"Girl Gamer Syndrome"

[Malty Milk Whistle]

I think its an attention deficit issue. You still have guys who are "OMG! yer a girl and you are playing video games!!!!".

This is true. I run into guys on xbox live who instantly send me friend requests and start hitting on me. It's pretty ridiculous haha.

OHMAWGAWD, U A GURL?! FREND REWEST PLZ!
/irony
on a serious note, i know what you mean, on a normal map of TF2 my usual server goes completely crazy whenever someone says "ima girl so get over it <3" its pathetic. though i do know a few girl gamer's(i hate that term) who play simply because they enjoy a game, you tend to naturally get along with them like you would anyone else who plays a game you enoy.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

The worse thing is when men assume you are a 'gamer grrl' whenever you talk about games.

I had a guy yell as me because I said I like Fallout 3 and NV as much as the originals (which I played at the god damn time they were released). He made me recite the entire storyline/side quests of both games until he was satisfied I had actually played them.

That's the kind of shit we have to put up with.

I do this with everyone that I suspect of not having played the game (minus the yelling part anyway)or game that we were talking about regardless of gender. I'm not saying it excuses his behavior, but I have a buddy who only plays Madden and then one day he started talking about Skyrim and how great it was and how he had beaten it. So I grilled him because I thought he was making shit up, but he knew and had it all down at which point I apologized and he went back to kicking my ass in madden. I don't think it was so much the fact that "OMG! U R A GERL AND PLAY VIDEO GAM3ZZ!?" and more "Huh? I would never have guessed that she played games and this is a severe shock to my world view." But that's how I tend to interpret things.

It was more the fact that a friend of mine was agreeing with me and he didn't grill them in a really asinine voice.

It made me feel like it was more geared towards that fact that I was a girl rather than I was mentioning an oldish game.

Best bit was when I mentioned Arcanum and he said 'What's that'

 

[Sansha]

I've seen a fair amount of females who milk it. Some are shameless 'Yeah I'm a girl so what?', and it just irritates me.

A while ago there was some lunatic spouting nonsense on chat in TF2, so I said "Would you please just shut up, moron." and they replied with "You'd call a girl a moron? Wow." to which I replied,
"I don't care what gender you are, if you act like a moron I'm going to call you out for it. Moron, be the fuck quiet."

And every time it's revealed there's a girl on a server, it hits like a plague of stupidity in men. I hate it.

I know it sucks, but for the peace of all please keep your genders to yourselves, and if you have to please just act like a person, not a girl.

 

[hazabaza1]

You know what really irritates me? When people go around with usernames like "cutiexx93" speak on chat expecting special treatment for being a girl and then get annoyed when people go "You're a girl!"
Idiots.

 

[KarlMonster]

Well it's a two fold issue: ...

- secondly lack of girls in the gaming community plus lack of girls in the average gamers life, this makes a gamer girl is pretty much a pitcher of ice water in the middle of a desert

This is a little off topic; I don't think that the attraction is because of the video game.

Certainly, if they are isolated from the video game - and sweltering under the firey orb in that strange and vast land beyond my shuttered windows - then 'video game' is the code that identifies a common passtime. Yet, as has been suggested, it seems the game itself is not nearly as important as the audience.

And lets call this audience what it is; a bunch of boys that don't how to talk to girls [when they venture out into that strange land]. If suddenly, a female appears (as if a random blessing from God!) in their typical gaming environment, it is a wondrous thing. "Hey, I didn't have to approach her, or get her phone number, but here she is anyway! This is awesome! I'm totally going to [variously make a fool of myself]!!1!"

In this environment, they know how to act. Or rather, they think that they know how to act. They haven't been singled out and banned yet, so they can't be too ill-behaved, right? Sure they can.

Anxieties are newly fascinating to me. I know someone who is positively paralyzed by a handful of anxieties, yet seems to function normally in other areas. From this person I have learned much; especially how silly anxieties are. One strange thing is that, if you can take the subject of the anxiety out of context somehow, and re-cast it in a new context, the anxiety may vanish. Here the females that are strange and unapproachable creatures, when encountered in their native habitats, suddenly become 'normal' and easy to relate to, when encountered in xBoX liVe, WoW, or other gaming environment.

If it is true that women are intentionally seeking audiences in these environments, then I can't really fault them for doing so. It is a shrewd way to anonymously engage others in an atypically low stress setting. I won't excuse their behavior once they have 'come out,' but I do find the trend interesting.

...

Also: "For Twing-twang!"

 

[EmzOLV]

I thought I'd add my two pennies in. Being a girl, and well... playing games...

I don't understand why there is so much... bickering between girls. I mean, let's look at this realistically.

I play games and I play on Facebook. Screw it, why not? I update my status to say "just finished Portal 2, FINALLY" or of some such like. What's the harm? It happened. I finished the game. I have friends who post LOLCats pictures constantly, or photos of their babies, or you know, of their interests such as baking or a project they've finished. Why can I not post interests of mine in my status without other girls thinking "you're attention seeking deliberately to get boys, BOOO"

Reality is, why should I care what other girls even think? Frankly, do I? No. I rarely get nearly any of this hate from guys, of which all of them are mates because of games (not because I am a girl who plays games, but merely as two people who share a common interest). And luckily I do have some girl mates who play and they share a common interest and they like or comment.

There is one friend of mine who I used to struggle with, who used to constantly update her status as "can't wait to get home and play COD/MW/BF/etc, PLAY WITH ME" and so on. Now I'm not a huge FPS fan as it is (to be honest, I SUCK) but I went online to see if I could chat to her, and she's there with Kinectimals and Zumba and that's the majority of her games. Now, fair enough if you like these games, but we fell out because she hated me for posting about games, for playing games, basically for being a threat to her 'rarity'. And it took me ages to just continually be diplomatic and nice with her, despite her irratic behaviour, for her to be nice to me back. Now she likes these status, now she will comment or ask me how it's going. But it took ages. I didn't hate on her, despite finding out she was potentially 'upping her game' for nothing more than to get responses she wanted. Why should I? Now we play games together (we had a long discussion and it was a bit nice to have a heart to heart so now we coop sometimes)

At the end of the day - we all like games right? regardless of what the 'motive' may be.
Girls should just simply stop hating on each other - whether it is due to potential jealousy, threat, or just... whatever it may be. If they are advertising or promoting playing games for the wrong reasons, trust me, they always get found out. Or they give up.

Gamers, of any gender, should just stick together. Nice in theory and yes, unlikely to happen in reality, but you know... just a thought perhaps it's more effort to argue and waaaay more fun and easier to get on with it and just enjoy a common interest...

Just sayin'

[As a side note, any girl gamers wanna hit me up on xbox and enjoy some non-FPS coop or just chats, feel free to add me]

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

And every time it's revealed there's a girl on a server, it hits like a plague of stupidity in men. I hate it.

I know it sucks, but for the peace of all please keep your genders to yourselves, and if you have to please just act like a person, not a girl.

So you what? Want us to speak in a faux male voice ala monty python?

It's not exactly our fault that men go mental is it.

What exactly does that last bit mean? Women aren't people?!

 

[crazyarms33]

It was more the fact that a friend of mine was agreeing with me and he didn't grill them in a really asinine voice.

It made me feel like it was more geared towards that fact that I was a girl rather than I was mentioning an oldish game.

Best bit was when I mentioned Arcanum and he said 'What's that'

I believe in Internet speak, you "pwn3d dat n00b" . And yeah, with that context, it certainly does sound like he was going after you for being a girl and playing games(How DARE YOU!? lol). In which case I apologize for him because he clearly isn't capable of manning up to it. Hopefully it will just be an isolated incident!

 

[crazyarms33]

And every time it's revealed there's a girl on a server, it hits like a plague of stupidity in men. I hate it.

I know it sucks, but for the peace of all please keep your genders to yourselves, and if you have to please just act like a person, not a girl.

So you what? Want us to speak in a faux male voice ala monty python?

It's not exactly our fault that men go mental is it.

What exactly does that last bit mean? Women aren't people?!

You and your logic! Who even thinks critically anymore?

To be clear: I agree with you on all counts here. Guys hearing a girl on the server brings out the caveman and start trying to flirt with girls OVER THE MICS. Thank God for mute buttons. And I have literally no idea where he was going with

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I've never seen any girls on the games I play act all in your face about the fact that they're girls. Every girl I know that plays game has a more "yeah I'm a girl and I play games, what of it?" attitude rather than the "Look at me everyone I'm a girl and I play games! Give me attention!" attitude.

I've also never understood how a lot of guys go all caveman as soon as they notice there's a girl in a game. A while back I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and there was a girl in the lobby and a guy yells into his mic "get your tits out!" I mean, how exactly did he expect to see them?

My girlfriend has had a few guys hit on her on World of Warcraft and she's never understood it because they never knew what she looked like or even knew that much about her other than the fact she's a girl. But apparently that's enough for some idiots.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

And every time it's revealed there's a girl on a server, it hits like a plague of stupidity in men. I hate it.

I know it sucks, but for the peace of all please keep your genders to yourselves, and if you have to please just act like a person, not a girl.

So you what? Want us to speak in a faux male voice ala monty python?

It's not exactly our fault that men go mental is it.

What exactly does that last bit mean? Women aren't people?!

You and your logic! Who even thinks critically anymore?

To be clear: I agree with you on all counts here. Guys hearing a girl on the server brings out the caveman and start trying to flirt with girls OVER THE MICS. Thank God for mute buttons. And I have literally no idea where he was going with

It's mostly coms that cause the problem my wow guild had no idea I was a woman until I went on TS. Then the whispers started. I don't mind guys being friendly but it's when they start trying to cyber with me that I just want to tell them to piss off. Of course then you get accused of causing drama so I just put up with it and try to just say 'hehe' at everything.

Happily I don't play fps games really I don't really like them that much although LFD is cool. I can't imagine what it's like on COD and suchlike.

Mostly women just want to have fun and game.

 

[lettucethesallad]

I don't flaunt my gamer habits that much, but the moment I mention them, say while out at a bar, I get the same reaction every time: "Wow, you must be swamped with guys madly in love with you!"

...no. Just no.

 

[dogenzakaminion]

What exactly constitutes a girl gamer anyway. My gf plays Bejewled and Peggle and stuff, but nothing like Mass Effect or CoD. Is she a girl gamer? Does Microsoft Solitaire count? Minesweeper?

Anyway, yeah they think they are special snowflakes and I guess it is'nt as common as guy gamers (duh) but girls with some self respect should realize that their uniqueness comes from their heart. It's your humor, your charm and your intelligence that truly makes you special. And in the end...aren't we all special?

 

[Palademon]

I know a girl who's a bit like this, but she seems to genuinely enjoy lots of different games, but she still comes off as attention whoring a bit on facebook.

It's the pages on facebook that say "I'm a girl, and I like CoD" that annoy me, because not only are girls trying to get into it to impress guys, but they're getting an idea of what games are from the type of people that play only one. So assholes are basically training the gender I'm attracted to to also laugh at me for playing anything other than CoD.

The genuine girl gamers I meet usually fall into two annoying categories though. Either nothing but RPGs, or nothing but competitive games.

Also, I'm annoyed whenever I see a gamertag that has the word girl in it, or a female name. Because you know they're going to get attention drawn to them and they're going to pretend they hate it.

 

[StormierRoss]

What exactly constitutes a girl gamer anyway. My gf plays Bejewled and Peggle and stuff, but nothing like Mass Effect or CoD. Is she a girl gamer? Does Microsoft Solitaire count? Minesweeper?

Anyway, yeah they think they are special snowflakes and I guess it is'nt as common as guy gamers (duh) but girls with some self respect should realize that their uniqueness comes from their heart. It's your humor, your charm and your intelligence that truly makes you special. And in the end...aren't we all special?

What you can realise from that is that the "girl gamers" are only seen as such because they are on a game where they are seen as "rare" by male players too stupid to respect them for what they are, people just like guys, i.e. trying to have fun.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Also, I'm annoyed whenever I see a gamertag that has the word girl in it, or a female name. Because you know they're going to get attention drawn to them and they're going to pretend they hate it.

So we aren't allowed to use a female name just because men can't stop themselves acting like idiots?

You don't see how that is ridiculous?

I suppose we shouldn't wear short skirts because men can't control themselves either.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

"I'm a nerd! I'm a dork! I'm a geek!" Great. We get it. Show us your brains, not your glasses.

 

[Vault101]

snip

Sorry to curb your enthusiasm but we already covered that, read page three to see how this story ends.

I know, I was just pointing out how I interperted his "acusations"

all socially phobic (which I am thankfully no longer) child men living in their parents' basements which pathetically large collections of comic books

That's like a description of me but I get away with it because I'm female! Hooray!

(double standards are sometimes ftw)[/B]

snip

Sorry to curb your enthusiasm but we already covered that, read page three to see how this story ends.

That reminded me of one of those old make your own adventure books. xD

thats me too....and Im perfectly fine with mentioning the action figure collection, because as you said we can get away with it..almost

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

"I'm a nerd! I'm a dork! I'm a geek!" Great. We get it. Show us your brains, not your glasses.

Spoiler: Best picture ever

It's things like this that really make me laugh. At least she is good at the Vulcan salute...