Harassment of Game Makers: Prevalence and Impact

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Over half of surveyed industry professionals reported direct harassment on social media, and nearly all reported witnessing it happening to others.See it on page 5
02
Participants reported threats of physical violence, with 76.9% having witnessed such threats directed at industry members.See it on page 6
03
Identity-based discrimination was reported by 42.9% of participants as directly experienced and 81.2% as witnessed.See it on page 6
04
Harassment was reported to affect mental health, with 62.1% reporting increased anxiety and 36.2% reporting increased depression.See it on page 7
05
One in ten participants reported suicidal thoughts because of online harassment.See it on page 7
06
Most respondents believe gaming companies should have stronger policies around hate and harassment, yet 58.5% reported no support structures for online harassment specifically.See it on page 7

Summary

This cross-sectional exploratory study by Rachel Kowert and Eve Crevoshay of Take This surveyed 282 video game industry professionals who completed an online survey on harassment via social media. Recruitment was through social media and industry email lists, with data collected in October 2021. Participants were mostly White (72.3%), male (54.8%), and worked in core creation or development roles, with 46.1% at AAA developers and 42.6% at indie developers.

More than half of participants (59.6%) reported experiencing harassment on social media, and 92.2% reported witnessing harassment of other industry members. Trolling/griefing was the most commonly experienced form (86.3%), followed by offensive name calling (79.2%). Threats of physical violence were experienced by 48.2% and witnessed by 76.9%. Doxxing was experienced by 25.6% and witnessed by 53.5%.

The harassment had reported effects on well-being and behavior. Increased anxiety was reported by 62.1%, and 23.8% reported symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder. One in ten participants reported suicidal thoughts because of online harassment, and 37.3% reported taking steps to reduce risk to their physical safety.