Do you think girls are good gamers?

[Odbarc]

Girls can be good at games. But in my experience, when a girl/woman says "I'm good at ____" she is not. She merely knows HOW to play versus knows how to play competitively well.

I remember my brother playing a few games against his girlfriend with games she owned and she sucked terribly at them. The games sucked too actually.

 

[freakonaleash]

There are quite a few good girl gamers i've met...they're all just really really creepy

 

[Mr.Petey]

I'd like to turnabout the OP question into something I've wondered as of late "Are guys good gamers?"
What I'd call a good gamer is someone who is fun to play with (either on my team or the others) has a friendly approachable persona, uses a decent sense of English without too many swears in between. Only once that is cleared do I care about skill and even then I'm not too fussed. I'd rather play with someone who is average than sir pwns-a-lot nuisances.

With all that out of the way, I'd like to say that yes girls can make damn good gamers. They tend to leave ego at the door like a mature adult would do and usually come off as more accurate and precise than some guys anyway! Hell I love 'em and I've met all sorts of female characters in my lifetime gaming and even though I've a few close male friends on the PSN, I do usually prefer the company of my female compadres on co-op titles because they have this fantastic habit of sticking together

 

[theonlyblaze2]

I think girls are just as good, if not better, than men at games. I can safely sy that I have had my ass handed to me more than my fair share of times by girls.
As for online games, yeah, girls are even better at those than offline games. I prefer to have a team of girls over a team of guys in team based games, like Left 4 Dead or Team Fortress 2. They just work harder and better together.

 

[Anadinolin]

i might get a bit letchy, but then again im recently single and "wronery"

girl gamers are people i admire for the most part, a highly geeked out male environment (typically) and girls are starting to get involved

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Hmmm...
I only know my sister and she isn't that good...
So the answer would have to be no.

 

[MoosieMann]

i think gender has absolutely no effect on a gamer. as with males, it varies from person to person, not an entire gender. in fact, i played halo with my friend who has never even played xbox in her life, and once i tought her the controls, she murdered me. i think the reason guys don't like to play with girls is both because of gender stereotypes (same reason it is usually publically frowned on when girls play games),wanting to look 'cool' in front of their friends [such as kitchen jokes], as well as the fact that they are intimidated by girls. ya know, didn't talk to girls much as a kid, now their scared to do it at all so they hide it behind sexism. i'm particularly vehement about this subject, because i love video games and most people do to, so it pisses me off to no end that this sexism shit is stopping people from having fun. thank you for your time. (if you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes don't judge me! also if you read the whole thing, i thank you.)

 

[Great North]

I can not think of anything that would make females inherently worse at video games. However, as a whole, I am willing to say that they still are actually worse. Why? Because for one reason or another girls don't play games as much. And many that do, like my girlfriend for instance, aren't as "hardcore" about it. Sure, she plays some Age of Mythology and a little Resident Evil 5 co-op, but she like JustDance just as much, if not more.

I'll admit to finding it a little jarring to hear a female voice online in the past, but I've gotten over it the more it happens. I think some people just don't like playing with women because its outside their comfort zone. They may get used to playing with just a bunch of guys, and people generally don't like change.

 

[Wolfram23]

Depends on the person not the sex. This isn't sprinting or weight lifting or whatever.

 

[velcrokidneyz]

girls can be just as good or even better gamers than guys. games are gender indiscriminate, and factually yes a majority of gamers are male but it is reaching ever closer to the 50/50 mark. I dont judge on gender, i judge on ability.

 

[The Man With the Soap]

Being a girl myself I'd like to be classed as a decent gamer. I don't play COD, or mass effect or any of those kinds of games. I'm more of an RPG based player (if any of you have read my posts before you could gather I hate online play)

But do you consider girls good gamers?
Do you think they are as good as boys?
Do you mind facing a girl online?

I was online once and I was playing L4D some boy was playing with me and as soon as he saw I was a girl he left the party sent me a message saying "I don't want to play with you cause you're a girl"
In chat speak mind.

Judged on my sex, yet again.

There is absolutely no difference between guys and girls as gamers. There are girls who aren't very skilled, and there are boys who are not very skilled. But, in my opinion, skill does not determine whether or not you are a "good" gamer. "Good" gamers are people who get enjoyment out of the experience, no matter what difficulty they play on, or how big their gamer score is. If you can have a deep, meaningful conversation about games that goes beyond just the, "Dud3!!!1! i was totes pwn'n n00bz in t3am slayer last night wit my shottyz dawg!!1!"

Part of being a good gamer is respecting the preferences and play styles of other people. Regardless of whether you agree with them or not. I do consider games to be an art form, but at the same time, they are meant to be engaging and fun.

To answer your questions, I do not consider gender to be a factor at all in how "good" a gamer someone is. There are girls who are bad at games, just as there are guys. There are no "girl gamers" and "guy gamers." There are just "gamers."

We need beyond this arbitrary division of the sexes if we are truly to advance as an industry and an art form. We need to stop making games for girls and games for boys, and we need to start making games for people. A well made game will appeal to large numbers of people, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. The same holds true for literature and film.

 

[Atheist.]

It depends on the type of game. Men's brains are generally better at spacial awareness, which would be a plus in games like first person shooters. Women's brains generally more adept at language based skills, like memorizing words or responses, so they'd likely be better at remembering weaknesses or responses early in a game.

This is more of a neurological fact, but I think it should have some impact on potential in games. Though there are ways to compensate for either side of the spectrum.

 

[Defenestra]

Not only are girls good gamers, but so are redheads, mimes, arts students, left handed people, zorostarians, and a whole bunch of other categories too big to make any kind of halfway meaningful generalization about.

 

[MoosieMann]

Being a girl myself I'd like to be classed as a decent gamer. I don't play COD, or mass effect or any of those kinds of games. I'm more of an RPG based player (if any of you have read my posts before you could gather I hate online play)

But do you consider girls good gamers?
Do you think they are as good as boys?
Do you mind facing a girl online?

I was online once and I was playing L4D some boy was playing with me and as soon as he saw I was a girl he left the party sent me a message saying "I don't want to play with you cause you're a girl"
In chat speak mind.

Judged on my sex, yet again.

i think this was less of him judging you b/c of your sex and probably more of you kicking his ass, so he rage-quit using the mighty shield of anonymity and sexism to protect his masculinity that he's probably insecure already. so he quit, so he wouldn't have the 'humiliation' of being beaten by a girl. this is reinforced by the fact that he left THEN sent the message, so you wouldn't have a chance to rebuttal. so who really won here? i think you.

 

[halfeclipse]

1: Certainly.
2: If they practice, sure.
3: nope


With games like First person shooters, etc men have a starting advantage, in that its A easier for us to learn how to manipulate another object in 3d space (Hurra for gender roles old enough it actually effected our evolution!), and B guys will usually get more practice at it (Greater participation in sports at the young age, and such.) But its still a learn-able skill and if a girl bothers to get over that hurdle it ceases to be an issue. Couple other things like that, but at worst it would simply make getting to the point of being a very skilled gamer a bit harder, (and perhaps make it more likely for a a first time player to get bored and go and do something else she enjoys) rather then precluding girls from every becoming a skilled gamer. This of course ignores games where those skill sets aren't needed all that much. RPGs tend not to need your being able to quickscope some fellow half the map away after all.



As well there are things working in a girl gamers favour (Sort of). For example, a women likely to be interested in competitive games, is probably going to be of a competitive nature, and hearing "lolololol gurls can't play games lolololololol" could easily use as inspiration to get even better then the average male gamer. Its something well documented in the workplace (Female supervisors/managers/etc tend to be better, simply because they have to be that much better to get the same respect/pay/etc as their male counterparts) and it would make sense for it to apply with games as well.

 

[jesskit]

hmm i think im a pretty good gamer, i mostly play rpgs, i dont get too hardcore about anything, tho its fun in game when you make friends because your beating people (ahh mw2) not because ur a girl. best ever was a friend after dropping a semtex on someone over a building, good times

 

[MoosieMann]

Not only are girls good gamers, but so are redheads, mimes, arts students, left handed people, zorostarians, and a whole bunch of other categories too big to make any kind of halfway meaningful generalization about.

wait, mimes? what now?

 

[Rinji]

To be honest, I really don't see where the issue is.

Since when is it a requirement to have a penis to be a good gamer?

To answer the question: Yes, I believe that girls can also be good gamers.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

I've yet to meet a girl who was a good gamer.

That's just because we never met

But as for the premise of this post, I don't think it makes such a difference, I've seen both great and more casual casual gamers of both sexes (even trans ones).

Haha, hit me up then with your gamertag. I'm always down for a challenge!