"Girl Gamers"

[juststoppingby]

I became a gamer because it's kind of lonely to be an only child! Anyways! I've never run into any issues for being a girl on MMOs...but maybe it's because my characters were always kind of androgynous and people often referred to me as "him" or "he". I never stopped to tell them "I'm a girl" if they were random strangers I was going to be in a party with for 10 minutes. But if it was in a guild setting, there's usually no problem since folks generally ask for my real first name. Maybe I just got lucky online as well too.

 

The only time I've been treated differently for being a girl on the internet was in my friend's live anime streaming channel. A couple of the guys that never met me were saying things like "Be on your best behavior guys. There's a lady present." Or "Don't say that kind of stuff in front of girls!" But it stopped after 10 minutes. They could care less that I'm a girl...except for that one other time one of them asked me out to dinner.

[Pookies]

I used to kart race on omgpop (WHAT I JUST LEARNED IT WAS BOUGHT OFF D: :'() and someone couldnt believe I was a girl because I kept beating him lol He was nice about it, tho'.

 

I just got a ps3 recently and a friend wants me to get a headset but I don't think I'm ready to take that step... I play black ops and zombies so I'm sure some people will be very vocal if they heard my voice ;o and the fact that I still make n00bish mistakes wouldn't help my situation, either haha

[thatlauralass]

I think the term "girl gamer" is just stupid. You're either a gamer or you're not - gender has no part in whether you decide to pick up the controller/keyboard&mouse or not.

 

Also, the term is usually only negative if you look for it to be. I play a lot of co-op games on my PS3 with my headset, and the worst reactions I've ever gotten is "omg you're a girl no way, that's awesome!" Or, equally if I'm on an MMO (my characters are always female), I'll occasionally get a fellow follow me for 5 minutes and ask "are you really female or is that just your character". xD

 

Just like some girls say like "omgz I'm a gamur girl" when all they play is the sims, I come across a lot of blokes who say they're 'hardcore gamers' when all they play is Fifa. So… yeah. I don't think there's any unbalance in the genders if I'm honest. There might be some blokes out there who crack "get back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich" jokes, but there's also girls out there as already mentioned who pose practically naked with their controllers. So… again, equality all around, I believe.

 

Making a big deal about being annoyed about being called a "gamer girl" is quite silly - take it in your stride. Yes, you play video games, and yes, you're proud of it. They got a problem? Let them waste their time. It's time that could be spend gaining another level or two.

 

(also totally selfless advertisement: if anyone here has a ps3, please feel free to add me! my tag is x-laura-c-x :thumbsup: )

[LillytheGrundo]

I can't believe I'm only just now seeing this topic! I LOVE gaming! I don't play online games aside from Neopets. I play Bioshock, Assassin Creed Series(I'm Obsessed with this one!) and Tomb Raider. With Tomb Raider it was really nice to play a female lead for once. I love being called a gamer girl! In my circle there is only one other girl like me. I like standing out and I feel it makes me more informed when people try to be negative about the effects of gaming on people. Just Because I play AC doesn't mean I am going to leap out of a tree and stab someone in the neck, Seriously! I also have a lot of guy friends. It's fun watching other girls fade away from conversations about gaming because they don't play. I find it empowering!

 

We are all AWESOME because we are Gamer Girls! Own it! lol ;)

[thatlauralass]

I can't believe I'm only just now seeing this topic! I LOVE gaming! I don't play online games aside from Neopets. I play Bioshock, Assassin Creed Series(I'm Obsessed with this one!) and Tomb Raider. With Tomb Raider it was really nice to play a female lead for once. I love being called a gamer girl! In my circle there is only one other girl like me. I like standing out and I feel it makes me more informed when people try to be negative about the effects of gaming on people. Just Because I play AC doesn't mean I am going to leap out of a tree and stab someone in the neck, Seriously! I also have a lot of guy friends. It's fun watching other girls fade away from conversations about gaming because they don't play. I find it empowering!

 

We are all AWESOME because we are Gamer Girls! Own it! lol ;)

Have you played the rest of the Tomb Raider series? :) I'm a die hard fan; the new game was great but a little trigger happy like Uncharted if I'm honest - the original games were far more based around puzzles and exploring/atmosphere, I highly recommend them. That's if you've not played them before, of course. ^_^

[xrazydiamond]

My dad is a computer and gaming freak, so I kinda fell into that. I grew up on MMOs (Everquest, woopwoop) - I never got into WoW, but I played Lord of the Rings: Online for a few years. LoTRO was actually quite a nice community - tons of female players, especially on the roleplaying servers; even though I customized my character's outfit enough that it was clear I was a girl gamer, I never got harassed in any way (even if dudes came onto my character, it was like, bowing, or dancing emotes). It doesn't take me long to burn out on MMORPGs at this point, though, because I played too much growing up.

I also play Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 which is... quite a different community. A bunch of dudebros who manage to turn every discussion into gun rights, why people of insert race/religion here all suck, or, yes, the apparently "mythological" girl gamer. Even though it's probably clear I'm a girl because I have too much fun with dyes, I don't really play with the community at large, unless I need specific multiplayer achievements. It's because of communities like that that I intentionally choose a gender-ambiguous screenname, and I never volunteer information about myself. (If you say you're a girl, you're instantly asked "are you hot". If you say yes, you're either pandering for attention/pics or it didn't happen. If you say no, then of course you're not hot you're playing D3. If you say that you'd rather not say, it means no. There is no right answer.)

And yes! The Uncharted series is awesome, I haven't played the 3rd one yet, because I don't have a gaming console anymore =/ My cousin was teaching me Battlefield on his PS4, though, before he moved; that was pretty fun but I find I'm not that great at FPSs. I probably need a few... dozen more hours of practice, but you meet some annoying people on Battlefield.

Past obsessions are Civilization, Age of Empires, Vice City, the Sims (lol), and I still play Pokemon Gold and Ocarina of Time on my computer =)

[thatlauralass]

diamond - Aaaah the dreaded "r u hot" question. I usually just respond with a rhetorical "Are you?" and evade answering properly. Then they usually come to their own conclusion of "oh well you must not be hot if you're avoiding the question". But it doesn't bother me any; if you say yes you're usually spammed with "send me a pic and prove it!" Which of course, isn't going to fly with me. I don't casually have photos of myself on my console anyway.

 

Aah; I have the third Uncharted because I picked it up in a deal, but I've not even opened it yet - I've been meaning to collect all the achievements for the second game first, but I've not had much time to play recently (and when I do play my ps3, I'm hooked on kingdoms of amalur right now).

 

Aah, Civilisation! That reminds me of a PC game I used to play (don't know if anyone else here played it); Black and White! <3

It was so much fun, haha. Although my guardian tiger would always do the most stupid things that left me shouting "R U STUPID WHO TAUGHT YOU THAT OTL" at the screen.

[xrazydiamond]

Achievement collecting consumes my soul. One of the reasons I'm such an avatar freak. I never got around to getting the ones for Uncharted 1/2 before my dad sold the PS3 when we moved =(

And that's a good response! I normally just ignore it completely, haha.

And BLACK AND WHITE I remember that! I haven't thought of that game in... ages, but it was so fun. I would always have my guardian throw citizens into the nearby ocean.

[thatlauralass]

Haha! And aww that's a pity. :c My ps3 was a birthday present; probably about 6 years ago now. I platinumed the first game (after a lot of shouting and crying at the ambushes when I was playing through crushing mode), and I'm playing through crushing mode in the second game now too. Hopefully once I graduate I'll have the time to go back to it and finish it off completely.

 

Aaah, haha. I would always try to be a good God, and train my guardian to do the same. But then it'd just end up doing really stupid things, like I asked him to go and rescue a villager from some rocky out cropping and bring him back to the village.

 

So he threw him.

[gamer_mommaof3]

I am a lover of video games myself. I don't personally care for the term "girl gamer" etc. Just call me what I am, a gamer, period.

[xrazydiamond]

I was pretty young, only 9 or 10, when I was playing B&W, so I really didn't know what I was doing. I had one game where I was a good god but I don't remember much about it, just the satisfying sound of gathering wheat and my guardian getting big and stuff. I wouldn't mind seeing if I still had the game hidden away somewhere. I remember the graphics were fantastic at the time, but I can probably run it on my laptop now.

And arrrrg you're making me want to see if I can find a cheap PS3 on ebay/amazon but now is not a good time for me to spend any money on one. D= I found Uncharted in my dresser today and it felt like serendipity.

I don't really mind either way about the term "gamer girl"; I mean, I only ever introduce myself as a gamer, full stop, but if other girls use it, then cool. I just don't like it when people use the term to make assumptions and generalizations.

[Pookies]

Have you guys seen this site? http://fatuglyorslutty.com (content note: screencaps and recordings of harassment of female members of the gaming community, could be - rightly - upsetting)

 

I like seeing blogs like this, as awful as it is, because it means that I'm not the only person who's been treated like this - and it means that more and more GOOD people who DON'T set out to harass others are being made aware of the kinds of things that go on in their community, which empowers them to stand up against it when they do encounter it. Because it's not the occasional isolated incident from the occasional bad apple; it's a pervasive, ugly thing.

 

Seen it....Im amazed people think it's ok to send *dung* like that :/

 

So far I havent received anything yet...well once but it wasn't directed at my gender, and I wasnt the only one he was attacking (I had to quit a game, someone else who I happen to be in contact with also quit...this person sent rage filled messages to quitters. talk about too much time...)

 

 

I forgot if it was already mentioned earlier in the thread, but any thoughts on the whole Feminist Frequency hate on youtube?

 

 

Laura, I want to add you once i get my controller fixed!!

(Should there be a separate thread about consoles, games owned/played/wishlist, s/ns or can we just post here?)

For me:

WII: just dance 3 and zumba lol

ps3: gta 5, call of duty ghosts, CoD ii

want: last of us, tomb raider, bioshock, blanking out if there are other games i want to try out

I also have a code to play Telltale's walking dead season 1 and 400 days on a computer but i dont think my laptop can handle a game???

WISHLIST: dance central (i think available for ps3 but i would rather have the kinect lol)

[officialsarahjay]

I agree with the sentiments of a few of the peeps in this thread - the term "girl gamer" is really annoying. It screams "unwarranted self importance", like, "Oh look, I'm a girl! I also play video games! Boys don't like it! I'm such a rebel!"

 

I mean, it's so middle school. Come on.

 

As for games, I have played all manners of games and genres, I love WoW and my favorite series is Metal Gear Solid. And for a year after high school I worked in a video game store.

 

Not once was I ever harassed online or offline.

 

Not once was I ever not taken seriously for my love of gaming.

 

In fact, I was respected for liking what I liked and playing what I played and I struck up many friendships with people who like what I like.

 

Now I'm not saying people don't get harassed or picked on but it's never happened to me, so I guess I consider myself lucky. But at the same time, I wonder if the whole "debate" only exists because a very vocal group is creating an issue by demanding their femaleness be included in the games (i.e., protesting unequal representation in genres like FPS, and then complaining when the female avatar doesn't look exactly like them but looks idealized, as if male avatars aren't a hulking, rippling testament to unrealistic male body types).

 

Of course, women buy and play video games. That's just a fact. But I almost feel that a small group is creating a problem where there really wasn't a problem before by claiming that video games are inherently anti-female and both stereotypes and marginalizes women. I'm sensitive to privilege, believe me I am, but I don't get a sense that there is anything "wrong" within the video game industry and amongst the vast majority of casual and hardcore gamers. There's always been what I felt to be a sense of companionship in players of both sexes.

[pixyperson]

Hey I actually ran across subscribe to a woman's issues podcast and they started a 2 part series on woman and video games. The first part was released Monday, and they usually do a Monday/Wednesday release, so the second part will be out soon enough.

 

The Link.

 

Anyways thought this thread might be interested.

[Secre]

I've always been a very solitary gamer so internet gaming stereotypes have never really bothered me.

 

I have found others to be very surprised when they find out in real life that I game and that I know what I'm talking about with regards to the games I play (RPG and strategy is my main) but that's usually fairly shortly lived as they're either bored by the topic of conversation and move on or gaming chat will then begin.

 

But yes, there does seem to be a stereotype that only males are gamers...

[WhiteWolf]

I'm a girl gamer that's gotten her game on since the arcades of the 1980s. Dating myself? Yeah, but it's cool. I've had my share of guys who thought I couldn't play Mortal Kombat because "you're a girl" or "this is a boy's game". Well, I challenged that wise guy to a game. My best character against his. You know what? I beat him.

[LillytheGrundo]

I'm a girl gamer that's gotten her game on since the arcades of the 1980s. Dating myself? Yeah, but it's cool. I've had my share of guys who thought I couldn't play Mortal Kombat because "you're a girl" or "this is a boy's game". Well, I challenged that wise guy to a game. My best character against his. You know what? I beat him.

 

 

Mortal Kombat was the best! Although I played when it was on Sega, I believe. My older brother used to have parties and I would sit and school all of his friends. LOL

[WhiteWolf]

You schooled your older brother's friends in MK? How awesome is that? :laughingsmiley: I played all three incarnations in the arcade. When I got a PS2, I got the MK games for it. PS3 came along, and collected the games all over again. I'm such a huge fan, it's unbelievable. I'm hoping for another MK game. MK versus the X-Men would rock my world!

 

One of my favorites in the arcade was After Burner. There were two different styles to this game. The normal free-standing machine, and the simulator-style cabin that you sat in. The second one was my favorite!

[eloralestrange]

I can't actually play multiplayer games... well I can, but the internet shuts off frequently for 5-10 minutes at a time due to trains driving past. Yes, it's a weird problem. 

I don't really like FPS. I think I was discouraged as a child because I'd try to play the games that were meant for more coordinated people and I just never got into them as a result. I do like big fantasy RPGs. And Sims. And Neopets, duh.