Girl Gamers

[Sarya]

I know I'm a bit late for a big dispute here, so there's other two cents of personal experience.

 

Few years ago I was moderately unfortunate to happen a gamer of one online game, which, among other things, was a bit infamous for a bit oversexified female characters and abundance of males playing females. My main character happened to be a female of the race which females were the most endowed and scantily-clad females ingame. And an acquaintance of mine, who played with me for sometimes, male as he stated, but playing a female character (and I always was open that I'm female, though rarely shared that unless asked).

 

Well, at that point I already started to get the idea that most players viewed female gamers as fairies... in a way of something that only exist in naive children's imagination... but this person... well, sorry for this, but he really f**ked my brain with all those suspicions, trap questions and the like, and there's no better phrase to explain that. Since that I don't care what people think I am, whether I'm transvestite, gay (wonder HOW is that connected to female characters, but there was something like that once, yes, and because of a female character, and once male too), ugly schoolgirl unworthy of being considered female (if there's such thing at all), bot program, hallucination, fairy or whatever. Even when friends were suspicious about me (well, I sometimes have a really unfeminine manner) it didn't offend me.

 

So, "girl gamers don't exist" is the same sort of myth as "fair-haired women have no functional brain" and is as worthy of emotion. Though it is really amusing sometimes, to watch all those silly debates among little boys that I'm fictional. Oh, and I don't really do ironing.

 

Note: I actually was called "Fairy Godmother" once. For a different reason and... purely ironic.

 

Cheers to all previous posters. So much "burya v stakane vody" was here :rolleyes:

 

Also, one little observation: while casual girl gamers tend to play pretty/sexy female characters, more professional/dedicated ones may actually play ANYTHING, so there's no real way to be certain that you won't meet a girl in ANY particular game (yes, I heard about a girl who played a male orc for a long time without any suspicion from her friends, a pity I haven't met her).

[UncleRoe]

Those who think one gender is better than the other should seriously not bother posting until after grammar school. You need to live a little bit through life before commenting on it. Maybe your the male champ where you live.. Maybe you just haven't played a chick with skills yet,doesn't mean they do not exist. Besides a few genetic differences, Females can top males in any competition,Saying women worldwide have absolutly no chance at passing up the "equal" range of men is an immature way of thinking and anyone who does think this way needs to seriously drop the ego.

 

Now.. i'm not downing the male gamers.. we rock.. we really do F'N rock... really....but there are many female gamers that would hand us our asses in a heartbeat. For example.. there is a COD4 group known as PMS..(lol).. it's a female only tourny champ guild that has put many of us male gamers in the ground..crying for 3 hours about how "there is no way that chick beat me without cheats!" or " i was lag spiking really bad, she just got lucky!"..when the majority of the male gamers will deny female gamers their due simply because they fail to realize that even though their opposing team is all female, they are also human.. and all humans possess the will and intelligence to overcome,dominate and destroy

[antonkr]

Well i think its mostly is just you know funny picture. I don't think they really meant to offend any girl gamers.

[dezdimona]

Those who think one gender is better than the other should seriously not bother posting until after grammar school. You need to live a little bit through life before commenting on it. Maybe your the male champ where you live.. Maybe you just haven't played a chick with skills yet,doesn't mean they do not exist. Besides a few genetic differences, Females can top males in any competition,Saying women worldwide have absolutly no chance at passing up the "equal" range of men is an immature way of thinking and anyone who does think this way needs to seriously drop the ego.

 

Now.. i'm not downing the male gamers.. we rock.. we really do F'N rock... really....but there are many female gamers that would hand us our asses in a heartbeat. For example.. there is a COD4 group known as PMS..(lol).. it's a female only tourny champ guild that has put many of us male gamers in the ground..crying for 3 hours about how "there is no way that chick beat me without cheats!" or " i was lag spiking really bad, she just got lucky!"..when the majority of the male gamers will deny female gamers their due simply because they fail to realize that even though their opposing team is all female, they are also human.. and all humans possess the will and intelligence to overcome,dominate and destroy

 

you sir are a man amongst men. :thanks:

[Venetia_CV]

Yep, Uncle Roe is one of 'The Few, The Proud, The..' Yes, yes, he's out and about keeping the peace these days, but behind the tin badge and (blue?) stiff shirt still beats a heart of selfless courage. And just to follow up on points made by 'Uncle', dezdimona, and Sarya here comes a ramble.

 

Gaming for me started in arcades during the early to mid 80's. It didn't take long before the other elite gamers and arcade managers and owners in my city took notice. Arcade managers weren't always so keen on people who stayed all day on one token or quarter. On the other hand crowds would form when some elite player was in house and on fire; which helped recoup a little business. As for the players themselves, they were cool with me. None ever made use of innuendo, or sexual propositioning, or anything that was distasteful or disrespectful. In a world that seemed largely masculine, I felt at ease. Well, mostly.

 

Those players (and me) were serious about playing. Being an elite player meant that you became part of a very tiny, focused, sub-culture of players. Four hours into playing, maybe you might hand your game off to one of them in order to go take care of the slower aspects of life (food, friends, school, movie at a cinema, sleep, etc.), and then return to take back your game. I never knew any of them outside of arcades (and it was probably a mutual thing among players). All that mattered was your skill and the games. Seems like those days are long gone.

 

On the gaming service that I use (Live) almost every session is about other stuff than gaming. Instead of the focus being on the game at hand, many males prefer the sport of hunting females. Put to the test, I find them not so skilled or intrigued in really mastering the game code. Anyway, my feeling is that a majority of female gamers have had their own similiar experiences. But, on the good side, I am encouraged by the number of and positions being filled by women in the gaming industry. Maybe this will lead to games that appeal to and are more respectful of female players. Which could then see positive changes in the larger gaming community. You never know. As for me, I'm still waiting for the game code that will make me blink.

 

-Kitten

[Herculine]

That wasn't a ramble. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It sounds like your gaming skills would put most of us "girl gamers" to shame as well!

[species5478]

I get easily offended by many stereotypes. Sorry, but I do get emotional when people try to lessen my worth as a human being by using gender as tool for measuring my self-worth. It's infuriating! I didn't realized for instance, when joining the U.S.M.C., that woman weren't allowed to go into the field and fight alongside the men. That was whole reason why I enlisted! I thought this was America! I'm not there to drive guys into combat, and then run back to base. F—k that! Grrrr…Sure, I'm small, but I was a better shot than most of the men there, and had greater endurance too. A shocker I suppose, since I don't look butch but should that matter? No…but I does. I was demoted by my C.O. when I broke his orders, joined the guys in the field, and helped save his life. Go figure.

 

I'm from Egypt, and in my country, there's men who still have multiple wives. That's why I enjoy living in the States so much. Woman can afford to look at gender based jokes, and laugh. We can date who we like. Do as we please, and live as human beings. But it's a freedom shared by few. Considering the billions of woman across the world, a majority don't have equal rights.

 

Phew...

 

That's also why I enjoy gaming. The gloves come off, buttons are mashed, and may the best PERSON win! Before coming here, I played Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on the PS3 under the alias, Turmoil. When people saw my name, they knew what time it was. I give G36C smack-downs! And as a matter a fact, I think it's time to pay some old friends a visit…

[humanbean234]

The majority of my experience in this realm is in Old-School Pencil/Paper games, of which female players were always few and far between. I can honestly count the number of females I've played RPGs with at eight (I've seen more at conventions, but the crew that patronized The Raven's Loft game store was fairly small in the mid-80's). Fortunately all of us were eager to encourage females to game; most of us were eager for any sort of interaction, and the rarity of a female player in one's group almost made it a bragging point in those days.

 

Yes, my wife plays AD&D (2E), but her computer gaming is limited to Scrabble, and neither of us own a console system nor play any online multiplayers. She got involved in RPGs because I was an enthusiast, and it's a good mutual hobby for us.

[antonkr]

I get easily offended by many stereotypes. Sorry, but I do get emotional when people try to lessen my worth as a human being by using gender as tool for measuring my self-worth. It's infuriating! I didn't realized for instance, when joining the U.S.M.C., that woman weren't allowed to go into the field and fight alongside the men. That was whole reason why I enlisted! I thought this was America! I'm not there to drive guys into combat, and then run back to base. F—k that! Grrrr…Sure, I'm small, but I was a better shot than most of the men there, and had greater endurance too. A shocker I suppose, since I don't look butch but should that matter? No…but I does. I was demoted by my C.O. when I broke his orders, joined the guys in the field, and helped save his life. Go figure.

 

I'm from Egypt, and in my country, there's men who still have multiple wives. That's why I enjoy living in the States so much. Woman can afford to look at gender based jokes, and laugh. We can date who we like. Do as we please, and live as human beings. But it's a freedom shared by few. Considering the billions of woman across the world, a majority don't have equal rights.

 

Phew...

 

That's also why I enjoy gaming. The gloves come off, buttons are mashed, and may the best PERSON win! Before coming here, I played Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on the PS3 under the alias, Turmoil. When people saw my name, they knew what time it was. I give G36C smack-downs! And as a matter a fact, I think it's time to pay some old friends a visit…

Well said. Wait WTF??? women are not allowed on the field alongside men. Thats stupid.

[Herculine]

Antonkr, surely you're joking...