Lets talk about Girls that play video games

[LordFish]

See the motto on my profile. This is all.

 

[spectrenihlus]

What do I think about girls who play games?

That there simply isn't enough of them.

 

[Furrama]

Why are we talking about this?

If there is a girl that seems to be attention seeking and abusing her girl status, no matter the interest at hand, just ignore her and move on. If she seems alright and just wants to share her passion then just accept that and move on. Do the exact same thing for anyone like that in your life. It is possible to be either gender and like games.

As for those who identify as being a race or a gender or whatever "gamer" or "nerd" or other general "tag"... so? They're all still people regardless, and when in a minority, (or perceived minority), one often feels the need to represent, whereas the majority will not as there is no need for them. Their status is already a given. Just have a little understanding and let them be. You've probably done the same dumb thing in some other area in your life. (IE Why can't bronies just be MLP fans? Why do you have to identify as male? Uhhuh, that's what I thought.)

 

[pearcinator]

Give it some time...

Females already take up 40% of the 'gaming' community (that counts casual gamers but I would argue that casual games are gateway games to more hardcore games...just like weed!)

More and more female gamers are coming into the scene so when it becomes commonplace then the sexist remarks will disappear and the whole idea of 'zomg female gamer! she must be uuuuuugly!' will go away. It just needs more time.

 

[MiniMog]

Obnoxious. Once upon a time I was a teenager in the 90's, the days when being a female gamer was looked down upon with disgust and girls then never claimed to be a gamer. I noticed a huge change when Morgan Webb from G4 came onto the scene. Guys went wild and raved about how sexy female gamers are. Since then girls realized that it's a new way to attract guys and voila, you have "gamer girls". I don't take many girls seriously when they claim to be one, in fact, if you claim you are a gamer, it automatically makes me think you're trying to get attention. A decade or more ago a pretty sizable chunk of these self proclaimed female gamers would still be making fun of those of us who spent our lives away sitting in front of a TV and console with a controller. Although the majority of them would have still either been in diapers or unborn. Unfortunately times change.

 

[sanquin]

It's not the fault of 'girl gamers'. Girl gamers have become what they are today because of the male community. Getting harassed, receiving a lot of sexism, no one believing you and getting shit because of that. And on the other side people going 'omg a girl! *stare*', date/pic requests, people suddenly acting undeservedly nice towards you, etc.

A combination of those things has made some girls turn into the attention whore of the net. They know (just like some girls in clubs, in the work place, etc) that just the mere fact that they're female and not ugly, can get them what they want more easily. And they use that.

Can you really blame them when if they do this, they get a lot of attention and 'love' for it, with some people hating on them. Yet if they don't do this, and are just a female playing games, they get the same amount of people hating on them, yet a lot less attention/love?

It's the guy gamers that should change. Stop paying attention to the attention whores. Stop being sexist towards girl gamers. Stop saying that any pretty girl gamer is immediately an attention whore. (like the OP did with the girl in the vid.) Imagine in every situation what if it was a guy in her place? Would it be normal if it was? (once again, like in the vid) Then shut up, she's doing nothing wrong! Would it be weird/stupid/attention seeking if the person was a guy too? THEN you can complain about it.

 

[Phasmal]

I used to be on okcupid the dating site and EVERY SINGLE woman that said something about liking videogames, answered 'no' to the question are you happy with your life.

You can tell me what that means.

It means you take two unrelated things and try and make them related.
I like video games, I'm happy with my life.
There goes that theory.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

 

[Phasmal]

I used to be on okcupid the dating site and EVERY SINGLE woman that said something about liking videogames, answered 'no' to the question are you happy with your life.

You can tell me what that means.

It means you take two unrelated things and try and make them related.
I like video games, I'm happy with my life.
There goes that theory.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

Where am I claiming causation? Way to make assumptions.

Right. So... what's the point of your original post then?
That people on okcupid are unhappy?

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Obnoxious. Once upon a time I was a teenager in the 90's, the days when being a female gamer was looked down upon with disgust and girls then never claimed to be a gamer. I noticed a huge change when Morgan Webb from G4 came onto the scene. Guys went wild and raved about how sexy female gamers are. Since then girls realized that it's a new way to attract guys and voila, you have "gamer girls". I don't take many girls seriously when they claim to be one, in fact, if you claim you are a gamer, it automatically makes me think you're trying to get attention. A decade or more ago a pretty sizable chunk of these self proclaimed female gamers would still be making fun of those of us who spent our lives away sitting in front of a TV and console with a controller. Although the majority of them would have still either been in diapers or unborn. Unfortunately times change.

We should really divide gamers into three different categories really.

Casual.

"Gamers".

And Enthusiasts.

I always argue that I am a gaming enthusiast.
Sure I play games, but its more than that. I study the industry and the artform, and I have a massive collection of titles. (And I listen to Videogame music all the time too! XD)

All the people I have met that call themselves "gamers", just play like 5 games.
(Call of Duty, Battlefield, FIFA, Forza, and Gran Turismo. Sometimes having a Mass Effect or two, or some other garbage sport/sim games)

Those people make me sick to my stomach.

I'd define my parents as casuals.
They played Pac-man and Space Invaders and tetris casually, and they occasionally play facebook games like Bejewelled and Bubble Witch Saga, and iphone games.

^ They are casuals.

 

[Karoshi]

I used to be on okcupid the dating site and EVERY SINGLE woman that said something about liking videogames, answered 'no' to the question are you happy with your life.

You can tell me what that means.

Women on dating sides are unhappy. There, conclusion drawn.

Besides, didnt we have a thread around here, according to which 40% of the population on these forums (mostly male) are depressed? I guess unhappy people prefer to game, rather than do something else.

I found, that female gamers are more mature and generally more fun to be around. As for the obnoxious loud ones, for some reason they try avoiding purely female company.

 

[Phasmal]

Where am I claiming causation? Way to make assumptions.

I am simply sharing something I've observed and you're interpreting it as me saying that girls that play video games aren't happy with their life.

That's cause it sounds a lot like that's what you're doing.
Maybe think about what you're saying sounds like before you say it.
If I had come in and said every one of gamer dudes I met in X place was a desperate nerd and said `you can tell me what that means.`
I'm pretty sure it would sound like I was calling gamer dudes desperate nerds.

 

[Legion]

So my fellow Escapists, what do you think about all of this?
What do you think of female gamers? Do you care that there are girls out there playing video games? Does it not matter at all?
What do you think of girl gamers, girls that go out of their way to identify themselves as female?

A 'gamer' is a 'gamer' to me, I don't care what their gender is. When I was younger I guess I was more of the 'White Knight' type, but now I seriously do not care.

My experience with girl gamers is somewhat negative overall though. Here's the most common occurrences (Note that these are my experiences, I am not saying in any shape or form that this is normal):

On the Xbox they normally either have a sexual, sexually suggestive name or a name that shows that they are female. Their bio normally indicates they are a girl, and also frequently has 'exasperation' along the lines of "Yes, I am a girl".

Their behaviour is normally just as bad as the average male gamer. Less 'rape' or 'mum' comments, but they are still fairly mouthy and normally seem to expect or like male attention.

The male behaviour towards them in my experience has always been extremely flirtatious, and also pointless 'defending' of them. That is, if you make any criticism of them you will get shouted down by other guys who want to be on their good side.

On minecraft almost all the girls I know on the server I admin on are over the top, sulky, attention seeking and for the lack of a better word, hormonal. This is including the adult ones. The only one I know who isn't is the wife of another admin, she is quiet and polite and very much the exception.

Of course, for every one of these there are dozens of normal girls who think the same way as I do "Who cares about gender when it comes to this?".

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Whatever we do.

We must not derail the thread.

I repeat, do not derail the thread!

I cannot emphasise that enough!

EDIT: Seriously! Do not derail the thread.

 

[Gothproxy]

The best I can say is I actually agree with the OP and that women that label themselves "Girl Gamers (Grrl Gamerz)" tend to be the ones who want the attention. Not that that's all bad. There are those who proclaim this in hopes of letting their voice be heard. But then again, why do their voices NEED to be heard? What's the difference between males and females, other than the apparent? Gamers are gamers. We all work the controls the same. There aren't special keyboards, etc for girls than guys. There aren't special editions of games for guys than girls. They don't make headsets specially for 'girl gamers' with the Snookie Puffy-do (or whatever it is called), that I know of.

Yeah, I think a girl that plays games is 'hotter' than the same girl that doesn't. Then again, I think girls with guns are hot too. It's all a matter of personal preference. But the reason I really think that girls who play games are 'hotter' is that there is that attraction to the fact of a common shared interest, an activity we can both enjoy and that might lead to a better relationship down the line. The same thing applies to a guy who loves football and meets a girl who also loves football. The attraction is increased, naturally. Makes sense.

The fact that the general populace thinks there aren't many girls who play games out there is simply because they really haven't been looking all that hard.

But again, to the OPs point, I haven't met many girls who tout themselves as "Gamer Girls". I do know many who ARE gamers.

And yeah, the video is quite boring and is sad that all these guys go nuts because its a 'cute' girl making it. :/

 

[Lilani]

derail the thread.

derail the thread!

derail the thread.

What was that? Derail the thread? Okay!