ive been playing games for the past 12 years, since my dad spontaniously bought a Playstation home, at the time i had no idea what it was so i sat poking it with a stick whilst my dad explained....since that day ive been hooked.i admit to falling into the cliche of playing Animal Crossing and such but open my drawer of games and you'll find 6 final fantasy games, Resident Evil 4,Half Life 2 and Halo (amongst other)...

...guess what...im a girl...and while im happiply admiting it to a bunch of strangers on here, i fear that if i did so in the middle of the street i might get something thrown at me while people point and laugh...and wonder why im not out spending my money on shoes...because clearly alot of men think thats all we do :P

its not that ALL girls dont like games, were just not taken seriously when we tell people...ive been playing games since i was 8...and considering my career choice it'll take a hell of a lot to stop me from gaming...

i play games most, if not, every day and if we walk around freely admitting to that, my friends might decide to hang around with someone who doesnt spend hours staring at a screen :P

...as for the mentionings of shooting people...i find it almost theraputic that after a long day of lectures, i can come home and take my anger out on a fumbling farmer who's throwing a pitch fork at me :P

um... NOT enjoying skull fragments? im sorry, but the only reason im pissed when i see a well rendered skull explosion is because my graphics card sucks, and it could cause lag.

They are i know a good few girls that are into gaming and in general most of them are better than me at it XD

Because most video games are not aimed towards women.

Yatrix:

Dude, go out and rent Anchorman. Apparently you haven't seen it and didn't get my humorous, no, hilarious, quote. Calm yourself down, dude. You're not going to miraculously earn your first kiss because some chick saw you defending womankind on here and was impressed.

Dude, your quote was inappropriate, and I didn't get the reference either. If that isn't what you believe then you should take the effort to cite your reference, if you are trying to be funny. Or alternatively you could try adding something relevant to the debate.

xitel:
Because for the longest time, and even nowadays, most of the games available were geared towards men. Nowadays that seems to be changing, with games like Mirror's Edge featuring strong female heroines that aren't incredibly unrealistic.

Seriously. I'm getting sick of all female characters having massive titties, or being completely underdeveloped.
Or both!
Portal was the first game with a female protagonist without, as Yahtzee so properly put it, 'stonking great tits.' While she may not have been developed as some of the other characters I've played, she's still good, and a strong heroine in that she isn't the damsel in distress and actually saves her own ass.

But more to the point, the other comments are right. Being a female in a 'male oriented' community where the whole point is to unleash boyish aggression suddenly gets everyone up on you for having titties. It's annoying. It's incredibly irritating when guys try to treat me like I'm weak and need healing items and have to be walked by the hand. And then they all try to know me on a first name basis and all act like freaking idiots trying to get my attention and get a chance to fuck with me. Ironically useless, because I'm not interested in men. It sucks for me because it gives me an unnecessary advantage, because it makes me feel inferior, and I while I'm glad I owned those malechavinistic ass, I don't like ruining someone's fragile self esteem.

Jursa:
Well most women aren't really into the whole headshot, cranial explosion, torture thing.

This one is ^^

Yatrix:

SecretTacoNinja:

Yatrix:
Girl's don't like gaming because their brains are 1/3 the size of men's. It's science.

Oh hang on, maybe they're not into gaming because of silly little man-children like you.

Dude, go out and rent Anchorman. Apparently you haven't seen it and didn't get my humorous, no, hilarious, quote. Calm yourself down, dude. You're not going to miraculously earn your first kiss because some chick saw you defending womankind on here and was impressed.

I had an inkling you were joking, no your quote wasn't hilarious and if you'd have taken the time to find out; I am a lady.

SecretTacoNinja:

Yatrix:

SecretTacoNinja:

Yatrix:
Girl's don't like gaming because their brains are 1/3 the size of men's. It's science.

Oh hang on, maybe they're not into gaming because of silly little man-children like you.

Dude, go out and rent Anchorman. Apparently you haven't seen it and didn't get my humorous, no, hilarious, quote. Calm yourself down, dude. You're not going to miraculously earn your first kiss because some chick saw you defending womankind on here and was impressed.

I had an inkling you were joking, no your quote wasn't hilarious and if you'd have taken the time to find out; I am a lady.

She sure has earned my kiss for defending womankind! *highfives SecretTacoNinja*

Jursa:
Well most women aren't really into the whole headshot, cranial explosion, torture thing.

Me my dad and brother have spent endless hours trying to find the most interesting ways to die, who can make the best traps using snarks, the best way to get through Ravenholm (HL2)using nothing but the gravity gun and saw blades and who can get there gib to fly the farthest. After a stressful day at work there's nothing more relaxing than unloading a shotgun into someone's face as quickly as you can. It's funny (and annoying) when guys freak out over the fact that there being owned by a girl. Then I tell them how to fix that funny noise their car is making and they look at me like their not sure whether or not they've hallucinated me or not.

Yatrix:

SecretTacoNinja:

Yatrix:

SecretTacoNinja:

Yatrix:
Girl's don't like gaming because their brains are 1/3 the size of men's. It's science.

Oh hang on, maybe they're not into gaming because of silly little man-children like you.

Dude, go out and rent Anchorman. Apparently you haven't seen it and didn't get my humorous, no, hilarious, quote. Calm yourself down, dude. You're not going to miraculously earn your first kiss because some chick saw you defending womankind on here and was impressed.

I had an inkling you were joking, no your quote wasn't hilarious and if you'd have taken the time to find out; I am a lady.

Actually, that quote is hilarious, just like the entire movie. Good luck with being a woman. I hope that whole thing works out for you.

Great comeback.

KyoraSan:

This one is ^^

I Think I'm in love. Just kidding but always nice to meet a fan of the whole headshot, cranial explosion, torture thing.

My wife plays but she often does it anonymously.

Recently she reminded herself why when she tried Sony Home and got harassed by legions of pathetic virgins.

Ya know what? There are a lot of guys who aren't into gaming either. In fact, there's a reason most gamers are called "geeks" (I bear this title proudly, mind you): it's not a mainstream thing. Now, you could go into a big analysis that maybe a slightly larger majority of girls being vaguely and generally more socially-oriented or whatever have more of an interest in mainstream things, or you could discuss bad marketing or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that a majority of PEOPLE aren't into gaming, and regardless of whether they're male or female, they probably have similar reasons for not being into games.

Fact of the matter is, there ARE girls who are into gaming, a lot of them, and it's really not much of a mystery why. They find games fun for the same myriad reasons male gamers find them fun, running the gamut from exercising creativity to solving puzzles to the nearly inexpressable joy of shooting something until it explodes into glorious pixellated goo.

Now, given that there are a large number of female gamers out there, even if still in the technical minority (though it's a large minority), and you can't find girls who want to play with YOU, I would say that's an entirely different issue. The question you want to be asking then is, "Why aren't girls into gaming WITH ME?"

And, surely if there are areas where women gamers are having their very identities questioned when they just want to find people to splat pixels with, of course those women are going to avoid those areas. They'll seek out their gaming experiences elsewhere where they can avoid being treated like that. Generally most people will seek out environments, gaming or otherwise, where their personal identity isn't called into question everytime they say a word and where they will ultimately will be respected for their skill and amicability, regardless of what's between their legs.

DeathQuaker:
Ya know what? There are a lot of guys who aren't into gaming either. In fact, there's a reason most gamers are called "geeks" (I bear this title proudly, mind you) is that it's not a mainstream thing. Now, you could go into a big analysis that maybe a slightly larger majority of girls being social or whatever have more of an interest in mainstream things or talk about bad marketing or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that a majority of PEOPLE aren't into gaming, and whether they're male or female they probably have similar reasons for not being into games.

Fact of the matter is, there ARE girls who are into gaming, a lot of them, and it's really not much of a mystery. They find games fun for the same myriad reasons male gamers find them fun, running the gamut from exercising creativity to solving puzzles to the nearly inexpressable joy of shooting something until it explodes into glorious pixellated goo.

Now, given that there are a large number of female gamers out there, even if still in the technical minority (though it's a large minority), and you can't find girls who want to play with YOU, I would say that's an entirely different issue. The question you might find you want to be asking is "Why aren't girls into gaming WITH ME?"

And, surely if there are areas where women gamers are having their very identities questioned when they just want to find people to splat pixels with, those women are going to avoid those areas and seek gaming experiences elsewhere (or single player). Generally most people will seek out environments, gaming or otherwise, where their personal identity isn't called into question everytime they say a word and where they will ultimately will be respected for their skill and amicability, regardless of what's between their legs.

Here Here! Well said I say.
We're all the minority together...... just not to closely together, some of you smell funny......
Let the gore flow freely without the constraints of gender bias and sexual harassment!

Hello! Girl gamer right here!

Most of my friends game too, and all of our male friends think it's pretty damn cool. Good way to meet boys.

But yeah, the assholes I run into online while playing WoW or XBOX Live kinda put me off online gaming, but sometimes it can be used for our entertainment.

Me and my best friend's favorite thing to do on Live is to play Halo, whip the shit out of every other player, and once we've won, unmute our microphones and reveal our gender to our pwned brethren. Their reactions...priceless.

"Remember the shotgun? She'd jump in the air and everyone would die." (Spoken wistfully by my Bro's friend recounting getting owned in a brief CS session at a LAN party)

I mostly avoid online gaming, not because of hoards of lame pick-up lines (I find them amusing) but because I'm extremely anti-social and I'm gaming in a vain attempt to convince myself that me and GLaDOS are the only beings in existence. But then I'm a recluse who will only attend social functions with the promise of free food and a corner to hide in with a book.
Also living in the middle of nowhere with Dial-Up the only option makes WoW raiding rather sucky.

In soviet russia, games are into girls.

galletea:

Yatrix:

Dude, go out and rent Anchorman. Apparently you haven't seen it and didn't get my humorous, no, hilarious, quote. Calm yourself down, dude. You're not going to miraculously earn your first kiss because some chick saw you defending womankind on here and was impressed.

Dude, your quote was inappropriate, and I didn't get the reference either. If that isn't what you believe then you should take the effort to cite your reference, if you are trying to be funny. Or alternatively you could try adding something relevant to the debate.

It's based on ridiculous psuedo scientific statements from the 19th and early 20th centuries, he really wasn't trying to offend, He was just quoting something ridiculous from Anchorman which in turn came from a previous false notion during an era of supposed male supremecy.

To all of the intelligent girl gamers here; do you consider yourself to be cliched girls? In other words, did you go to spring break and say "Woooo" a lot?

Because the entire premise of this thread is a generality. In general many men that play videogames are the douche bag frat types yet their female counter parts don't really play games.

So, if you are in a Sorority... say "Woooo" whenever you are drunk and excited, and watch the Hills.. and you play videogames then you would be the key demographic of discussion.

its true, there are places where you could take someone saying "women have brains one third the size of mens brains" seriously, and set them on fire for it, but this is not one of them. usually.

I'm currently teaching one of my female coworkers to play FPS, and there are two more who want to learn. Their obstacle up until now? When guys try and teach them to play, the guys yell at them and make them feel stupid. And it's twice as bad because they guys attribute their lack of skill to them being femaie as opposed to them just being totally, totally new to the game.

As far as the idea that women don't like watching heads explode, my coworkers are fine with the idea of shooting people or beating them to death with crowbars, but they will settle for playing video games.

Come to think of it there is a man here who has never played video games but wanted to play them with his son. If it weren't for the fact that he knew I was teaching my coworker to play, I don't they he would have asked one of the guys in the office because he didn't want to be disrespected by them.

So the lesson here is maybe more people, men and women, don't play video games is that they think the person who could teach them wouldn't show them patience and respect.

One of my best friends back in my home state was a hardcore gamer, and she was really cute. I miss her terribly.

BallPtPenTheif:
To all of the intelligent girl gamers here; do you consider yourself to be cliched girls? In other words, did you go to spring break and say "Woooo" a lot?

Because the entire premise of this thread is a generality. In general many men that play videogames are the douche bag frat types yet their female counter parts don't really play games.

So, if you are in a Sorority... say "Woooo" whenever you are drunk and excited, and watch the Hills.. and you play videogames then you would be the key demographic of discussion.

So you don't want to know why more girls don't game, you just want to know why the girls paid to perform in "Girls Gone Wild" videos from the early 90s don't play video games?

With all due respect, hon, perhaps you ought to be firing those neurons on slightly more worthwhile inquiries.

DeathQuaker:

So you don't want to know why more girls don't game, you just want to know why the girls paid to perform in "Girls Gone Wild" videos from the early 90s don't play video games?

With all due respect, hon, perhaps you ought to be firing those neurons on slightly more worthwhile inquiries.

I'm just tired of exceptions to the rule piping up as if the generality is nonsense. We get it, girls who love Naruto LOVE games. Girls who listen to Slipknot, LOVE games.. .etc etc. Basically, if you are an individual woman who does not try to be a generic pin up for Hollister you LOVE games.

I think that's fantastic by the way. I'm not a fan of the girls gone wild girls, so I find your condescending tone (which lacked respect) misplaced and overly defensive. But there is an overall issue here, generic guys do play video games. Look at the Madden demographic for evidence of that. But why don't generic girls play videogames? That's the real question being posed since as the OP stated, his question was in the realm of generality.

You're a girl and you are on the Escapist forum, we get it, you LOVE Games.

BallPtPenTheif:

DeathQuaker:

So you don't want to know why more girls don't game, you just want to know why the girls paid to perform in "Girls Gone Wild" videos from the early 90s don't play video games?

With all due respect, hon, perhaps you ought to be firing those neurons on slightly more worthwhile inquiries.

I'm just tired of exceptions to the rule piping up as if the generality is nonsense. We get it, girls who love Naruto LOVE games. Girls who listen to Slipknot, LOVE games.. .etc etc. Basically, if you are an individual woman who does not try to be a generic pin up for Hollister you LOVE games.

I think that's fantastic by the way. I'm not a fan of the girls gone wild girls, so I find your condescending tone (which lacked respect) misplaced and overly defensive. But there is an overall issue here, generic guys do play video games. Look at the Madden demographic for evidence of that. But why don't generic girls play videogames? That's the real question being posed since as the OP stated, his question was in the realm of generality.

You're a girl and you are on the Escapist forum, we get it, you LOVE Yahtzee

Fixed it.

I'll repeat my original answer with no back-up and see if people understand it:

Socialisation.

(900th post) =D

BallPtPenTheif:
To all of the intelligent girl gamers here; do you consider yourself to be cliched girls? In other words, did you go to spring break and say "Woooo" a lot?

Because the entire premise of this thread is a generality. In general many men that play videogames are the douche bag frat types yet their female counter parts don't really play games.

So, if you are in a Sorority... say "Woooo" whenever you are drunk and excited, and watch the Hills.. and you play videogames then you would be the key demographic of discussion.

And what makes you think we're all American, have "spring break" and go "woo" over this? And what the heck is a sorority anyway? =P

BallPtPenTheif:

DeathQuaker:

So you don't want to know why more girls don't game, you just want to know why the girls paid to perform in "Girls Gone Wild" videos from the early 90s don't play video games?

With all due respect, hon, perhaps you ought to be firing those neurons on slightly more worthwhile inquiries.

I'm just tired of exceptions to the rule piping up as if the generality is nonsense. We get it, girls who love Naruto LOVE games. Girls who listen to Slipknot, LOVE games.. .etc etc. Basically, if you are an individual woman who does not try to be a generic pin up for Hollister you LOVE games.

I think that's fantastic by the way. I'm not a fan of the girls gone wild girls, so I find your condescending tone (which lacked respect) misplaced and overly defensive. But there is an overall issue here, generic guys do play video games. Look at the Madden demographic for evidence of that. But why don't generic girls play videogames? That's the real question being posed since as the OP stated, his question was in the realm of generality.

You're a girl and you are on the Escapist forum, we get it, you LOVE Games.

What I am saying is that your description of "generic girls" is not realistic. And, as a matter of fact, offensive. I imagine a number of non-gaming women I know would find that description enormously... what is the word? Yes, condescending fits. And over-generalized. And, well, wrong. All of whom I think would be considered by today's sociologists and anthropologists to be "typical" women. In fact, I think they'd find me, with maybe a few outliers mostly not related to gaming, fairly "typical" as a woman too.

And I never stated my gender--is it all that important to have an opinion? But yes, I am a woman (a little too old to be a "girl"), and I do love games (and I also do enjoy Yahtzee ;) -- amongst the other features and columns here). And yes, I am on the Escapist forum because I thought participating in the user reviews might be fun, but the more I become acquainted with the people here, the more rudeness, intolerance, and ignorance I encounter, and find little motivation to continue to put up with it. So, I'm outta here. Enjoy your erroneous fantasies about what you think "real" women are like. I'd rather engage with people more in touch with reality and humanity.

Mariena:

BallPtPenTheif:
To all of the intelligent girl gamers here; do you consider yourself to be cliched girls? In other words, did you go to spring break and say "Woooo" a lot?

Because the entire premise of this thread is a generality. In general many men that play videogames are the douche bag frat types yet their female counter parts don't really play games.

So, if you are in a Sorority... say "Woooo" whenever you are drunk and excited, and watch the Hills.. and you play videogames then you would be the key demographic of discussion.

And what makes you think we're all American, have "spring break" and go "woo" over this? And what the heck is a sorority anyway? =P

Sororities are the female version of fraternities. In other words, places for girls to get together and act foolishly silly.

Sooo, what argument is everyone on right now?

How this subject has been done to death, or has someone offended another yet?

It's almost like this is a feeble attempt by the person who posted this topic to attract those of the opposite gender to come and talk.

Just another man's opinion here.

knottingam:
Generally speaking, that is. I realize that there are some girls on here; but it seems that y'all are the exception to the rule. I'm just curious: Why is the female-to-male ratio amongst gamers so low?

In general I think you are uninformed. Women game a lot. For example:

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/09/survey_women_own_more_gaming_consoles.html

So don't fool your self. Your anecdotal evidence is not the reality of the world.