Montreal (AFP)

When she arrived at Ubisoft in Montreal in 2009, Stéphanie Harvey said that she had been subjected to harassment or sexism "from day 1". Today a professional player and five-time world champion, she campaigns for a change of culture, with her ex-employer as in the entire video game industry.

The recent scandal of sexual harassment which shakes Ubisoft, main publisher of French video games and one of the big names in the world, is only the tip of the iceberg, testifies to AFP the 34-year-old Quebecer , "upset" by this whole story.

"I am convinced that what happens at Ubisoft makes a lot of waves in other companies, because it is not just at Ubisoft that it happens," says the champion of Counter-Strike, a famous shooter, famous like "missharvey" in the middle. The movement has taken on a "huge scale", she welcomes.

After a wave of accusations of sexism and harassment against Ubisoft executives, the group, with 18,000 employees, has just landed its number two, its director of human resources and the owner of its Canadian studios.

- "Third wave" #MeToo -

"I would say that from day 1 it happened to me," says the young woman, who worked from 2009 to 2017 at Ubisoft Montreal, presented as the "largest video game studio in the world".

"The number of times I have been accosted by employees at Ubisoft: + Oh you're new, you have to be in human resources, it's impossible that you work in games +. It happened often", remembers the Québécoise , evoking an atmosphere of boys' locker room.

One day, when she had to move her office in a freight elevator, an employee stopped her between two floors and said to her: "This is the best place to sleep with someone at Ubisoft +", the leaving in shock.

Become one of the very first professional players in 2005, "missharvey" saw "no difference" when she joined the company compared to the environment in which she was already evolving.

"For me, it was not a problem of Ubisoft, it was a problem of a world of men with few women", she insists, affirming to have in addition "adored" her passage at the French giant.

Stéphanie Harvey often thinks back to the time when she was "caught in the butt" at a professional event by another player, about four years ago.

"Everything that happened to me, I put it in a box, I thought I was comfortable with what had happened in my life, the box reopens and I am no longer comfortable, "she explains, very moved.

The first major affair in the sector dates back to "Gamergate" in 2014 - the name given to a cyber harassment case by American designer Zoe Quinn, before the #MeToo wave in 2017.

"What saddens me is that it is the third wave and it is almost the return to square one", she regrets, lamenting that each time the culprits are pointed out without behaviors do change according to her.

In 2013, this "feminist and activist" co-founded Missclicks, an online community that aimed to support women in the sector.

For her, in Ubisoft as in the environment in general, it is necessary "to work on the culture of the company", for example by multiplying the trainings on the sexist prejudices or by recruiting more women in this environment still largely male.

She hopes that the Ubisoft affair will allow the human resources of large companies in the sector to raise awareness of the problem.

When she was working at Ubisoft Montreal, the former + game designer + indicated that she had "not even thought" of entering her HR manager. "There was zero confidentiality for human resources at Ubisoft".

"I hope this is only the beginning, that we are going to set up resources, systems in Montreal, that women will feel more respected."

© 2020 AFP