Gamer Girls = Gamer Guys?

[Fkemman11]

Yes, fellow Nexites. The title says it all. My intent is NOT to stir up controversy here. I believe there is no distinction between the two- that we are all just "gamers". My intent is to dispel this nonsense about differences between female and male gamers once and for all. So, should women gamers be looked at differently than male gamers? When I asked this question on "another" site, you might be pretty surprised by most of the answers. So let's put this into some context.

Do men and women have almost the same potential in every aspect of life? Do they have exactly the same? Can they both be serious about gaming? And what exactly qualifies as a "serious" gamer anyway? I will not even mention the flip side of this out of respect for everyone's intelligence. :laugh:

So why do some men feel that they are better or more devoted than women when it comes to games or being serious about them? And believe me when I say that some do... and are even the same ppl that trumpet gender equality for EVERY other instance where this comparison might be made.

 

Now let me explain where this came from. I posted a subject on another site that depicted various women in sexy positions while playing their favorite games. Now, I admit that it would seem that I was being shallow and not respecting women that much. On the contrary, I was celebrating the fact that many women do play the same games as me! Then this long debate began about which girls were legitimate gamers or not and how some just "fake it" to get attention. In fact, what I began rather innocently quickly became a battleground between those that adamantly maintained that "Gamer Girls" are a myth and those including myself that know that they are not. I was literally shocked by some of the responses in this heated debate. Cries of "Those girls just want attention!" or "They play games on Xbone and that doesn't count!" or my favorite- "Hot, serious gamer girls don't exist!". I could relay more of what transpired, but, I think everyone gets the gist of it. Here are some pics to show what the fuss was about- can you tell which are "real gamers" and which are not??

http://2e97w3mtkwgrnync3n6mbba9.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Mysogynistic-Gamer.jpghttp://img.youtube.com/vi/kvWsjUgQyAI/maxresdefault.jpg

[Stavetskaya]

Interesting discussion) I, for example, never had an X-box, I do not like it and I do not know what to do with it. The first PC I had appeared when I was 19 years old. And it was fully custom made))) Now I almost double age from that moment... I started playing PC games when I was 23 years old. The first game was Neverwinter Nights, then its second part, Baldur's Gate, Devine Divinity and so on. Fallout Game Series, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect ... Did not escape the slashers like the Devil May Cry. Parallel to this, I also played in "real" role-playing games, with costumes, building fortifications on polygons, writing stories and narrative lines and so on. All this was insanely interesting and wonderful and gave a tremendous impetus to the development of the Intellectual and spiritual.

Then I started playing MMORPG, and it was no worse than solo games. My husband and I met in the World of Warcraft, I was a healer, and he was a tank in the static of the raid team. In this game, I started with Classic and finished in the Legion. I have a short time playing with my husband in the League of Legends. He came to Silver, and I did not even climb into ranked games, I was quite run around with bots and heard screams "Where do you go, noob!" I have no idea how serious it all is and whether to consider yourself a "serious gamer".

At Fallout 4, I play intermittently from the moment the game is released. Do not get bored) A year ago I discovered for myself the possibilities and the world of modding. Six months ago, I started making mods myself. Some time ago I began to share them on the Nexus. Probably, this also means something)))

In addition to all these "merits", I am also a wife and a mother, and I cooking well, also I can sew, knit, painting good portraits with pencils and Photoshop, write poetry and stories, I have several publications in literary almanacs and I'm a very talented person as a whole. Yes, I'm really proud myself)) Games to attract the attention of men? I've never even heard of such a strategy! Probably it deserves the right to exist, but I really can't understand why girls even want to do it)))

[iXenite]

Of course girls can be "gamers". Plenty of women create the mods on this site, which is an entirely different level of "gamer" if you ask me. People that think women can't actually like video games are crazy, it's just obviously not the case.

[Fkemman11]

Then where do you think this myth about female gamers comes from? I admit that 20 yrs ago or so, you didn't meet or hear about many women that played video games and those that did play it only did so occasionally and for short periods of time. The assumption I guess is that girls would rather be out socializing with their friends, shopping, whatever while boys had this dark, nerdy little hobby of playing video games in a hidden corner some where for hours at a time. In fact, I plainly remember as a kid that my friends would tell their little sister that wanted to play Legend of Zelda that video games were for boys only. And lets face it, most themes in games both then and maybe less now are geared towards sales to what game devs believe is a male dominated video game market. It is partly from these ideas of male dominance in video games that is a carryover from years or decades ago that persists to this day it seems. I do not agree, but, there it is. I just found this to be completely backwards thinking from a bunch of mostly men that are game coders - not just game players.

 

Another point of contention for me is who the hell can judge what qualifies as a "serious" gamer or not? Or on what platform? Is this something put forth to support the idea of pc master race? Those that have expensive gaming rigs and extensive knowledge of one or more games that peer down their noses at the rest of the poor little ignorant console players? I know plenty of ppl that would argue with that idea. This was also put forth as a reason not to consider most girl gamers anything more than casual.

[iXenite]

Then where do you think this myth about female gamers comes from? I admit that 20 yrs ago or so, you didn't meet or hear about many women that played video games and those that did play it only did so occasionally and for short periods of time. The assumption I guess is that girls would rather be out socializing with their friends, shopping, whatever while boys had this dark, nerdy little hobby of playing video games in a hidden corner some where for hours at a time. In fact, I plainly remember as a kid that my friends would tell their little sister that wanted to play Legend of Zelda that video games were for boys only. And lets face it, most themes in games both then and maybe less now are geared towards sales to what game devs believe is a male dominated video game market. It is partly from these ideas of male dominance in video games that is a carryover from years or decades ago that persists to this day it seems. I do not agree, but, there it is. I just found this to be completely backwards thinking from a bunch of mostly men that are game coders - not just game players.

 

Another point of contention for me is who the hell can judge what qualifies as a "serious" gamer or not? Or on what platform? Is this something put forth to support the idea of pc master race? Those that have expensive gaming rigs and extensive knowledge of one or more games that peer down their noses at the rest of the poor little ignorant console players? I know plenty of ppl that would argue with that idea. This was also put forth as a reason not to consider most girl gamers anything more than casual.

 

Your last point is a very good one. There really is no point in setting a distinction between "hardcore" or "serious" gamers versus "casual" ones. As for where this myth came from, it's probably not much different in origin than the whole idea that video games are the pastime of overweight men that are just super nerdy and have no social life. Gaming isn't just for "nerds" anymore, which for many the typical "nerd" is a guy. Todd Howard even pointed this out when discussing his early years of game development and his interest in computers as a youth. Gaming has really become a fun hobby for everyone, not just "nerds" and certainly not just men.

 

I personally think people that get angry over girls, especially if the girls happens to be very beautiful, must come from very insecure jerks that can't stand knowing someone they could never be with is playing and enjoying the games they do. It's a weird way of looking at the world, but I guess some people just need to be angry all of the time. It's like this new trend hating anything that has women in it. Any game now that has female characters is deemed as "SJW trash" now. It's just hilarious. First these so-called "SJW"s" are complaining about media and trying to force their opinions into media, and now the people that hate these "SJW's" are doing the same. It's just an endless cycle of angry people with too much time on their hands.

[Skagens]

Yes, fellow Nexites. The title says it all. My intent is NOT to stir up controversy here. I believe there is no distinction between the two- that we are all just "gamers". My intent is to dispel this nonsense about differences between female and male gamers once and for all. So, should women gamers be looked at differently than male gamers?

"Gaming" or "eSports" is a very male dominated genre, where female "gamers" are somewhat uncommon, at least to most people. I know a few women who play games fairly regularly but the word "girl gamer" is not how I would describe them. That word is mostly used, in my experience and opinion, to describe women who stream themselves playing games where the focus isn't on their skill, but on how good and sexy the woman looks. When it comes to interest in gaming, I don't care about gender, I only care about if you're entertaining to play with and if you're any good at it. A chick who likes games are just a chick who likes games, and vice versa. It's not that big a deal.

 

Do men and women have almost the same potential in every aspect of life?

Yes.

 

Do they have exactly the same?

No.

 

Can they both be serious about gaming?

Absolutely.

 

And what exactly qualifies as a "serious" gamer anyway? I will not even mention the flip side of this out of respect for everyone's intelligence. :laugh:

I would think a "serious" gamer is someone who spends considerable amount of their free time to play games and do it on a regular basis. Someone who has a sense of passion and real interest for it. I guess many guys don't believe women can't be that serious and dedicated about it. I would disagree, obviously.

 

So why do some men feel that they are better or more devoted than women when it comes to games or being serious about them? And believe me when I say that some do... and are even the same ppl that trumpet gender equality for EVERY other instance where this comparison might be made.

Because the majority of "gamers" are male. They see gaming and games as interests of men, the same way fashion and beauty products are interests of women. They can't really see how a woman would be interested in something that mostly men are interested in. And because the majority of professional "gamers" are male, that only goes to show that women can't "keep up" or "compare" as it were. They're mistaken of course, but that's the reality. I would like to preface this by saying this is all my experiences and opinions on the matter. I can be mistaken.

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by Skagens

[Fkemman11]

This might help show the attitude of some guys.

 

Just replace "fight" with "be passionate about games".

[Evangela]

Female gamers aren't a myth. There's a pretty good reason why they appear to be rare, and every male gamer should know the reason >_>.

[montky]

Third-time is the charm,

I will repost the short-truncated-version

-----

 

 

 

To me, this hypothetical verges on

a "No True-Scotsperson"/ "Authenticity Theory" (JP Sartre, Magritte, baudrillard etc).

 

so, of course any sentient being can play videogames,

or make them.

(cue meme of Homer with the Sippy-Duck,

or an unuseless machine pressing a controller button).

where are the images of programmable controllers/ memristive controllers etc?

 

Quantifiable metrics don't help much either -

even if we filter by title complexity-density/gamestates,

or by 'style' and genre, the gameplay hours per calendar week etc,

we still get no closer to discerning,

as, they're all very similar,

irrespective of RTS, FPS, Mobile App Puzzle Game etc.

 

if we look at Membership in LAN Clubs, the top 200 per title,

computing societies or production-project management etc,

it is similarly as clear as mud, even when discerning by similar net complexity-density gamestate metric etc.

 

Comparing Mobile Apps and FPSs are almost a false-comparison apples and oranges,

and also like the "Console v PC" question which I don't understand;

it's all computers,

and, a lot of games on the backend are a similar language or 2D-3D...

they're just different configurations.

 

It's just a matter of choice mostly.

different games have different audiences,

and that's because we make choices differently

as a constructivist-compatibilist hehe.

 

 

[Fkemman11]

Third-time is the charm,

I will repost the short-truncated-version

-----

 

 

 

To me, this hypothetical verges on

a "No True-Scotsperson"/ "Authenticity Theory" (JP Sartre, Magritte, baudrillard etc).

 

so, of course any sentient being can play videogames,

or make them.

(cue meme of Homer with the Sippy-Duck,

or an unuseless machine pressing a controller button).

where are the images of programmable controllers/ memristive controllers etc?

 

Quantifiable metrics don't help much either -

even if we filter by title complexity-density/gamestates,

or by 'style' and genre, the gameplay hours per calendar week etc,

we still get no closer to discerning,

as, they're all very similar,

irrespective of RTS, FPS, Mobile App Puzzle Game etc.

 

if we look at Membership in LAN Clubs, the top 200 per title,

computing societies or production-project management etc,

it is similarly as clear as mud, even when discerning by similar net complexity-density gamestate metric etc.

 

Comparing Mobile Apps and FPSs are almost a false-comparison apples and oranges,

and also like the "Console v PC" question which I don't understand;

it's all computers,

and, a lot of games on the backend are a similar language or 2D-3D...

they're just different configurations.

 

It's just a matter of choice mostly.

different games have different audiences,

and that's because we make choices differently

as a constructivist-compatibilist hehe.

 

 

I do agree that in most cases it should be a non-issue about gender in gaming and what qualifies as devotion to such. However, I recently started watching some vids that gave the perspective of another woman on females who play games and, basically, like to rub it in everyone's face. Also some women that had the nerve to complain that they had no one to talk to at gaming conventions because they were all males!! I mean, your at a gaming convention. Everyone there loves to play games- just like you- and you can't talk to them because they're guys? It seems that some females prefer to be separate or treated differently when it comes to gaming and then turn around and complain when they don't want that or it doesn't serve them. You can't have it both ways and by wanting special treatment because they are women, they help perpetuate the attitudes of most men. So women- it seems- are as much to blame for this scrutinization against them as men.