Poll: Are "Gamer Girls" shooting themselves in the foot?

[HijiriOni]

Or they hate it because they have a boyfriend allready and don't really like the idea of someone hitting on them constantly.

My wife actually had someone creepy enough to use her FFXI profile information to reverse lookup her through other mediums and found her number. Her FFXI profile didn't consist of anything beyond what was required to set the thing up either. THAT was beyond annoying for me, and downright scary for her.

 

[KILLERTHING]

Mostly

If your a girl and a gamer fine thats great
If your a girl and a gamer and separate yourself etc then you need a boot up the arse

 

[Mr Thin]

This is kind of like judging the promiscuity of all women by that of 'that group of girls you know who put out a lot'. You can't group them all together.

There are women who are 'Gamer Girls', there are women who prefer neutrality, there are women who prefer to be known as a man to avoid even being asked, there are women who don't care, and all sorts of others.

'Gamer Girls' aren't shooting themselves in the foot, because they want the attention. Not the creepy perverts, but the attention, sure. It's just their thing. As long as you don't assume every girl who games is a 'Gamer Girl' then their quest for equality should not be too adversely affected.

 

[Jenova65]

"A Gamer Girl" or "Girl Gamer" as I'm sure a few of you know is a female gamer who seperates themselves from the gender-neutrallity that the anonymity of the internet and online gaming offers by advertising their gender. Despite the fact that no men seem to do this (well some do but it is a dig at girl gamers [footnote]http://steamcommunity.com/groups/menwhoplaygames[/footnote])

I didn't pick my name because I was poking fun at females who advertise their genders. It's just my name.

Yet this problem can be and often is solved by just resulting to the gender neutrallity which the internet offers.

Yeah, I shouldn't mention I'm black either. I tend to hear ****** a lot more that way. This is how we should solve racism! Just don't tell anyone I'm black -.-

It's so stupid it hurts. Females campaign for equality in gaming because many of them want to be treated equally but instead alot of them go and create a "Girl's clubhouse" situation. When was the last time male gamers did that? (and not in a joking way. If you have any examples I'll take that statement back but I couldnt find any)

So I ask you this. Are "Gamer gurls" shooting themselves in the foot? By that I mean they want equality but are going about it the wrong way.

Abso-friggin-lutely not. There is no excuse for acting like a total buffoon, even if the girl is cute or you have the anonymity of the internet to protect your creepy ass. YES girls who tease guys like the above example are kinda assholes, but this should in no way be used to say , as I believe you are here, that that kind of behavior is asking for all female gamers to be treated like shit. There's teasing back to girls who act like that, but guys go wayyyy too far, wayyy too often, just because they can, even if they're not "provoked".

So no. Just no.

I think that it's a mistake to assume that there's a concerted and well coordinated campaign by The Sisterhood here.
It seems like these "Gamer gurls" you mention are just attention seekers and trying to assert themselves by playing the fairer sex card.

Can't stand girls that behave in that manner, thankfully, I've not encountered probably any female gamers who act so childishly.

Also...

Mr.Shine?

Game of Thud later? The usual place

(Great to see another Pratchett fan around here!)

I find that there is an above average number of TP fans within gaming tbh! We are many!
ETA - MisterShine speaks a lot of sense there!

 

[HigherTomorrow]

I have a few real good friends who are girls and gamers. They only ever point out their gender when someone makes fun of their higher-pitched voice, and as soon as they do, they're hit with sexist comments and disgusting banter (not saying that I don't attack them like that 24/7, but I do it jokingly ). They deal with it, and soon most people don't really care that they're girls. Most of my friends who don't know these girls allow them into our groups very easily and cleanly without even a, "get back to the kitchen."

And then there's Izzy. "Girlscanplay2" is her gamertag. Her profile reads, "OMG A GURL GAMER? NO WAI!!!!!!" and "I am a girl but i can pwn u!" Every game I play, it begins, "I may be a girl but you guys are gonna go down!" "LOL u got killd by a girl!" Needless to say, none of my friends like playing with her, and I myself can't stand the girl, IRL or in the game.

All in all, I think if girls would just stop the whole, "OMG IM A GIRL LOL! SRSLY??!!?," everything would work out fine. Not to say that us guys can be a little bit well-behaved when the fairer sex happens upon our lobby.

 

[Boba Frag]

-snip-

I think that it's a mistake to assume that there's a concerted and well coordinated campaign by The Sisterhood here.
It seems like these "Gamer gurls" you mention are just attention seekers and trying to assert themselves by playing the fairer sex card.

Can't stand girls that behave in that manner, thankfully, I've not encountered probably any female gamers who act so childishly.

Also...

Mr.Shine?

Game of Thud later? The usual place

(Great to see another Pratchett fan around here!)[/quote]
I find that there is an above average number of TP fans within gaming tbh! We are many!
ETA - MisterShine speaks a lot of sense there![/quote]

I hope there's a group!

 

[Jenova65]

-snip-

I think that it's a mistake to assume that there's a concerted and well coordinated campaign by The Sisterhood here.
It seems like these "Gamer gurls" you mention are just attention seekers and trying to assert themselves by playing the fairer sex card.

Can't stand girls that behave in that manner, thankfully, I've not encountered probably any female gamers who act so childishly.

Also...

Mr.Shine?

Game of Thud later? The usual place

(Great to see another Pratchett fan around here!)

I find that there is an above average number of TP fans within gaming tbh! We are many!
ETA - MisterShine speaks a lot of sense there![/quote]

I hope there's a group!

Don't know, you know..... Worth a look though!

 

[HigherTomorrow]

 

[Something Amyss]

Not inherently, no.

 

[VivaciousDeimos]

Have female gamers not been complaining and demanding change for years ever since they realised that gaming is full of sex craved males who will hit on them once they become aware of their gender? Yet this problem can be and often is solved by just resulting to the gender neutrallity which the internet offers. If you make a gamertag or profile called "Gravyandbiscuits" as an example no one will know or care what gender you are.

So my PSN name doesnt indicate my gender at all, but theres no disguising my voice on the mic. And why shouldn't I use a mic? Are females not entitled to the same gaming experience as males?

It's so stupid it hurts. Females campaign for equality in gaming because many of them want to be treated equally but instead alot of them go and create a "Girl's clubhouse" situation. When was the last time male gamers did that? (and not in a joking way. If you have any examples I'll take that statement back but I couldnt find any)

Ok yes some girls are like that. But what about the rest of us with the "yes I'm a girl and I play games, get over it" attitude? Not all of us are attention whores and I don't see why we should have to hide our gender. I don't think the problem lies in whether we hide our gender or not, but the reactions people have to it. If people were more mature about it, then it wouldn't be a problem.

So I ask you this. Are "Gamer gurls" shooting themselves in the foot? By that I mean they want equality but are going about it the wrong way.

I don't see why all of this is being put on girls who play games. If males can be open about their gender, why not females? It's not exactly fun when all you want to do is play and you are constantly harrased by guys asking for your number, or telling you that girls can't play games. I've personally never met any attention seeking "gamer girls" before and I assume that you're making a basic stereotype from a few experiences. Really I don't know why it even bothers or effects you so much.

Well said. Especially about the mics. I shouldn't have to hide my gender because males don't know how to respond properly. That's their problem, not mine. I don't announce the fact that I'm a girl in the hope of getting attention. The only time I make an issue of it is if someone mistakes me for a twelve-year old. Other than that I let them figure it out for themselves. Sometimes the guys are annoying about, and other times they're simply like, "cool." and we continue killing things.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I agree. We all want equality, and for guys and pervs to stop following us over xbox live and pshome. happens to me all the time when i go on. it's rare i find a guy i can actually talk too.

 

[Meemaimoh]

All girls actually dont care about guys hiting on them unless the guy is ugly, which they wont be able to tell from a voice alone in most cases. They actually want to stick out and be noticed and hit on, to raise their self esteem.

I hope you be trollin'.

I personally hate being hit on, irl, online, by people I know, by strangers. There's nothing less comfortable to me than having some guy trying to get into my pants. I know it's far from the case for every girl, but that's exactly the last kind of attention I want, and that would still be true even if I were single. There's a reason why I never had a boyfriend until I was 19, I suppose.

That's mostly why I try to stay gender neutral online, unless gender is actually part of a discussion. I spent many years playing WoW and had some horrible experiences as a result of divulging my gender... though, to be fair, people were mostly very good about it. I don't believe women should pretend to be men, but I guarantee it's easier.

 

[Asehujiko]

There's 2 kinds of women that play games.

The ones that log in with a simple "evening", start playing and occasionally say something like "Engy at flag" when relevant.

And then there are the ones that log in, put their volume output on max and scream "I'M A WOMAN YOU HAVE TO TREAT ME WITH RESPECT", sit on the spawn, yelling at everybody who asks her to lower her microphone settings and freak out and start calling people sexist when she runs out onto the 2Forts battlements as an undisguised spy and proptly gets sniped.

Thankfully, the first has been much more common in my experience.

The more somebody calls attention to their gender/race/sexual preference/religion, the worse they generally are at the game, it's like a pointbuy system where you can choose either attention or competence.

 

[deadguynotyetburied]

Considering the still wide-spread perception that the freakishly rare "real" girls on the internet are fair game for every geek who finds it easier to type than speak, I don't think you're making a valid comparison. The behavior of a man on the internet saying, "By the way, I'm a man," is not equivalent to a woman on the internet saying, "By the way, I'm a woman," because the man has not spent the better part of his internet life with people who took it for granted they were a woman, and treated them accordingly.

Now, the woman who goes into gaming sessions making an issue of her gender and asking victims what they think of girls now is engaged in a form of behavior we call taunting. And as everybody knows, that's about as gender-specific a behavior trait as breathing.

 

[Erana]

Being feminine is part of who I am. I don't go, "Oooh, I'm a girl!" outta the blue, but if I get an opportunity to use my being female on the internet, I probably will. It depends on the crowd, though.
Yesterday, for example, when I was playing TF2 on a "fun server." Everyone else on the server seemed like a neat crowd, and we'd been explaining to someone who hadn't played in over a year what had changed in the game. Then people started to catch on about how two people were being really blatant about cheating. We were all bemused and suprised that someone would bother to cheat on a fun server, and among the various theories as to why, I threw out, "Girls are turned off by cheating. *wink*" This brought on some, "No girls on the interwebz!11" comments, but all in good fun.

Still, try being a minority for once. Or have something very unusual that you have to inform others of for them to know. I mean it is kinda nice to get attention for, say, my getting my BA at 18, but I generally stick by the rule of, "Only mention it when its brought up; only discuss it after it is common knowledge when it affects your actions or comments."

 

[infinity_turtles]

I'm not really sure what to think of the topic at hand. I think I've probably run into more female gamers who are attention whores than those who just play the damn game, but I realize that's probably not what the majority of female gamers are. Still, I find it hard to be sympathetic when every third game or so I run into something like this.(Please tell me I'm just unlucky to run into this so often)

Girl: "I'm a girl, yeah I know, a girl on the internet, and I won't be taking any shit from any guys on here"
Rest of the team:
Me: "Everyone just shut the hell up and play the damn game"
Rest of the team: "What, think you'll get some for whiteknighting?"
Girl: "I can take care of myself! I don't need anyone defending me!"
Me: "Everyone includes you too. So again, everyone just shut the hell up and play the game."
Everyone else: Blah blah blah
Me: *switches team*

And of course, there's girls who mistake normal taunting as being unfairly targeted, but are otherwise fine.

 

[deadguynotyetburied]

I think I've probably run into more female gamers who are attention whores than those who just play the damn game

I suspect you've run into more female gamers you didn't know were female gamers, than attention whores of either gender.

 

[infinity_turtles]

*edit*You know your connection is bad when your doublepost is nearly ten minutes apart.
*edit2* So as not to waste a post:

I think I've probably run into more female gamers who are attention whores than those who just play the damn game

I suspect you've run into more female gamers you didn't know were female gamers, than attention whores of either gender.

I know I've run into more female gamers, but I question whether or not I've run into more female gamers who aren't attention whores than those who are. Not because I think most female gamers are attention whores, but because I've run into a disproportionate amount of attention whores.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I'm not gonna read through every single page of posts, but I do hope that you're not generalizing all girls as attention whores. There are those who just select "female" when asked for gender and play along with the rest of us. They select female avatars just because they are girls and it fits. That in and of itself is not the "gurl gamer" that you are describing. If you believe that they are, then I believe you are sadly mistaken. It's no more wrong than guys who select "male." These girls have every right to complain when they are treated unfairly. Hiding your gender won't make the jackasses on the net act better towards girls. It just means they won because girls have to hide themselves to be able to play normally.

Those who do put themselves on a podium are annoying, but I haven't seen many of them. If they separate themselves just to get free stuff, then they barely count as gamers in my opinion. Same goes for those who separate themselves just for the sake of complaining. Those girls have to be ignored. The ones I've described in the top paragraph have to be supported by us guys.


tl;dr Not all guys on the net are sexist jackasses and not all girls are attention whores. Those of us who aren't sexist jackasses have to be right beside the normal girls who just want to play the game. The "hide your gender and stop complaining" thing doesn't create equality.