things you can do to help make the gw2 community better and safer– for yourself and others– in the wake of the JP issue:
regardless of your opinion on JP herself, make it clear that you do not stand for bigotry. express disapproval for the people who are saying bigoted and aggressive things, and let people know that your blog is a safe space for women and other marginalized groups who might feel shaken by this atm
be careful what you say about this discourse before you post something. think to yourself, “does it look like im agreeing with the community’s hate and aggression if i say this? are people going to feel potentially unsafe around me after i post this?”
SPEAK! UP! let anet know if you disagree with their handling of this. speak up when issues like this arise. don’t let bigoted voices become the only ones in the room before it’s too late. you don’t have to argue with people– just post your opinion on the forums and then leave and ignore your notifications if you don’t want to debate people
join or found a guild committed to providing a non-hostile environment that doesn’t let people toss around bigotry or slurs
go into your chat settings (tap \ and fuss with the little arrows next to the chat tabs) and turn off map and potentially say chat if you can’t stand it. you can even make one tab that has them on for events etc but another that has them off if you don’t want to see it
if you do keep map chat on, if you see people spouting misogynistic shit, slurs, etc, toss in a casual “not cool, dude :/” and then tab out of map if you want. ignore backlash if you don’t wanna get into fights. in a map where people are being bigoted in the chat, there are usually tons of other people who are uncomfy with it as well but don’t say anything because they’re too afraid to speak first. they’ll feel comforted/empowered by seeing someone standing up to it
use your “block” and “report > verbal abuse” and “report > innappropriate character name” buttons liberally. people spouting bigotry counts as “verbal abuse”. people who have names mocking marginalized groups is against the ToS.
if you’re in a party with friends and get some pugs to fill it up, and you and your friends are able to hijack the majority vote, then kick people who say nasty shit or slurs. don’t put up with it. you can find a new pug. people who are going to act like that don’t deserve the party space. don’t let them feel welcome
these are just a few things you can do and there’s quite a bit more, but to summarize it, the rational voices of the gw2 community need to be louder against this. it can be hard and scary to combat bigotry in a videogame but remember the loud bigots are just a loud, small fraction who has been allowed to run wild. the amount of people who won’t tolerate it is much larger and we need to demonstrate that
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
2087
