Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The annual behemoth gaming conference known as E3 was held in downtown L.A. this week. It's a chance for companies to show off their new games and generate buzz, but for Microsoft, things didn't go quite according to plan.
In an onstage demonstration of their fighting game "Killer Instinct," a male developer of the game faced off against a woman who had never played the game before. The guy quickly trounced the female gamer and at the end of the match, she started to express her frustration.
"I can't even block correctly and you're too fast," said the female gamer.
To which the developer replied, "Just let it happen, it'll be over soon." Many in the audience were seriously offended by that comment.
Microsoft has since issued the a statement apologizing for the ad-libbed joke. But it got many people wondering how well are women faring in the world of videogames.
Fore more on this, we're joined now by Katherine Cross, a PHD candidate at City University of New York who's studying the impact of gender in online gaming.