So I note that there was no way to control for age; I'm not sure that matters but when there's a negative correlation between skill and disrespect it does make one wonder if there's a positive correlation between skill and age. Not to excuse terrible behavior but when it's so male-dominated that the girls aren't even speaking, it seems plausible that the younger demo skews even more male and teenaged male FPS players are... uncouth, as a broad stereotype. This seems like a good time to share an open letter from Aisha Tyler.A total of 189 players spoke in these 102 games; all of them were male. This is not to say that women did not play, just that they did not speak. This does, however, reinforce the fact that women are entering a
very male dominated environment.
Age is interesting and I wish it could be controlled, though I can't imagine how it would be. I can't help but wonder if because an older player is more likely to be established in real life, they're less likely to be threatened by being less skilled. That said I know that even in games with an older demographic like World of Warcraft (it's unfortunately a decade out of date, but Nick Yee found the average age of a WoW player to be 28. I played heavily from around 2006 until 2012 or so and I definitely saw my female guild mates be singled out by other players. It got to the point that most of them wouldn't talk over voice chat, even during closed times where there shouldn't be anything threatening or demeaning directed at them. It was unfortunately just easier and safer for them to not draw attention to themselves. What this article made me think about, and found kind of interesting, is that the more skilled a player was, the less likely she was to speak in voice chat. I can't help but wonder if that means they were targets of even more abuse, as they eclipsed players that were normally not threatened.