Why aren't girls into gaming?

[GrimRox]

My girlfriend is a gamer, but like someone said earlier, she's more into casual games like Guitar Hero and Micro Machines on the Mega Drive!

I think a lot of females game but they keep it to themselves. There's huge opportunities for immaturity and harassment towards them from certain male gamers on online multiplayers.

 

[vulgarshudder]

Is it me is the whole 'lack of strong female characters' a load of rubbish? I hate female characters, especially those who a trying to be the 'strong independent type', in lead role or to be tagged into a romantic subplot.
Give me some eye candy any day of the week, my favourite games are the ones where the girls are kept to a mininum. Fan wank most definetly works both ways.

 

[Alexious]

I am quite a hardcore gamer. One of the games I really enjoy is team fortress 2 but sometimes I can log onto a server and make a silly mistake and my team mates will say "typical woman" or something along those lines (including words I won't repeat). Yet guys can make a mistake and no one will say anything, they may make a slight noob joke but nothing compared to what I get. So I always make sure I don't use a microphone or have a username which gives away the fact I can am girl.

 

[GenHellspawn]

So I always make sure I don't use a microphone or have a username which gives away the fact I can am girl.

You see, therein lies the problem: if you let people make jokes and feed off your ego like that, they'll never stop. Take it like the joke that it is, and don't be afraid to make fun of them too. Seriously, I thought that was common sense.

 

[WaffleGod]

I agree with GenHellspawn

I'm pretty sure that a lot of gamers don't really care who they're playing with or against.

 

[CatcherJJ]

They're a lot of girls into gaming. I think the question you mean to ask is why aren't pretty girls into gaming? And that is a question I don't have an answer to.

 

[mattaui]

My WoW guild mistress is, obviously, a woman. Several of our raid leaders are women, and some of our best raiders are, also, women. They're also all either married or otherwise taken, so it's not just a matter of women who have no social lives. In fact, the majority of them raid with their husbands, boyfriends and even their children, so we've got whole families involved.

I think the age of 'girls don't play games' is fading fast. As far as girls on XBL, I know I hate using XBL just because of the cesspool of a playerbase it has. I can't imagine what further grief I'd get if I was a woman, or how many more people I'd have to downrate and report.

 

[SHBird]

I'd wager that the FPS genre is a major contributor. Spending hours on end shooting other people, I don't know many girls who find that fun (though of course there are exceptions). Probably something about the guns being phallic symbols too or whatever.

I know a few gamer girls, and they don't actually identify themselves as being female when they play, so the reason that people think the ratio of guy/girl gamers is so off, is probably that the guys are the ones who most often join forums and stuff, actively participate in the communities that surround games, whereas girls more often just kinda... play them, I guess.

 

[742]

holy crap... wait, they can ban people from Xbox live?
why hasnt MS been sued out the ass yet?

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

We need to see more female gamers.. I won't date anything else. =P

I couldn't either.

can i just say u guys are small minded idiots and need 2 get a life, there r plenty of great girls and guys who r'nt into gaming (i shud know, my gf isn't a gamer and i'm about as big a gamer as u can imagine...). back 2 the topic, there r plenty of girl gamers, they just dont make themselves known, mainly for the stupid sexist reasons in earlier posts (like guys making comments about sex, mainly...), but ive played plenty of games online (in particular halo and dawn of war) where there hav been plety of girls who when asked make no secret of their gender.

First of all, screw you dickhead. Second of all, my life is none of your business. And third of all, every time I pursue a girl that isn't into gaming/nerdy stuff, it ends in disaster, so speak for yourself, you don't know where I've been or what I've done.

 

[Russia208]

Have you seen Playstation HOME!!!!??? it's littered with pervs and sexists, it's a great service for what it is but I think all the pervs ruin it and make girl gamers run away. seriously, i don't know whats with stupid sexists on there!!!

 

[shadow skill]

Home is just Sony opening the gates of hell in all honesty.

 

[sunami88]

Girls aren't into gaming? I think someone should tell my girlfriend.

Oh, and if you find her, tell her I miss her too. I haven't seen her since Chrono Trigger came out on the DS...

 

[MissShortosity]

So I always make sure I don't use a microphone or have a username which gives away the fact I can am girl.

You see, therein lies the problem: if you let people make jokes and feed off your ego like that, they'll never stop. Take it like the joke that it is, and don't be afraid to make fun of them too. Seriously, I thought that was common sense.

Jokes like that are quite easy to ignore, or return with a similar quip. However, when the second question i'm asked (the first being 'are you a girl') is "Can I lick your ... ?" it goes beyond a joke; it becomes indecent, distasteful and plain vulgar. I don't know a single guy who would say that to a woman face to face (especially without getting his arse kicked). Its also really hard to defend yourself or even return quips when an entire team are involved in it. Oh, and teammates surrounding me and crouching... >.>
Fortunately I take enough pleasure out of killing those who insult me to deem Halo and XBL in general worthwhile.
Common sense unfortunately usually leads to me muting half the players in certain matches.

 

[742]

well, someone DID say girls couldnt play video games, its in the bible IIRC.
also im still a bit stunned...

they can ban people from Xbox live?[/b] im sorry, but if they CAN do it why have they not done so in large numbers for all the sexist racist shit that people scream there? if i got a live account i should SO be able to sue them. i should really go do that.

 

[RyogaVee]

Easy answer... They are not marketed to.

 

[TerribleTerryTate]

Meh. I'm pretty sure I've seen this thread many, many times in the past.
I'm curious, why does it matter? Does it really matter if you're playing with female players or not? To me, regardless of gender or race, a gamer is a gamer. Someone I either shoot with or against. I matters not one bit to me, whether they have a penis or not. Whether their skin is a different colour to mine, or whether their religion is different.

To me gaming is about forgetting this bullshit. It's about escapism, and just having pure fun. Isn't there enough of this crap going around in real life to bring it into gaming?
So what if you're getting your ass handed to you by a girl. So what if the gamer is gay, or if that gamer worships a different God to you.

Out of the contacts I have online, roughly 50% of them are female. Do I treat them any different - no. Do they treat me any different - no. We regard one another as friends and gamers, I suggest you start to do them same.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Well, I run a WOW guild, a casual and 'social' one (yeah, yeah stop sniggering at the back), and a fair number of my officers are female, because it seems women tend to be able to make a decision based on fairness, not on 'I want the shiny sword' or 'he said I was gay therefore I hate him'.

I have great male officers too, all my officers I would trust to keep the guild running smoothly if I had to leave for a couple of months, but I find WOW probably has a much higher percentage of women in it than say, Conan or COD4 for obvious reasons.

Ok, obvious reasons, WOW is basically a massive shopping and dressing up simulator 'ooh if I go on this 4 hour raid I might get a funky hat!', AND there's cooking! /irony

Also I've heard a fair number of women while playing TF2, so its not that women dont enjoy shooters, just perhaps that they dont need accurately rendered skull fragments showering them from every headshot to enjoy it, they're there for the game and the teamplay

 

[Rikku4788]

ive been playing games for the past 12 years, since my dad spontaniously bought a Playstation home, at the time i had no idea what it was so i sat poking it with a stick whilst my dad explained....since that day ive been hooked.i admit to falling into the cliche of playing Animal Crossing and such but open my drawer of games and you'll find 6 final fantasy games, Resident Evil 4,Half Life 2 and Halo (amongst other)...

...guess what...im a girl...and while im happiply admiting it to a bunch of strangers on here, i fear that if i did so in the middle of the street i might get something thrown at me while people point and laugh...and wonder why im not out spending my money on shoes...because clearly alot of men think thats all we do

its not that ALL girls dont like games, were just not taken seriously when we tell people...ive been playing games since i was 8...and considering my career choice it'll take a hell of a lot to stop me from gaming...

i play games most, if not, every day and if we walk around freely admitting to that, my friends might decide to hang around with someone who doesnt spend hours staring at a screen

...as for the mentionings of shooting people...i find it almost theraputic that after a long day of lectures, i can come home and take my anger out on a fumbling farmer who's throwing a pitch fork at me