I've been playing games for 30 years or so and mostly like anything where I can butcher, maim and slaughter to my heart's content.
What we don't really like is pimply-faced, greasy-haired, pre-pubescent (literally or figuratively) little pricks who insist on making puerile, sexist, pitiful remarks because they have no idea how to talk to the female of the species because somehow they are still stuck in the "girls are icky" stage of development.
A lot of female gamers do not identify themselves as such because of the oh so funny "make me a sandwich" type of remarks, or the assumption that they will be drama queens or any of the other idiot stereotypes that persist. So the odds are, you really don't know if the person you are playing against is male or female. And you know what? It doesn't matter.
It really has much to do with the same reasons we ladies for the most part, aren't that into porn - or I should say, porn for men. There is porn for women, but I'll get into that in a second.
Hear me out, I'm actually going to answer this question seriously, and not just point out ridiculous characters with scanty clothing and say, "That's why." If it were as simple as that, romances would not have half naked women on the cover, and they mostly do.
I've worked in libraries for more than 15 years now. When you are in a position like that, you can really get to know the generalities of people's tastes. For instance, girls read more than boys. That changes when people grow up, but when they are younger, girls definitely read more than boys. Girls also prefer stories about relationships, but that doesn't mean they won't read an action story, again, these are generalities.
Most of the video game genres; shooters, platformers, racers, sports games, fighters - these are games without a strong narrative. I know, there a few standouts from that crowd, and people will claim all over that Gears or Halo has a great story, but I'm going to disagree with that. If you've read as much sci fi as I have, you'll realize how short those games fall in terms of storytelling. A book simply couldn't be written like a video game plot. It wouldn't sell well. There is a reason video game books never break the NYT bestseller lists.
It's true, in the world of shooters, Gears has a strong storyline. But when you are talking about introducing someone to games who doesn't normally game, that isn't what you want to start them with if you are trying to intrigue them with story.
Back to those illusive girls; there is a genre of games girls do pay more attention to. Casual games have been mentioned, but I actually wouldn't include those. Any casual gamer is more likely to play those. Just because guys dominate the gaming world does not mean all guys game. But even people like Conan know about angry birds - even if they don't play video games.
What I'm talking about is RPGs. RPGs have the strongest narrative of all the types of video games. But then, they should, you are "role playing" when playing these types of games. Remember I said girls don't like male porn? Well they do like female porn - or romances. If you are a librarian, you know the irony of a housewife coming up to you and saying X-men should be pulled off the shelf because the women are too scantily clad. But then they go and check this book out:
Or a book that has flowers on the cover - pretty innocuous right? Then you notice the text:
"I believe I am more than ready to see you explode," she said with a small laugh.
Mrs. Hathaway had given her more information that she had requested. The housekeeper had told her men loved this, and Avis was determined to discover if that was the truth. She gripped his shaft firmly in her hand and let her tongue circle around the tip of him. She clutched the arms of the chair. A bead of moisture pooled at the very tip of his penis. She brought him fully into her mouth and he moaned in pleasure.
From the book Every Night I'm Yours by Christie Kelley
And that isn't even the raciest I've seen. I know, why am I mentioning this? Because this is how women, and girls work - again, generalities. We like narrative. We aren't interested in getting right to the good stuff, as they say. Shooters are all action and no real story. Their stories are often as pathetic as the "stories" some porn films try to keep in.
RPGs take the time to draw a person into a story. They often don't put you right in the action. They have lavish opening scenes that intrigue, lots and lots of dialog, and fighting that is placed sporadically throughout the game. The opposite of most other types of games, that put gameplay first and story second.
That, in my opinion, is why girls aren't as into gaming as guys. It has nothing to do with scantily clad women - see picture above - or violence - there is plenty of violence in some fiction that is primarily sold to women - or too many guys hitting on them online - being online wasn't even a part of playing game when I first started. It has everything to do with what the gals are looking for in their entertainment. RPGs just aren't the majority of games out their.
Finally, girls aren't competitive about battle. That's a male thing. We don't pwn in gunplay, we pwn in fashion, or romance or cattiness. Talking about how your killstreak was the best of the night, is not going to interest most ladies.
Edit: And I know you are going to get a lot of responses like, "Girls do game. I'm one of them." I'm also a woman who games. But this here, it's a gaming forum. Girls who game, are going to be here. Go to a general population to ask this question, and the percentage of women who reply this way will be far, far lower.
Don't know if I like that or not... Oh wait. Alenko... you dawg.
All kidding aside. My father and grandmother introduced video games to me. How many mothers/fathers out there introduce video games to their daughters? More now than before now there are all these games that are meant for little girls.
I think as time progresses there will be more girls into games. Developers are making more games for 'young girls' and as much as you hate the barbie/fashion/baby games as much as I do.... they are what the parents are going to want to buy their little girls. ((Edit: I somehow deleted part of the post here)) And then those girls will have games they can talk about with other girls and then it won't be such a leap from having never played a game to 'oh instead of using the a button to feed the baby, it's a button to jump over the fallen tree.'
No grandparent was silly enough like mine to let me play DOOM when I was 4 or 5. Grandma had the BEST games.
Because its seen as a boys club. It has nothing to do with women being incompatible with games or any crap like that. I know plenty of girls who are into games, and they are a varied group just like the rest of us. Some are into JROTC, some are Cheerleaders, some are nerds, ect. Its not them, its us, as long as we keep up this boy's club bullshit there will be less ladies playing games.
Hmm, I'm a 'girl', and I love gaming. Especially FPS. I love the blood and gore and killing for no specific reason! It's freaking awesome. On the other hand, I think WoW, for example, is a preettyyy boring game. Many games in 3rd person are, well, not very interesting to me, because you don't feel like you're actually a part of the game. When it comes to having to kill things, in my opinion it's awsomest (yeah) to be in first person Uhm.. Where was I..
Yes, I think that there's a lot of girls out there who love gaming. I know there is. And not just the casual games! My female friends (though there aren't a lot of those ) love games. But they're not so much into FPS as I am, for some reason. I think it's because they think most FPS games are scary. But nevertheless, they play games, all different sorts of games.
As a lot of you have already said, it's stupid to generalize like this. Like when people say "guys don't play sims" ... ooooh yes. Some guys play it, some guys won't admit that they do because it's a "girl game". Of course not all men play the sims. But not all girls play the sims either...
Right now I am not gaming anything, though. I am bored to death because my graphics card is defect :'( A good thing, though, is that the holidays are soon over so I can be in school, modelling 3D or drawing concept design or something, because I'm going to be a computer graphics artist, making GAMES! Hell yeah.
Girls do game shut up about this.
I was at Wow: Cataclysm night release at my local gamestop there were about 300+ people there and every third was a woman. My wow guilds active mebers ~28 people of them 6 are confirmed girls, in the same gaming community that I am part of there are in total of 10 girls of total of ~45 active members.
Why aren't girls into games? (Yeah, ok. I know this isn't universally true, but generally, face it.)
There must be something about it that either activly discourages women, or simply fails to capture their imaginations. I can almost guarantee that if you meet a nice girl at a party she's not going to want to hear about how you owned arse on Medal of Honor last night... Ok, those discussions can be tedious... meh.
The real question is 'Why don't (generally) females get enraptured with video game excellence?
Off the top of my head I can only surmise that it has a lot to do with the low brow gender roles depicted in many games, or the lack of female protagonists, or that female dialouge is being done badly.
Tell me what you think, I'd especially like to hear from our lady gamer friends and hear your opinions on this...
Girls do game shut up about this.
I was at Wow: Cataclysm night release at my local gamestop there were about 300+ people there and every third was a woman. My wow guilds active mebers ~28 people of them 6 are confirmed girls, in the same gaming community that I am part of there are in total of 10 girls of total of ~45 active members.
Uhhh... I have three sisters who all play video games, and have different styles ranging from social talking games, to mario cart, to your classic medal of honor "shoot em up" games.
As well as half a dozen female friends who all play video games, especially the morep opular shooting and RPG titles...
So, I really don't see where you are getting at here. I mean, just the other day my older sister sat down and played spore for 6 hours straight.
I think what you should be asking is why is it we don't see more girls talking in public about video games unless someone brings up video game discussions. Since plenty of gals play video games.
Uh, sure I like games. no i dont particularly like FPS or fighting games... i dont like the first genre because your POV is very limited, you cant see half the stuff on the screen. also im not very good at the whole point and shoot thing, and tend to waste bullets killing everything. i dont like fighting games because im not good at button mashing, which seems to work 100% of the time with my brother and dad. Me:"WOW that combo was AWESOME HOW DID YOU DO IT????" Bro:"I dunno i was just hitting the buttons" I dont like playing console multiplayer games either because i am just not a hardcore gamer. chances are i will not beat another person in an FPS/fighter. I did play online for the first time very recently, ala dead rising 2. game genres i like: hack and slash, platformers, action-adventure, survival horror, graphic adventure, visual novel, interactive movie, tactical RPGs genres i dont really care for: shooters, strategy, and fighters (i just went down the wikipedia list and pulled these =p)
Tell this to my local fighting gamer group of 13+ people half are girls. Or tell this two my two great friends who play SC2 at a 2k diamond level there girls to. Tell that to my world of warcraft guild that had so many women. Or tell that to my best friend whos a girl who is a crazy FF fanboy like me and plays armored core at a competive level.
Am so tired of this topic. The icing on the cake is half of the people here when they meet a girl who games probably think there amazing just cause there a girl gamer.Face palm worthy thread.
ALSO before somone say it. I hate having to say this cause there my good friends. But there far from bad looking women.
W.O.W. <-- played it, quit it.
The Silent Hill series. <-- can't stand the new stuff.
Cooking Mama. <-- own it, the guys I room with play it.
Any number of Nintendo titles. <-- I can't set a fire to them fast enough.
Final Fantasy. <-- old fangirl of, angry with all their latest.
Puzzle games like Tertis or Bust A Move. <-- y...yuck.
Performance games like Guitar Hero. <-- my hatred for guitar hero is due to being an employee for Game Crazy for about a year when it first came out. Why must people play it for hours and never buy anything!?
Dancing games like Dance Central. <-- no.
Farmville. <-- never.
Minecraft. <-- still never.
Project 0 (Fatal Frame). <-- not once.
The Sonic games. <-- when I was little. Sega handhelds.
Ilomilo. <-- never heard of it?
Girls are honestly like guys when it comes to games. I know guys who play more Harvest Moon, Cooking Mama, all those Nintendo garbage... farmville addicts and are more final fantasy fanboys than I could ever be. It boils down to personal preference.
i dont like fighting games because im not good at button mashing, which seems to work 100% of the time with my brother and dad. Me:"WOW that combo was AWESOME HOW DID YOU DO IT????" Bro:"I dunno i was just hitting the buttons"
Pretty much. And when someone legitimately knows how to hit those buttons, they get angry when you don't and just mash buttons. I'm not going to sit and read a manual to learn how to hit the buttons when hitting them at random beats you.
Because the video game industry caters to dudes. What subjects are the majority of high profile games today about? War, sci-fi, fast cars, martial arts, in short: guy things. The medium isn't alienating girls, it's the content. Or, at least the majority of the content. If you look at the games that girls tend to enjoy, The Sims, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, it's more gender neutral stuff. But the frequency of those kinds of games is pretty low when you compare it to movies or books, meaning the frequency of gamer gals is pretty low too. It's all pretty logical.
I'm not a combative person but....I gotta tell you...that's not logical. I'm a female I like war, sci-fi, fast cars, and martial arts. Not to mention archery, swords, guns, assassinations, and spies. This is NOT guy stuff. There is no such thing as guy stuff or girl stuff. Those kind of terms haven't held meaning to me since my playground days. I enjoy Sims, but I hate Guitar Hero and Mario Kart. And don't get me started on Barbie.
Many of the women I know like cool car chases and bullets flying and awesome looking men and women kicking ass. We watched Watchmen and thought that was so cool and I enjoy nothing more than an episode of Mythbusters talking about ninjas. I play Mass Effect so much my discs are unplayable, I kill at Twilight Princess, I love the Assassin's Creed series, I enjoy Soul Caliber, and Devil May Cry (the original) is awesome.
Gender does not decide what you like.
I say this with no anger and I'm not trying to fight with you or start something but....you can't tell me that girls don't like that because it's a boy's toy. I played with basketballs and baby dolls. Females, at least 90% of the ones I know, don't have the distinction of "this is for me because it stars a girl" or "ooh that has a burly man on it, that won't interest me."
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Cute joke but unfunny.
