Issue 45 - OMG Girlz Don't Exist on teh Intarweb!!!!1

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Phoenix
http://www.thefreesoul.net
Hi!
OMG, a very very nice article. I must laugh so much ;-) I cant even believe that so much guys are so big kids! We must shame *g*
Very nice humor and nice written. I´m sry for my bad english, but i must write here my congratulations to this article.
I play WoW too and i knew that a lot of kiddies play this Game ^^
Most of my time i play Saga of Ryzom, we have one of the biggest guild on the german Server and in our guild play some girls...5 or more, i really dont know.
And we often have Teamspeak on. Ok, most of our members are some years older...i am 21 and one of the youngest. But its a normal think that a girl play with us or is in TS .....i cant really believe ;-)
Very nice written, respect!
Greets Phoenix

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Stinkfist

This was the first Escapist article I ever read, and I still think it's one of the best. It blows my mind that guys have such a hard time believing and accepting it. I mean sure, I can understand a little incredulity. After all, that's what MMORPG stands for, isn't it? Mostly Men Online Role-Playing Girls.

But come on. This is the 21st century now. Why is it so hard to accept female gamers? And why can't guys see that the main reason girls are afraid to step into the light is because of the juvenile and asinine responses they get when they do : Shock, disbelief, and denial.

We have female athletes, don't we? Why should gaming be any different?

Computers and gaming are no longer the domain of the stereotypical hygienically-challenged social outcast in his parents' garage. Yet, there are still those that think one must have a Y chromosome in order to be a geek.

IMO, Girl Gamers don't need to be put into a quantified demographic. In doing so, we further the misconception that Girl Gamers are somehow different than Guy Gamers. The girls are here for the same reasons as the guys: to play and enjoy themselves. They're not Girl Gamers, they're just Gamers. They just happen to be female.

God bless 'em.


Ms. Butts, thank you for such a well-written and thought-provoking article. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Bob_Arctor

Gah. Went wrong.

Again: Don't know much about it, don't play much online gaming.

The chap you talk about might just be shy, you know? Not a great leap of the imagination. I might be for all I know if I met someone from the internet. Only I wouldn't know, don't have any friends found only on the internet, I stick to real life.
Also: Young men are often confused by young women and muck up socialising with them. Badly. That's not a massively unknown piece of knowledge either.

Thirdly: I laughed at the "nice pix [Now there is a nice attractive young women. I would very much like to enjoy spending time with her]" comments, as judging by previous articles (the "pictures of John Walker" on his article; the chap in the wizard hat looked nothing like him, and he had to tell people that) the pictures are of a model, some photoshoot.

So let's not make too much of fools of ourselves now.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Tristan Cuschieri

II find the situation that you described in your article to be somewhat sad... Why can most guys on the internet not seem to accept that, although there don't seem to be very many female players out there, it is not absoltely impossible that a girl would want to pick up a game and have the same fun that so many male gamers have?

I think a lot of the reactions female gamers get have to do with the age and/or maturity of the males making the reactions. I play an MMOG called EVE Online, which, I find, is a very mature game, with, for the most part, more mature players who have no problems accepting a female voice on Teamspeak or whatever. In fact, I take pride in being a part of a corporation (or, guild) that is not only easily one of the top in the game, but who's second-from-top ranking player on our killboard is actually a girl (who can kick the ass of any male player that comes her way).

In any case, very insightful article. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Scott

This isn't to much a stretch for the community that is WoW. One of the worst potential communities out there. It sounds like Whitney needs to upgrade to a better guild or find a more mature guild as other poster have said.

I met my wife over the interwebs. I've met numerous girls over irc and in person when i use to log on to the dalnet and bbs in the early to mid 90s.

It really boggles my mind as to why anyone would think that girls would be any better or worse then boys at games. People are people; some want to chat others want to play games, and *gasp* some want to do both!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Che
http://che-la-boy.livejournal.com/

This article takes me back.




My surname has a weird spelling. I won't bother putting it up here, but phonetically it sounds like SHAY-LAH. One of my mates gave me the nickname of Che La as a parody of Che Fu, since Che Fu is a cool, funky, badass plolynesian rapper (or whatever the cool kids are using to decribe him these days). By contrast, I am anything but. So the nickname kinda stuck.




I started using it online. Problem was the 'la' syllable. In most languages, words ending in 'la' are considered feminine, so the subconsious perception is that all names ending in 'la' are girl's names. Problem is, I'm a guy.




You can already see where this is going, can't you?




The reaction I got from the internet community when using that handle was an eye-opener. A complete and utter torrent of sexually deprived and desperate fifteen year olds begging me for "A/S/L Pic and Cyber, LOLZ!!!!1" and suchlike. It was embarassment by association. I quickly changed to "Che La Boy" - but whitespace is a prick most of the time. So now it's just plain old "Che".




If girls don't exist on the internet, it's only because the rest of us scare them off. It's tragic.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Riley Craven

tTo say that you play wow isnt that impressive, everyone and their mom plays WoW literally. I look at the games people play despite gender, and people playing WoW or rather low on the list.

Granted I flaming and being a bit childish, but I hate people that play games just because everyone else playes them. The true gamers that go out there and try to find games that no one plays are generally the games that are best. Eve-Online is the standard to which all MMO should hold themselves. With less than 200k people playing it, its def a niche market.

Sorry ranting... get upset easily. In any case, I have always done my best to foster girl gamers, because lets face it, while there are some, its still a rarity. I find that most girls I meet have that attitude that games in general are nothing more than something for kids. Which is sad because its just as legitimate as alot of the "sex books" that alot of older woman buy.

The one problem I have with the article as that getting your point across does not mean that things will change per say. Saying that you existed doesnt change the fact that you did. My personal stance is that screw everyone else, they can believe what they want to believe. Do your thing and be happy and thats the end of it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Rob

An excellent article! Well written, interesting and captivating. Thank you!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: game audio girl

Being a fellow female gamer, I agree that we put up with a lot of harassment, slander, and sometimes bigotry. It's sad really, and just goes to show how intolerant the world really is.
There is no excuse for being disrespectful.
All different kinds of people from all different walks of life game. They have the right to do so, and should be able to without feeling like they have to hide their identities.
Don't look down to oppression. Look above it, and be who you are.
Women Game

::insert evil grin here::

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Evil Timmy
http://10mbit.com
here [http://www.the-underdogs.info] (some forum bugs may have messed with the formatting; I'm Phyber).

Gender bias does nothing but hurt gaming as a whole. Roughly 50% of the population is underrepresented in making and playing most AAA titles, with a distinct skewing towards the male persuasion. There's no reason that games can't be as 'serious' without focusing on bloodshed or Havok-enhanced breast physics (if Ageia's PhysX ever had a killer app...). There's many aspects of gaming that haven't been explored nearly enough, if at all, so why exclude the half of humanity that may have the right ideas?

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Will

Very funny-- your article speaks a good nugget of truth. On the internet you can be whoever you want to be, and the stereotype of an internet filled with nerdy guys still lingers.

Your real-life meeting seems to illustrate the point best though-- it's not that you don't exist, as much as the male nerds just don't know how to act around a girl. When they see a girl acting like them, playing MMOs and cursing, they assume that you're just not a girl-- because real girls don't like computers.

I reject that stereotype, but yet I'm cautious whenever someone says they're a girl. Trust but verify, eh?

That said, welcome to the interweb! You may just be the first girl on it

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Galewolf


Well, its not always the "young" ones that act "immature" on the MMO\Online Gaming scene. I used to ran a corporation (guild equivalent of Eve Online) in Eve online back in early 2004. We started as small group of role play oriented guys, but i insisted on having a "non rp" corp channel so we can at least relax a little bit and considering the horribile times of travel there is no way i could withstand "in game" one more acting channel. Well, we recruited more people eventually and become 50 "man" strong corporation with quite entertaining chat channel. I brag about my everyday life , we tease each other by how much losers we are to spend hours on computer while there is a great spring out there etc. The the guy, first in command and i got into a lighthearted arguement about "males playing female characters in games". I teased him by saying "so lets say you are a bloke and always see some bearded guy in mirror and for a change you wanted to see something pretty on screen. thats ok but just dont stop there then, get some heels and stockings walk around like that. I bet you'll look pretty".

Suddenly the corp channel flooded with angry emotions, protests and ts went beserk with ready to lynch mob of "female" voices! We actually recruited over 10 girls without even knowing. Dont get me wrong, i am used to be sexist when it comes to gaming, the worst of its kind you can ever see. The girls ran over me like bulldozers, saying that i am stereotypical, sexist and rude. Then suddenly all my comments made while thinking "i am with the guys, they know what i meant" hit me like 16 Wheeler. All kind of things like how my girlfriend sucks in gaming and seeing her while trying to make a "lovely home" in sims 2 is killing my hardcore gaming cells or how can a girl ruin a table top role playing session just by standing there.

Well things just get worse, one of the "guys" said "i have to deal with wifey, she is complaning about the game" and i said "well, true man doesnt let their girls play games" (ok hate me, but i sincerely accepted that we man are all willing slaves of womenkind. i want to feel supreme in at least one area, gaming) and "he" said: "i am a girl". Oh dear god, does it have an end? What are the odds of i am finding some lesbian married couple in a MMO and making comment like that? Give me a break!

Ok, i used to be a guy like that: Sexist and proud of it. Now, with quarter century in my belt and many ridiculations and poddings from female pilots in the game. I am a less offensive, which my girlfriend describes as "better of the worse".

About attitude towards female gamers: Its changing, very, VERY slowly. My WoW guild has many female gamers, even one visited our city to see us. And we no longer giggle like high school erm...boys when we see a female night elf priest playing girl in some online gaming party.

But again, i think the writer encountered the worst of our kind, guys like...me whatever the age is, there is no limits in acting "14".

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Elvis
http://elvis.animexx.jp
http://sabrina-online.com/1997-02.html

so you all see, the problem is quite old


ps:u rly a grrl?

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Sand Monkey Deluxe

This problem will only go away when people have the same attitude as me towards gamers and Internet users in general. Why does someone's age, gender and location really matter? If you're taking part in a sport, you tend to choose the most athletic, the most talented and the most organised for your team.
If you're assigned a group activity at university or at school, you try to get the best team workers, the hardest workers and the smartest workers. If you're going on a camping trip, you'll want to take the most adaptable, etc.
And when you make friends, you tend to go for the people who most suit your personality, who will make you laugh and share similar interests.

Why is it, then, that people on the Internet decide to throw all these social conventions out the window?

It doesn't make a difference to me if you're female and attractive - if you're boring, how am I supposed to carry a conversation with you?
I don't particularly care if the person covering my back in a team deathmatch game is male or female - I just want to know that they're playing the game properly and are just out to have fun.

I prefer it when people use androgenous nicknames online. It means that they too think that gender is meaningless. And they're also as creative ;-)

Good article but I'm just afraid you're preaching to the converted. Good luck, though.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Bob_Arctor

"It doesn't make a difference to me if you're female and attractive - if you're boring, how am I supposed to carry a conversation with you?"

Are you male? Sorry to break the dream but young men are rubbish: we are extremely obvious in what we want, and will put up with small talk if there is a chance of it. Especially when drink is involved. /shrug.
At the same time there're loads of "ladettes" who drink loads and pull random guys. Often they are worse than men for that.

And you can't say gaming ignores 50% of the population without caveats, because the majority of girls are against gaming as we take it, i.e., being interested in games, discussion, playing games other than simple draughs or The Sims.
It's true. And possibly there is nothing we can do about it.

Do you hear people saying "Well let's get men buying Marie Clare and the women buying "Car Buff Weekly"?

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Mark
http://frontal-lobe.net
That metaphor sort of falls apart. Men read Car Buff Weekly and women read Marie Claire, but men and women in roughly equal numbers read magazines. The problem is that, with video games, there are many Car Buff Weekly ripoffs, a handful of general-interest publications, and half a handful of Marie Claires. It comes back to publishers' risk-aversion (which, while perfectly justifiable, is not helpful to the industry). And escalating game budgets are not going to make anything either.

Trying to make "female-friendly" games isn't going to work, either, because invariably whoever tries that is going to let their marketing department try to figure out what constitues a "female-friendly" game - and no focus group has ever produced a game worth the cost of printing it on a disc.

So it'll take a slower process. Create a female market by producing general-interest games (and for god's sake keep the advertisers out of the development cycle). Large numbers of people will have more experience with games that are not male-centric, and and a handful of those people will enter the industry. Some of those will develop female-centric games, and then we'll all live happily ever after. And the marketing monkeys never had anything to do with it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: QWERTZwerker
http://www.QWERTZwerk.de
Yes, it surely is an interesting article. Somehow I think it's going to far ... anyway.

What really shows us that there "are girls on the intarweb", is the way, this girl here uses her article to put herself in the limelight. Once the stage for Teleios is open, she puts on her (a bit clumsy) make-up, showing her best positions and looks just for the camera, focused on her eyes, focused on her overpainted lips, focused on her just-so-female-fingernails. Where a boy just would sit there, with a tentative smile, looking so damn naturally and "nerdy", this girl is really looking for some boys, who would confirm her, that she IS a girl on the internet!

As you can see, boys, give it a try and bomb this girl with ingame-messages and force some pics out of her. She wants it, as you can read and see.

QWERTZwerker

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Adeptus
http://www.theoldergamers.com/
On behalf of my gender, I'd like to apologise to all female gamers! Not all of us are like that!

If you're still looking for a more mature gaming guild/community, try The Older Gamers [TOG].
Our members play a wide range of games (AA, CS, WoW, DDO, CoD, Eve, BF2, and probably more I've forgotten).
Our main requirement for membership is age > 25 yrs, and a desire to escape from the l33t-speaking hax0r kiddies that seem to dominate online gaming!
We have a number of female members (some attached to other members, some single) who are treated as equals.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Slacker
http://www.australianalliedforces.com/
I play in an Australian Battlefield 2 Tornament, and one of the staff is female, and at least 4 of the players on each side are females, all of which go on teamspeak, and talk. Noone to date has been immature about the whole female on the internet thing. If your an aussie, and feel like joining, the only requirments are you have to be at least 13, have a legit copy of bf2, and a mic, because teamspeak is a must. There is also an international version, but I am unsure of the link. I cant say for the international version, but females are definatly accapted, if not encouraged, in AAF (the tornament)

Reguards
Lindsay (and I'm a guy)

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Slacker
http://www.australianalliedforces.com/
Oh, and Qwertzwerker, that isn't a very nice thing to say. Just because she wants to write an article about how she is a gamer, doesn't mean she wants the limelight.

So, guys, DO NOT bomb this girl with in-game messages and DO NOT force some pics out of her. She DOESN'T want it. As she expressed in the article.