Poll: Be honest, do you actually treat girl gamers the same online? (Minor update)

[Suijen]

I rarely meet girl gamers online, and if I did, they didn't reveal any sign of their gender. The guys on the mics are usually dudes.

When I have played with girls, I haven't treated them any different. I'd probably treat them nicer, but no more so than I would treat someone younger/noobier.

I've heard that female gamers are becoming more and more prevalent. I honestly haven't noticed this trend.

 

[Kelthurin]

Anyway, back to the question... Do you treat girl gamers the same?

Do I treat them the same as what, when?

Do I treat them the same as guys, if I know they're girls? Nope. I'm usually nicer.
Do I treat them the same as everyone else when I don't know they're girls? Yes.
Do I treat them the same as everyone else who's a retard, if they're acting like one? Yes.

Your gender means bugger all to me if you're an idiot.

 

[monkey_man]

I detest every kind of noob, but I'm often more polite against girl-gamers. They tend to scream and yell less, so I'll do the same. And Other people yell at them enough I suppose.
I only yell at noobs really. Those who deserve it.

 

[Nemu]

At this point, most people don't know I'm a woman until they hear me on vent.

I've had times (especially in the past during beta tests of games), where once it was revealed that I am female, I would get inundated with snarky comments, innuendo-laced messages or just be literally followed around. (Ragnarok Online's betas were definitely good for that.) Now, I don't usually say anything unless I'm gaming with complete strangers and they're being particularly moronic and I feel the need to poke the bear a little.

Otherwise, I don't treat anyone differently beyond the "I like you" or "I don't like you" opinions that I have for my fellow gamers. If you're a guy, great! If you're a girl, great! In either case, don't stand in the damned fire.

 

[MAUSZX]

My answer in the poll was yes, because I really do, but somehow I feel more comfortable playing with girls. Let me explain myself, every Wednesday my friends (2girls 1 guy) come to my house to play multiplayer arcades like Castle Crashers, Splotion Man, Etc. so we can all play at the same time, I have to say on those games I'm the best of the 4 (probably because I have more experience) so I'm "the leader" and most of the time I explain the next strategy... anyway in RockBand the girls are way better than me, but we always have a blast, really fun and I treat them all equally.

Online experience I have to say one of the best was playing Army Of Two 40th day in the horde mode, we were 4 strange guys making a really good team and talking smoothly. One of the experience playing with a girl was on Left4Dead, she was talking and playing with a guy that probably was her friend, and it was good, the girl talk with everyone else the same as the guy, we play as a real team and we talk about life or other things, at the end she asked me where do I live. I told her that I am Mexican and live in México, so she said "OH Cool This is my first time that I play with a mexican" and I said well there is a first time for everything and she laughed and say goodbye. It was awesome, the girl or the guy never told me anything like WETBAG or any of those things, because I've met some really annoying guys, so I really appreciated playing with girls.

 

[Z3RO180]

not really botherd if the are a girl or not they till shoot me in the head..i should never have got the gold visor =(

 

[MAUSZX]

I don't treat girl gamers any different, though maybe it's because I am one myself

The second example was a long time ago; I used to play Jedi academy multiplayer, and joined a clan. They had a trial period which they used to assess your character, and when they felt you were ready they'd teleport you to remote part of the server and watch your jedi trials lol.
I needed to fight a Master, a Knight and an Adept in that order, in order to get my apprentice title and be fully accepted into the clan, it's not expected to win any of the fights, rather to see how you cope against each challenge.

So the fight with the master starts, immediately I leap in with the Strong lunge attack, an attack so slow and easily dodged barely anyone ever used it... but it worked, and killed him in one hit.
So they were surprised but let me fight the knight. This was much closer, but I managed to win again. So there I was all ready to fight the adept, having already won two rounds, when I get a tell from the master 'You have failed your training.'

Of course I was confused as to why... turns out they reckoned I'd been cheating because (in their words) 'Girls shouldn't be able to fight aswell as men, they don't have the genetics.'

That was pretty much the end of my jka experiences.

WOW!! I would be pissed if I were you. But you found it funny... so you must be a good sport. good for you

 

[rayen020]

i never treat anyone different from anyone else. Humans be they vagina or penis are still humans. I've never seen much difference, this might be carryover from my bisexuality. some are nice others are... not. sadly most of the not nice ones play online video games... dunno how that happened (oh wait, yes i do [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Internet_Fuckwad_Theory]). However girl gamers tend to just be in it to play, never seen them used sexist or racist or inflammitory comments though. still i don't usually treat people differently. they start at no opinion and either build themselves up as a good person or as a total f*ckwad, and i treat them based on that.

So to summerize, no, i don't treat girl gamers different and don't understand why anyone does.

 

[Gyrefalcon]

The fact that this thread even exists is pretty disrespectful to women in and of itself. I'm not a 'girl gamer', nor am I a 'grrl gaemr', 'gurl gamr', or any absurdly misspelled combinations of the words 'girl' and 'gamer'. I'm just a person who plays video games. Anybody who puts an asterisk next to that because I sit down to take a piss needs to grow the fuck up and remind himself that it isn't fucking 1955 anymore.

I have to disagree on your point that the thread is disrespectful. The OP attempted to step into the shoes of the other gender to see how they were treated as gamers. His experience was unpleasant and he is attempting to see if it is a common thing still. That isn't disrespectful, it is an attempt to open a dialogue and to examine social behavior. I give him some credit for that.

As for myself, when I have played online, I have not usually had many issues. Perhaps one of the disconnects that occur between the sexes in online gaming can also be traced to the same roots as that of mixed genders in the police forces. When men accept someone into their ranks they tend to joke with them in a rough manner, this can get misinterpreted by women as disrespect.

Thus, OP, that is why I suspect your "insulter" tried to friend you. They were attempting to be social and you did not appear to take offense therefore, you understood they considered it just part of the gaming experience. However, you are correct that there are women out there who would not care for it. Just follow the original, unwritten rules for interacting in public when gaming online (which effectively is a virtual town square after all). Don't use profanity. That doesn't mean you can't insult, just be more creative than the 7 words you can't say on television. I have also talked with girl gamers who would like to see the words rape and raping dropped from online gaming jocular conversation. It is a fun and shocking thing to say as long as it has never actually happened to you.

Other than that, girls are just other people and like games. When you pick up a controller, you aren't a guy or a girl, you are a gamer and as a gamer we are all the same.

 

[Jak23]

Sometimes I find myself treating female gamers different in the opposite way, ie: Giving a female LOTRO player my really good sword, because hers broke and I felt sorry for her...(I would never do that for a guy)
On the sexist-you-can't-play-because-you're-a-girl approach, I've never done that, mainly because I live with 7 sisters so I can personally vouch for 2 of them's playing skills.(the others are stupid and don't like playing games. XD)

 

[iRevanchist]

As a girl gamer, i've heard so many horror stories that I don't dare use a mic, except when I think the audience is more mature or has a decent amount of fellow females (ie, portal 2). i've played portal 2 with lots of strangers, and the dicks weren't dicks to me b/c of my gender, they were dicks because that's just who they were.

 

[Terrara]

I tend not to voice out that I am a girl when I'm playing (WoW was an exception to the rule) cause I usually get comments which you described.
BUT there is nothing sweeter then after a CoD game, when everyone calls me a noob/hack for getting the most kills, to just turn on the voice and say: "Oh c'mon you guys!"
Then I'd have to log off obviously. We girls like to create a mystery about ourselves. ;D

 

[Terrara]

I tend not to voice out that I am a girl when I'm playing (WoW was an exception to the rule) cause I usually get comments which you described.
BUT there is nothing sweeter then after a CoD game, when everyone calls me a noob/hack for getting the most kills, to just turn on the voice and say: "Oh c'mon you guys!"
Then I'd have to log off obviously. We girls like to create a mystery about ourselves. ;D

 

[Terrara]

But honestly I don't think its that much of a problem in MMORPGs as much as it is in FPS...

 

[Terrara]

Stop copying my posts

 

[scw55]

I do treat women the same as men online (that's earned me the title sexist from some women [Yes, explain that to me please]).

But, I can't help it if I'm subconsciously little bit more friendly/flirty with them just because they have a vagina and boobs. Because getting an amazing internet relationship with a girl is 1000 times more likely than a bloke. For some reason it's hard to find men who aren't queer but do swing that way. Even harder to go around everyone asking if they're gay.
Women you can assume are heterosexual.

 

[Suicida1 Midget]

I treat them like anyone else, either for target pratice, or the noob to bail out. (yes i did mean EVERYONE). But my friends/team seem typically take it a step too far. So at some point the girl in queston brings me into the trololol fest, ill troll back. I know that the back 2 da kitchen thing is not much of an insult. Try attacking their immaturity. (Keep in mind that 4/5 guys out of 5/6 are doing that but still. leave me out of it. just because they are my friends dosnt make me like them.)


This is coming from a calm guy, who dosnt send friend/troll messages. I really do treat them the same.

 

[tahrey]

Not really got with the whole headset-and-avatar gaming "thing", but as far as I'm concerned in fora / IRC / other games, a person is a person. Particularly before the rise of audio chat & cameras, anyone could front up as whatever name, race, gender they felt like. Some people I talked to and in some cases played against for months (years?) before finding out ... oh... you're actually a mid-30s woman from scotland? Or a californian middle schooler - and male - who was pretending under a mask not dissimilar to that?

Well... whatever. I've already got a handle on your personality, your play style, etc. That's just an extra bit of flavour info. Now, where were we?

The people who get all bigoted (or fawning...) are probably those who troll the more anonymous fora as well. Get ignored most of the time if occasionally amusing to either listen to or argue against/pick on... ignore-listed if not.

Facebook is the weirdest one. I wonder if we can ask the players of Farmville if they treat fellow farmers differently if they're guys? It's a somewhat more even split than seems to be the case in your typical FPS or whatever, but it is still apparently female-dominated. I don't recall giving or taking much stick whilst playing it, except when someone got a bit crazy with the begging notifications...