Girl Gamer's Opinion

[Slayer_2]

I totally agree, I'm a guy, and I find it quite sexist. However don't think its only women that get portrayed as a huge stereotypes with a personality as deep as a puddle. Ever played a crappy game like Gears of War, Army of Two or Soldier of Fortune: Payback? GoW is riddled with testosterone leaking men wearing armor and gear so heavy they look like a moving tank. Their comments are either dirty jokes or stupid little "bad-ass" taunts like "I showed him!' and shit. AoT is the same idea. SoF Is worse and your characters lines sound like a compilation of the worst comments ever. His lady friend/helper is WORSE and all she does is flirt and wear a bra and panties while trying to help you through a lethal military operation.

However on the side of multi-player games (usually FPS or Third person shooter), I've always believed there are no girl gamers as I'm guilty of disbelieving in girl gamers. I mean really, all my female friends are only interested in doing their nails, hanging out or texting people in their spare time. I can't IMAGINE one of them playing any game except maybe Dance Dance Revolution. However, even my jocky-est friends can play decently in Halo 3 on Legendary.

Either way, we can all agree that the bulk of the worlds gamers are male and I estimate maybe 5% are female. Then probably 4% of those girls stay in WoW and DDR type games, not the famous FPS and shooter genres.

 

[Wicky_42]

If girls are going to complain that they are shows as sexist stereotypes, then guys have the same right to complain. No-one I know is a hard ass, gun totin', snake eating motherf'r spouting one-liners whilst stoically saving the world, but name a mainstream FPS that doesn't feature an abundance of such characters. Hell, the guys in Gears of War have more muscles on them than any human alive - in a spurt of manliness they seem to have developed entirely new muscle groupings with which to save the world - and girls are complaining cos their virtual counterparts' boobs are too big?!

Hell, I'm all for more realistic characters in games, with more depth, development and warmth but it does have to be equally distributed amongst the genders, cos at the moment everyone seems to be as devoid of those values as everyone else.

In fact, the examples that stand out the most, as having the most development as depth, are both girls - Jade, from a sci-fi photo game on the xbox, and Alex Vance from Half Life 2. Cortana from Halo is lacking in depth but is easily the most vibrant character from the first two games of the series. Jade's male couterpart was a pig - how much more stereotypical can one get? - Gordon is notoriously mute (presumably still in shock from unleashing two hells upon the Earth), and Master Chief reserves his lines for 'witty' rebuttals. And girls complain that they are the persecuted ones, lol

 

[DeadlyFred]

That's like asking why there is no white history month or straight pride parades. Western culture is a male culture, despite what you might believe, although, I'm sure if more guys weren't like cavemen, then there wouldn't be the need for women's gyms.

Now here's my question: why do white guys keep rehashing the same old (and bad) arguments about how they're now the downtrodden and oppressed and all that "oh woe is me" buffalo chips?

I don't want pride parades or history months, I want people to stop thinking they're entitled to some kind of special recognition because of what they are. You didn't have to do any work to be black or jewish or white or female or gay or whatever, its how you are; why do you deserve a medal for it? I've heard "white" people referred to as "the generic race" and quite frankly, that fucking offends me.

Believe it or not, white people, and white men, even, have alllll the same problems as everyone else does. There's no such thing as "minority social issues"; they don't just hand out high-paying jobs and money to go to college to you because you're white.

Racism/sexism/etc is never going to disappear so long as people insist upon some kind of special recognition for being what they are; that is not "equality", it simply perpetuates the problem.

Before you complain about women lacking power and influence (which I still think is laughable for what should be obvious reasons), take a ratio of how many women-to-men actively vie for such positions.

 

[Slayer_2]

I totally agree with DeadlyFred I hate Feminazies who act like women are so superior to men and gripe about how hard it is being a "woman in a mans world". They need to cut the crap and recognize that gender, race or religion usually have no effect on your life.

 

[Smiles]

I dislike extremists...

It seems to me that these people are forgetting that gaming is about Fantasizing yourself in the main characters position. I personally love looking at beautiful people, realistically beautiful people moreso. I don't mind playing as the busty sorceress, or the hunky barbarian that gets to bang the busty sorceress, especially since I know that its just a fantasy.

 

[Smiles]

I like Diablo... But sadly you don't get to bang...

 

[Smiles]

Ummmm, but the kind of people they identify with are extremely boring, and honestly don't make for good main characters.

 

[Alex_P]

Okay! That's a great point. Now think of it this way: what about those people who *do* mind playing as the busty sorceress, or the hunky barbarian that gets to bang the busty sorceress?

Or, hell, what if they just want the sorceress to be less vapid and the banging to be less juvenile?

-- Alex