I just have to admit it- I am the steriotypical female gamer. But who cares?

[Judas-]

If you don't know me, I fit the bill for the steriotypical female gamer.
I like girly outfits for my character, I always play the healer, I love the brightly colored, child-friendly sidescrollers. I like DDR. I (moderately, and excluding "Pix Plz") like to get attention for being female on the internet. I oogle over how pretty Link is (albeit platonically) and the most incriminating: I am mediocre at games. I can play Halo on Heroic well enough, but I fail epically at multiplayer, and I am cannon fodder with Legendary, to give a sense of scale.

Does this mean that I have failed those who say that girls can be good at video games? Am I being a hypocrite when defending the equality of women in video games? What does this prove? And now that we have established that some people do fit the steriotype, who really cares about it? People talk negatively about it, but I don't see any significant problem.
/rhetorical question montage

I guess the point is, is the steriotype itself really that bad, or is it the fact that it is the box people try to put on people* that is the problem?

*In retrospect, that sounds like a subtle Solid Snake refrence...

Dear Stereotypical girl gamer.

You either don't exist or you're about as attractive as my corn hole. That would make you the stereotypical girl gamer.

Note, that was not an insult, that was just an informative perspective on what the average, stereotypical guy gamers perceives the stereotypical girl gamer as.

 

[blunted]

I swear I saw this same topic worded exactly the same way last year. :/

There's nothing special about girls who play games. I'm a guy and I cook. woo-hoo.

 

[halodude155]

Meh I absolutely hate the whole 'healer girl' bit. I have yet to see a male healer in any of the big game series. Anyone want to give me some examples?

There is the Medic from TF2

I'm male but the thing I hate, HATE when the person comes into the room with a high voice and the other people ask "Are you a chick or a kid" and when they reply, "chick" I think, "Yah, a girl that plays video games, so what." The follow up question is always "Are you hot?" GOD DAMN, it's not like you are actually ever going to meet this person, or even crawl out of your cave, otherwise known as your mother's basement to, god forsake, actually meet girls in real life!

 

[Skalman]

I have yet to see, encounter or meet a single female human being who plays any form of computer or pc games.

But then again, I don't know any girls. (relatives not included)

Yeah, someone please pity me?

EDIT:

[snip]

I hate, HATE when the person comes into the room with a high voice and the other people ask "Are you a chick or a kid" and when they reply, "chick" I think, "Yah, a girl that plays video games, so what." The follow up question is always "Are you hot?" GOD DAMN, it's not like you are actually ever going to meet this person, or even crawl out of your cave, otherwise known as your mother's basement to, god forsake, actually meet girls in real life!

Yeah, but you gotta remember, people think they're important ya know.

 

[Arrers]

Is there really even a girl gamer stereotype these days? most of the female gamers I know have fairly differing tastes, although a good few of them like JRPGs.

 

[CertifiedWaffle]

I'm basically the same way (except I can't play Halo on Heroic), I don't think it's the steriotypical girl gamer, because the other girls that do play video games love games such as Sims, or other cutesy games.

 

[Madrak the Red]

I thought it was no girls alowed(sp, I know. Must check) on internets. Seriously, I usulally take everyone to be male. I didn't relise quite the number. HEllo, you all. I must run from the cooties of course, but hello nontheless.

Back to the no tangential argument. In every D&D game, the cleric is alwaysa chubby bloke in plate armour. And incompetent, due to complete lack of skill points. The point I'm trying to make are that healers in D&D are always guys. All the girls I've played with have been fighters or such. Currently, we have a female dwarf, compltete with beard, as our warrior. Though she does keep buting jewelery for her beard...

anywho, who can define a 'stereotypical' girl gamer. The point that there is a much lesser number of them is going to make them more varied and sterotypes not very stereotypical. I came across about two whilst playing Halo 3, but none playing other games. They don't exist in COD4, it would seem, wheras the 13-year old kid who persists in using '******' and 'jew' as insults, are indeed most prevalent. And only 1 out of 2 of those aforementioned girl gamers wore pink armour. The other kicked my buttocks. So I guess 50% of girl gamers are stereotypical. Though she wasn't bad at playing either...
but anyway, I love customising outfits and so, and often play as thefemale characters beacuse they have cooler outfits, AND NO OTHER REASON! Okay, maybe some, but that is a key factor. I also like the sims (though I don't own it) and have a large collection of soft toys. That said, I do rather think, why play DDR when you can play GUITAR HERO?

so, a strange mix of arguments that don't really lead anywhere here. Oh well, thank you for your time, come back when it doesn't hurt to lift my arms (damn excercise).

 

[Stryc9]

I always thought the 'stereotypical female gamer' was a myth, that any girls\women who played video games did so only begrudgingly only to make their men happy. Together my friend and I turned his wife into something of a gamer in that she'll play certain games with us like Red Alert 2, well that's about all these days actually, she's come to the conclusion that she's just not good a FPS games. On the other hand there are also games that she gets for herself to play, like The Sims and Spore and she's a bit of an RPG player, she got Oblivion and Morrowind to play through for herself. As a result of our prodding we've turned her into more of a gamer than she was before.

 

[Church256]

This sterotypical gamer doesn't exsist.

Or exsists in another form. Could be the games I'm playing but every girl I come across is psycotic and blood thristy. Except a small few who are nice. Talking to a friend on msn now and she's a homicidal maniac at games and plays anything violent.

Oh. And half of the girls I've met can kick my ass from here to every planet in the solar system every second on most games.

 

[Same River New Water]

I think there are a lot more girls playing online multiplayer games than you'd think from listening to the mic chatter, because it's daunting enough picking up a mic even for a guy, when you know nobody is going to start yelling stupid shit, asking you questions and teasing you just because of how your voice sounds.

In general, I think the girl gamer stereotype has some truth, but it's never the whole story. My girlfriend loves Viva Pinata, but she's always swearing at the TV when she plays it; she likes Bejewelled-type games but is ultra-competitive at them; when she plays Halo, she gets emotional when she's frustrated, but when she's in a good mood she's a death machine.

On the other hand, I know two girls who literally cannot drive around even the easiest track on Mario Kart. I don't mean they can't win races, I mean they can't make it around the track without repeatedly getting stuck driving directly into a wall for minutes at a time. I'm not one to bag anybody for their skill level, but I think there is something physically wrong with their brains.

Final thought: has anyone else ever met girls who say, flat out, "I don't play games", no matter what the game is? Or guys, for that matter? I've heard this a few times from girlfriends of friends, even when the game was something like Guitar Hero. Do you think that's weird?

I fit all of OP's description too, despite being a guy. (I have had too many guys approached me online thinking I'm not a member of their gender. Even when there's voice chat!)

Your avatar icon is a pink picture of a flower. Are you a very feminine man?

 

[Zer_]

Girl gamers of any kind get a thumbs up from me really. Except for the attention whores, they can go die in a fire.

 

[olicon]

I fit all of OP's description too, despite being a guy. (I have had too many guys approached me online thinking I'm not a member of their gender. Even when there's voice chat!)

Your avatar icon is a pink picture of a flower. Are you a very feminine man?

Apparently I am a very feminine person, according to people I have met online. On other boards though, my avatars are usually the laughing man (from Ghost in the Shell series) or assorted random game characters. Strangely enough, I have never been mistaken for being a girl on this site yet (even though it is the only one where my avatar is a pink flower).
Most people say it's just the kind of things I say--that I sound too sensitive and thorough to be a guy. I don't know how that comes about. Maybe it's just the fact that I capitalize my sentences. It can be a rare quality online, haha.

 

[Pots]

My girlfriend has tried playing Halo3 and Gears of War2 once each. Only thing she was able to do was run around in a circle while looking all the way into the sky or down at her feet.

 

[Eiseman]

Well Erana, you asked, "But who cares?" Apparently the answer is... all the users who posted in this thread. Minus one.

 

[Judas-]

Dear Stereotypical girl gamer.

You either don't exist or you're about as attractive as my corn hole. That would make you the stereotypical girl gamer.

Note, that was not an insult, that was just an informative perspective on what the average, stereotypical guy gamers perceives the stereotypical girl gamer as.

Well, that was needlessly rude. I've known a few girl gamers, not many but a few. And only one has fit this pessimistic stereotype. I'd say you should get to know a person before you drop baseless assumptions about them.

Yes, obviously, I wasn't being rude. A stereotype is as such because it's a popular conception, whether it's right or wrong, polite or rude. I's just correcting her according to that presumption, didn't intend it seriously, a fact I stated out loud, but okay, who gives a fuck, right?

 

[Jodah]

Girls that don't want special treatment (getting extra attention is fine but expecting extra bonuses in games IE getting first choice on items) are cool. I don't really care how well you play, I just don't like ones that think they should get special treatment because they have different body parts. You get that in real life! Keep it out of the games! (Hopefully my girlfriend doesn't see this or I am toast!)

 

[Mariena]

Girls that don't want special treatment (getting extra attention is fine but expecting extra bonuses in games IE getting first choice on items) are cool. I don't really care how well you play, I just don't like ones that think they should get special treatment because they have different body parts. You get that in real life! Keep it out of the games! (Hopefully my girlfriend doesn't see this or I am toast!)

So they're cool for not wanting special treatment, but they get it from you anyway because they're cool for ... eep... Blonde overload. Can't handle thought process.

I like the Sims, and I cannot wait for the Sims 3. I have also played a good amount of MMORPGs. However, I also like a good virtual gory bloodbath , and some really serious strategy games (the one where you play with military/NATO symbols on a map. No animations and fancy stuff. Real supply lines....... etc.).

What stereotype am I?

 

[Cliff_m85]

If you don't know me, I fit the bill for the steriotypical female gamer.
I like girly outfits for my character, I always play the healer, I love the brightly colored, child-friendly sidescrollers. I like DDR. I (moderately, and excluding "Pix Plz") like to get attention for being female on the internet. I oogle over how pretty Link is (albeit platonically) and the most incriminating: I am mediocre at games. I can play Halo on Heroic well enough, but I fail epically at multiplayer, and I am cannon fodder with Legendary, to give a sense of scale.

Does this mean that I have failed those who say that girls can be good at video games? Am I being a hypocrite when defending the equality of women in video games? What does this prove? And now that we have established that some people do fit the steriotype, who really cares about it? People talk negatively about it, but I don't see any significant problem.
/rhetorical question montage

I guess the point is, is the steriotype itself really that bad, or is it the fact that it is the box people try to put on people* that is the problem?

*In retrospect, that sounds like a subtle Solid Snake refrence...

As long as you're having fun playing, how exactly can you not be good at gaming?

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Personally I think the biggest aspect of the "girl gamer" stereotype is that she always likes to call attention to herself and her ability to play games while having tits.

So, yes, you certainly do fit the stereotype.