For my university dissertation I am looking at the experiences of female gamers. I want to know what games women play, their opinions of video games in general and their experiences of the wider gaming community. I would really appreciate hearing from any women who are interested in sharing their experiences of gaming.
Women's experiences of video games.
- Thread starter WILLCO25
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That's pretty broad - you might want to narrow it down into easy-to-answer questions.
As for me? I'm 29, female, very well employed, and have been gaming since Pong. We got an NES when I was about 6 and I've played ever since. Currently I've been playing: Skyrim, Simcity, Star Ocean (multiple games), Minecraft, Deus Ex: HR, Civ 5, Mass Effect (all), Dragon Age... um... lots more. Wide variety, but mostly RPGs and sim/strategy games.
I am a very avid gamer, putting in 10-20+ hours of gaming a week, depending on if I'm currently really involved in a game. My opinion? Though everything is a lot more accessable these days, the costs are still quite high and I do wish things were a bit cheaper.
As for experiences? I've run the gamut from being ridiculed to no end as a child for being a girl who played games (in the 80's and 90's), to playing MMOs in the early/mid 2000's and having other women hate you because you're also female, and nasty online fights because girls think you're stealing their online men and such. Men treating me to whatever I wanted because I was a girl online, to men treating me to the worst names in the book and telling me to get back into the kitchen. THe majority treat you like a normal person, though. I've also made wonderful friends online, both male and female, and have visited and talk to many still to this day.
As time has worn on my experiences ahve become a lot more positive, but tha's due to me growing up and not putting up with crap and not putting myself in bad positions just as much as the whole gaming community maturing.
As it stands now, I have no problem telling people how much I enjoy video games and rarely get critizied for it. Whether it for being a female or for being an adult with other responsibilities.
As for me? I'm 29, female, very well employed, and have been gaming since Pong. We got an NES when I was about 6 and I've played ever since. Currently I've been playing: Skyrim, Simcity, Star Ocean (multiple games), Minecraft, Deus Ex: HR, Civ 5, Mass Effect (all), Dragon Age... um... lots more. Wide variety, but mostly RPGs and sim/strategy games.
I am a very avid gamer, putting in 10-20+ hours of gaming a week, depending on if I'm currently really involved in a game. My opinion? Though everything is a lot more accessable these days, the costs are still quite high and I do wish things were a bit cheaper.
As for experiences? I've run the gamut from being ridiculed to no end as a child for being a girl who played games (in the 80's and 90's), to playing MMOs in the early/mid 2000's and having other women hate you because you're also female, and nasty online fights because girls think you're stealing their online men and such. Men treating me to whatever I wanted because I was a girl online, to men treating me to the worst names in the book and telling me to get back into the kitchen. THe majority treat you like a normal person, though. I've also made wonderful friends online, both male and female, and have visited and talk to many still to this day.
As time has worn on my experiences ahve become a lot more positive, but tha's due to me growing up and not putting up with crap and not putting myself in bad positions just as much as the whole gaming community maturing.
As it stands now, I have no problem telling people how much I enjoy video games and rarely get critizied for it. Whether it for being a female or for being an adult with other responsibilities.
I agree with IndomintableSam: you're going to want to narrow this down. Women gamers are just as diverse as male gamers, and you're going to need several very large polls and polling groups to even get close to broaching this subject. Perhaps just the relationship of women and the wider gaming community, or women in online games, or the difference between "male" oriented games and "female" oriented games and how women relate to each.WILLCO25 said:
But while I'm here, I'll try to give you a general answer. What do I play? The first game that really got me into games was Kingdom Hearts, but my gaming life goes as far back as the SEGA Genesis and GameGear. As a kid I played Sonic Spinball and Power Rangers on the GameGear (and I sucked at both since I was like seven), but it was still fun and I was able to coax enough double-A batteries out of my parents to feed my amusement (the GameGear took six at a time, it was a heavy sucker).
And I mostly remember playing Sonic the Hedgehog with my brother on the Genesis, though again I sucked since he was 3 years older than me and always played it more than me. Then I got a Gameboy Color and my first game for it was Pokemon Blue. My addiction to Pokemon has lasted to this day, I just got Pokemon White 2 two weeks ago after finally getting a 3DS and it is fun to be a kid again.
But like I said, I never got interested in games as a hobby until Kingdom Hearts. That got me into Final Fantasy, and then at age 13 I got into an MMO called Final Fantasy XI. I played that game for six years, and now I'm considering getting into its spiritual sequel Final Fantasy XIV after its relaunch. I'm still in touch with the friends I made in this game, we talk to each other in Skype.
So as you can see, most of the games I play these days are fantasy games and RPGs. I've moved to PC games as of late for the lack of money to buy a proper console, so I've played most of Valve's games, Skyrim, Civ V, Bastion, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Minecraft, and I'm an admin on a server in TF2.
I don't play any Facebook games, and I don't have a smartphone or tablet so mobile games are out of the question. I don't really go for "girly" games, but I think I might have some girly tendencies in games. In Minecraft I love designing houses and cottages and making them good places to live. Screw castles and moats, I just want a nice hobbit hole or seaside cottage. I often get wrapped up in how my character looks, and love coming up with personalities (in Skyrim I have an honest character that doesn't steal and helps everybody she comes across, and another that's a murderous ***** who kills and steals whenever it strikes her fancy, which is often). And when I got Hearthfire I stopped doing basically everything else until I had my house fully built and furnished.
Since I'm sure you're interested in it, my most "sexist" experiences I've had have been in TF2. I like to use my microphone when I can, and I have a slightly lower voice so a few times I've been accused of being a boy. I've been asked how often I wash my vagina, and I've gotten many conjugations of the kitchen joke. Though it doesn't happen terribly often, mostly when I visit a server for the first time or when somebody obnoxious comes on my server (but I have control in that situation so I can just mute or kick them). Once in FFXI I was asked if I wanted to cyber (as in have cyber sex), but that's about as far as it went there. Had no other problems from that game. Overall I'd say the experience has been good, better than I expected actually. Though I hear online PC games have much better communities than XBL (which I've never tried, for a lack of XBox).
Now I'm 21, and my main games at the moment are Pokemon White 2 and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. Whenever I get bored with those, I plan on going to Gamestop and starting to get more DS games I've missed, hopefully starting with the Professor Layton games and getting through at least one Phoenix Wright, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance/TA2, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and a Zelda game or two. And I'll probably be buying the new Pokemon game when it comes out later this year.
If you have any more specific questions feel free to send me a PM
Good luck~
This isn't 100% on topic, but I felt it was appropriate to mention it here. I actually find it pretty cool that this community has so many females who aren't afraid to express their love for their hobby. This really is one of the best communities you could come to with this survey. It may not be the friendliest place for gender-related discussions, but it doesn't lack for user base variety. I'll see if my sister wants to post in this thing considering she's likely got plenty of her own stories and such.
As for games I like my taste is all over the place Altered Beast, Fireshark, Duke Nukem 3D, Final Fantasy, Frogger, Okami, Persona, Disgaea, Katamari, Left 4 Dead, 999, No More Heroes, Devil May Cry, Catherine, Skyrim. I see videogames as a fun hobby/past time, nothing greater, nothing less.
I was raised with videogames so they're not some strange new technology I discovered, my family game night would be playing games like Duke Nukem over a lan (before Quake came out). I never really played online because my dad was paranoid of pedos on the internet so I was never allowed to talk online so I avoided the girl gamer hate on multiplayer games. I never got into them after that since socializing is one of their key aspects. The most ridicule I got were other people telling me I wasn't a hardcore gamer, and I'd just agree and say I was a casual gamer and everyone was fine with that (this was before cell phones and that whole market, I now changed it to softcore gamer). That happens to every gamer anyways, I see threads on here questioning others' status as a gamer. I guess I've been lucky to not run into any of the sexist guys.
I was raised with videogames so they're not some strange new technology I discovered, my family game night would be playing games like Duke Nukem over a lan (before Quake came out). I never really played online because my dad was paranoid of pedos on the internet so I was never allowed to talk online so I avoided the girl gamer hate on multiplayer games. I never got into them after that since socializing is one of their key aspects. The most ridicule I got were other people telling me I wasn't a hardcore gamer, and I'd just agree and say I was a casual gamer and everyone was fine with that (this was before cell phones and that whole market, I now changed it to softcore gamer). That happens to every gamer anyways, I see threads on here questioning others' status as a gamer. I guess I've been lucky to not run into any of the sexist guys.
I am also partially guilty of that. To the point in minecraft I built a huge castle and a moat and had to line the inside with wood and trees to make it feel more homey and warm inside. Or even in Skyrim sometimes I'll stop questing and just go full sim mode and spend a day hunting and gathering to make/sell things like I'm living a normal life.Lilani said:
This is great so far. What I'm getting from this is that there seems to be very little difference in what females play compared to males. Baring this in mind, what are peoples views on how women are represented in games? Have you ever felt put off from playing a game because you didn't like the way it represented women?
Damn I registered to post in a Deus Ex thread... until I noticed that it's half a year old, that is. Let it rest peacefully, now this thread gets my first post instead.
I started out as a fan of first person shooters. A guy who sold us my first PC handed me two CDs along with it: Quake and Larry 7. Eventually I played many shooters, e.g. Blood, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem, Quakes, Dooms, Half Lifes, Painkiller, Unreal, System Shock 2, Deus Ex and various other not so notable ones.
Then I accidentally bought an RPG, because I was buying all shooters in the Jedi Knights series of games and believed that Knights of the Old Republic was their next shooter. I was surprised with what it turned out to be and became an RPG fan. Some very nice games are Neverwinter Nights series, Baldur's Gate series, of course Knights of the Old Republic 1-2, Gothic games, Risen games, Fable, Jade Empire, etc. When I discovered that story-driven RPG games were considered to be dominated by male players I was really surprised, because stories and characters are typically a woman territory. That's why I play the Sims 2 from time to time, after all, for stories and characters. But I'm happy that recently RPGs are gravitating towards that (plots, friendships, romances, buying houses, bigger worlds). This is how the progress of story & character unavoidably goes, it needs more and more realism to work.
As for ever being put off from playing, sure. Two days ago I decided to play Final Fantasy X, which happened to be my very first game in that franchise. At first it was ok, but then I saw a girl with naked lower front and a thin strip of leather over her sexual organs, then she turned around and I saw that her arse was naked. The main character did not react, as it was normal, while I was gaping in sheer shock. To make the matters worse, she was supposed to be your sidekick and to keep wearing that outfit. I turned the game off and of course I'm never going back to the Final Fantasy franchise.
As for my experience in the gaming community, I'd say there are many normal people, but some male gamers act atrociously towards women. I had to conceal my gender for years in online shooters to avoid being bombarded by insults. If you want an example, consider this: "Go to your boyfriend, he will f*** you". That was a stranger, no boyfriend was present or even known to him, and he said that out of the blue for no reason at all.
I started out as a fan of first person shooters. A guy who sold us my first PC handed me two CDs along with it: Quake and Larry 7. Eventually I played many shooters, e.g. Blood, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem, Quakes, Dooms, Half Lifes, Painkiller, Unreal, System Shock 2, Deus Ex and various other not so notable ones.
Then I accidentally bought an RPG, because I was buying all shooters in the Jedi Knights series of games and believed that Knights of the Old Republic was their next shooter. I was surprised with what it turned out to be and became an RPG fan. Some very nice games are Neverwinter Nights series, Baldur's Gate series, of course Knights of the Old Republic 1-2, Gothic games, Risen games, Fable, Jade Empire, etc. When I discovered that story-driven RPG games were considered to be dominated by male players I was really surprised, because stories and characters are typically a woman territory. That's why I play the Sims 2 from time to time, after all, for stories and characters. But I'm happy that recently RPGs are gravitating towards that (plots, friendships, romances, buying houses, bigger worlds). This is how the progress of story & character unavoidably goes, it needs more and more realism to work.
Women are represented horribly in games. Firstly, we almost never get to play as female characters and I find it hard to identify with men. Secondly, in-game women are dressed like prostitutes and that always breaks the immersion for me, because I know it can't be true and it looks ridiculously out of place. Warriors can't wear iron bras, all in-game women bar none can't dress like they're selling their bodies for a living, not all women have huge breasts and constantly show their cleavage, etc. It's not as much insulting as it breaks the immersion dead in its tracks. So ludicrous that you pop out of the game to gape at it.WILLCO25 said:
As for ever being put off from playing, sure. Two days ago I decided to play Final Fantasy X, which happened to be my very first game in that franchise. At first it was ok, but then I saw a girl with naked lower front and a thin strip of leather over her sexual organs, then she turned around and I saw that her arse was naked. The main character did not react, as it was normal, while I was gaping in sheer shock. To make the matters worse, she was supposed to be your sidekick and to keep wearing that outfit. I turned the game off and of course I'm never going back to the Final Fantasy franchise.
As for my experience in the gaming community, I'd say there are many normal people, but some male gamers act atrociously towards women. I had to conceal my gender for years in online shooters to avoid being bombarded by insults. If you want an example, consider this: "Go to your boyfriend, he will f*** you". That was a stranger, no boyfriend was present or even known to him, and he said that out of the blue for no reason at all.
My fellow escapist, you have NO IDEA what true sexism even is........until now.Elel said:
Behold the Giygas of Sexism whose true form cannot be comprehended, a game so sexist that not even the critics of sexism knew that it was the worst example and let it pass without saying anything!
Behold...Metroid Other M and despair!:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13373815860B43920100&i_id=13373815860I43921400&p=1
PD: If male didnt care about stories, then how in the hell "Legacy of Kain" got so popular, i ask you? or Planescape Torment, Sacrifice, IJI, Deus Ex, Metroid Prime, Deadly Premonition, Grim Fandango, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, OFF, Fallout 1 and 2, Silent Hill 2, Turgor/The Voide/Tension, Killer7, Earthbound, Star Control 2 and Ace Attorney.
WILLCO25 said:
Okay, I laughed a little at this. Do you punderstand what I mean?IndomitableSam said:
In my experience women aren't all that different as gamers. I've got a lot of female friends who love to play the same shit I do. When hanging out with them, well I hate to say they're "just one of the guys", but I just did. They make just as good Halo or CoD partners as my male friends do. There's probably a few statistical differences in game selection, but probably nothing conclusive enough to say "women prefer this" or "men prefer that".
Well, I'm a 25-year old university student.
I own a Wii, Ps3 and Nintendo DS, lately I've played my DS the most because I can play it on a bus or during a lecture.
I've played video-games since I was 6 or so, and got my NES because my cousin had one. I loved Mario-games and also played Doom, Rage, and Duke Nukem on my friend's PC. FPS's have kinda lost me, I really loved the Metroid Prime series but ever since it feels like the shooters just aren't fun to me. I want to shoot interesting and ridiculous monsters with ridiculous weapons.
I like puzzle games, RPG's, 3rd person shooters and platformers.
I wish there was more diversity in the female characters. I generally tend to like characters that have gone through stuff and have life experiences behind them. (Wynne from Dragon Age Origins would be a good example, and even she was stuck with the same boobs rest of the female characters were)
I own a Wii, Ps3 and Nintendo DS, lately I've played my DS the most because I can play it on a bus or during a lecture.
I've played video-games since I was 6 or so, and got my NES because my cousin had one. I loved Mario-games and also played Doom, Rage, and Duke Nukem on my friend's PC. FPS's have kinda lost me, I really loved the Metroid Prime series but ever since it feels like the shooters just aren't fun to me. I want to shoot interesting and ridiculous monsters with ridiculous weapons.
I like puzzle games, RPG's, 3rd person shooters and platformers.
I wish there was more diversity in the female characters. I generally tend to like characters that have gone through stuff and have life experiences behind them. (Wynne from Dragon Age Origins would be a good example, and even she was stuck with the same boobs rest of the female characters were)
I was never put off of how games represent women since I hope people don't think videogame characters represent women. They represent a fantasy. Same with male characters. I was put off from games because I don't like the way they represent characters but it applies to male and female. I don't like how all men are steroidbeasts in Gears of War, and I dislike Team Ninja's games the same reason I dislike lesbian porn.WILLCO25 said:
I do wish there was more of a balance in the market though since almost all games are male fantasies, although defining a woman's fantasy would be like describing women's taste in men. It's all over the place.
My main interest lies with strategy games and RPGs, including RTSes, squad tactics and so on. Primary reason being that I love in-depth customization and micro-management, intellectually stimulating and I can adapt the game to my own personal style. This is something I appreciate in other genres as well, such as having .308 cal repeater rifle with a red dot sight in crysis. Or in Killzone 2/3, playing a tactitian (spawn grenades/zones) with repair as secondary skill and a high-recoil carbine in the 2nd game and an assault rifle/shotgun combo in the 3rd.
I'm personally not much for online play, but some FPSes manage to catch my interest every now and then. Having horrible APM due to being left-handed doesn't encourage me much either. But when I play some kind of group/squad-thingy I tend to lean towards support, for example in killzone 2 the main failure of teamates consists of horrible spawn points and no one repairing ammo crates/HMGs which I take upon me to do. When I tried MMOs for a short while I liked the role of the healer, I get a good look and control over what's happening and everyone appreciates my help (If they don't, I leave).
A hobby of mine is collecting hidden gems when it comes to games. Non-mainstream titles that are pretty well done and usually have their own unique flair. Valkyria chronicles, Mirrors Edge, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, Final Fantasy VIII, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Project Zero, Heroes of might and magic 4 and the list goes on.
Regarding immaturity in the industry, just add female gamers to the developers team and that will sort things out (in a similar fashion we definitely need more female porn producers). As to the community, haven't played that much online and certainly not in a serious fashion so I haven't had any problems really. IRL, I got more games than all of my guy-friends combined so... The weird thing is that I've met other girls that play video games, but no one who actually considers it a hobby.
Honestly, I've had a lot of typically masculine hobbies over the years and never been questioned because of my gender. Being a androgynous tomboy who listens to heavy metal makes it easy to fit in amongst the guys.
I'm personally not much for online play, but some FPSes manage to catch my interest every now and then. Having horrible APM due to being left-handed doesn't encourage me much either. But when I play some kind of group/squad-thingy I tend to lean towards support, for example in killzone 2 the main failure of teamates consists of horrible spawn points and no one repairing ammo crates/HMGs which I take upon me to do. When I tried MMOs for a short while I liked the role of the healer, I get a good look and control over what's happening and everyone appreciates my help (If they don't, I leave).
A hobby of mine is collecting hidden gems when it comes to games. Non-mainstream titles that are pretty well done and usually have their own unique flair. Valkyria chronicles, Mirrors Edge, Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, Final Fantasy VIII, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Project Zero, Heroes of might and magic 4 and the list goes on.
Regarding immaturity in the industry, just add female gamers to the developers team and that will sort things out (in a similar fashion we definitely need more female porn producers). As to the community, haven't played that much online and certainly not in a serious fashion so I haven't had any problems really. IRL, I got more games than all of my guy-friends combined so... The weird thing is that I've met other girls that play video games, but no one who actually considers it a hobby.
Honestly, I've had a lot of typically masculine hobbies over the years and never been questioned because of my gender. Being a androgynous tomboy who listens to heavy metal makes it easy to fit in amongst the guys.
I?m female, 21 years old. I?ve been gaming since uh...I actually don?t know I just always have? I have an older brother so most the games I played originally were his and we use to play games like Return Fire together. My parents use to game a little aswell, mostly Doom and Counter Strike. My first console was a Sega Saturn with games like Gex and In the Hunt. When I was getting my own games it was mostly RPG?s like Baldurs gate and Icewind Dale and now I play pretty much everything aside from RTS ( I suck at them but I might give them another try) and Sims. I don't play much competitive multiplayer anymore because I?m always worried I?m going to suck in front of people even though that is stupid because they don?t know who I am anyway.
The most recent games I've played are DarkSouls, DA:O, Batman: AC and Crysis.
Have I ever been put off due to portrayal of women? yes, especially with MMO's. If the female characters look...well for lack of a better way to put this like fantasy themed strippers I don't play it. I know that's a shallow reason to not play a game but I hate it. I especially hate when this gets defended as a "female power fantasy". Maybe for some girls but being stick thin, running around in underwear and high heels and twisting you spine into horrible back breaking positions does not scream "power" to me, except for maybe the power to give guys boners. If anything it has the opposite effect and makes them look weak and out of place.
Regardless I think the sexism in gamin is somewhat exaggerated, most of the issues are in media in general and its is getting better. I think if anything jumping on everything that could even be considered sexist is just going to make things worse. Also it put girls off playing games because they think these issues are bigger than they are.
As for the community, I don't interact with it outside of online enough to say much and I don't use a mic. I don't really go around talking about gaming to people other than my close friends in real life and there aren't many cons where I live nor do particularly want to go to them. I did get accused of being a "fake female gamer whore" the one time I went to Armageddon but that is just one idiot. It's not like I was getting harassed by everyone. Gender rarely comes up when playing online though I do occasionally lie if some random I haven't really talked to much asks me because I have had some creepy guys start messaging me from that before but its not hard to put them on ignore. I've had no issues on this site.
The most recent games I've played are DarkSouls, DA:O, Batman: AC and Crysis.
Have I ever been put off due to portrayal of women? yes, especially with MMO's. If the female characters look...well for lack of a better way to put this like fantasy themed strippers I don't play it. I know that's a shallow reason to not play a game but I hate it. I especially hate when this gets defended as a "female power fantasy". Maybe for some girls but being stick thin, running around in underwear and high heels and twisting you spine into horrible back breaking positions does not scream "power" to me, except for maybe the power to give guys boners. If anything it has the opposite effect and makes them look weak and out of place.
Regardless I think the sexism in gamin is somewhat exaggerated, most of the issues are in media in general and its is getting better. I think if anything jumping on everything that could even be considered sexist is just going to make things worse. Also it put girls off playing games because they think these issues are bigger than they are.
As for the community, I don't interact with it outside of online enough to say much and I don't use a mic. I don't really go around talking about gaming to people other than my close friends in real life and there aren't many cons where I live nor do particularly want to go to them. I did get accused of being a "fake female gamer whore" the one time I went to Armageddon but that is just one idiot. It's not like I was getting harassed by everyone. Gender rarely comes up when playing online though I do occasionally lie if some random I haven't really talked to much asks me because I have had some creepy guys start messaging me from that before but its not hard to put them on ignore. I've had no issues on this site.
It'd be nice to have a set list of questions to answer, I've never been good at answering vague stuff... But okay!
Since everyone else is posting: 21 - Female. =P
I mostly play Resident Evil (though I prefer the older ones), Rockband, Lord Of The Rings Online, tons of Left 4 Dead 2, and the Walking Dead game that came out a while back.
Yes, I like zombies. Probably my biggest passion, in games and in movies.
My opinion on video games in general is a solid thumbs up. It's a great way to meet new friends, and to help stay actively in touch with old ones.
Heck, I used to bond really well with my mum over Tomb Raider. from the age of around 8+, we'd all sit around the Playstation and watch her complete all the PS1 games. (She's not keen on the new ones, she doesn't like all the new controls and stuff.)
I also bonded with my older cousin very well over Resident Evil. Even though it gave me nightmares as a kid, I'd sit there for hours trying to help him solve all the fetch puzzles and kill all the zombies and assorted bosses. (We used to play Sonic the Hedgehog when I was even younger, but I don't remember much of that).
My experience of the wider gaming community is fantastic. This site is a great example of that. Every friend I talk to online these days is from this forum, even though some have left by now. =[
Then there was the Expo! Meeting loads of gamers in person and being amongst them was one of the best times of my life! Especially the cosplays.
That's all I got for now, like I said: Without set questions, I tend to miss out a lot. Someone quote me if he edits any questions in?
Since everyone else is posting: 21 - Female. =P
I mostly play Resident Evil (though I prefer the older ones), Rockband, Lord Of The Rings Online, tons of Left 4 Dead 2, and the Walking Dead game that came out a while back.
Yes, I like zombies. Probably my biggest passion, in games and in movies.
My opinion on video games in general is a solid thumbs up. It's a great way to meet new friends, and to help stay actively in touch with old ones.
Heck, I used to bond really well with my mum over Tomb Raider. from the age of around 8+, we'd all sit around the Playstation and watch her complete all the PS1 games. (She's not keen on the new ones, she doesn't like all the new controls and stuff.)
I also bonded with my older cousin very well over Resident Evil. Even though it gave me nightmares as a kid, I'd sit there for hours trying to help him solve all the fetch puzzles and kill all the zombies and assorted bosses. (We used to play Sonic the Hedgehog when I was even younger, but I don't remember much of that).
My experience of the wider gaming community is fantastic. This site is a great example of that. Every friend I talk to online these days is from this forum, even though some have left by now. =[
Then there was the Expo! Meeting loads of gamers in person and being amongst them was one of the best times of my life! Especially the cosplays.
That's all I got for now, like I said: Without set questions, I tend to miss out a lot. Someone quote me if he edits any questions in?
Hi there, I'm 21 and female. I've been gaming since I was about 4 and had a sega megadrive. My interests really do vary. At the moment I'm playing Dragon Age Awakening but later on I'm going to be on my PSP with a visual novel, Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. My taste really ranges. My favourite genre is horror, my favourite game being Silent Hill 2. I'm a huge fan of Rockstar, my favourite being L.A Noire. I love RPG's and puzzle and platforming games. Bah it's so hard to talk about all the games I love because there are too many XD I just love pretty much everything, though the only genre I'm not a big fan of is first person shooters. I just don't like them much. There are a couple of exceptions though such as FEAR and The Darkness 1 and 2. I also don't like facebook games, I don't really like games for phones either unless it's a visual novel but those are so few and far between.
I'll just go with the current list of games I'm going through and completing to give you an idea of what I play:
Clock Tower 3
Wild Arms 3
Alan Wake
Dragon Age Awakening
Fallout 3
The Darkness 2
Harvest Moon Animal Parade
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Dissidia Final Fantasy
Amnesia the Dark Decent
Mass Effect 1
Rune Factory Frontier
I do enjoy talking to others about how much I love games and gaming, I never really get critised for it at all, hell I often am talking to my best friend about what game I'm playing and how much I love it. However I have had a couple of experiences at university where other girls didn't really want to befriend me because I mentioned gaming once and that was it, they didn't want to know me XD it was weird, really weird but oh well. Their loss! My experience with the wider gaming community has been fantastic. On this website especially. I've met a lot of good people on MMO's too. Some not so great like on League of Legends XD but hey, it's league of legends! I know it's not an MMO but still. I don't really get put off at how women are represented in games. The only time I was ever put off was Final Fantasy X-2 ditsy Yuna, but that wasn't a representation of women, that was just whatever the hell that was. Otherwise, nope, I don't get put off by women, though it does make me giggle a bit at their armour or lack of.
I'll just go with the current list of games I'm going through and completing to give you an idea of what I play:
Clock Tower 3
Wild Arms 3
Alan Wake
Dragon Age Awakening
Fallout 3
The Darkness 2
Harvest Moon Animal Parade
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Dissidia Final Fantasy
Amnesia the Dark Decent
Mass Effect 1
Rune Factory Frontier
I do enjoy talking to others about how much I love games and gaming, I never really get critised for it at all, hell I often am talking to my best friend about what game I'm playing and how much I love it. However I have had a couple of experiences at university where other girls didn't really want to befriend me because I mentioned gaming once and that was it, they didn't want to know me XD it was weird, really weird but oh well. Their loss! My experience with the wider gaming community has been fantastic. On this website especially. I've met a lot of good people on MMO's too. Some not so great like on League of Legends XD but hey, it's league of legends! I know it's not an MMO but still. I don't really get put off at how women are represented in games. The only time I was ever put off was Final Fantasy X-2 ditsy Yuna, but that wasn't a representation of women, that was just whatever the hell that was. Otherwise, nope, I don't get put off by women, though it does make me giggle a bit at their armour or lack of.
Most games have passable women characters, but I find two things annoying:WILLCO25 said:
1. Lack of diversity in their portrayal. Let's check shooter or spy games or whatever. Female science chick - check. Damsel in distress - check. Occasional evil temptress - check. And of course the obligative sweet Love Interest.
Are these stereotypes sexist? I don't really think so, but they are something much worse. They. Are. Fucking. Boring. I don't care for them! They got not personality! Maybe I'm being harsh on gaming industry, since many AAAs seem to picking up their performance, but it's still getting on my nerves.
2. Rarely driving the plot. Sure, they sometimes exist to point us to the McGuffin or are some princesses that needs to be rescued. But they don't make decisions.
These things are in most cases indicators whether the plot is going to be any good or not. Most games suffer for it if you replace 50% of the population with cardboard cutouts. Some games have good enough gameplay for me not to care, but considering that I love story-driven games...
Fallout: New Vegas is my favourite example for good female characters. We got hookers and strippers, soldiers and farmers, sweethearts and cold killers. The prostitutes are just doing their job and don't exist to excite the male player, you just feel bad for them. The soldiers are just as kickass as their comrades, sometimes even more. General Olivier is female and leading NCR armies at the Battle of Hoover Dam. It's like everybody is saying "It's not a big deal. They're all people."
As conclusion, female representation is on its own not the deciding factor for me on purchasing a game. It does make for shitty story though, therefore it's more likely that I will pass on it.
I think women's favourites depend on their interests, not on gender. Pretty much all the female gamers I know play anything they can get their hands on.
I have so many favourite games it's so hard to list them all, but I basically play anything that looks fun except MOBA. My favourite genres are fighting games, squad-based shooter and RPGs. I was raised equally among my cousins who love to play games, I didn't know it was a mostly-men's hobby until just a few years back.
I have so many favourite games it's so hard to list them all, but I basically play anything that looks fun except MOBA. My favourite genres are fighting games, squad-based shooter and RPGs. I was raised equally among my cousins who love to play games, I didn't know it was a mostly-men's hobby until just a few years back.
I can see how it puts off others, but it doesn't bother me. Although I feel lately it's changing for the better, there're more female protagonists and many RPGs/shooters nowadays give players the option to play as female.WILLCO25 said:
You have Rydia for an avatar - the only ones who should be ridiculed are the ones bereft of the greatness that is Rydia.IndomitableSam said:
OT: Though I'm a guy, I'll say that just going off of online experiences, I'm guessing that women's experiences of games would be a hell of a lot better if men didn't treat gaming as a religion of sorts. This goes for both the consumer end AND the developer end of gaming.
I'm 22 and female, and grew up playing video games with my dad. I enjoyed watching my dad play Goldeneye and Perfect Dark (I especially loved Joanna Dark as a protagonist back then), but I always preferred playing less intense games like Mario 64, Zelda, and Pokemon. I personally like games with engaging stories with gameplay that is not particularly difficult, since I no longer have a whole lot of time to devote to games anymore. If I had to make a list of my favourite games, it would look something like this:
Series:
Fire Emblem
Rune Factory
Zelda
SMT Persona
Elder Scrolls
Pokemon
Ace Attorney
Portal
Professor Layton
Paper Mario
MMOs and Standalone games:
Ragnarok Online
Granado Espada
Xenoblade
Threads of Fate
Perfect Dark
Generally I like RPGs and don't have the dexterity to play many shooters. I have a PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, and 3DS as my gaming systems. My PSP is the biggest regret, it's basically been reduced to a machine that plays ports of old Final Fantasy and other Squaresoft games, as well as Persona games. I don't play social Facebook games, but I doubt many of the females on this forum do. I don't like shock horror or excessive gore, or military shooters, and I don't like feeling pressured to compete in games I'm not good at, so I avoid games like Resident Evil or Call of Duty. I don't really play online at all, except the times when I get the urge to play Ragnarok Online.
As far as character design goes, I'm very happy that Bethesda has a lot of gender neutral options in the Elder Scrolls games. I don't mind a certain level of female and male sexiness, but the sex scenes in God of War for example are incredibly silly and equal parts discomforting. Broken female anatomy is all over the place and I find it very unappealing. The MMO ads that aim for the lowest common denominator of men are particularly offensive, but they obviously don't care what women on the internet think. Generally I find most women portrayed in games are insufferable and it pains me to think of how progressive Perfect Dark was on the N64 before regressing Joanna's character to appeal to the "masses".
Series:
Fire Emblem
Rune Factory
Zelda
SMT Persona
Elder Scrolls
Pokemon
Ace Attorney
Portal
Professor Layton
Paper Mario
MMOs and Standalone games:
Ragnarok Online
Granado Espada
Xenoblade
Threads of Fate
Perfect Dark
Generally I like RPGs and don't have the dexterity to play many shooters. I have a PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, and 3DS as my gaming systems. My PSP is the biggest regret, it's basically been reduced to a machine that plays ports of old Final Fantasy and other Squaresoft games, as well as Persona games. I don't play social Facebook games, but I doubt many of the females on this forum do. I don't like shock horror or excessive gore, or military shooters, and I don't like feeling pressured to compete in games I'm not good at, so I avoid games like Resident Evil or Call of Duty. I don't really play online at all, except the times when I get the urge to play Ragnarok Online.
As far as character design goes, I'm very happy that Bethesda has a lot of gender neutral options in the Elder Scrolls games. I don't mind a certain level of female and male sexiness, but the sex scenes in God of War for example are incredibly silly and equal parts discomforting. Broken female anatomy is all over the place and I find it very unappealing. The MMO ads that aim for the lowest common denominator of men are particularly offensive, but they obviously don't care what women on the internet think. Generally I find most women portrayed in games are insufferable and it pains me to think of how progressive Perfect Dark was on the N64 before regressing Joanna's character to appeal to the "masses".