Why aren't girls into gaming?

[mark_n_b]

Hey Knot, 1996 called, it would like its question back.

Most demographic studies are putting the female to male gamer ratio at about fifty - fifty, globally there is a 5-10% male favor (depending on who you ask) but that number gets skewed all over the place once you start looking at specific cultural populations, game genres, and systems.

Historically gaming has been male dominated because it is a branch of computer sciences which is a branch of engineering which is a male dominated and unfeminine industry. The result has been a focus on the male market. Nintendo really skewed the market in a youth / toy direction in the early eighties which made any sort of movement out of this established demographic a slow and risky venture.

This is where a lot of the immaturity of the industry stems from by the by. Which is likely why there is so much consumer difficulty with distinguishing the idea of "sexy" (Lara Croft, DOA) from sexist (Ninja Gaiden female support character X).

If the question is why you never see any girls gaming, the counter question would be how many girls do you hang out with in gaming situations and how many girls are you seriously inviting into gaming situations. If it is a question of why you never see them at LAN parties or conventions, I would suggest it is the same reason you don't see a lot of "the popular guys" there either, maybe you're not counting the girls you don't find pretty.

and if this is a "where do I find a hot gaming girl to date me?" or "How do I get my girlfriend to like Halo?" thread disguised as a general discussion, then shame on you.

 

[Mariena]

And as for those last two questions: Hot gaming girls are always taken, or single and not interested in men. You don't get your girlfriend to like Halo either. =P

 

[_Janny_]

Why aren't girls into gaming? Why don't guys like to cuddle? Life's little mysteries.

On a more serious note, I adore video games but none of my female friends like gaming, they say it's too difficult, it's a waste of time, it's too... complicated (yeah, that's what one of them told me when I said that I was playing Warcraft 3....) Makes me wonder why I hang out with these people.

Anyways, I'm guessing the rest of the half-witted girl population (sorry fellow females, but saying that a game like Warcraft is too "complicated" sounds very dumb) is too "busy" dating or getting hammered to give a damn about the great joy of gaming.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

And as for those last two questions: Hot gaming girls are always taken, or single and not interested in men. You don't get your girlfriend to like Halo either. =P

pity...pity..

Nothing we can do to change your mind?

 

[Mariena]

And as for those last two questions: Hot gaming girls are always taken, or single and not interested in men. You don't get your girlfriend to like Halo either. =P

pity...pity..

Nothing we can do to change your mind?

Eh? I'm not 'hot' nor am I single, so I'm in neither category. =P

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

And as for those last two questions: Hot gaming girls are always taken, or single and not interested in men. You don't get your girlfriend to like Halo either. =P

pity...pity..

Nothing we can do to change your mind?

Eh? I'm not 'hot' nor am I single, so I'm in neither category. =P

Godammit...another one bites the dust

 

[n01d34]

This thread reminds me of a party I was at recently. For the whole night there was a rather large cabal of sugar and spice girly girls blasting out power ballads on Singstar. None of these women would call themselves gamers but there they are playing a game having a good time. A quick look at the bookshelf revealed a massive collection of different party games, so this is clearly something these people do regularly, probably more regularly then me and my friends have lans.

My point is just because a lot of girls aren't playing the games your playing doesn't mean they're not playing games and maybe we all need to re-look at what we consider gaming to mean in this crazy DS, PopCap, Singstar world we live.

 

[Flour]

I've never really noticed that female gamers get treated different from male gamers.
The few times that someone did make some retarded comment about a girl in the server, half the server would tell that guy to shut up and then everything went back to normal.

 

[Bob_F_It]

I think this escapist article gives a good insight into why:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_165/5183-Indorktrination

 

[steeple]

i never actually (and knowingly) played with\vs a female gamer. and when it will happen i doubt i will really care about her shooting my ass of (happens all the time anyway...).
if their are any girls playing halo 2, then i havnt seen them yet.

bottom line:
girls: reveal yourself
guys: find your brain if you lost it in your ass

 

[Zenatsuken]

To Decoy Doctorpus: Regarding what you were saying about guys letting the girls take the pickups is completely true, Im playing gears 2 right now, in a horde match, and the rest of my team is across the map following the girl in the match, letting her take the ammo and kills. It makes me wonder wtf do they think there gonna get out of this?

To people saying girls are more into casual games: I know more girls who play games like Halo and Gears 2 then any casual game. Ive had female friends I know through fits over games of rock band because they didnt want to play (in one case, one girl through my friends guitar controller, smashing it).

To the girl gamers reading this: If you want to be treated like everyone else online, you have to speak up. I play frequently with a few girls on XBL and whenever some guy starts talking about how large he is, it has always come down to 2 things. 1) the girl will turn off her headset, the guy will continue acting like a retard, the girl will feel bad after the match, and the guy wont learn a damn thing. 2) the girl will tell the guy he is being an idiot, and the guy will STFU. I had a friend who was being sexist, the girl basically told him he was being a jackass and he stopped saying crap. Ever since whenever I play with him he is nice, it feels like a miracle because he was a huge asshole before that.

In conclusion, this, like all problems, has to be faced head on. Muting the person wont teach them a lesson, it will just make them stop for a second. Of course there are some people who are just a huge POS and wont ever stop.

 

[DA GOD A CRUNK]

Im sure many girls who say there not int gaming really aare. and anyway you to find out what type of games there into.

 

[steeple]

Because they are sick of being harrassed by little 15 year old pock faced twits?
I bet every female gamer has heard these phrases at least once "Wanna cyber?" and "Gimme Nudes"

thats being alittle bit paranoid.... but it happens i can say that...

 

[Zallest]

My girlfriend plays games but i think most girls weren't gamers because it was agianst the norm and most games probly didn't appeal to girls.

Because they are sick of being harrassed by little 15 year old pock faced twits?
I bet every female gamer has heard these phrases at least once "Wanna cyber?" and "Gimme Nudes"

Girls are just as bad as guys these days Selv. Most girl gamers i see are in MMO games (I mean girls that i know for fact are girls because i've talked to them) and some of them don't harrasse perse but they take advantage over most of the weaker men. I understand if you're stupid enough to bend over backwards for a girl that you don't even know you probly deserve it but I've met girl gamers that demand special treatment because of their mammaries.

No insults toward the opposite sex i am just saying some girls are just as bad as most of the guys in their own way.

 

[exocel]

statistically one of those night elfs must be a girl in real life.


surely.


...maybe.


-probably not.

 

[searanox]

A good portion of those that play games are female, but they aren't into gaming culture or anything that we would consider to be "real" or "hardcore" gaming. Although it's true that about 45 percent of gamers are female, that number includes Japan, Korea, etc. and cultures where gaming is much more mainstream; in the West, I get the impression that "gaming" includes casual Internet/cell phone/etc. games, which most of us would scoff at. Surely we don't consider playing Scrabble on the same level as playing Sonic.

I've also found that a lot of female gamers have a distinct taste for older, retro games but shun anything newer. Many of them grew up with an NES or SNES, but never made the transition to later stuff. Most guys, meanwhile, are into the latest games because of the gun and gore porn. People I didn't even know played games have been talking to me about Fallout 3, but the vast majority of them just like it because it has pretty graphics, a neat setting and lets you blow heads into little red chunks. They don't appreciate anything beyond the surface elements; it's those aesthetics that appeal to them, not the underlying systems, immersion, atmosphere, etc. Furthermore, although most fans of hardcore games seem to be male, very few of them play it on what I'd consider a hardcore level. I told someone I was on my third Fallout 3 play-through at about 160 hours, he looked at me like I was a freak, or a nutcase. It hadn't even occurred to him that there was that much gameplay in there. For him, spending the ten or fifteen hours to get to the end of the storyline was an ordeal; that there was anything else to the game seemed incomprehensible. Meanwhile, the female gamer who is an absolute pro at Bejeweled or Peggle seems to have a much greater appreciation for the game.

My point is that people seem surprised when females admit they play games, but most these days do play games - just different ones. Similarly, males play those big triple-A games, but they play them casually, the same way that female gamers play their more casually-focused Internet-based stuff. As to why there is that divide, though, I'd place the blame on upbringing. Most females are socialised in a very particular way that tends to shun direct violence and conflict, and trained to be passive rather than active. This may sound somewhat dated, and it's absolutely true that things are changing, but these trends are still very much alive.

 

[Gotham Soul]

When it comes to girls on games, guys start thinking with their dicks or their rectums, whichever one happens to be closer to the brain at the time.

Or:

Why it's harder to raid with girls...

 

[Baby Tea]

Have any female friends on Xbox live? I have a few they both mute most random people online because the bug them so much. I was playing with one of them on Uno, the children's card game, and she got hit on, and not like corny pick up lines, stuff like, "Baby lets meet up so i can f*** you, o my d*** is so big you'll love it!"

I'm going to repeat it, This was on UNO! it was pathetic. So, if I was to take a guess it would have to be for reasons pertaining to people like that guy.

That is seriously disgusting. It's a good thing the jerk didn't have a vision camera, eh? I hope you (Or she) reported his ass tons of times (You can do it more then once).

Usually I play under a "guy" tag or a Unisex tag. I only ever scrim with my Female tag on, and thats because when you are getting rolled by me I want you to know that just because I am a girl does not mean I cannot shoot just as well, if not better. It is also true that when you throw a female into the mix it screws everything up guys feel the need to act all macho and take it as personal insult when they get creamed by the opposite sex. You cannot just be a player if you happen to be female and show it.

I know a few girl gamers like this (Who game on a unisex Gamertag) because of idiots. It's a shame too, because most of the girls I have met on XBL have been good! And it always makes me smile when the girls cream the loud-mouth of the room. Most of the time they quit immediately, or even in game. It's awesome.