Key Takeaways
- Helldivers 2 players discuss the issue of sexism in the community.
- As we’ve seen with many online shooters, women are having to turn off voice chat to avoid abuse.
- Some are calling on players to call this behaviour out when they hear it in game.
At launch, Helldivers 2 was widely praised for having a remarkably positive community. Online shooters are notorious for being incredibly hostile and toxic at times, particularly towards female players, so seeing the Helldivers community rally around each other in the name of killing bugs and bots was a breath of fresh air.
However, as Helldivers 2 inches closer to its first birthday, it seems that there are many players who didn’t get the memo. Over in the subreddit, women are sharing their experiences with sexism in the playerbase, with some being forced to stop using voice chat due to comments made by other players.
Helldivers 2 Players Discuss Toxicity In The Player Base
“I’m just here to enjoy Helldivers and spread Democracy,” says Reddit user Acceptable-Piglet249. “Being a woman doesn’t mean I want creepy or inappropriate comments. Stop making it weird.
“What ruins it for me is the wildly inappropriate comments I hear almost every time someone realises there’s a woman in the group,” the user continues. “The moment I speak, it’s like a switch flips – I’m suddenly the target of creepy remarks or outright gross comments.
“These comments aren’t harmless fun, they’re exhausting. Imagine trying to focus on liberating planets in the name of democracy while dealing with a running commentary about yourself and the inappropriate things strangers ‘want to do to you.’ The worst part? Nine times out of ten, the other guys in the team say nothing.”
This player was hardly alone in experiencing this, with many others sharing their stories in the replies.
“As a Femdiver myself, I long ago had to get friendly with the idea [of using] text, chat and emotes only,” says Flame_Vixen. “No way in hell I would use my [mic] ever again, until I dove with someone at least 3 times, just to see if I click with them.”
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“In almost 800 hours of Helldiving, I think I’ve heard fewer than ten women on voice chat,” says user HatfieldCW. “I wonder how many of my silent comrades have been unwilling to get on voice for the reasons you describe.”
There are, unfortunately, a lot of people in the replies who are telling women in the community to stop complaining and just mute the trolls, or dismissing it as an inevitability in online games. However, there’s a good amount of fans who want the Helldivers player base to be better than this, so hopefully, more will feel emboldened to call this behaviour out.
Helldivers 2
Do you believe in freedom? Can you stand in the face of oppression – and defend the defenceless? Wage war for peace. Die for democracy.
Join forces with up to three friends and wreak havoc on an alien scourge threatening the safety of your home planet, Super Earth, in this multiplayer co-op shooter for PS5 and PC from Arrowhead Game Studios.
Step into the boots of the Helldivers, an elite class of soldiers whose mission is to spread peace, liberty and Managed Democracy using the biggest, baddest and most explosive tools in the galaxy.
Helldivers don’t go planet side without proper backup, but it’s up to you to decide how and when to call it in. Not only do you have a host of superpowered primary weapons and customizable loadouts, you also have the ability to call on stratagems during play.
Helldivers 2 features Arrowhead’s best cooperative gameplay yet. Collaboration will be vital: Teams will synergize on loadouts, strategize their approach for each mission and complete objectives together.1
Enlist in Super Earth’s premier military peacekeeping force today. We are heroes… we are legends… WE ARE HELLDIVERS.