A question to all girl gamers...

[Lalalarzi]

I grew up playing and watching pokemon with my neighbor/ best friend and my dad always had stuff like playstations for games he never played so when I got a little older and realised how damn annoying and tedious turn based combat was I graduated onto those. Then when I started secondary school a few years ago I ended up hanging with what turned out to be a gaming group I think the reason there aren't many girl gamers is possbily because all the games 'made for girls' are barely games at all. Like dress up games and colouring in games etc, so boys tend to start off gaming on basic and reletivly non violent games that appeal to what are male dominated interests like racing and what is offered as an alternative is either easily accessable without any sort of system (like colouring books) or too boring and basic. But hey, that's just me XD

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

My father is a network technician and as such, we've had a computer at home since 1991 or so. I think it started with me seeing my dad and his cousins playing Indiana Jones and the Curse of Atlantis and my dad showing me how to use Arts & Letters (which strictly speaking isn't even a game but a program to create pictures). So when I found my grandmother playing Duke Nuke'Em one day when she was babysitting me and my sister (I was like six or seven at the time) I took note of the directory it was located in on our computer and the next day I tried it myself along with Wolfenstein 3D.

Of course, there's more to it than that, since my dad owned a Nintendo and later got a Sega Mega Drive II that me and my sister played a lot. In the end, we both grew up to become gamers much thanks to him introducing it to us at an early age. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that we are both very much tomboys in terms of behaviour and attitude (if not appearance) so neither me or my sister has ever cared very much about games "not being for girls". It is a case of us just accepting (and mocking) that games are aimed at guys and this often entails poorly dressed girls and macho attitudes that would make 5 year olds emberassed.

 

[Keava]

My auntie brought an amstrad based PC from Germany along with some games on floppy. Couldnt pass that opportunity as a kiddo, was way more fun than sitting at family dinners ^^

 

[aPod]

Awesome, so many people got introduced to gaming the same way i did. Watching pops play duke nukem. Funny that so many girls seemed to enjoy it since Dukes well Duke.

 

[Infinite Betsy]

When I was a little kid, my great grandmother gave my sister and me a Nintendo for Christmas. I loved it. A few years later, I made my first "big" purchase and bought a Super Nintendo. I've since branched out with different consoles, but that's where it started. Regular old Mario. Now I'm mostly into RPGs and horror games... and I still love Mario.

 

[Lineoutt]

lol I like the way you phrased your question. Truth is my parents forbid videogames but my cousin had an old Gameboy that he didnt want so he gave it to me, and one game. I spend hours hiding under my bed with a flashlight playing Sonic. Then I got my mom to let me play rated E games and moved on from there .

 

[Lisolet]

We don't have to be gentled into gaming. But we do want our tastes (which don't always include flowers and the color pink) to be included.

Yeah, what Caenis said! Also paraphrasing Azaradel -

...female gamers [do not] have to be eased into games through male relatives or casual games...

My first game was Sim City. Letting Godzilla destroy Tokyo or creating my own slum city were my favorite scenarios. Soon after I learned the joy of killing with Doom. I still do the occasional Sims variation but for the most part I want to kill critters. No one got me into games. I found them on my own and introduced the males in my family and circle of friends to them, but no one really took to them like I did. I'm the only one that played so much I've gone from being a right-handed mouser to left because I so over-used my right forearm and elbow playing Doom and all the Quakes.

I'm also a girly girl. I wear makeup, own and wear high heels, obsess over my hair, don't like bugs, like to shop and get pretty new clothes, and cry at the bloody ending montage of the movie Love Actually. I listen to loud, rude music and tonight have stayed up way too late killing critters.

I appreciate people wanting to know about us and what makes my gender tick but I think it may be too easy to stereotype us into being all one thing when in actuality, we're all things, just like the males are.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

So far, I have learned two things... One, all you girls are so much like most guy gamers it is a bit scary even, and two, so may people were playing Doom/Duke Nuke em when they were five it is VERY scary.

 

[Legion IV]

This is just silly. Were all gamers does it matter the gender? They play games they breath they eat and live no diffrent. This thread should have been called somthing like
"A question to all my fellow gamers, how did you get started in gaming?". Am sorry "Girl gamers" can bug me somtimes like in the pro game scene. Example there was a pro halo team all girls they got paid considerbly more then a guy team that was much much better i wonder why? Or in stacraft the best female starcraft player toss girl is reallt one of the worst compared to the majority of players and yet she gets more praise then most somtimes. Or how an example closer to my life Evo 2010 the largest fighting game tournament in the U.S. Theres a special tournament called the women of streetfighter its exactly the same as the super street fighter 4 tournament but girls only like give me a break.

Just guys accept that girls can be just as good as you if not better its whoever practices more. Also just accept the fact that there gamers thats it no diffrent from how am a gamer. Last but not least eh theres no point in saying it most guys are horney as hell and will always suddenly put on there best charm and act intrested in every single thing a girl says so eh thats life.

Disclaimer: Me being a guy i know what guys do am sure girls do the same things with guys with other hobbies just its most apparent to guys since gaming is full of guys.

Have a great easter everybody.

Just my two cents.

 

[Skoldpadda]

I'm not a girl, but I got my two year younger sister into games. I convinced her to buy a SNES together, pooling our allowance, and then struggling through Mario Bros 3 (Allstars version) together, me as Luigi and her as Mario. We never beat the last world, it was just too horribly difficult, and summer arrived anyway.

I quickly turned into a gamer geek, while she remained casual, although I remember her thoroughly enjoying Little Big Adventure 2, the very first GTA (still the best) and most of all Monkey Island 3, which she still quotes in everyday conversation to this day

I have also never, ever, managed to beat her on Age Of Empires 2.

 

[dusk storm momma]

It sorta surprises me that a simple little question is met with any sort of negative comments and being called silly. The OP had a question and asked it. Nothing wrong there. As to Legion's comment of we are all gamers. Yes, we are all gamers, yes we would all like all things to be equal guys and girls playing on even ground, excluding no one. But if that is true now, then how come every time I go and buy a game I have been dieing to play or wait in line for a particular new release am I always told, "Are you getting this for your husband, he'll love it". I do respect the position of those who feel excluded by "girl gamer" threads but its not like all threads apply to every single person. And your thinking means that none of my three daughters will ever feel excluded or as an oddity and thats a good thing. Its also good to know that if ever asked this question their answer will be their mom got them into it. As a few others were able to credit their moms or grandmas for. Just my opinion on that.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

It sorta surprises me that a simple little question is met with any sort of negative comments and being called silly. The OP had a question and asked it. Nothing wrong there. As to Legion's comment of we are all gamers. Yes, we are all gamers, yes we would all like all things to be equal guys and girls playing on even ground, excluding no one. But if that is true now, then how come every time I go and buy a game I have been dieing to play or wait in line for a particular new release am I always told, "Are you getting this for your husband, he'll love it". I do respect the position of those who feel excluded by "girl gamer" threads but its not like all threads apply to every single person. And your thinking means that none of my three daughters will ever feel excluded or as an oddity and thats a good thing. Its also good to know that if ever asked this question their answer will be their mom got them into it. As a few others were able to credit their moms or grandmas for. Just my opinion on that.

Thank you for saying that. May I ask how you got into gaming?

 

[ObviousRedSpy]

My dad always used to play PC games when I was little (Duke Nukem, Doom, Unreal, American Mcgee's Alice, etc.) and I always watched. Always. He had some games that I actually got mad at him if he played without me. xD

Though, for a while, I didn't have that much interest in playing them myself. I just preferred to watch because I figured I wouldn't be very good.

Kingdom Hearts came out. I was dying to play it. My parents got me a PS2 and Kingdom Hearts was the only game I had much of an interest in playing until about 7th-8th grade, when I took an interest in Final Fantasy itself and the survival horror genre.
It took off from there and I like a crapton of games now. :3 More than I think I can count, really. xD

I'm not a girl,but this seems to be the story I hear the most when it comes to girl gamers. Most girls get into gaming through a father,brother or boyfriend.

 

[dusk storm momma]

It sorta surprises me that a simple little question is met with any sort of negative comments and being called silly. The OP had a question and asked it. Nothing wrong there. As to Legion's comment of we are all gamers. Yes, we are all gamers, yes we would all like all things to be equal guys and girls playing on even ground, excluding no one. But if that is true now, then how come every time I go and buy a game I have been dieing to play or wait in line for a particular new release am I always told, "Are you getting this for your husband, he'll love it". I do respect the position of those who feel excluded by "girl gamer" threads but its not like all threads apply to every single person. And your thinking means that none of my three daughters will ever feel excluded or as an oddity and thats a good thing. Its also good to know that if ever asked this question their answer will be their mom got them into it. As a few others were able to credit their moms or grandmas for. Just my opinion on that.

Thank you for saying that. May I ask how you got into gaming?

I had posted earlier that playing Pong on my Uncle's atari when I was younger, but after posting, I realized even younger I loved those little hand held TI educational games. Got my first NES the first year they were out and have had one system or another since. In fact, I was the one who got my younger brothers hooked, lol.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

It sorta surprises me that a simple little question is met with any sort of negative comments and being called silly. The OP had a question and asked it. Nothing wrong there. As to Legion's comment of we are all gamers. Yes, we are all gamers, yes we would all like all things to be equal guys and girls playing on even ground, excluding no one. But if that is true now, then how come every time I go and buy a game I have been dieing to play or wait in line for a particular new release am I always told, "Are you getting this for your husband, he'll love it". I do respect the position of those who feel excluded by "girl gamer" threads but its not like all threads apply to every single person. And your thinking means that none of my three daughters will ever feel excluded or as an oddity and thats a good thing. Its also good to know that if ever asked this question their answer will be their mom got them into it. As a few others were able to credit their moms or grandmas for. Just my opinion on that.

Thank you for saying that. May I ask how you got into gaming?

I had posted earlier that playing Pong on my Uncle's atari when I was younger, but after posting, I realized even younger I loved those little hand held TI educational games. Got my first NES the first year they were out and have had one system or another since. In fact, I was the one who got my younger brothers hooked, lol.

Sorry, didn't see your earlier post...

 

[Caenis]

I was just asking out of cuirosity, maybe I should of thought more about making this thread in the first place...

I'm totally ok with you making the thread. I appreciate the fact that you're trying to attain a better understanding of a gender that is not your own. And I think it's great that this thread is giving you an appreciation of how common the gaming experience is regardless of gender. Don't beat yourself up for this thread. Gender dynamics are still volatile, and the only way we will ever get to the point where gender is irrelevant is by being open to curious, open-minded dialogue.

 

[Caenis]

I honestly can't remember the first game I played. I've pretty much been gaming for as long as I can remember. My Father had a laptop for work and he bought my brother a Sega Master system when he was born. I remember playing Wonder Boy on the Sega and Commander Keen and Mario on the laptop. Black and white laptops. Those were the days.

*ahem* We didn't get any new gaming tools until my brother and I got a PS2 for christmas one year. From there our gaming interests skyrocketed. I built my own PC when I was in year 9, and I've been a PC gamer ever since. The console controls for me seem way too restrictive and dull.

Growing up, I've never felt ostracised for my gaming. But then again, I was a strange child that everybody just accepted. "There's Raeden, the nerd. She's awesome in her own eccentric way.".

Oh, and as somebody stated before, female gamers do not necessarily want everything pink and pretty. In fact, I hate anything pink. I despise it with a passion. If I walked into a games store and the attendent said to me: "Wow! You're a girl! You should buy this game with ponies in it! Because you have girl parts! You can't like games with violence and stories that are more in depth than a game where you have to ride ponies. Oh, and its pink. Girl's love pink." I think I'd punch them in the face.

You are totally my kind of girl. I work in retail, and we've started selling accessories that historically have been black (because black is easy and goes with everything), but when they wanted to have "fashion" accessories, they started with pink. Talk about wanting to punch someone. I'd like something with some personality, but unless the pink is ironic somehow (I'd like to see ironic pink) I'm not going to touch it with a 10-foot pole.

 

[UnityRiot]

Eh. I'm in a gaming family. My mom plays games, my sisters play games, my brother plays games, my dad plays games. I grew up watching my sisters playing Sonic on the Genesis/remembering my brother buying the Dreamcast and the PS2 when they first came out and watching him play. So it made sense. I remember I asked my mom for an N64 for Christmas in 2nd and that was pretty much it.