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Women in Gaming

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
1)I think people need to realize that gaming isn't just for boys. Even if you go on an Xbox and play online, I promise you at some point if people realize you are a girl they will most flip out. It's silly. People need to chill out about girls and games.

2)Which reminds me, has anyone ever gone into gamestop and sometimes they have the little cart in the middle of the floor with a sign that says "Games for girls!", and it's all games like strawberry shortcake and my little pony? xD I always laugh at that, and I've seen this at serval gamestops xD

3)something that gives girls a bad rep for playing video games is girls that don't play video games for real..
1-The problem here is that most girls seem to be casual players, plus the majority of the XBL community is "sexist" and "stereotypical" in a way that seems asinine. Girls are a rarity even in the casual community, because they don't make themselves known. Something so rare is like to be treated as a mirage (kind of like water in a desert -- if you're somewhat thirsty you likely will go "FAKE!" at the first glance of water), a joke or something of the sort. I hate to say, but girls are something of a legend in the gaming community both casual and hardcore.

2-Actually I remember seeing this along time ago! I disliked every single game they had in that little aisle, no offense! As I recall Sears has one such aisle thing. It doesn't explicitly say "games for girls", but the games in the cart easily give off that vibe. IMO a girl can play any game she likes, SSBB, Halo, CoD, Counter Strike, Zelda, PacMan, etc.

3-I can't say how much this is true. 100% of it, seems to me. Most girls I know do not play games "for real", in the sense that they get good at the game. Most girls I ever hear about do not play games for real. Or maybe, what it really is their being modest, so they just publicly show they're perceived lack of know-how but the truth of the matter si that they're crazily good!


1)How could you expect that prejudice to change if most girls don't do anything to change it?

2) I fail to see why I should change my appearance when I want to buy a shooter or RPG...
1) Something about this change. The problem here I think is that the girls that DO try to do something about it always are the ones who are a bit on the husky side, who themselves appear to be manlike. They have the voice, the big bones, things like that. So people just laugh at them instead of taking them seriously, which is a shame. Oh, and another problem believe it or not -- very often whenever a girl is playing a video game relatively seriously [not ALL girls], the first thing they do is start with these small "kiddie" insults or something of that sort. I would know, as I really only play online games these days minus of course Zelda, Star Ocean, Mario, etc. They think that because they cuss they're cool, so in this vein girl gamers are treated like kid gamers; they do not belong. If girls want to change this stupid stigma, they have to do it right. Put out not a positive image, but positive images. That isn't to say girls are inherently the problem, as the boys who are jerky and stuff are also a root, but just like kids, girls need to step up to the plate and 'adapt' so to speak. Internet Anonymity doesn't necessarily give you any reason to start being an insulting person, even if someone does it to you. Do not repay stupidity with more stupidity!

2-You don't have to change your appearance. It's just that, as time has passed, girls have been associated with the less...shooting oriented? games out there. They're usually associated with the 'kiddy' fantasy games like Zelda, the 'kiddy' alternate universe games like Mario, Kirby, things like this. So, to see a girl presenting a shooter/MMORPG like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars is just unexpected [although, a many girls from Canada have been in a guild with my dad and I in GW and we did some serious things like DoA HM, ZCoin farming, etc so there is proof that girls play MMOs. ]. You will find these results, as I said earlier because girl gamers are a rarity and are treated like a mirage due to their rarity. I think it's sort of natural for the reactions to be as they are. They're not GOOD, but natural I think they are.
 

TheRationalDove

Red Hair Wonder
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Location
New Jersey, USA
Most of my girl friends have all been fans of certain video games at some point. We'll all get together sometimes and play SSBB. What's really funny is how the most timid/girly person of them all is probably the one that creams everyone else.

I know three of my friends are working on a video game of some sort (Katherine, Pokemon, Wind Waker, and a datinng sims -esque game.) and many of us talk about it all the time. My guy friends don't seem that surprised that I like them so much.

On another note, my entire family will play Super Mario bros on the Wii for fun. In any event, I don't think people should assume video games are for boys. They are for anyone who wants to entertain themselves, regardless of gender. And I'm not afraid to be a video game lover.
 

GanonSlayr

Vermin Supreme 2012!!!
It is true, I don't see many girls playing games at all. Maybe it's because many games portray women as either damsels in distress, Badasses with the character of a piece of cardboard, or just people who sit around displaying their breasts in clothes no one would actually wear. (An exception being Alix in HL2)
 

GoldenGengle64

A v ^ A v ^
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Location
Wisconsin, United States
Kind of strange really. Being of the female gender, most of my friends are girls, and while all have played video games at some point in their life, none of them have an interest beyond occasional "casual" playing. My best guess is that they're turned away by the gaming associations that have developed over the years: hardcore, violent, gritty, nerdy, a waste of time, guys-only, antisocial, etc. At least, that's what my female friends seem to think. Whenever I discuss video games around them, I get one of two reactions: A.) remote interest as in they know what the game is or maybe played it one or two times (Zelda is the person with the fairy and green dress right?) B.) looking at me like I am from another planet. I have one female friend who has an interest in Zelda, but she is often too busy to play... she's the only one who actually plays games fairly frequently. As for the others, the most experience they've had playing a video game is Mario Kart Wii (and that's pushing it!). That's not counting cell phone apps. Where I live, most girls don't game. But overall statistics suggest that 40-50 something % of gamers are female. This could be, however, attributed to the increase in gaming on mobile devices. That's my guess. Since the popularity in video games truly picked up only 20-25 years ago, back when gaming was mostly a "guy thing", it is still too soon for this stereotype to dissolve.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2011
Location
Pacific Northwest
This doesn't surprise me, a lot of girls for the most part do not play video games and are happy to admit that. Others pretend they know everything about them, and post stupid stupid pics with controllers in their mouths (wtf?) Being a female active video game player I am somewhat ashamed of my gender.
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Actually rather interesting that you bring this up because it was actually a female gamer who got me into the Bioshock series.
 
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Location
somewhere beyond your screen
The girls i know say that they are to busy to play video games because they have a social life unlike me. I think that guys automatically asume that girls prefer to be on a computer saying what they are doing every five minutes and having a social life with 200+ friends or followers. I say no, this is the stuff that makes things like XBL and PSN a horrible place that degrades girls. n those places guys think that the girl is either a freak or that they just simpily to weak and unskilled to paly games, ergo they make fun of them to get them off games which is what causes people to view the gaming community as mainly guys.
I belive in equality for both girls and boys in the video game community and i shall make difference starting from this post. :)
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
The girls i know say that they are to busy to play video games because they have a social life unlike me. I think that guys automatically asume that girls prefer to be on a computer saying what they are doing every five minutes and having a social life with 200+ friends or followers. I say no, this is the stuff that makes things like XBL and PSN a horrible place that degrades girls. n those places guys think that the girl is either a freak or that they just simpily to weak and unskilled to paly games, ergo they make fun of them to get them off games which is what causes people to view the gaming community as mainly guys.
I belive in equality for both girls and boys in the video game community and i shall make difference starting from this post. :)

This actually reminds me of an article that was braught up some time ago where there was a tourniment for I think either Street Fighter 4 or Street Fighter X Tekken but there was actually a girl participating in the tourniment and a couple of Capcom employees were making very sexist comments about her to the point where she had enough of it and left, and she was actually doing really good from what I read, thankfully Sven said that there would be a consiquence to the actions of those employees .
 

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