Further Discussion: gamer girls.

[onelifecrisis]

As a guy I don't have much to say in response to the OP except that I sympathise. But reading the thread reminded me of something which is sort of on-topic...

Here in the UK there was an advert on TV recently that made just gawp and blink at the screen in disbelief. The commercial featured Girls Aloud. In case you don't know, they're a manufactured all-girl pop group whose records are bought almost exclusively by girls (not women). So these, er... ladies... are all playing a game on some hand-held thing. It was a DS, I think. Anyway you watch them all laughing and smiling at each other and going "Awwwww!" at the screen, then it shows the screen so you can see what they're smiling at. And it's a puppy. This "game" basically involves a puppy that you can feed, pet, teach tricks, and so on. Sort of like a tamagotchi I suppose but with good graphics and I bet it doesn't ever die or shit. What really blew my mind was the cutesyness of it all. A little fluffy dog with a pink hat and an ecstasy drip feed (judging by the permanent smile on its face) in a spotless pink room. Actually my imagination might have added the pink, but you get the idea. It baffles me that some girls like that stuff. Mind you, I'm equally baffled by the grizzled, muscle-bound, stubble-faced, gravel-voiced heroes that feature in most "guy" games.

 

[The Great JT]

"The hottest thing a girl can do for a guy is play video games."
-My sick little mind.

Everyone's typecasted in the video game world. Girls get the Barbie and Bratz games shoved down their throats, guys get the over-masculinated face-ripping-off blood-and-guts slavering hero games like God of War and Gears of War (noticing a pattern here?) thrown in their faces. It's a sad fact. Game developers love to assume what people of a certain age/gender/race/religious affiliation/planet want to play and market it to them. They really need to be told they're wrong and make a game everyone likes.

 

[TheEvilDuck]

"The hottest thing a girl can do for a guy is play video games."
-My sick little mind.

Everyone's typecasted in the video game world. Girls get the Barbie and Bratz games shoved down their throats, guys get the over-masculinated face-ripping-off blood-and-guts slavering hero games like God of War and Gears of War (noticing a pattern here?) thrown in their faces. It's a sad fact. Game developers love to assume what people of a certain age/gender/race/religious affiliation/planet want to play and market it to them. They really need to be told they're wrong and make a game everyone likes.

Amen. Down with typecasting!

 

[Cowabungaa]

*looks at Gears of War* Hmmmm, huge muscles, macho behavior...well if that ain't no game for girls!

 

[purplegothchick]

Ah but this is not a problem exclusive to video games. It can be applied to all types of toy. While I did have Barbies when I was a kid, I also loved to build things out of Lego with my dad. In fact, I still love Lego! The point is, toys are always geared towards gender so I just ignore stereotypes and play whatever the hell I want.

PS, I've never played any of the games in the 'Games for girls' category.

 

[Valiance]

Home for spring break and determined to get none of that ?exercise? BS, I found myself patrolling the scarcly stocked selves of my local Blockbuster. It?d been a while since my last visit and I had been cryptically warned that the setup had changed.

This was not a pleasant visit. Aside from being bombarded on all sides by Twilight displays I found that a lot of the games that I SWORE I had seen there were gone. But that wasn't the biggest issue, hooo-no....

In the center of the middle game aisle there was a shelf decked in bright pink with the label ?games for girls!? in a sickening flowery ?you-go-girl!? type font. And what was on the shelf? Wii Fit, some random veterinarian game, The Sims, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, and Cooking Mama (I wish I was kidding about this.) That was it.

Needless to say as a female gamer I was more than a little miffed. I know we?ve always gotten the short end of the stick (I remember how excited I was to find out that in Pokemon Crystal you could play as a girl and thus would no longer be forced to name my male characters ?Hannah? and pretend she was just a very butch collection of pixels) and while SSBB is still one of my favorite games to kick ass at it always upsets me when Samus emerges from her suit after a final smash ready to strike the sexiest pose possible in her more-than-skin-tight lack of suit.

So here?s my question, girls do you ever feel like I do? That we as gamers are a misunderstood minority whose skills are always in question and tastes are also misrepresented? And guys, what do you think when you see a chick with a DS in her back pocket or when you find out the dude you?ve been losing is actually a girl? Why is sexism running so rampant in the gaming world?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AePpXSvoIb0

BS games for girls. You might find this related.

I see things like that and I simply shake my head and sigh, because I know more girls who play Counterstrike than play The Sims. And I enjoyed The Sims for a long damn time. :/

I hope you realize that the people in marketing behind these games don't really play games, or know any girls who play games, but they understand that 30-year-old mom would see it like "OH MY LITTLE GIRL WILL LOVE THIS" and buy it for them.

It's terrible, but all you can do is not buy it, let it fail, and hopefully it won't exist anymore.

And I don't support or enjoy sexism in the gaming world, but it's probably because most people on Xbox Live or PSN or battle.net or GPG net or whatever are basically anonymous and have no consequences to what they say or do in a game, so if they want to say that you should be back in the kitchen, you should simply use the squelch/mute/block/ignore option.

One day, things will be different. But true tolerance is not tolerance, there should be no tolerance...people should see you as a player, a gamer, and nothing else. Your gender should not matter, your sexuality should not matter, your race should not matter...etc, etc...

And the only way that'll happen is if people start realizing that you're a human too, just like them. How do you do that? fuck if I know.

 

[out0v0rder]

i walked into my grocery store and can you believe it, they had RAZORS GEARED TOWARDS MEN!!!! What's next???? Underwear for men!????? I am livid.

Cute. But there's a difference, why can't a girl play "games designed for men." What about them makes them manly or even exclusionary (I can't believe that's a word)?

I know that I for one am not going to walk around in boxers or shaving with a giant electric razor, but why can't I play Bio-shock or Gears of War or anything that isn't the Sims or Cooking Mama???

I am really bad at explaining things because I am a male (troll), but what I think I was trying to say can be expressed with a few points.

1) Getting worked up over something like this is not advisable. There are countless products out there besides video games that have gender specific marketing. If you really are concerned, I hope you have some sort of anti-depressant available because these are just electronic toys. I have yet to hear a single female get antsy because there are pink "girly" razors on the market. What is funny is that you probably even have one yourself. (Don't tell anyone, but when my super turbo extreme shaver went dull, I managed to steal one of my sisters razors, It had a nice plush handle and made kitten sounds when touched. Way better than my razors handle that had electric-charged spikes covered with sulphuric acid.)

2) No one has locked you in a jail cell because you have played gears of bore. There are females out there that like to sleep in boxers, and even wear their boyfriends jeans and get away with it. You are absolutely free to use a 5 bladed gillete mach-17 extreme plus razor with turbo blades, It will probably even get rid of hair easier than that pink thing you are currently using.

3) Call me crazy, but males and females are indeed different from each other.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

You know what would be great?

If we could stop discussing female gamers like they're some different species. They're girls. They're gamers. Onoz. Stop making this goddamn topic.

 

[Outcast107]

I really don't mind girl gamers, they act more mature(the ones I have play with online) then guys. If their losing or winning they don't get all work up over it and start calling the other team.. losers, fags, homos, and etc. Though I do see the..hmm...what word to use...annoying stereotype they get from guy gamers. The "Girl suck at games" or
"GIRL OMG CYBER ME!" So yeah guys are jackasses, at least most are in today world.

 

[Shath]

Well im sorry i was alittle too lazy to read all of the long posts here but ill say this. I play everquest 2. And in my guild there is atleast 40-50% female gamers. And they kick ass. Doesnt matter if your a male or a female if you play enough or just have the skills your just as good as anyone else that does the same thing.