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

[Phasmal]

And for people who portray all `fake girls` as stereotypically feminine and all `real` ones as not.

You are not helping.
You are making it worse.

Geeks look like all kind of things.
I'm no less geeky in a pink tank top than I am in my couch-potato trousers.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

It sucks that girls get harassed when they try to play games and all of that but honestly I don't think there's a need for anyone to go out of their way to point out their gender anyway. It doesn't enhance the experience of gaming any to know you're playing Journey with a man or a woman. So no they shouldn't have to go out of their way to hide they are a girl, but they also don't need to announce it like they are some kind of anomaly and it deserves special mention that they are a girl. Instead just be a gamer if you want to be a gamer, and let the way you play speak for itself.

Welp, first post in and anything I would want to contribute has already been said. Though isn't this the general consensus to anyone who's put actual thought into it?

Is there anyone who thinks someone should obnoxiously announce that they are female as a point of pride at the beginning of every game? I would assume the people who do it aren't the thinking types, and unless there's some movement to that effect from one of the crazy brand feminist camps I think it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that kind of behavior is unnecessary.

 

[doomed89]

I have forbidden my friends from telling my gender in any games we play, and I never use voice chat, because as far as my experience goes there are absolutely no benefits to actually "outing" my gender, and this is for several reasons:

1) abuse and harassment, mean comments and marriage proposals alike, I hate it and in most cases when my gender has become known, it has happened.

2) the assumptions, assumptions that I'm bad, the assumptions I'm someone on the team's girlfriend, the assumption that I need your gold, loot och pandering help.

3) you can never win, all my success is luck or I'm being carried by some one else, and all my failures become the failure of my entire gender.

4) "no women allowed", in some cases, this has happend to me and several female friends, you get kicked from a game or even a guild if it gets out that you are actually a woman.

this is all rather tiresome, and I play games to have fun.
Sure it is insulting to over and over be assumed to be a guy, I like being a woman, it is my gender identity, but it really isn't a fight I wanna take during the precious little time I have to have fun...

This is why gamers in general being a 40/60 split is such a big secret.

 

[Something Amyss]

So Women, don't be afraid to join the rest of us in the "Gamers" club.

That's a fairly superficial thing to say, though, especially considering a tendency of male gamers gamers to be hostile, ostracising, or even predatory.

I mean, the "big issue" for men is that they don't know women are gaming? Really? Men create an environment where a large chunk of women feel unwelcome.

It sucks that girls get harassed when they try to play games and all of that but honestly I don't think there's a need for anyone to go out of their way to point out their gender anyway. It doesn't enhance the experience of gaming any to know you're playing Journey with a man or a woman. So no they shouldn't have to go out of their way to hide they are a girl, but they also don't need to announce it like they are some kind of anomaly and it deserves special mention that they are a girl. Instead just be a gamer if you want to be a gamer, and let the way you play speak for itself.

Okay, but how do you define going out of your way to define your gender? I mean, there are girls who get gcrap for going wild and daring to use their name online. If a guy does that, nobody cares. I mean, you say "they shouldn't have to go out of their way" to hide it, but a lot of animosity comes out simply by not hiding it in their gamertags or having the nerve (THE NERVE!!!!!!) to actually use a microphone and speak in an unacceptable register.

It's common to see talk like this refer simply to "existing."

It's more trouble than it's worth. I have never had a guy fall over about me being a girl who plays games. I don't even believe that is a thing that happens, unfortunately some guy gamers do think it must be happening to me all the time so they should be even worse so I don't have it `easy`.

There are guys out there who really do seem to NEED a gamer girl for some reason. Possibly because ponies. I don't know how common this is, but they do exist. I don't get why, and I don't get how it would work out that some woman would actually find it beneficial to fake this for personal benefit, but I'm not into paranoid conspiracy theories.

And for you people who believe we just fake it because we so desperately need to be liked by gamer guys, I have a simple message for you:

God, now you've reminded me of Wei Shen singing along to that! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There's an unfortunate side to this that women are conditioned to try and appeal to men. Of course, nobody worries about "fake football girls" to my knowledge, so....

EDIT: Fake gamers, guurl gamers, casual gamers, isn't it funny how many distinctions we have to pass through to be afforded the same `status` as some guy who wanders into any game?

In the interest of fairness, "casual" is used to pull a "no true Scotsman" on men, too.

The other two, of course, are purely artificial ways of restricting girls.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

It just boggles my mind how people can justify being sexist bigoted twats. If there was ever one reason for full disclosure of identity, it would be so that people couldn't hide behind anonymity. But then that would undoubtedly create more problems than it would solve.

But as many have said, there's no reason for women to 'out' themselves, just as much as there's no reason to be blatantly male. The only benefit would be surveys or player data, so we can get more female characters and the like, because wow women exist games industry.

Captcha: Apple Pie. You're a woman aren't you Captcha? go make me some pie whilst you live in the kitchen, 'cause it's the 50's on the internet see. /sarcasm/

 

[Miyenne]

When I'm gaming I don't advertise that I'm a girl, but I don't hide it either. I don't make an issue of it and therefore no one else seems to. If someone does, I tell them to shit up or leave, and if they don't, I leave. Not worth it. But I really never come across that issue anymore, not since the early days of WoW.

As for taking about gaming in public, of course I do. It's my main hobby. My girl friends aren't into it other than some Wii games, but they respect that I spend a good amount of my time gaming. I actually don't really hang out with many guys, but I tend to get along well with my girlfriends boyfriends because of shared interests.

I don't hide, it's just the guys who want real gamer girls want some skinny pretty thing. Well, like I said, I spend most of my time gaming. Not exercising. Sorry boys.

 

[Something Amyss]

If guys are being assholes online, take comfort that you are above those twat-pickles.

It's very easy to say that when you're not actually on the minority side of the fence.

 

[doomed89]

God, now you've reminded me of Wei Shen singing along to that! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There's an unfortunate side to this that women are conditioned to try and appeal to men. Of course, nobody worries about "fake football girls" to my knowledge, so....

Fake gamer girls aren't even what they think they are they don't even game but go to real life and conventions and such but not to appeal to men to be teases, and they are really, really rare. There's probably less then 30 in the whole world. Also almost all football girls are fake football girls lol.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

There is a new multiplayer thing being developed by Lord Britsh and because its a kickstarter project it got a huge fan base already and isn't even in alpha including lots of females and it has struck me a couple of times when we have been talking about sex and relationships in the game the fact that some guys get REALLY offended at the thought that a guy might rollplay as a girl in game and have relationships with male characters while being controlled by a male human. Its like if the girl character is controlled by a guy that suddenly makes the human male gay or offends his manhood or something. It was seriously suggested that to stop this that all players be required to PROVE there sex and ONLY play as there real sex.

This baffles me because I play quite often as a female character in games, not to "trick guys", {I don't play much multiplayer at all) but just because I like rollplaying a female character. My Commander Shepard was a female and only had a relationship with Liara because that was the character who fit her personality, in Dragon Age Alister was her lover. Its your character having the relationship, not you after all.

 

[Black Heron Ink]

The truth is, ANYONE who exposes anything about themselves on the internet is going to get harassed or picked on to some extent. So pardon me if I find it difficult to sympathize.

 

[BurningWyvern90]

Just because I don't play games online doesn't mean I'm hiding or that I don't exist. It just means I don't feel the need to. And even if I did, I wouldn't bring up the fact that I'm a girl. It doesn't matter. I don't feel the need to qualify.

I think all these guys that claim that 'gamer girls' don't exist are ridiculous. Trust me, talk to me for two seconds and I'm pretty sure it'll come up. It's not like we have a 'look', so if you're basing on observation you're being silly.

 

[Miss G.]

I disagree that females have to prove themselves any more than guys to to the average person, but I think that the reaction to realizing that the person you're talking to doesn't know shit about the topic they claim to love is different between the genders, which is a shame.

Well let me know how it goes when YOU get into a gaming discussion with a bunch of guys and they act like you have to come equipped with a verifiable credentials list like you're applying for some high-brow job before you even open your mouth. Only amongst my gaming relatives and friends do I not have to bother with that kind of treatment. Fact is, if you're a guy, no problem - if you're a girl, it's almost like you have to prove yourself just to be taken seriously with people who don't know you. And even then, that's no guarantee that they'll listen so its a lost cause.

 

[Voulan]

I get a bit annoyed when people say I shouldn't mention my gender at all. I can happily say my age and where I come from, but as soon as I say I'm female I'm somehow an "attention-whore"?

I've been asked by people in games (my PSN is gender-ambiguous) simply because they want to give some context to the person they're playing with, just like wanting to know what country the person is from. The only reactions I've had so far is a mix from complete indifference to "Oh, cool!" So it seems not everyone is hostile towards the idea of a female gamer - perhaps the vocal minority ruins it for everyone, or its an expected and safe reaction. But we shouldn't encourage it by telling women to hide their gender completely just to avoid harassment - we should be harping on the harassers.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

snip

Includes parents, mobile gamers, facebook gamers etc of both genders.

And even if: They are still gamers. We are talking about a label with the only entry barrier of "plays games". Everything else is bullshit pulled out of asses to justify elitism.

Once again, I'll need a survey saying that half of mobile and Facebook gamers are men, because I suspect it's heavily weighted towards women. I have no clear statistics, by the way, but I'd like to see where you get your opinion that it's half and half.

There is a difference between casual and core gamers, and it's evidenced in the difference between casual and core games. Look at what the basic mechanics are and how much thought or adaptibility they require, look at the structure and mechanics and how they try to have the player act, look at who they market to. I'm not going to exclude anyone or think myself superior, so forget all of that elitism crap, but they are different markets as far as demographics are concerned. If the only entry barrier is "plays games", I don't think that survey applies to this topic. It's pretty clear that what is being referred to here is competitive online shooters, RTSs, RPGs, that sort of thing. 42% of the games reportedly played online most often in the survey are Puzzle, Board Game, Game Show, Trivia and Card Games. That's a massive percentage considering how much I know core gamers to play those sorts of games, even given that card games and puzzle games can attract core gamers. Furthermore, 15% are even online at all of all people surveyed, and less than half think gaming is better value for money than other leisure pursuits. Do you think this thread is talking about those people? People who would rather watch a movie and whose experience is basically Candy Crush? Are those the people being maligned and abused by some members of the male gaming community and whose existence is not yet widely recognised? Is that even a problem that is applicable to them?

snip

Post this again

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

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - females accounted for 30 percent of all Modern Warfare players on the PC
...
The Sims 3 - which were 65 percent female.
...
World of Warcraft - 42 percent female players.

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.

I'm not dismissing the Sims because of that, I'm dismissing it because the issues being addressed in this forum are largely not problems faced by players of the Sims -

-actually no wait, can I just say it's really childish of you to assert that I would dismiss a game because it appeals to women. Any dismissing I would do of a game would be incidental to whom it appeals to. I wouldn't normally make a point out of this but that's ridiculous and unnecessary.-

- but anyway, players of the Sims 3 exclusively do not have to deal with other players, don't have to 'hide' and aren't even in a position to announce their gender. As for the other two, I don't...disagree? I don't think I've said anything suggesting that females aren't a decent amount of some playerbases, although once again, the majority are male and some males pretend to be females deliberately, so highlighting your gender as a female (no not just using a mic or having girl in your name) will still draw suspicion and a random player is still more likely to be male.

 

[Chie]

Well, I'm a girl. I don't feel like my real life gamer friends care that I'm a girl, and I don't expect special treatment. At the same time, I'm always cautious online - I don't hide that I'm a girl, but I don't really mention it either unless someone asks. I really want to be known as just a gamer - who cares what gender I am? I've been playing since I got my first Ultima game on the PC. I'm always cautious online, but in my experience most gamers have been totally welcoming and accepting.

 

[Inglorious891]

snippidy snip

I don't agree with how to say it (the insults are a great way to the banhammer, by the way), but I do agree with what you say. If gaming really is this great thing for those outside the norm to be able to express themselves, then why can't we defend all of them instead of just women? If someone's being a harassing dick to someone else they should be called out for it; just because the aggressor is male and the victim is female doesn't mean that situation should get any more attention than female on male, male on male, etc. Insisting that male on female harassment is the only kind that matter, or matters the most, gives off the idea that we need to defend women just because they're women, which is wrong and stupid.

Basically, all I want is for people to defend people, and for people to be treated similarly despite gender, sexual orientation, etc.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Sticks and stones may break your bones but names should never hurt you.
If we all had this mentality then maybe things would change for the better. If you want to hide, then hide, if not, then don't. Just know that there is a vocal minority that don't deserve to call themselves "gamers" because of their damn attitudes.
But for now as a "gamer" who enjoys his hobby I will continue to not give a crap and if you are too, wether you are a female/male/cat/xenomorph, you shouldn't either.

Now to go off-topic and cheer everyone up with a cute video of a baby tiger and dog playing.
LOOK AT IT AND GO AAAAAWW DAMN IT!

Spoiler

 

[anthony87]

I can't help but be curious about the kind of games a girl plays where the playerbase is so bad that she had to hide her gender. Then again I've only ever used vent on WoW so to say that I'm unfamiliar with the voicechats of other games would be an understatement.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

I believe most games have methods in place to deal with harassment, after all that's part of there "Service". Also some of the stuff described in this thread may actually be criminal offenses

http://www.thinkuknow.org.au/kids/cyberbullying.asp

I know that Blizard have some really easy means of removing unwanted people because its 2 buttons to block and report those gold sellers and the next item down from "spam" is "harassment"

Sony and Xbox should have similar means, not sure about COD on PC though