ring of available space to play in. The specific scenario I will be examining in this paper is harassment through in-game voice communication. 

Feminist Theory

In a traditional academic sense, feminism is “the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Bardzell, 2010, p. 1301) Within the field of HCI, particularly third-wave HCI, feminism has been used to frame issues such as gender differences in technology use and women’s work in design. Shaowen Bardzell proposed six interaction design qualities with the intent of using them to support a feminist critique and evaluation of design: pluralism, participation, advocacy, ecology, embodiment, and self-disclosure (Bardzell, 2010). She states that “the interaction design process takes place independent of gender considerations, and even today the central concept of the whole field—the user—remains genderless” (Bardzell, 2010, p. 1304), and that “the notion of ‘the user’ can be updated to reflect gender in a way that noticeably and directly affects design” (p. 1305). Bardzell specifically refers to this quality of resisting a universal point of view as pluralism. Pluralism is a strategy that embraces the differences and diversity in technology users, and designs for the entire scope of experiences rather than the ideal user. For example, many technology companies use “personas,” an archetype of the main or target user that is used to inform design decisions and processes, and by doing so can miss out on important problems or experiences that need to be addressed. 

Apex Legends Through A Combined Lens

By looking at the problem of in-game harassment in Apex Legends from both feminist theory and distributed cognition, we can gain a better understanding of how female players gaming experience is affected. There is a good amount of research on how harassment can affect players' mental health, what kinds of harassment they experience, and how they cope with harassment, while feminist theory has been used to frame in-game harassment, critique the video game industry, and analyze character design. Distributed cognition has also been used to frame temporal knowledge in video games, but has also been used more broadly to frame and understand team and group-work. 

These two theories work well in conjunction because it can be beneficial to understand why and how experiencing harassment can also affect the activity itself. For example, when discussing harassment online, many players respond to victims of harassment by saying “just mute them.” However, when seen from a lens of distributed cognition, harassment behaviors do not just affect the victim of harassment and disappear when the voice of harassment is silenced. It also affects the distributed cognition of the team itself, leading to a breakdown in teamwork, and an inferior gaming experience overall for everyone involved, but particularly the person who is the victim of harassment. And though most gamers have experienced harassment, the frequency and types of harassment that female and non-binary gamers face regularly is of a different nature, and therefore warrants special consideration when designing to address or mitigate harassment behaviors.

Distributed Cognition in Apex Legends

Within the context of Apex Legends, the user's cognition is distributed through the game's interface (both visually and audibly), and through the player's teammates. Visual cues that aid the player are primarily found in the in-game Heads-Up Display (HUD) which is a user interface that provides information such as how much damage players have dealt, a miniature map that displays where they are on the map in relation to the closing ring (outside of which they will die), their own health, their teammates health, how much ammunition they have, and more (see image below).

A. Mini-map and timer: This map shows your team’s location, the closing red circle (lingering outside the circle causes health damage), and where the next ring of safe playable space will be. The timer below shows how much time is left before the circle closes further, and the number to the left shows how many times the circle has been reduced, which increases damage when players stay outside the circle.
B. Compass to show direction to players so they can communicate direction to teammates.
C. This shows how many teams and players are left in the match. Below this is a “kill feed,” which shows when any player gets knocked down or killed.
D. The player’s team: this shows the team composition, how much life and shield health each teammate has, if they are alive or dead, how much damage is needed to level up the player's shield, and if teammates are muted.
E. Teammates usernames over their characters as seen in-game to differentiate between teammates and enemy players, as enemy teams do not have names above their characters.
F. Health item: this shows a health item, how many the player has, and which keyboard key it is currently bound to in order to access more quickly. This item and the keybinding can be changed to the player's preference.
G. Tactical: this shows if the player's tactical ability is ready and which key to use to access it.
H. Ultimate: this shows the player’s ultimate ability, if it is ready to be used, and if not how much time is required for it to load.
I. Grenades: this shows a specific type of grenade, how many the player is holding, and which key to press to use it.
J. This shows the current weapons the character is holding, how much ammunition they have, what type of ammunition they need to use, and what attachments they have.

Beyond the HUD there are other visual cues, such as seeing gunshots, or character design and ability graphics to inform players of opposing team’s compositions. For example, one character (Seer) has an ability that releases a sphere of drones that reveal his enemy’s position, and it is quite colorful, large, and visible from a distance.

Many of these visual cues are accompanied by sound cues as well which can aid with the distributed cognition. When a character completes an action (whether it be picking up loot, using health items, opening doors, or using an ability), players receive audio feedback. This can be helpful in many situations, such as letting the player know they have completed using a health item if they are busy looking at other things on the screen besides the status bar of the health item, or by letting them know there is an enemy nearby. Though these audio and visual cues aid individual players with distributing their cognition into the interface and audio, they are also essential to how the team distributes cognition between members. Visual cues regarding enemy teams can sometimes only be seen from certain angles, or heard when in proximity to other players, so in order to play a successful match, teams must be communicating the cues they see or hear to their teammates. Teammates can communicate with each other through two main methods - in-game voice communication, or the ping system. Apex Legends provides in-game voice communication that connects to the player's microphone, and many players also use alternative voice communication platforms such as Discord, in order to communicate with their teammates. Players can either leave their microphones open or bind a keyboard key to activate their microphone upon being pressed. The voice settings are automatically set to always hear teammates' microphones, but this can be changed so that you hear no one, and you can also mute your teammates mid-game.

Apex Legends also has a relatively advanced in-game ping system (usually triggered by double-clicking the mouse scroll button, but users can bind it to other keys if they wish) that when used causes their character to speak voice lines such as “I see an enemy over there,” “I need health,” or “there is a fresh shield here” (see image below).

However, while advanced compared to other games, it is still limited compared to voice communication, as you are restricted to pre-set audio cues, many players don’t respond to in-game pings, and there is no way to use pings with emphasis or be more descriptive like one could using their voice. 

Gendered Harassment in Gaming

Gaming has typically been seen as a hobby for affluent, young, white men, and though women make up almost 50% of gamers overall, this can vary drastically between genres. For example, though women make up 69% of Farming and Simulation game players, in First-Person Shooter games they represent only 9% of players (Yee, 2017). Harassment has also been found to be more common in these genres of games, with various explanations drawn from social psychological theories such as Social Dominance Orientation (Russell & Trigg, 2004) and the Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (Tang & Fox, 2016). However, feminist scholars have critiqued these approaches, stating that gendered harassment doesn’t occur simply because players are anonymous and feel more emboldened to voice taboo opinions, but rather that this kind of misogyny and harassment is merely a continuation of how women have been treated in our society for generations.

When facing harassment, women utilize a variety of coping mechanisms, including but not limited to: muting other players, quitting or changing games, avoiding strangers, masking gender, deploying skill and experience, adjusting personality, and seeking social support (Cote, 2017; Passmore & Mandryk, 2020). Muting is often the most popular option, is often the easiest to enact in-game, and is the most recommended by other players. This is partially because it is a quick action, but also because in many games players are penalized for leaving unfinished games early, regardless if they are facing harassment or not. Penalties can include matchmaking delays and loss of ranked mode points (which players earn through time survived, placement, number of kills, and more), which increases with higher rank. While leaving the situation may be the best route for the victim in order to avoid harassment and protect their mental health and well-being, they are often forced to mute the harassing player and continue in the game in order to avoid penalty. This also only accounts for voice harassment, and there are many other ways of harassing people in video games beyond using words. For example, teammates can abandon you and die fighting another team by themselves, intentionally cause themselves to be killed, steal your items, delay reviving you, repeatedly spam actions or pings, and much more.

While muting can prevent harassment from being heard by the victim, it does not stop the victim from continuing to feel upset or be affected by what they previously heard, and by the need to continue to be near an abusive presence. Muting other players also disrupts the distributed cognition of group communication. Even if only one player from a team of three is being disruptive or harassing another player, and the second teammate continues to communicate with both of them, the victim only receives half the communication that is occurring.

These methods for dealing with harassment may work for the most common forms of harassment, which are perpetuated by male players at other male players, and is similar to “trash-talking” in physical sports. But by using feminist theory and pluralism to examine the way that Apex Legends perpetuates this idea of universal design, we can begin to see how the design of in-game communication and reporting is failing to support female victims of harassment.

Adding A Feminist Lens

In their book, Gamer Trouble, queer feminist scholar Amanda Phillips draws upon what James Ash refers to as an “interface envelope” in order to analyze gaming experiences from a feminist perspective. The interface envelope is how users are drawn into games through immersion and flow states, but due to its “responsive and temporary nature” the envelope is easily disrupted (Phillips, 2020, p. 14). Within the context of game studies, in-game disturbances are only tolerated as long as the envelope is not disturbed, and Phillips argues that “a mere identity is enough to disrupt the smooth envelope of play” (p. 29). Apex Legends is a first-person shooter style game, so women make up a relatively small percentage of overall players, and female players are seen as outsiders in what is considered a traditionally masucline space. First-person shooter is a popular genre of gaming that is traditionally considered more masculine not only due to the large percentage of male players, but also because of the more violent nature of its content.

There is little accountability for any harassment within Apex Legends, let alone gendered harassment, which reflects and reinforces the lack of accountability in our society that allows men to get away with harassment in multitudes of other spaces. Though the game developers have tried to make it easy to block, mute, or report other players, these actions might not be able to be accessed quickly enough when experiencing harassment. When a player wants to mute, block, or report another player, a screen comes up that completely disrupts gameplay, making it difficult to take action against harassment if there is a lot going on within the game, and again interrupting the distributed cognition and envelope of play. There is also no recording of in-game communication, so bans are often distributed based on how many reports a player has received - if a player is only toxic to women in-game, they may not have as many reports overall due to the smaller number of women in the player base, and not receive the proper punishment that can help protect future victims. The design of the in-game reporting system is very similar to other games: when you report a player it gives you several categories for why you are reporting them (such as cheating, harassment, or toxic behavior). Nothing changes in the game after a report is made, and users usually receive no feedback for actions taken on reports. These are all examples of designers applying designs universally without consideration for other opportunities to address harassment.

Discussion

By looking at the design of Apex Legends, it appears that the developers have put a great deal of thought into improving communication between teammates through visual and audio cues, the use of in-game communication (through the use of a microphone or ping system), and the features that allow players to mute, report, and block other players. However, closer examination of these features reveals that while they may serve the average player well in aiding communication and defending themselves from harassment, it does not account for the female gaming experience. While most gamers are used to some level of “trash talking,” female gamers can experience a completely different type of harassment that impacts not only the distributed cognition of the game and the envelope of play, but their mental health and well-being.

This combination of distributed cognition and feminist theory could be easily applied to other games, as many games use the same basic concepts and technology of enhancing distributed cognition through a HUD and audio feedback, team play, in-game communication with microphones, and reporting systems. One option that could be explored is adding in-game voice changers so that female gamers can mask their identity if they so desire. Voice changers are somewhat commonly used by the female gaming community, however they are often used through a third-party software, making them less accessible to wide-spread use. Designers might also research how to make in-game communication via the ping wheel more effective and advanced to reduce the need to use voice communication. Many players don’t utilize the ping system, or the voice-lines from the pings may be lost among all the other in-game voice lines that each legend has. There is currently no method of putting emphasis on a ping like one can use emphasis with their voice, and some players resort to repeatedly spamming pings to emphasize what they are attempting to communicate, which other players may find annoying. Lastly, reporting systems should be reexamined so that harassment victims feel as though their experiences and concerns are taken seriously by the larger gaming community.

Beyond the study of video games, these theories could also be used together to examine other problems in HCI research. There has been a rise in virtual reality platforms and technology, and this presents an entirely new area of research. Harassment has been found to be extremely common in virtual environments as well, often with more serious mental health consequences due to embodiment, a phenomena that describes how people who are harassed in virtual spaces feel as if it is happening to their real bodies (Blackwell, 2019). While there has been some research on the types of harassment people face and coping mechanisms (Freeman, 2022), there has been little research on mitigating harassment, or use of feminist theory to frame design resreach and implications in virtual reality spaces. Virtual Reality platforms are still in their infancy compared to computer and console gaming so there are fewer standardized or universal affordances, which gives developers the opportunity to explore unique solutions to problems such as harassment. 

Conclusion

Apex Legends and other video game systems have advanced visual cues, audio cues, and communication systems to aid players distribute their cognition into the game’s interface and throughout the team. However, this cognition is easily disrupted through harassment, which disproportionately affects female and non-binary gamers. Game designers should embrace a pluralistic quality of design when seeking to address issues such as in-game harassment, so that the solutions to address harassment match the breadth of experiences with harassment by different groups of people. 

Citations

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Blackwell, L., Ellison, N., Elliott-Deflo, N., & Schwartz, R. (2019). Harassment in Social Virtual Reality: Challenges for Platform Governance. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3(CSCW), 100:1-100:25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359202

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Passmore, C. J., & Mandryk, R. L. (2020). A Taxonomy of Coping Strategies and Discriminatory Stressors in Digital Gaming. Frontiers in Computer Science, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2020.00040

Phillips, A. (2020). Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture. New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479806522

Russell, B., & Trigg, K. (2004). Tolerance of Sexual Harassment: An Examination of Gender Differences, Ambivalent Sexism, Social Dominance, and Gender Roles. Sex Roles, 50, 565–573. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000023075.32252.fd

Tang, W. Y., & Fox, J. (2016). Men’s harassment behavior in online video games: Personality traits and game factors. Aggressive Behavior, 42(6), 513–521. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21646

Yee, N. (2017). Beyond 50/50: Breaking Down The Percentage of Female Gamers by Genre. Quantric Foundry. https://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/