Why I think "Gamer Girls" shouldn't hide.

[Phasmal]

Le Snip

I totally understand why you do that but I do wish that girls would stop hiding the fact that they're playing.
I just can't help but feel that the community will be slower to lose these retarded attitudes if we're hiding behind male avatars.

To be honest, I don't really like hiding, but it's so much easier.
When playing things like WoW or Guild Wars, if I'm in a guild and it uses voice I have no problem with coming on and being myself.
But in games like DOTA2 and TF2, I won't join in on mic talk, even if my friends are.
It changes really, sometimes I'll be chatty, and other days I just can't deal with the shit.

 

[ShiningAmber]

Le Snip

I totally understand why you do that but I do wish that girls would stop hiding the fact that they're playing.
I just can't help but feel that the community will be slower to lose these retarded attitudes if we're hiding behind male avatars.

To be honest, I don't really like hiding, but it's so much easier.
When playing things like WoW or Guild Wars, if I'm in a guild and it uses voice I have no problem with coming on and being myself.
But in games like DOTA2 and TF2, I won't join in on mic talk, even if my friends are.
It changes really, sometimes I'll be chatty, and other days I just can't deal with the shit.

I agree with you, Phasmal. With my clan and when it's just us, I talk all the time. I've known them for years. But, really anywhere else, the females in the group stay quiet. Not because we're told to, but because we don't want to deal with the repercussions.

I can't tell you the number of times I've talked in an open match or xbox live and been insulted in the basis of my gender. Or the threats too :/ The constant targeting by total creeps.

But, don't get me wrong. I've obviously met some really awesome 'gamer guys', because I'm still running with them in my clan. They're amazing and super kind. They're practically brothers to me. So, the good does outweigh the bad, I suppose.

 

[Ishal]

Le Snip

I totally understand why you do that but I do wish that girls would stop hiding the fact that they're playing.
I just can't help but feel that the community will be slower to lose these retarded attitudes if we're hiding behind male avatars.

To be honest, I don't really like hiding, but it's so much easier.
When playing things like WoW or Guild Wars, if I'm in a guild and it uses voice I have no problem with coming on and being myself.
But in games like DOTA2 and TF2, I won't join in on mic talk, even if my friends are.
It changes really, sometimes I'll be chatty, and other days I just can't deal with the shit.

You know, its interesting... MMO's tend to be a bit more friendly when it comes to female gamers, at least in my experience. I should clarify what I mean, MMO's have guild systems put in place where you can group with others and chat through group chat or over a VOIP. It's more conducive of an environment for playing together, and most of the of the women I've played with have been in MMO's.

Honestly I wouldn't mind playing with girl gamers.. or any gamers in certain games. I have no friends that want to play certain games like shooters or certain MMO's. Will you be playing Destiny when that comes out?

 

[Miss G.]

Most people I've met online that claimed to be female ended up being men. Similarly, I happen to personally know a number of men who pretend to be women online for the perks (IE being able to get free items in online games), and one of them even utilizes a paid voice changer to do so.

So forgive me for being skeptical. 'On the internet, men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents'.

As a girl, sometimes I pretended to be a guy on Perfect World online so there'd be less bother. Otherwise (read: every time other than that) I stay away from online multiplayer because I just don't see the appeal of playing something that DOESN'T say single player on the box. The 'hassle-enjoyment' ratio is too skewed against me to risk trying again, it's just common sense and I'm all the better for quitting while I'm ahead.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Edit to add:
http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2012.pdf

47% of gamers are women

Includes parents, includes mobile gamers, includes Facebook gamers. We went over this in the thread this was announced in. Call me sexist and insecure for dismissing the notion that half of gamers are females by accusing them of including casuals, but that's essentially what I'm doing. When someone does a study that shows about half of all gamers who play videogames on a PC or console by their own volition and in their own time are female, I'll concede the point and be happy doing it.

Agree. Mainstream games and casual games are different breeds.
I reckon only around 1 out of 6-7 core gamers is female. They're not that rare but not very common either.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

...EDIT:

Edit to add:
http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2012.pdf

47% of gamers are women

Includes parents, includes mobile gamers, includes Facebook gamers. We went over this in the thread this was announced in. Call me sexist and insecure for dismissing the notion that half of gamers are females by accusing them of including casuals, but that's essentially what I'm doing. When someone does a study that shows about half of all gamers who play videogames on a PC or console by their own volition and in their own time are female, I'll concede the point and be happy doing it.

Post this again

http://gamercrave.com/whos-playing-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-women/762/

...
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, especially on the PC. Nielsen Games, a market research group, found that in September, females accounted for 30 percent of all Modern Warfare players on the PC
...
You can see PC gaming?s strong female presence in The Sims 3′s play percentages for September, which were 65 percent female.
...
For comparison, Raczka gave me a few other breakdowns for September. Surprisingly, the gender gap in World of Warcraft is very slim in Nielsen homes, with 42 percent female players.
...

Nielsen Games provides over 180,000 participating homes across the United States with a software meter that monitors which household member logs into a computer, and what software is used, so these are actual measurements, not a survey. So fellas, if you?re settling in for a long Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer session, curtail your lewd victory taunts, eh?

So you want to concede then?

Majority? no but significant minority

Oh and Before someone tries it, dismissing the Sims as "casual" and therefore not a "real game" because it mainly appeals to women WOULD be sexist.

 

[FunnyBunny]

I doubt anybody's hiding. Ostensibly 47% of gamers are female. I guess most of them don't go online for playing videogames. I know lots of gamers that stick to their single-player and leave it at that.

Quite true. I never, repeat, never play online. Why should I, after all? Proper game is for me against software. If I want some team play, I can always go out to a club, or to play some team-sport, or to have sex. Lol.

This is not like going out to movies or staying home and watching dvd. Playing game is highly personal and I prefer to be alone, when playing. If I wanted some bonding, I'd certainly wouldn't choose some virtual pals. Even going out for drinks and flirt in real life is better than online shooter or online RPG. If I feel like slaying dozens of zombies, I do it privately. If I feel like going for a story, I watch film or play RPG. Or strategy. Or I just read a book. Lol.

 

[Chemical Alia]

The only game I frequently play online is Halo.
My spartan is female and I occasionally go on mic, usually when I'm playing with friends.
While I have received messages that are like "u a girl? Show me ur tits?" or there was one particular dude who kept sending me friend requests along with abusive messages every time I didn't respond.

More frequently, I just get a shit ton of game invites and friend requests, which I mostly ignore. Occasionally, I'll ask someone why they're adding me and they never reply.

Le Snip

I totally understand why you do that but I do wish that girls would stop hiding the fact that they're playing.
I just can't help but feel that the community will be slower to lose these retarded attitudes if we're hiding behind male avatars.

I wish the same, but I'm a bad example myself because I do it too. I don't have a lot of time for games anymore, and the only online game I'm really playing at the moment is a bit of TF2 for an hour at work every day. The game is always a lot more fun when I'm playing with my office-mate, because by talking to each other we always have a huge advantage and it's amazing. I got a new headset with a microphone that actually works, and I just can't bring myself to use it. Like, I'll even press the voice button, but I can never manage to let my voice be heard. It's not even so much that I expect actual abuse, but I feel really awkward when I'm made the center of attention. Probably the same reason I rarely if ever take out my sparkly self-made Spy items, and never bothered to learn how to use them properly v:

I think it has to do with the fact that I have so little time for games, and when I do play, I'm just here to have some fun. When Gears of War came out, I played MP for two years straight with my best friend (also a girl) and always used the microphone to talk to people. People got nasty instantly, and they were nasty constantly. We didn't really care, and just invented interesting and creative ways to troll people back, it was like a game ON TOP OF a game and that made it even more fun. But over the years things have changed, and I don't have the time or the patience for that kind of shit anymore.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

I doubt anybody's hiding. Ostensibly 47% of gamers are female. I guess most of them don't go online for playing videogames. I know lots of gamers that stick to their single-player and leave it at that.

Quite true. I never, repeat, never play online. Why should I, after all? Proper game is for me against software. If I want some team play, I can always go out to a club, or to play some team-sport, or to have sex. Lol.

This is not like going out to movies or staying home and watching dvd. Playing game is highly personal and I prefer to be alone, when playing. If I wanted some bonding, I'd certainly wouldn't choose some virtual pals. Even going out for drinks and flirt in real life is better than online shooter or online RPG. If I feel like slaying dozens of zombies, I do it privately. If I feel like going for a story, I watch film or play RPG. Or strategy. Or I just read a book. Lol.

I don't think that's necessarily a sex or gender thing, single player games are VERY popular across the board. Hell the only time I play online is Diablo with my father in law because that's something we can do together. The rest of the time I would rather curl up on the couch and play a story based RPG like dragon age or mass effect or a Ratchet and Clank game or even a single player shooter like spec ops.

 

[FunnyBunny]

I don't think that's necessarily a sex or gender thing, single player games are VERY popular across the board. Hell the only time I play online is Diablo with my father in law because that's something we can do together. The rest of the time I would rather curl up on the couch and play a story based RPG like dragon age or mass effect or a Ratchet and Clank game or even a single player shooter like spec ops.

Single player shooter is VERY satisfying. Also horrors after midnight and alone.

P.S.: single player seems to be the natural way to me. You can listen to music all day, on your own. You cannot go and play paintball every day, every week, all month. And to follow the topic, I never meet only males when buying games. So, if you want to know what gender plays, hang out at the shop and watch who is buying games (= stop quarreling what research and which % is correct).

 

[Pink Gregory]

I wonder if anyone who actually sends those 'Ur a girl? Show me ur tits?' messages has actually admitted it to other people.

 

[TehCookie]

One of the reasons girl gamers are rare is because you can't look at someone and tell if they're a gamer, you have to talk to them. Another thing is guys tend to be extremely dense and reject the notion of girl gamers, in a class where you had to bring in a magazine add I brought in PCgamer. All the guys in my group thought it was my brother's or dad's, not that I liked videogames.

As for not seeing girls online, I just play the game. I don't have a mic so you can't tell from my voice (and the few times I did use a mic my voice is fairly androgynous). In MMOs I play both genders, and it's not to hide my gender I enjoy playing both. Though I think my male character has more hints to my gender since I made the most stereotypical JRPG protag I could and named him Bishounen.

There's always the option of making girl gamers too. Give them a few games to play to get them interested. Look at how many girls play CoD because their boyfriend does. They may not make a hobby of it themselves, but I like sharing games with others. If it's not their cup of tea accept that too. I'm not fond of movies, but I enjoy the ones my friends recommend to me.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm certainly not hiding, I just don't see why it is a big deal to be a girl who plays games. I would sooner identify myself as a 'gamer' than a 'girl gamer'. Oh and 'fake gamer girls' definitely do exist, one of my friends bought a Triforce T-shirt and doesn't know that the main character is called Link and not Zelda. She has also not played any Zelda games but still says that Ocarina of Time is one of the best N64 titles if not one of the best RPGs in history.

 

[Jenvas1306]

recently I joined a warframe clan, together with a few friends and my boyfriend. since then we sometimes have been using teamspeak to play with other clan members. so far thats was quite nice, even there are some trolls and once a guy asked why my voice was so sexy. I guess he thought it was saying something akward to a guy with a feminine voice and he was pretty mute and left after I told him that im a girl.
Seems I sorta doubled the number of known girls in that clan, which is in itself a little sad.
Usually I also prefer to not make my gender known, especially if I am playing alone, when my bf is with me its a bit different.
League of legends tends to have a sexist vibe to it aswell, but the only times I made my gender known, a guy who called me a fag before (for KSing ) proposed to me or I simply wasnt believed...

showing that you are a girl can lead to ungly things and usually there is no reason to do so, like for guys there is no reason to tell that they are guys. people just have to get out of their heads that there were no girls online and that will take time. pushing would just make it harder.

 

[Jenvas1306]

I'm certainly not hiding, I just don't see why it is a big deal to be a girl who plays games. I would sooner identify myself as a 'gamer' than a 'girl gamer'. Oh and 'fake gamer girls' definitely do exist, one of my friends bought a Triforce T-shirt and doesn't know that the main character is called Link and not Zelda. She has also not played any Zelda games but still says that Ocarina of Time is one of the best N64 titles if not one of the best RPGs in history.

but does she play games? cause if she does, then she is a gamer, just one that doesnt know much about LoZ and is pretentious.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

It is kind of heartening to see other girls who doesn't use their mics online. I used to do it way back in the days when I belonged to a Call of Duty clan, but once that mic broke down (cheap $5 thing that it was) I never bothered to replace it. Partially because I no longer had the time to play CoD with a clan, but mostly because I never saw the benefit of making my voice heard in other games. I've had enough times when public players ("pubs") entered our clan TS and instantly wailed away at me and the other girl in the clan, either by being way too interested in our private lives or by trash-talking us until the channel admin booted them.

So yeah, I prefer not to use my mic and I intend to keep it that way. It is not like I care enough to win in games to put up with the bullshit that comes from revealing my gender.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm certainly not hiding, I just don't see why it is a big deal to be a girl who plays games. I would sooner identify myself as a 'gamer' than a 'girl gamer'. Oh and 'fake gamer girls' definitely do exist, one of my friends bought a Triforce T-shirt and doesn't know that the main character is called Link and not Zelda. She has also not played any Zelda games but still says that Ocarina of Time is one of the best N64 titles if not one of the best RPGs in history.

but does she play games? cause if she does, then she is a gamer, just one that doesnt know much about LoZ and is pretentious.

Nope. She doesn't have any consoles and doesn't play PC games as far as I know. Maybe she just loves triangles.

 

[Jenvas1306]

I'm certainly not hiding, I just don't see why it is a big deal to be a girl who plays games. I would sooner identify myself as a 'gamer' than a 'girl gamer'. Oh and 'fake gamer girls' definitely do exist, one of my friends bought a Triforce T-shirt and doesn't know that the main character is called Link and not Zelda. She has also not played any Zelda games but still says that Ocarina of Time is one of the best N64 titles if not one of the best RPGs in history.

but does she play games? cause if she does, then she is a gamer, just one that doesnt know much about LoZ and is pretentious.

Nope. She doesn't have any consoles and doesn't play PC games as far as I know. Maybe she just loves triangles.

sounds like a love for geometry to me then, nothing wrong with that either. its just as stupid as people who wear shirts with che guevara on it without knowing what its about. still dont like calling them fake anythings, unless they pretend to know about stuff they dont know about.

 

[Kotaro]

I know a couple of "gamer girls" and they're all very open about their hobby. One of them DMed our last Dungeons & Dragons campaign, to boot. And that's sometimes looked at as even more "boys' club" than video games.