Just some facts about female gamers

[Sauska]

Not offended by the post, but I think it brings up an interesting issue. As a woman who plays video games, I don't identity as a "man", nor do I consider myself as not feminine. However, I often run into this sentiment and a lot of people assume that my hobbies and interests (video games, computers, sci fi, science, and mathematics) means I am masculine and/or gay.

I hear ya! I work in the gaming industry, my hobbies include video games, computers, scifi (I'm Holland's no. 1 Trekkie, oh yessir!) and science, and I love old cars. This pretty much puts me in the male corner as well

[LeonBraun]

Lots of female gamers in my guild... Lots of female officers in my guild also =)

[erikalovesyou]

Rawr!

[Captain_Zone]

Just one of the many reasons I love my gf is that she's a gamer. She knows what to do, when to do it, and who to do it to during our duo mission running.

[Proksham]

I love ya'll broads

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNlbKNSFd6k

Edited April 30, 2012 by Proksham

[Dinosaurfalcon]

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.

 

I dont think there are no girls who want to master the game, I think the average girl doesn't give a crap.

 

Not the average female gamer, the average female.

 

Ofc there are girls who take the game seriously, but I don't believe the number is anywhere close to males.

 

How many school girls do you think go home and raid/pvp compared to schoolboys?

 

Do any of you REALLY think there are more school age girls doing progression content than school age boys? Why is this?

[Stinkface]

I see what you were trying to do with this thread, but I believe you have genuinely done a disservice to female gamers by making a thread like this. To gain respect and understanding, it"s my opinion that you should just PLAY like everyone else. Let your gender be a non-issue, like your fondness for ice cream or your pet iguana. It doesn't have to have anything to do with your gaming experience, or anybody else's gaming experience.

 

Setting yourself apart as a special breed of gamer is a step in the wrong direction. Be a gamer, not a female gamer.

 

No disrespect intended to the original poster. Like I said I see what you're trying to do, and I don't necessarily disagree with all your points. Just my opinion on the subject. I have a knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of things - for the reasons I already explained.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Stinkface
clarity...

[Celacia]

I dont think there are no girls who want to master the game, I think the average girl doesn't give a crap.

 

Not the average female gamer, the average female.

 

Ofc there are girls who take the game seriously, but I don't believe the number is anywhere close to males.

 

How many school girls do you think go home and raid/pvp compared to schoolboys?

 

Do any of you REALLY think there are more school age girls doing progression content than school age boys? Why is this?

If you are talking about the "average female" and not the "average female gamer" then your point is kind of irrelevant. Women who aren't interested in playing at all obviously won't be interested in playing well. Also, why are you talking about schoolchildren? Who cares about that? Do you think the majority of the players of this game are children or teenagers? Because I would bet that is very much not the case.

 

Anecdotally, I play much harder than my husband does. It was a running joke in our WoW guild, because he was the go-to guy for people who wanted to stop sucking and play well and didn't really want to take the effort to figure things out themselves. (That is not a judgement on any of the people whom he has helped, they were pretty much all quality people, just not great gamers.) He would get told how l33t he was or whatever, and he would always be, "nah, I am not the hardcore one in the family," and no one would believe him (except the people who actually took the time to look at the parses). It comes down to the fact that I don't like to suck (in this context anyway) and why would I want to play at all if I am just going to suck at it? How is that supposed to be fun? I don't see that this attitude has anything to do with whether one is male or female.

[Cynomen]

Anecdotally, I play much harder than my husband does. It was a running joke in our WoW guild, because he was the go-to guy for people who wanted to stop sucking and play well and didn't really want to take the effort to figure things out themselves. (That is not a judgement on any of the people whom he has helped, they were pretty much all quality people, just not great gamers.) He would get told how l33t he was or whatever, and he would always be, "nah, I am not the hardcore one in the family," and no one would believe him (except the people who actually took the time to look at the parses). It comes down to the fact that I don't like to suck (in this context anyway) and why would I want to play at all if I am just going to suck at it? How is that supposed to be fun? I don't see that this attitude has anything to do with whether one is male or female.

 

You bring up a good point. One I know has been said before but it is good to see it again.

 

I know I hate to not be good at something. I try hard to be good at what I do and if I excel at it, all the better. As an athlete I have a drive to be better than my opponent. I even compete against my own team mates to be the best in what I do. That comes into these games just as easy.

 

In games against boys/men I try even harder. It is a subconscious thing as I don't think, ok I gotta do this better now, just because it is against guys, but it happens none the less. I struggle in this game because I have not been able to hold my own, in my opinion, yet so I fight harder to improve. I like being recognized as a strong player or one who can hold my own. I don't need to be the best of the best in this game as it is not what I do best by a long shot. It is nice to know that others think I can take care of myself though.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Cynomen

[Sheff]

I see what you were trying to do with this thread, but I believe you have genuinely done a disservice to female gamers by making a thread like this. To gain respect and understanding, it"s my opinion that you should just PLAY like everyone else. Let your gender be a non-issue, like your fondness for ice cream or your pet iguana. It doesn't have to have anything to do with your gaming experience, or anybody else's gaming experience.

 

Setting yourself apart as a special breed of gamer is a step in the wrong direction. Be a gamer, not a female gamer.

 

No disrespect intended to the original poster. Like I said I see what you're trying to do, and I don't necessarily disagree with all your points. Just my opinion on the subject. I have a knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of things - for the reasons I already explained.

 

^^ This.

[Sneakycheeks]

I have to say I enjoyed reading the Main post. But most guys know that female gamers exist. I'm 27 and I've never been shocked by the fact that girls like to play video games. I think its awesome actually. My ex girlfriend was a gamer...though she didn't play MMOs...and my best friend's ex was a gamer as well and was a WoW player. Not too mention she was very good at fighting games..I barely every beat her at them lol. The Majority of the friends that I often team up with on Champions Online ((a Superhero MMO)) are female. I think the few male players that are still shocked by or think that female gamers don't exist are the ones who rarely ever leave their house or basement.

[Sneakycheeks]

Well me personally when I sign up to play an MMO I play an MMO.

 

I'm not signing up for an MMORPG (Might Masterbates Over Real Playing Girls)

 

I'm here to play a game and get to know the community who I'm playing with, if you're female well pat yourself on the back, you're part of the smaller population of gamers but do I care? no

 

I've dated online female gamers and as a pre warning to most guys reading this, sadly they kinda contradict themselves and usually turn out to have alot of mental issues.

 

lmao the whole " Might Masterbate Over Real Playing Girls" thing cracked me up. Good job Sir.

[MMornard]

I play much harder than my husband does..

 

hurr hurr hurr...

[BJWyler]

Hello all Im relatively new to this community still but been playing long en.......

 

Wow, you're avatar is totally hot ... oh wait, where you saying something?

 

Quite a long thread here (much longer than I have time to read fully), but I never really think about who is behind the toons I am seeing on screen when I play any game. I'm not a hard-core RPer (more of a God-like figure to my toons) - I don't create alter-egos, but characters I like to be invested in. Hence I have both male and female toons. As such, I never assume that the person behind the toon is the same sex as the toon.

 

I always thought it was common knowledge that "girls like to game." I have read enough magazine articles through the years talking about some of the more well-known ones not to make any assumptions about them in game. To me, a gamer is just a gamer, regardless of what they look like, and all gamers should carry themselves with some amount of decorum regardless. It's a shame that the anonymity of the Internet seems to unless less than proper attitudes from people, but that's human nature. I certainly hope your gaming experience here turns out to be more positive than negative. Whether you're a girl or not, I like this game, it has great potential and offers great enjoyment, so I hope everyone can enjoy it as much as I have.

 

BJ

[Celacia]

You bring up a good point. One I know has been said before but it is good to see it again.

 

I know I hate to not be good at something. I try hard to be good at what I do and if I excel at it, all the better. As an athlete I have a drive to be better than my opponent. I even compete against my own team mates to be the best in what I do. That comes into these games just as easy.

 

In games against boys/men I try even harder. It is a subconscious thing as I don't think, ok I gotta do this better now, just because it is against guys, but it happens none the less. I struggle in this game because I have not been able to hold my own, in my opinion, yet so I fight harder to improve. I like being recognized as a strong player or one who can hold my own. I don't need to be the best of the best in this game as it is not what I do best by a long shot. It is nice to know that others think I can take care of myself though.

I can see that. I think it's because the expectation is that one will be disregarded 'by the boys' because one is female, and yeah, I don't think it's really a conscious thing. It's there though - and worse, I have been dismissive of people for much the same reason: less so in our old EQ guild and more so in our WoW guilds, the female halves of couples that played together have tended not to be as good as the male halves (mostly because they were less invested in the game, I think) and so I ended up prejudiced accordingly, even as I tried not to fall into that pattern myself.

hurr hurr hurr...

[geulsae]

Pigeonholing to avoid getting pigeonholed. B-R-A-V-O. Not every guy is a girl-starved douche.

I don't care if the person behind that character is a dude or a girl. And I never want to know.

One of the reasons why I never do voice chat in MMO.

[Dinosaurfalcon]

If you are talking about the "average female" and not the "average female gamer" then your point is kind of irrelevant. Women who aren't interested in playing at all obviously won't be interested in playing well. Also, why are you talking about schoolchildren? Who cares about that? Do you think the majority of the players of this game are children or teenagers? Because I would bet that is very much not the case.

 

Anecdotally, I play much harder than my husband does. It was a running joke in our WoW guild, because he was the go-to guy for people who wanted to stop sucking and play well and didn't really want to take the effort to figure things out themselves. (That is not a judgement on any of the people whom he has helped, they were pretty much all quality people, just not great gamers.) He would get told how l33t he was or whatever, and he would always be, "nah, I am not the hardcore one in the family," and no one would believe him (except the people who actually took the time to look at the parses). It comes down to the fact that I don't like to suck (in this context anyway) and why would I want to play at all if I am just going to suck at it? How is that supposed to be fun? I don't see that this attitude has anything to do with whether one is male or female.

 

 

I think there are way MORE guys who are into the hardcore side of these games than girls. I think these games appeal MORE to young males rather than young females, because it evolves lot of things males are more naturally attracted to (competition, power, violence, grandeur ) ...but of course there are lots of females who enjoy it too!!

 

I used the school age thing because you know , kids/ teens love video games and it's ingrained into young male culture to the point it's almost a lifestyle, where it's not so much in female culture (The way these mmo games are marketed etc) . You think more teen girls are going home to play mmo's than boys? Thats my point , I'm not trying to be negative about it, I just think its true.

 

My old female guild master cared too much to the point it was obsession and unhealthy. My fiancée plays for and hour and gets enough enjoyment out of that. I've seen both ends and sure, it applies to both males and females, I just think naturally/geneticly guys are more inclined to take stupid games too seriously where, 99% of the females I know at least, couldn't give a flying f***

 

This has nothing to do with the skill of the individual players.

[Khalhazar]

While I agree with the *spirit* of just-be-a-gamer, it's impossible to remove gender from human interactions, and online games are chock full of gender-charged and misogynistic commentary. I've seen some pretty messed up comments in my 12+ years of MMOs. Other people are bringing gender into the discussion; this thread isn't introducing gender, it's replying to the prevailing attitude online. Answering with "Why do they have to share that they are FEMALE gamers? Can't they just be gamers?" leads to some pretty bad places.

[Celacia]

I used the school age thing because you know , kids/ teens love video games and it's ingrained into young male culture to the point it's almost a lifestyle, where it's not so much in female culture (The way these mmo games are marketed etc) . You think more teen girls are going home to play mmo's than boys? Thats my point , I'm not trying to be negative about it, I just think its true.

My point about that was that I don't think it's primarily teenagers who are playing, so I don't think that's really relevant.

My old female guild master cared too much to the point it was obsession and unhealthy. My fiancée plays for and hour and gets enough enjoyment out of that. I've seen both ends and sure, it applies to both males and females, I just think naturally/geneticly guys are more inclined to take stupid games too seriously where, 99% of the females I know at least, couldn't give a flying f***

You realize that you are contradicting your point before you make it here? Also, it's not genetic, no one is genetically predisposed to play videogames. It's not even "natural" except in that socialization occurs naturally, and that it is usually gendered and reflects societal mores. Certainly it is (at the moment) more socially acceptable and expected for boys to game than girls, and because of that marketing skews towards a male audience.

This has nothing to do with the skill of the individual players.

I know, and that part of what I said wasn't directly related to my response to what you said. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Dinosaurfalcon]

My point about that was that I don't think it's primarily teenagers who are playing, so I don't think that's really relevant.

You realize that you are contradicting your point before you make it here? Also, it's not genetic, no one is genetically predisposed to play videogames. It's not even "natural" except in that socialization occurs naturally, and that it is usually gendered and reflects societal mores. Certainly it is (at the moment) more socially acceptable and expected for boys to game than girls, and because of that marketing skews towards a male audience.

 

I know, and that part of what I said wasn't directly related to my response to what you said. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

I stand by what I say. More guys take these games seriously , kinda the same way more guys like competitive sports, or is that not true either? I think genetics does matter here, if not, why don't they just market it strongly towards females instead/as well. I think because it would be a hard sell, compared to selling games that attract females easier.

 

the guild master who I talked about was pretty much the only female I met who was serious throughout my time playing wow. The few other females were gfs and wives of players who really didn't give a crap and just played for fun, often not logging for weeks. If that bothers you or contradicts my statements then I don't know.

 

I just don't buy it, I see too many annoying MALES bragging, arguing , epeen measuring , raging etc all the freaking time in these games, that I have to believe its something that guys are very much naturally drawn to.

 

To say that there arent genetic differences between the sexes, that make us like different things is wrong in my opinion. I mean there I soooo many things my fiancée does that I can't stand to do because they are girl things. Some guys love clothes shopping but most don't...I hate it....sure not every woman likes it, but would it be wrong to assume that MORE women like clothes shopping than men? I don't think so anyway.

[Khalhazar]

I stand by what I say. More guys take these games seriously , kinda the same way more guys like competitive sports, or is that not true either? I think genetics does matter here, if not, why don't they just market it strongly towards females instead/as well. I think because it would be a hard sell, compared to selling games that attract females easier.

 

I think that you are conflating two issues. The first is whether men have a genetic predisposition to enjoy video games that women do not have. That doesn't seem true to me. If men do like games more than women, I would imagine that upbringing and other social factors matter a whole lot more than genetics. One such factor is the fact that this thread was necessary in the first place; not only do men make assumptions about female gamers, but non-gamer women make assumptions about them as well. So there is pressure not to play video games as a woman.

 

The other issue is whether these games are designed and marketed with a male audience in mind, which is (IMO) a far more interesting thing to discuss.

[Dinosaurfalcon]

I think that you are conflating two issues. The first is whether men have a genetic predisposition to enjoy video games that women do not have. That doesn't seem true to me. If men do like games more than women, I would imagine that upbringing and other social factors matter a whole lot more than genetics. One such factor is the fact that this thread was necessary in the first place; not only do men make assumptions about female gamers, but non-gamer women make assumptions about them as well. So there is pressure not to play video games as a woman.

 

The other issue is whether these games are designed and marketed with a male audience in mind, which is (IMO) a far more interesting thing to discuss.

 

I'm talking about more guys taking these kind of games (mmos) more seriously than females because of testosterone and stuff, not the appeal of all gaming to females.

 

Guys are geneticly way more competitive and...you know....I dunno..is it really that hard to believe that more guys than girls would find these games appealing?

 

Again, talking grind fest mmo's here, not gaming as an entertainment form.

[MMornard]

I'm talking about more guys taking these kind of games (mmos) more seriously than females because of testosterone and stuff, not the appeal of all gaming to females.

 

Guys are geneticly way more competitive and...you know....I dunno..is it really that hard to believe that more guys than girls would find these games appealing?

 

Again, talking grind fest mmo's here, not gaming as an entertainment form.

 

Today's learning point, children, is that "stuff I pulled out of my butt" does NOT equal "facts."

[Captain_Zone]

I'm talking about more guys taking these kind of games (mmos) more seriously than females because of testosterone and stuff, not the appeal of all gaming to females.

 

Guys are geneticly way more competitive and...you know....I dunno..is it really that hard to believe that more guys than girls would find these games appealing?

 

Again, talking grind fest mmo's here, not gaming as an entertainment form.

 

Dude. Trust me on this when I say YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE...

 

If you keep saying stuff like that, you'll just open Pandorra's Box, and I need time to vacate the A/O before the bombs drop.

[SelinaH]

More guys take these games seriously , kinda the same way more guys like competitive sports, or is that not true either? I think genetics does matter here, if not, why don't they just market it strongly towards females instead/as well. I think because it would be a hard sell, compared to selling games that attract females easier.

 

While there may be some genetic component to certain predispositions or preferences, it's nearly impossible to separate out from cultural influences when boys and girls tend to be treated quite differently from birth (or even earlier, these days). If there were zero gender bias during childhood development and adolescence, I'm willing to bet that traditionally gender-stereotyped activities and preferences would be much less skewed toward one side or the other.

I just don't buy it, I see too many annoying MALES bragging, arguing , epeen measuring , raging etc all the freaking time in these games, that I have to believe its something that guys are very much naturally drawn to.

 

To say that there arent genetic differences between the sexes, that make us like different things is wrong in my opinion.

 

Again, just because a certain behavior is widespread doesn't mean it's necessarily genetic. The relative contribution of nature vs. nurture is still a hotly debated topic in the scientific community.