Gaming and Girls, Ugh?Follow

Here’s a post on girl gaming since I’m bored… inspired by an IRC conversation. Yeah, I hate that it’s even a matter of concern and arises as a topic.

If you are any bit familiar with modern Western gaming culture, it’s either very loved (so cool! hot! wow rare!), or very hated (girls suck, drama, attention *****). Why so often a negative impression and a negative reaction? Sure, there are a lot of “undesirable” elements that get introduced by such things: they’re so different and care about things like socializing and causing drama and getting attention instead of trying to play the game well! They get free items easily, that’s so unfair and dumb! The stereotype has expanded so far that it’s almost guaranteed flame bait to simply mention it. And what’s the deal with having girl teams and competitions? What’s the point? Are they limited in potential and can not compete with men? Do they need to stick together because of discrimination? Is it because of sex appeal for the sake of media promotion? Personally, I think it’s insulting.

People often put the blame on girls, but isn’t the root cause in treating them with too much differentiation which results in segregation? What reason is there for this treatment to begin with? I think people who treat them as something special or as a subclass are more to blame for enabling those trends. And in regards to competition and typical skill levels, there’s the matter of personal priorities, and also cultural and upbringing influences which results in difference approaches and level of dedication.

I’m tired of hearing things like “best girl I’ve played” or “really good for a girl” or “never expected and surprised you’re a girl.” So I say, stop making a big deal out of it and let everyone play and interact on the same field, with fair considerations. If only everyone would take it easy, stop generalizing as much, and value or hate people as individuals compared to the whole… many of these issues in regard to gender should disappear… ideally. Gaming should be a neutral and unbiased space.

Guess that's his loss then!

Irrelevant because we know he lost because the game was too old.

Me too... me too.

How are you defining gaming? MMOs are blanket and anyone can be good or bad at them, regardless of gender or culture. However if you take, for example, FPS games, it is rare to meet a girl who is good at them, and if you were to encounter one online (especially if they kicked your ***) you'd have every right to be surprised because it just doesn't happen - not that it *can't*, but it is incredibly rare.

The negative views of girls in MMOs are different in that gaming is undeniably a male-oriented industry. It has always been the way of mankind to seperate things into gender classes (jobs, cleaning, cooking, sport, etc) so completely overcoming this even in today's society is a challenge. Added to this is the fact that there are many many many documented cases of women exploiting their sexuality to progress (that woman who prostituted herself for an epic mount in WoWs' Burning Crusade springs to mind) creates an image as surely as the men who respond to such things create the stereotype of the lonely basement-dwelling loser. In such an over-commercialised society it is difficult to escape such prejudices and while I agree that each person should be judged solely on the merit of their actions, it is just not feasible to expect.

The last survey I read about (about a year ago) had the girls vs guys playing MMO's ratio at 3-10 I believe, and was on the rise. That would play a heavy factor upon the rarity factor of a girl vs guy competition.



Also as a funny note,
One of Piratess's old guild mates did a college thesis on "The benefits of playing a girl in an MMO (or mangina in this case)". This was back in 2003 right after the launch of SWG. Was funny to hang out in the cantina's when he was doing this report and poke fun at him, plus he would give us some of the loot sometimes that "lonely guys" would give him. :)

Well my t-shirt reads "Yes, men are pigs..now who wants sausage!" ;P
but..ya.

That made LOL in RL because it was that funny :P

Its nice to have variety!

Otherwise everything gets quite boring.

If those are 4 traits that help with you with connecting and conversing with females, what would be the traits that would help you connect and converse with males?

Fair enough. I think that says more about what you prefer than your own communicative traits though.

I meant regarding most of your best friends being guys. Or are you saying that isn't the case?

Personally I find it to be more maturity level than anything. I've come across guys in MMO's that absolutely FREAK OUT when I get in vent and they find out I'm a chick. Even then it has nothing to do with my play skill - its.../zomgmusthiton.

I've lost track how many guys 30+ have freaked out then gone all pervy on me trying to get pictures, video, webcam, etc. For a while I just stopped going into new vents because I got sick of it tbh. Its funny at first and then it just gets stupid.

I think I've been hit on more buy older guys actually, versus teenaged boys, and the reason for that is probably pretty simple. Men are wired to be attracted to younger women. Younger women are fertile, older women aren't necessarily. /shrugs I wish guys would get over it, but eh...horomones will keep on kicking and the problem will never entirely go away.

Now I just let people know up-front I'm a chick usually, laugh when they assume I'm bad, then totally pwn their pre-conceptions. I like letting know people up-front I'm a chick though, gets all the "AMAGAD UR A CHICK CYB0RZ ME NAO!! PICS NAO!!! AMAGAD AMAGAD /faint" bullcrap out of the way.