Just some facts about female gamers

[Senefera]

What's NOT to love about scant-clad men?!

 

I'm all for sexy, but prefer it to be a bit more crude and rough than Fantasy stripper.

 

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/7637/pyranopicture017.jpg

 

Protection still minimal, but at least there's no chain mail pinches.

[Kirameki]

Fact about female gamers : We're less upset about b.o.o.b.i.e.s emotes then the obvious male who gave me a warning for it Humor is not allowed on forum. Edited April 26, 2012 by Kirameki

[JaeOnasi]

Fact about female gamers : We're less upset about b.o.o.b.i.e.s emotes then the obvious male who gave me a warning for it Humor is not allowed on forum.

I'm sure we'd get warnings about male erectile organ emotes, too.

Edited April 26, 2012 by JaeOnasi

[Kirameki]

I'm sure we'd get warnings about male erectile organ emotes, too.

 

 

Hmm shall I try to get one ?

 

Maybe it's an american thing (not being insultive here guys, just an observation).

 

When I played Aion EU the forums we're a lot less "strict" (as in some sexual emotes/comments were allowed and not being removed at first sight) then the Aion NA ones.

 

Aw well to remain ontopic :

 

ctrl+alt+del on girl gamers

Edited April 26, 2012 by Kirameki

[Angel_of_Cain]

I'm all for sexy, but prefer it to be a bit more crude and rough than Fantasy stripper.

 

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/7637/pyranopicture017.jpg

 

Protection still minimal, but at least there's no chain mail pinches.

 

My GS would rock this outfit if they had it in game. it would be even better if they would allow an addon where I could have "I'm bringin' sexy back." play for anyone within 10ft of me.

 

Fact about female gamers : We're less upset about b.o.o.b.i.e.s emotes then the obvious male who gave me a warning for it Humor is not allowed on forum.

 

I can't believe they deleted that post.... good thing i copied them before they did. (i did say i was going to steal them:D)

[Angel_of_Cain]

Hmm shall I try to get one ?

If you find any, send them this way:D

Maybe it's an american thing (not being insultive here guys, just an observation).

I do agree with you on that, we are a country founded by prudes (well, except Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson:D)

When I played Aion EU the forums we're a lot less "strict" (as in some sexual emotes/comments were allowed and not being removed at first sight) then the Aion NA ones.

 

Aw well to remain ontopic :

 

ctrl+alt+del on girl gamers

 

Love the photo. reminds me of a story from my younger days, but i am not going to share it:p

Edited April 26, 2012 by Angel_of_Cain

[SirThrorjedi]

Hello all Im relatively new to this community still but been playing long enough to know this is a fun game. These boards can be fun to full of so many opinions. Many of which make me scratch my head when it comes to females and gaming.

 

so I thought as a woman id address some of the myths that seem to go around about females in game. And use my own personal perspective to give some facts on how it feels to be a female that games. I am no authority on this an any fellow females can feel free to come in and correct me if I am wrong. But seriously some of the crazy things I've read lead me to wanting to bring up a topic on this.

 

 

1. Women game- we are into gaming some of us have been since we were kids, Atari was the first console my family owned and I have been playing since the days of Pack-man and Donkey Kong when they were barely decipherable due to the low graphics. I am a huge legend of Zelda fan and played games from first person shooters to Muds and now mmos.

 

Many think because dudes play chicks in games that that cute little assassin you see is Chuck from NJ who lives in his mother basement but you would be surprised how many of us like making cute yet deadly characters. Or how many big burly dudes may just be hiding a female who doesn't want to be hit on.

 

2. Female gamers are not easily offended- This one really stands out so many posts on our behalf so many people who assume that we need speak up for topics such as sexism and sexuality. I speak for myself of course but Ive lived far to long and seen far to many things to be offended by some half naked dancing girls. And I have worn armor and clothing in games that would be strategically stupid to utilize but it is kinda funny to watch my half naked mob beat down an enemy.

 

3. Female gamers not all of us but many are not life time watching drama queens who cry at the drop of a hat. Some of us are very vicious and like to play that way. One of my best made characters was a Drow warrior in another game who murdered just because she could. I obviously don't do such things in real life but its fantasy and being blood thirsty in fantasy is fun and gets to showcase a side to myself id never indulge in real life.

 

4. Some of us maybe tough girls but we do like style- whether its for decorating our personal spaces or getting good armor many of us do like to look nice when we are running around these vast worlds. When you give us clothing that looks good it adds to the persona even if its deadly spikes with crimson, deep lace black or skin tight leather suits. I know that some of the best games I played had a way for me to utilize fashion and still be deadly and effective.

 

5. Not all of us are nurturers and play healer types. Okay I like healing in games specially to save my own butt, but as a mommy in real life I tend to try to play roles in game where im not holding hands or patching up boo boos all the time. I do that enough as it is lol.

 

There are many others but I hope this gets a good conversation going because I see so many things about sexism or female wants and it seems there are many misconceptions about female gamers (Specially that we do not exist) But we do and our ranks are growing every day. I hope if I ever have a little girl (currently have a little boy) that she grows up in a world where a girl gaming is not a big deal it honestly shouldn't be.

 

I just read all the posts. OMG there are some real, plague infested ....... With that said AMEN:wea_01:

[MMornard]

ctrl+alt+del on girl gamers

 

* snerk *

[Januaria]

Female gamers?

 

Why the very idea is preposterous! Preposterous I tell you!!!

 

Next thing you know, you'll be telling me that females can vote or some such nonsense. That's just crazy talk!

[Proksham]

End women suffrage!

[Rhizoprionodon]

It was a joke, and not to be taken seriously. Variation of a joke in EVE, since the real female population in that game is maybe in the triple digits on a server of over 50,000 people. lol

 

The original is: New Eden, where the men are men, the women are men, and the kids are all DED Agents.

 

I figured that's how you meant it, but the fact is the sentiment portrayed in your post exists outside of jokes. The blog post I wrote was from October, when I was in Oz, so obviously I was dealing with the "you're not a real woman" issue in real life.

 

In general, In the U.S., I dealt with this issue a decade ago and don't really run across it often anymore.

 

The video game industry in particular has started to cater to female gamers, and bioware is a leader in this movement imo. You can play as a female in console games where traditionally you could only choose a male (Mass Effect series even made alternate cover arts, 1 with a male character, 1 with a female character), you can choose to dress your female characters in realistic armor (I don't mind that the bikini's exist, I'm just glad I don't have to wear it anymore), chat lines are a lot less abusive (use to be I would not use any service like vent cause I would be subjected to strings of threats), and the fact that this thread is only about 20% colorful idiocy but much more open-minded discussion shows the changing attitudes.

 

Game on girls, the more we play the better it will be for the next generation of gamers. A lot of men like some the changes I've talked about above, so a more inclusive community doesn't shut out the existing members.

[imnotawitch]

Things have certainly gotten better for female gamers. I remember my first WoW raid about 6 years ago when I got into vent I was immediately bombarded by lewd comments by obnoxious guildies.....

 

...who didn't realize that the raid leader for that night was my overprotective brother. They stopped quick, but I'm sure not all female gamers were so lucky.

[Rhizoprionodon]

Things have certainly gotten better for female gamers. I remember my first WoW raid about 6 years ago when I got into vent I was immediately bombarded by lewd comments by obnoxious guildies.....

 

...who didn't realize that the raid leader for that night was my overprotective brother. They stopped quick, but I'm sure not all female gamers were so lucky.

 

And events like these are becoming less and less acceptable. For the most part, if you make obnoxious, lewd, and threatening comments your are viewed as either:

 

1) a young idiotic boy who understands nothing about the world.

2) the creeper loser living in moms basement

3) someone in category 1 who will grow up to be in category 2

Edited April 27, 2012 by Parali
inappropriate content

[bionamaster]

Hi. A very interesting thread, this one caught my eye. As a male, I run across many players of both genders in every game. I'll state them at their worst first: I've found far more male gamers being crude towards one another then females. Females, however, could be more rude then crude towards one another. But, they would never treat one another with disrespect based complerely on gender. They would argue, but nothing more.

 

As a maximum level DPS in one game, I enjoy intricate and exciting strategies in 1v1 duels. But I do not treat males and females idfferently from one another. I'll defeat a female as easily or lose to them as quickly as graciously as I would a male player, and I am proud to say I follow that same rule in all games.

 

In SWTOR, some of the more, err, revealing, outfits for sale from social and security key vendors combined with certain emotes can provide rather, uh, unique, interactions. I guarded a turret in Novare once with a female Sentinel, and saw the words "(insert name here) shows off for you." followed by a rather dirty dance. I turned away, think I responded with an emote along the lines of shaking my head sadly.

 

So, in summary: I, for one, do not treat females or males differently based on gender. I have met some who don't follow that same code, but many more who have, and I am proud to count the latter as friends, the former, names on my ignore list.

[Sammm]

I try to behave the same way no matter who's in my group. But based on my personal experience, I find it easier to talk and communicate with most female gamers. It seems easier to chat for a longer time and on many more subjects with most of them, which is great. Plus, I just love most female voices. It's quite soothing for me.

[Dinosaurfalcon]

Having played a female human in wow for years, I know not to presume a female character is actually a female character in real life. I admit I always assume male characters are males tho...

 

I was never treated badly, but was sometimes "hit on" or given special treatment randomly before my actual gender was known.

 

Ive played mmo's for years with my partner and she favours ranged dps. She did Mage and hunter in wow and is a Jedi sage i swtor. She wants to stand back and cast, doesn't want to get close to the bad guys, would never play melee or tank class and doesn't like healing groups, but will happily heal my *** up when I'm about to die.

 

Favourate part of the game? Deciding which conversation options to take and enjoy the story line..also smashing rocks into people and crushing minds with the force. The lore is very appealing to her.

 

Are all girls like that? Of course not. My point? Don't have one.

 

I will say one thing tho, she has no 'lust for power', she doesn't have aspirations of being the best at her class or anything like that, she just enjoys doing the quests , killing stuff and seeing the story unfold. ie just fun

 

Myself on the other hand, I do strive to be better, to get the best gear, to master the game mechanics to the point I feel I'm 'better' than everyone else etc even tho I'm not. Just like in wow I want to be the tank, I want to be the leader of the group, I want the responsibility and respect etc.

 

That is the difference between the average female and male player in my humble opinion.

 

May the force be with you

[Rhizoprionodon]

I will say one thing tho, she has no 'lust for power', she doesn't have aspirations of being the best at her class or anything like that, she just enjoys doing the quests , killing stuff and seeing the story unfold. ie just fun

 

Myself on the other hand, I do strive to be better, to get the best gear, to master the game mechanics to the point I feel I'm 'better' than everyone else etc even tho I'm not. Just like in wow I want to be the tank, I want to be the leader of the group, I want the responsibility and respect etc.

 

That is the difference between the average female and male player in my humble opinion.

 

May the force be with you

 

There are a lot of female gamers who enjoy the challenge and competitiveness aspects of games as well. There are also lots of females who play the "in your face" tanks, cunning high damage dps characters, just as their are plenty of males who enjoy playing healers and other support characters.

[Captain_Zone]

I figured that's how you meant it, but the fact is the sentiment portrayed in your post exists outside of jokes. The blog post I wrote was from October, when I was in Oz, so obviously I was dealing with the "you're not a real woman" issue in real life.

 

In general, In the U.S., I dealt with this issue a decade ago and don't really run across it often anymore.

 

The video game industry in particular has started to cater to female gamers, and bioware is a leader in this movement imo. You can play as a female in console games where traditionally you could only choose a male (Mass Effect series even made alternate cover arts, 1 with a male character, 1 with a female character), you can choose to dress your female characters in realistic armor (I don't mind that the bikini's exist, I'm just glad I don't have to wear it anymore), chat lines are a lot less abusive (use to be I would not use any service like vent cause I would be subjected to strings of threats), and the fact that this thread is only about 20% colorful idiocy but much more open-minded discussion shows the changing attitudes.

 

Game on girls, the more we play the better it will be for the next generation of gamers. A lot of men like some the changes I've talked about above, so a more inclusive community doesn't shut out the existing members.

 

I am indeed a fan of BioWare, and have been one since the original Baldur's Gate. In fact, it's the main reason I cut them quite a bit of slack on this, their FIRST MMORPG.

 

That said, I have great respect for any good gamer, regardless of race, creed, or gender. If someone can keep up with me, or even out-zerg me, I am more than happy to play "Who's the Better Killer" with them until nothing is standing in our way.

 

To me, female gamers are just like male gamers in certain respects. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. Some are extremely competent and competitive, and others couldn't find their rear end with both hands, a map, a compass, and a flashlight. It is what it is.

 

And thanks to EVE, I tend to refer to all toons as "man" until I'm corrected by a lady. Hazard of the MMO.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Captain_Zone

[Dinosaurfalcon]

There are a lot of female gamers who enjoy the challenge and competitiveness aspects of games as well. There are also lots of females who play the "in your face" tanks, cunning high damage dps characters, just as their are plenty of males who enjoy playing healers and other support characters.

 

 

Yea totally, the guild master of my old wow guild was a crazy Dutch woman who would scream orders at us while she tanked the raids, while I was healing, so yea you are right ofc.

 

I still think there are way more males who take these games more seriously than females tho. I don't have any kind of facts or stats to back it up, but I think we all know it's true.

[Gidomirf]

Yea totally, the guild master of my old wow guild was a crazy Dutch woman who would scream orders at us while she tanked the raids, while I was healing, so yea you are right ofc.

 

I still think there are way more males who take these games more seriously than females tho. I don't have any kind of facts or stats to back it up, but I think we all know it's true.

 

I'm unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Taking games too seriously is what leads to most of the hateful things tossed around in the environment. I enjoy this game a lot, but General Akbar warns us to not get too invested in this game. I learned it was a trap when I decided to quit WoW. I love to play games, but I'm often made uncomfortable by the awful/lewd things people say to each other in /gen chat or /say within close enough proximity. If you look back to the Street-Fighter / Tekken tournament online reality show, Crossfire, there are some people that believe that treating women poorly in games is inherent to competitive game-play. I'm paraphrasing of course, but if you are unaware of the scandal or inappropriate handling of the sexual harassment in the show, here's a link breaking it all down:

http://bitmob.com/articles/cross-assault-sexual-harassment-controversy-overshadows-on-screen-combat

 

I appreciate the goal of the OP to demystify the female gamer. Once you humanize female gamers to male gamers, you may in turn cause harassment to become less prevalent. Misogyny perpetrated by the gaming community really gets under my skin.There are more Women PC-gamers than Men. The Nielson media group published a report stating this 3 years ago. Although it does not differentiate genres of PC games. Regardless, female gamers are real and they outnumber male "seriousness" about PC-games in their time commitment to gaming.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/04/female-demograp/

 

I think it'd be really cool if gamers didn't care about each others gender irl, and it's silly to assume that all 30yr old male basement dwellers play as half-naked female characters just as much as it is to originally assume all women play as female characters. Any generalization is going to be flawed, all people are different. You can categorize us in a million different ways, but saying female gamers are all [insert ridiculous assertion here] is equivalent to saying all gamers that have irl mammalian pets are better at healing since they know how to nurture their pets enough to prevent their premature death.

 

Still, there's always voice modifying software to avoid creepyness on mumble / ventrillo / teamspeak. Sound Blaster makes sounds cards that have their own processor to manage this without slowing down your computer as much as a non-hardware-native program would to process the mic input and output. While it seems shady to resort to using a tool to hide your gender to people you meet on mmos, I like the idea of side-stepping problems that are difficult to resolve, especially since I game to relax from stress and have fun.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Gidomirf
clarification and typo

[Cynomen]

I'm unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Taking games too seriously is what leads to most of the hateful things tossed around in the environment. I enjoy this game a lot, but General Akbar warns us to not get too invested in this game. I learned it was a trap when I decided to quit WoW. I love to play games, but I'm often made uncomfortable by the awful/lewd things people say to each other in /gen chat or /say within close enough proximity. If you look back to the Street-Fighter / Tekken tournament online reality show, Crossfire, there are some people that believe that treating women poorly in games is inherent to competitive game-play. I'm paraphrasing of course, but if you are unaware of the scandal or inappropriate handling of the sexual harassment in the show, here's a link breaking it all down:

http://bitmob.com/articles/cross-assault-sexual-harassment-controversy-overshadows-on-screen-combat

 

I appreciate the goal of the OP to demystify the female gamer. Once you humanize female gamers to male gamers, you may in turn cause harassment to become less prevalent. Misogyny perpetrated by the gaming community really gets under my skin.There are more Women PC-gamers than Men. The Nielson media group published a report stating this 3 years ago. Although it does not differentiate genres of PC games. Regardless, female gamers are real and they outnumber male "seriousness" about PC-games in their time commitment to gaming.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/04/female-demograp/

 

I think it'd be really cool if gamers didn't care about each others gender irl, and it's silly to assume that all 30yr old male basement dwellers play as half-naked female characters just as much as it is to originally assume all women play as female characters. Any generalization is going to be flawed, all people are different. You can categorize us in a million different ways, but saying female gamers are all [insert ridiculous assertion here] is equivalent to saying all gamers that have irl mammalian pets are better at healing since they know how to nurture their pets enough to prevent their premature death.

 

Still, there's always voice modifying software to avoid creepyness on mumble / ventrillo / teamspeak. Sound Blaster makes sounds cards that have their own processor to manage this without slowing down your computer as much as a non-hardware-native program would to process the mic input and output. While it seems shady to resort to using a tool to hide your gender to people you meet on mmos, I like the idea of side-stepping problems that are difficult to resolve, especially since I game to relax from stress and have fun.

 

Well said!

[Dinosaurfalcon]

I guess I'm talking about general attitudes towards wow/swtor from my personal experiences,and the whole 'picking on girls' thing is something ive thankfully not had to witness personally.

 

I think it comes down to these idiots feeling they can get away with it because online they are some what anonymous. I'd be very surprised if that's how they talked to their female peers in real life, I'd guess most of them wouldn't dare.

 

Not sure how to fix it other than enabling some way of naming and shaming gamers for there abuse ( facebook etc)Non gamers aren't going to care tht you have crap dps or that you are a ninja looter or whatever, but I bet they would look at you very different if they found out you sent your evenings harassing females.

 

I wouldn't force such a system..but it might work if such a thing was even possible.

[Cerilynn]

Hi.

 

I've been following this thread for a while, but only now, (probably due to the influence of flu medications), have built up the determination to respond. This is not a response to wherever the thread has managed to travel to, but more to the original post, and I apologize for the length, but knowing how long it would be was one of the reasons I kept putting off responding.

 

I am a married older mother, but, (for those who want to indulge my vanity and view the RL picture thread), I think I still qualify as a "hot gamer chix," and that has been repetitively stressed to me by friends and acquaintances other than my husband as well, so not just me and hubby bias.

I am a mix of stereotypicical male and female characteristics.

(M) I am an engineering technician - I do CAD drafting.

(M) I am mechanically inclined.

(F) I am art inclined

(M) I do math, love science,

(F) I do drawing, painting, sewing, and crafting.

(M) I hate shopping, especially clothes shopping, because as a costumer, I know exactly what I want, and as a nerd, it is never in fashion, so it cannot be found.

(M) I do not multi-task well. I cannot do many things at once. Instead I HAVE to do them one at a time, or they will just get mixed up.

(F) I am very protective of those I deem under my care. [Edit: This one might be genderless]

(M) I tend to get tunnel vision when in urgent situations, and have a hard time seeing things outside of my center of both literal and figurative focus.

(M) I am very detail oriented at home and at work.

 

And I game. MMOs. EQ1, COH, WoW (OK, had to list that one as a technicality, was only there for a week. Gaaah), SWG, EQ2, LotRO, and now SWTOR.

 

When I game?

- I like to relax.

- I don't PVP - Long story short - I'm very sensitive to bullying. I don't like receiving it, I don't like OTHERS receiving it. Many PVP activities come across as bullying to me. Therefore, I just. don't. do. it.

- When in combat, the tunnel vision is a killer for me. Always being on the watch for enemies disrupts my focus and reduces my ability to get other jobs done. This is usually not an issue, especially since I don't PVP (see above), however, (see below on in game organization), large number of abilities available, and complicated ability setups also tend to mess me up with this.

- I do well as a tank because of my protective nature. I hate mobs attacking MY healer.

- I don't do well as a tank because tanks tend to be the leader of the group, and with my tunnel vision, I tend to not learn the zone as easily. I'm so focused on the battle, I don't pick up/remember the details. I'm willing to tank if you are willing to be patient, either having someone else tell me what to do/where to do, (NO hand baskets allowed), or wait while I constantly check a walk through. In this game? The only people I have found who are willing to do this are those who knew me from RL or other games.

- I heal VERY well. However I currently don't heal in SWTOR because I'm still not used to how healing here works, and I refuse to take on the job of a healer, especially for strangers, until I know that I can keep them alive.

- I'm fairly good at DPS.

- I SUCK at min/max. PERIOD. I have to do mass organization at work and at home. When I game, I just want to have fun. Having to organize my gear, my skills, my gear modifications, my hotbars,... this is not fun. I am Minsc - "You point. I punch." (or heal, or whatever).

- I have learned that it is hard to ask for help. Usually I'll get either "You suck" or "Here's the info, figure it out yourself" If I wanted to figure it out myself, I wouldn't be asking for help.

 

So, I'm a female gamer. But you know what? Very little of my attempt to describe me was described in the original post.

 

 

TL : DR version:

In the end, Male, Female, we're all different. We're a mix. I'm not trying to be snarky, but please, if you're going to try to describe a group of people, please acknowledge that your description might not apply to all those in the group.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Cerilynn

[LadyNightArrow]

I'll admit, I only read a couple of the first posts, so I don't know if anyone has pointed out some stats about female gamers. I apologize if anyone has. Women gamers are a minority? Only slightly. As of 2011,

:sy_lightside:The average gamer is 37 years old and has been playing for 12 years. Eighty-two percent of gamers are 18 years of age or older.

:sy_lightside:Forty-two percent of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics.

:sy_lightside:Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent).

(Source: Game Player Data)

Other sources to look at:

The info here goes back to 2010. Video Game Industry Statistics

And, the info here goes back to 2003.Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked

 

I just thought I'd throw those out there.

 

That being said, I've never actually run into any discrimination for being a female gamer. From what I've read, and run across doing research papers, this kind of discrimination was really rampant when WoW became popular among the male and female gamer population. But, that's been a while and I think this type of mentality has since died down a bit. Granted there are still cases, but I think for the most part, men are used to the idea that women play games. The ones who aren't are boys or men who haven't, mentally, grown-up yet. And, yes, guy gamers are seen as losers, which is sad because it's not true. There are many successful men, and women, gamers out there. Successful in jobs, family, friendships...you get the idea.

 

Edit: Oh! This post was supposed to be a fun thing and not serious in spite of the seemingly serious tone of the first post. -smacks forehead- My bad. Well in that case: OMG! I'm a gurl and I play gamez! Now can sum burly white night help me with the two person heroix on my sith warrior, cuz I'm lost. -puppy dog eyes- Oh, wait. That's the mentality of girls who think that guys think that girl gamers are an anomaly. Seriously? To those girls who still think that way, look at the stats and realize that if a guy thinks girl/women gamers are a rare thing then they need to grow-up and do a little research or get out more. That being said, I still stand by what I said above. Good post by the way, OP. I suppose I should learn not to read too much into posts like this. -shrug-

Edited April 28, 2012 by LadyNightArrow

[JaeOnasi]

Myself on the other hand, I do strive to be better, to get the best gear, to master the game mechanics to the point I feel I'm 'better' than everyone else etc even tho I'm not. Just like in wow I want to be the tank, I want to be the leader of the group, I want the responsibility and respect etc.

 

That is the difference between the average female and male player in my humble opinion.

 

May the force be with you

Females don't want to master the game? You haven't read my TORWars.com weekly articles on the Consular class, have you? My regular readers and I all want to be the best in class--male and female alike. I study the theorycrafting sites, I tinker with my gear a lot, I get excited every time I hit a new crit high number, I share info with my readers and they share lots of cool info with me, and we learn a LOT about the Consular class together in order to max out our skill and our gameplay enjoyment. Some of my regular readers are male, some female, all are passionate about the class, and I think they rock.