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Paperboy Posts: 19 Joined: 23 Feb 2008 | |
Paperboy  Posts: 49 Joined: 4 Mar 2008   | From reading the thread it seems that i may be the exception to the rule. A lot of my female friends are pretty into gaming. |
Beat Writer  Posts: 181 Joined: 22 Jan 2008   | Actually, lots of women do play games. Just look at industry statistics. What they don't do is play games that "gamers" tend to focus on, or comment on internet gaming message boards half as much. I forget the exact number, but the best selling game of all time, The Sims, has a sizable, if not majority, degree of women playing. The Wii has also garnered a fairly large female audience. |
Paperboy Posts: 27 Joined: 4 Mar 2008 | MMOs, Sims, Final Fantasy and Wii games don't class you as a gamer. That's like saying that liking a few Schwarzenegger films classes you as a movie conoisseur. The amount of female, normal, hobby gamers, who actually play a variety of games, are very small. And out of all of them, I've only ever met one who wasn't morbidly obese or unbearably irritating. I'm sure there are more out there, but attractive female gamers who kick ass at games is starting to become a bit of a stereotype. Sadly this is one of the more fictitious of stereotypes. If an attractive girl can ever beat me in Guilty Gear, I'll surrender my testicles immediately, but 'till then... As for guys wanting female gamers and females not caring... I think that's just taking it for granted. I don't know if female gamers would be quite so quick to not care about their boyfriend playing games if they outnumbered male gamers about 100-1. It may also be the fact that they're so rare that they're incessantly flirted with by every gamer community. Lord knows I'd be turned off gamers forever if the entire Halo fanbase flirted with me. |
Beat Writer Posts: 181 Joined: 22 Jan 2008 |
If we take "gamer" as "Hardcore gamer" then yes, of course the female population is low. But, and following on from your film example, proper film fanatics are a fairly small purpotion of people who actually go and watch films. If you're going to make a special distinction which refuses to represent the majority, don't be surpised when that distinction isn't representative of that majority. Hell, you've basically said "disgregarding games women like, women don't like games." |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1966 Joined: 1 Feb 2008     |
Hmm, so, what games does one need to like to be classified as a gamer then? Because I didn't realize it was based on the games themselves, I thought it was based on the portion of your life devoted to sitting in front of some sort of flickering box, and the degree to which people look at you funny when they find out just how much of your time is spent in front of a flickering box. Seriously, the idea that a guy who spents 5+ hours a day playing WoW to the exclusion of every other title isn't a gamer is absurd, but clearly, he doesn't fit the definition described above. Perhaps you are saying gamer=game connoiseur, which again eliminates a pretty wide swath of the guys, too.
And this varies from the male gamers how? Oh, and for the record, I'm rail thin and unbearably irritating. |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 4 Joined: 4 Mar 2008  | It might just be my opinion (but considering I work in Game, it's not all that invalid :-) )... But with the recent rise in popularity of the Wii - which has it's own "hardcore gamer" style games (No More Heroes, for example) - and the NDS means that more and more girls (and families, for that matter) are getting involved in gaming, casual as it may be. It may take some time, but I can see a few different stems from this... 1. Younger girls get more interested in gaming, try out new games with friends etc etc, as they grow up get more "hardcore" and eventually become the drooling, fat-arsed dweebs that we all aspire to be. 2. Families get more involved in gaming, they realise that they don't have to get their little girls to play with Polly Pocket's and such, they play more games, get more intere-...(see point 1.) 3. They just play casually...but they still play :-) |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 498 Joined: 20 Nov 2007    |
wow thats awesome :-D the one person who i know on this site is female, the one person im intereseted in the opinoin of, says that. thats great :-D |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1110 Joined: 16 Jan 2008    |
I blame female empowerment for male masochism... The only people you can politically correctly take the piss outta are white, middle/upper class guys. So if you fall into that category you better have a self degrading sense of humour. Please note the above is not serious, I am being silly. Just in case anyone was reaching for their shotgun. On topic, I don't know many female gamers. An ex-girlfriend of mine liked fable, and thats about it for the real-life situation. Two corpies in EvE told us they were women, one was lying but had us convinced for months until we got teamspeak, and the other refused to use teamspeak... She did give off a girly vibe though. |
Muckraker Posts: 322 Joined: 18 Jan 2008  |
Oh? The only unbearably irritating person I've met was one who only spoke in internet references and thought he was funny. He also had no respect of the current conversations taking place. Basically, he was a walking, talking window of 4chan :-p. Besides, haven't I heard that sterotype used for gamers for, oh, 20 years now? I know it comes from somewhere, but still... |
Paperboy  Posts: 26 Joined: 3 Mar 2008 |
I love gaming, I love tournaments, I lovvvvvvveeeee going to to tournaments and betting on teams. |
Paperboy Posts: 26 Joined: 3 Mar 2008 | I live my custom Now liquid cooled Xbox elite |
Paperboy Posts: 26 Joined: 3 Mar 2008 | Women are Catty and actually love being better then the girl next to em. appeal to your gf's sense of "wow girl gamers are hot" and the jealousy pin is pulled. She will get into gaming. |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 1 Joined: 4 Mar 2008 | Something to consider, is that the female online experience can be verbally abusive. Most guys just leave me alone, but every time I play, if for more than an hour or so, I get some kind of rudeness. All of the 'types' of rudeness have been listed in this thread so far. List from 1FoxyLady1: You have to contrast this with what a good looking female get in real life. If you and I walk up to a door at the same time, you're going to open it, and say something to the effect of "After you." In a bar, I have drinks bought for me. I get taken to the movies, dinner, baseball games etc. You're asking me to leave this world in which I'm treated well, to one where I'm attacked if I choose to advertise my gender. It doesn't make for an enjoyable time for most females. Beyond myself being attacked, men in society call each other girls all the time to insult each other. Something doesn't have to be directed at me, I hear lots of comments like: "You play worse than Chick XYZ". Having said all this, I play a lot of video games, and online also. When someone comes up with something original, and funny, it's great. Unfortunately I hear ten stupid comments, to every one original, funny one. But when they're funny, they are funny! I'm lucky because I'm good, and there is nothing better than ending up the MVP in a game which you have been called names. (Find me if you want your ass kicked in any of the games in my profile.) I can minimize all this by having a nice list of people I know to play with and I can be on the same team. When I play alone, I unplug my mic. Being able to choose an age group would help a lot. They can verify age for porn, why not have some area set aside for adults? |
Paperboy Posts: 26 Joined: 3 Mar 2008 |
I love the way you put this. And most men sadly when you bring this to there face they deny it and call you a whore or a bitch. You put it quite well!! |
Anonymous Source Posts: 4 Joined: 4 Mar 2008 | It's interesting what people consider a real "gamer" and how they define hardcore and casual. I've been gaming all my life, and I never really looked at myself as a hardcore gamer but some people think that I am because I know a lot about games, I work in the industry and I play whenever I get a chance. I know women who play 60+ hours a week, does that make them casual because they don't like FPS games? I don't understand why people need to label each other, because there is a hint of condescension when people say, "Oh they're not a real gamer or they're just casual." Don't we play games for the love of games? Don't we play regardless of who else plays them? When I'm online I do not like to advertise that I'm female, heck, I always pick male characters just to avoid the question. When I switch over to a female character the questions "R u grrlll??!" don't stop until they're satisfied. I don't really want special treatment and I was always more comfortable being around guys who didn't change their behaviour when a girl stepped into the room. I know that a majority of gamers aren't idiots and don't go around harassing females because they think it's cool. Stereotypes exist everywhere and they're not all fat and smelly either. In real life I don't keep my video game habits a secret. My coworkers, well, ex-corkers, professors, classmates are all surprised and fascinated over the idea that I do enjoy games. Growing up, I've always been the go-to person in my class for games. I guess it is uncommon to see a female into games, but I grew up playing games with my friends and many of them happened to be female. Their interest tapered off though, I can't seem to stop :) As for the original question, from what I've seen, men and women play different types of games. The Sims is about 55-60% female the last time I checked, games like WoW is like 16% female, so yeah, they're not exactly the majority. I think a lot of it does have to do with social conditioning, how many girls are given tonka trucks to play with and guys are given barbie dolls? I just happened to have a younger brother and hated dolls, so I played with cars and I'd rather talk about tech-related stuff than nail polish. I know I'm not the norm, which is unfortunate because I think each side misses out on some good stuff by being pinned in their gender. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 4427 Joined: 23 Dec 2007     | All I know is that the statistics my be correct (although they probably haven't polled every gamer alive and therefore are statistically incorrect) It doesn't represent what I've seen in online gaming in the games I play. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1966 Joined: 1 Feb 2008 |
I'm much more unbearable in real life, I assure you. And since Shinkada was basically citing the female version of the gamer geek archetype, I just flipped it back. Sure, it's a tired old archetype, and not particularly accurate in my experience, since most of the guys I know who game are more frat boys or Polo-and-Docker-wearing developer types than dweebs. But then, most of the guys I know are either frat types or business-casual types, period. Except for the aging goths, rocker burnouts, and the slam poets. The one guy I know who actually looks like the gamer stereotype wouldn't piss on a game console if it was on fire and has never actually owned his own computer. And regarding the person you mention - I'm pretty sure drugs are the answer, I'm just not sure what the question is. |
Muckraker Posts: 322 Joined: 18 Jan 2008 |
Really? I was thinking a baseball bat personally. Oh...wait...wrong question. I know a few people that fit that stereotype, though. They aren't irritable to me, but I do hear of others complaining about it. I guess it's all in the eye..or ear..of the beholder. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 66 Joined: 3 Jan 2008 | My mum and older sister are both casual gamers, between them, they play: (third person action) (driving) (first person shooters) (other) |
BANNED  Posts: 317 Joined: 30 Jan 2008  |
while you were being silly, i think theirs a truth to that, political correctness is all well and good until a minority comic starts a white-boy spiel, then its witty rebuttal against a repressive society. if that causes anyone to reach for their shotguns, i wholeheartedly invite them to shoot their computer screens, just post a picture of the results. as for girl-gamers, i know a bunch, not hardcore gamers, mostly sims, some puzzle stuff, and some are into fable and RPG's i think chicks are just less likely to get caught up in the 'culture' of gaming (i have a semi straight face while saying that, some gamers are just weird, not unique, weird) and like one genre or even one game, when i try to offer them my copy of something else they have a tendency to say something along the lines of "why, i have this one and i havnt finished yet" Viva pinata is popular as-well, but lets face it, even the most froth-mouthed COD4 fanatic cant resist feeling warm when they convince a dog... thing to live in their garden, come on, its cool... |
Paperboy  Posts: 36 Joined: 6 Mar 2008 | In my experience, I've know quite a few female gamers. Most tend to play RPG's which are not so combat focused but allow them to play the role which they've chosen. These girls aren't so muh into FPS games but like Mario cart and other sorts of things. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 56 Joined: 6 Mar 2008 | I studied a tad psychology and I've learned that women/girls in general have a strong sense of conserving life, so killing things, even in a game is sort of against the "inner rules". I have no problem with slaughtering things in games, not even people, but maybe I'm just different (my conservation sense has probably been beaten to death a long time ago). I'm not sure why girls tend to stay away from games, maybe because they think it's too hard, maybe because they say it's a "guy thing"... A shame though. I saw a tv show that stated that women in general have better reactions and are capable of playing a game better that guys (no offense, no offense...), so stating that "games are too hard" isn't a good excuse... I actually love games and couldn't live without them, but I know a single girl gamer at school. Ah, well, more games for us. ;) |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 728 Joined: 19 Dec 2007 |
*sigh* Not another one. One more source of misinformation to avoid. I'll probably go home tonight and see another "Move over boys" article on the MSN website. Skill isn't due to what gender you are, dammit! |
Beat Writer  Posts: 217 Joined: 5 Mar 2008  |
I feel sorry for the 1 lone female we have in our games design class, its like 100-1. |
Muckraker  Posts: 231 Joined: 28 Jan 2008 |
That would explain why my female TF2 chums play medic a lot. But then, they seem to laugh when they get good kills as a combat class, but then, anyone would I guess. |
Beat Writer Posts: 217 Joined: 5 Mar 2008 | Any person who plays the sims, girl or male, has obvious lifestyle issues. Anyway, personally female gamers, nothing wrong with, they are on the rise, and will continue to do so. I have been against female gamers online, i treat them no differently than i would a fellow male, however the only thing that strikes me sometimes is the a small number of them [Not the majority, before you flame me], tend to have to tell everyone that they are a female gamer and that makes them different... Its somebody who craves attention. On the otherhand, i no alot of female gamers, most of them are just normal and don't really care or have the urge to flaunt that they are a female gamer. However i do like to take the piss out of one of my friends, becasue she plays the sims, she doesn't mind as she takes the piss out of me playing Half Life 2, just as i take the piss out of the majority of male fan boys, tis all good. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 56 Joined: 6 Mar 2008 |
I didn't say it was true, just thought I'd share what the tv promotes nowadays.. But it does encourage more girls to pick up gaming. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3901 Joined: 26 Feb 2008  |
My obese and extremely annoying ex-wife had a female gamer friend who was beyond gorgeous. Perfect 15. Total cheater even. She was 27, had a kid, and made Jessica Alba look average. But she played online daily. They do exist, but even so, the cackiling of women like my ex-wife drowns them out... |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3901 Joined: 26 Feb 2008 | |
Meh I'm one of those crappy girl gamers. I'm only even slightly into it because I work in a game shop. I don't like FPSs. I don't like war games (which are generally FPSs). But I've finished a few 360 games like Assassin's Creed, Bioshock... Eh I'm sure there's a couple of others.
Here is my reasoning: I have a 360 because I rather enjoy playing games. I have a PS2 for the same reason. And a DS. I do not LIVE for it. It does not take over my life. I stole a load of free subscriptions to Xbox Live from work but have yet to use any of them because I'm really not that arsed.
I don't care! I really just do not care. I deal with male gamers all damn day who seriously have absolutely no other life. There's one guy who i'm kind of friendly with who always comes in and tries to trick me by asking questions that are wrong. FUCK OFF.
Also I'm not going to deny this... I am really bad at games. It takes me ages to get in any way good. I was a way bigger fan of old PC games like Quest for Glory and all those LucasArts ones. But those days are gone. Now it's all explosions and skinny dorky boys pretending to be big manly american men blowing things up.
But I do rather like gaming.