One of the first heralds that the gaming world was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic was the cancellation of E3 2020, making this the first year without E3 since the trade show began in 1995. With several online replacements and the bad taste left behind by an enormous data breach after the 2019 show, not to mention that companies like Sony dropped out of the event, there have been many reasons to doubt the future of E3.
And now E3 has been embraced in another controversy, with a sarcastic tweet linked to a sexist article going up on the E3 Twitter account. The since-deleted tweet included a link along with the text “Great list of games that women gamers play – one of your favorites makes the cut?”
The article to which it linked was called 25 Online Games That Women Enjoyed The Parade, and it was an SEO-optimized list of games that “women play”, littered with quotes from user reviews and market research. Games included Kim Kardashian’s Hollywood, Solitaire, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The problem here is not that these are inferior to inferior games – the article was extremely prescriptive about the types of games that are “for” women, and was clearly produced to produce clicks on keywords instead of actually presenting recommendations, and included many stereotypes (“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” read the Bejeweled Classic entry).
It also looks like the list has dropped, but we would not link to it.
After a scream, the E3 Twitter account deleted the tweet and posted a brief apology.
We have messaged. We take the post off and apologize for creating a harmful stereotype. We will do better.
