I hate you. Why is that? Because you're a female. You're a filthy female. We don't like females. We like men in here.

Misogyny in the gaming world is alive and kicking.

It's scary to be a woman in a game.

Last year, over two-thirds of women gamers reported being harassed while they played.

It can start off from general verbal abuse, sexist comments, but it can often quickly escalate into something a lot more threatening.

A third wouldn't even turn on their microphones in case the other players realized that they were women.

That instant reaction is, go back to the kitchen, shut up, woman, you don't belong here.

Black women in this space are subject to some more abuse than anyone else. It's very tiring.

I logged on to a video game chat room recently to see what it was like. I stayed silent, but my profile picture shows that I'm a woman. This is what happened within seconds. Who is this dirty, You're a I hate you.

Why is that? Because you're a female. You're a filthy female. We don't like females. We like men in here. You're a slag. You know that, right? Why am I a slag? Because you're a f. All females are slags, and you're expired.

Oh my God, that's an awful way to see the world.

You're a slag on the streets, bro. Bro, she's a nigger. She's a pedophile. She's a nigger. She loves kids.

This abuse happened on Discord. It's a social app boasting almost 27,000 different groups dedicated to video games. Gamers can often be found talking on Discord instead of on the inbuilt chats in video games. But unlike some of those big games, users on Discord don't have any way of reporting hateful comments that they get in voice chat. I asked Discord why there was no recourse for abusive comments received in their voice chats. This is what they told me. Discord say they prohibit hate speech, bullying, harassment, and threats, and take immediate action, including banning users, shutting down servers, and engaging with authorities. They say they use tools like community moderators letting users block and report violations. But the abuse isn't limited to Discord. Women I've spoken to have been abused both in-game and off-platform.

Literally yesterday, I queued two games, and in both games, I experienced sexism. It's incredibly and disgustingly common. I came from a place of just gaming casually with my dad, with my sister, not online, talking to random people. And the minute I started to use voice chat as a woman in gaming, I saw it straight away and I just couldn't believe It's such an unfair disadvantage that women and minorities have because they feel like they can't use their voice and they can't experience gaming to the fullest and just have fun. It's not fair at all.

Jenny McBean polled around a thousand women gamers in the UK and the US about the abuse that they faced.

For four years in a row, we saw a constant increase in the amount of women who were experiencing toxicity in gaming. But in this latest study, it was the first positive shift that we saw. It's actually reduced to 65 %. That's a significant decrease. It's great. We can't obviously just assume that everything's fine now. It's still two in three women.

Her research has also found that nearly a fifth of women gamers say the abuse has had a negative effect on their mental health. Another fifth choose not to play online games at all because of fears of intimidation and abuse.

Compared to, let's say, 10 years ago, again, it was way worse.

Mimi has been a professional gamer for nearly a decade.

If you are a famous face in your field, people will respect you more. Then let's say if you're a casual gamer, you will be picked on way more.

But there are women on the inside trying to change things.

The purpose here is dismantling a system that was against us, and we're doing it.

Stephanie Ajoma founded Neisaga, an agency which works to improve diversity in gaming.

A lot of marginalized minority communities are not seen or not heard of, and we've been able to expose that to audiences and communities and brands that they have not been aware of. And because of that, a lot more companies are now using more Black and Brown folk. They're using more people that aren't just the same audience. It's slowly but shortly changing.

And it looks like things are improving. Dagne organizes esport tournaments. In her work, she's overseen an increase in audiences for women's events.

But now, as you've had these Trailblazers, women that are in front of the camera and also the ones that are playing, it's shifting and it's not cool to be a toxic sexist in that aspect anymore. Obviously, those still exist, but I've seen a lot of growth just the past five years or even two years, so it's constantly going forward.