The annoyances of being a girl gamer

It's common knowledge that the gaming industry and all things game related is a mans world. But GirlGamers have written about how being a girl gamer can sometimes cause problems when playing online.

"I started to find it more and more amusing when people started asking me to be their girlfriend, asking me to meet up with them to go to the cinema and I also got tired of people trying to hump my Spartan on Halo 2! I sometimes played games without saying a word so nobody would know I was female and it's amazing how much my death rate would decrease so nobody could shout "I killed the girl! I'm going to teabag her body!""

[anh_duong]

annoyances of a girlgamer?? not enough cooking games out there? j/k

[Girl Gamer]

Too many cooking games more like :|. That's a whole different article about cooking games and nintendo lol :P.

[ionize]

Doesn't the pink controller come with Gears 2?

[Panthers]

My clan leader since 2005 on Socom is a girl. Shes been a great clan leader and has a large group with her. They make sure she doesnt get harrassed or they get Team KIlled and voted out. Still, it seems Socomers have more respect and maturity than Haloers. I have played both and people on Halo are typically rude, middle school douches.

But with all online games you are going to have retards that like to say things they would never say to your face, including hitting on chicks.

[Gina-get-u]

Fuuuuunny, very funny. Your username ends in dong. Very appropriate.

[Prototype]

:O Gamer chicks exist?!

Really I agree with Panthers I also play Socom and I don't hear people get stupid just over a female in the room; yet on the 360 all I hear is sexist jokes and other BS.

[ThanatosDMC]

Depends on the gamer. If the person sucks then they should stop whining. I lost a lot of money fighting a chick on Tekken 6 in Vegas. That emo looking goth chick pwned me. To top it off she was hot and had a cute voice. Her character was Paul and that 5 hit combo that she can pull off hurts like hell.

[MountainManBeard]

What!... girls can't play video games, and since when can girls write these articles they can't write! Why do they act like they have rights, what do they think, they traveled to the future and it's 2009, where they can do whatever a man can do? Ha nonsense,like that'll ever happen.

Sincerely,

An Outraged Old Man From the Last Century

[DavidMacDougall]

Im always going for girls like that and there never gamers!!??

[ionize]

Thought most of the people on XBL were "Girl Gamers"

[SONYSLAVE]

yeah most girls thinks PS3 sucks

[Keele]

Oh snap! Pooned!

[DNAgent]

There isn't any girls on XBL. You are hearing little kids. I mean people even complain about guys showing their wang in games of Uno on XBL. I guess that community is into that type of thing so XBL is probably a good meeting place for the gay community. It also explains why all the xbots on this site defend it so much.

[Score]

The problem is "Girl Gamers" are not common...at least in the sense of the author describes herself as. In fact, the only girl that I know that is into gaming is Juuken.

[Captain Tuttle]

Xbox Live has Gamerchix...something like 8000 members
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/c...

[Score]

That is a lot of members, but are they all like this author, or are most into what might be considered "Girl Games"?

[Captain Tuttle]

How many multiplayer "girl games" are on the 360? I know that they sponsor Gears of War nights and Halo 3 nights...I see the ads on Xbox.com every week.

[FantasyStar]

I suppose that comes with the territory in Halo. However to me, I could care less. My problem is that most girl gamers I meet don't know how to play the game or they're too relaxed in Gears 2 on Wave 40 of Horde and we all end up dying. Last thing I need is 2 liabilities because both decided that their little fun is more important than the rest of the team. Turns out those 2 ended up quitting and we were stiffed with only 3 people who are like "where's the girl?" "why'd she quit?" "awww...." -I'm sitting there yelling "get your head together!" -We're on Wave 40!

Call me sexist, but I'd rather play with guys cause then I can call them dumb ****s when they obviously aren't taking the game seriously. Say that to a girl and you might have to mute her because there's little difference between a prepubescent boy and a girl. Seriously girl gamers or whoever. If you're not going to cooperate with the team and take the game seriously like any other guy would usually, go back to your Wii and spare us the thought of losing a game.

And yes, I play "recreational". And yes, I also know that guys do all the above as well: but we're not discussing guy gamers in question are we now?

[Girl Gamer]

Well I never quit a game ;).......my internet going off is a different matter though :|......and I'm too focused on winning that I'm perhaps too aggressive *embarrassed*.

[Score]

I would say that you are an anomaly. Most "Girl Gamers" have other interests.

[Girl Gamer]

Well I set up GirlGamers over 2 years ago, and have other gaming sites (and a member on many more). Take my lipstick away and i don't care, don't even know where it is lol. But take away my 360 controller and I'll kill you ;).

[JeepGamer]

Just based on reading your post I can honestly tell you that if I were playing a game online with you I'd quit the game too and go find some other people to hang out with.

But of course it never crossed your mind that somebody quit the game because of how you were behaving now did it?

[FantasyStar]

I'm a pretty calm guy and I don't yell in the mic telling other people what to do. It's just the clear, undisputable fact when someone's not wanting to take the game seriously that gets me upset and usually my feelings are a general consensus among the party/team. I wouldn't be so bold if I knew it'd make me look like the only jerk. I'm not your stereotypical CoD4 gamer that swears like a sailor, nor a control-freak from L4D. I consider myself a great team player in Resistance 2 and they think so too.

You join a public game expecting people to commit to some degree, however when people don't do that: it screws up the team and ends up ruining everyone's time. Girl gamers just happen to be the subject of my abuse because that's what this article is about. Granted, I have found girl gamers that are good and committed that I enjoy playing with in Resistance 2 Cooperative. Like this one time, there was this Spec-Ops that was seriously on the ball. It was able to get kills (Top 3) and keep us ammo-happy. When I learned later it was a girl that was playing: I said "you're probably the better Spec-Ops I've played with" -she replied "hey, thanks! I get that alot!". And if you've played R2's Cooperative mode: you need a functional 8 man team otherwise everyone dies cause someone decided not to do "their job". I genuinely think that if I'm being irritated, chances are others are irritated just as much and I'm usually right most of the time. Im' probably the guy that if I ever had a bad time with you in game and saw you again in real life: I'd buy you a beer.

[Gina-get-u]

Your comments are sexist but, unfortunately, accurate. I'm afraid I have to agree with you. Girls don't have the testosterone driven psychology of guys and it tends to show up in the way they game. Girls have done the same things to me and it pisses me off no less. But let me say that a lot of guys do it too and they have no excuse (sexist back at ya).

@ girl gamer, I drop by your site occasionally to check it out, and I think you're doing great, so keep it up. But my whole thing is, if you are going to play a "guy" game, you have to play it like a guy. There is no feminine way to play gears. That's why it is my policy never to let people know that I'm a girl. I never give out my tag from any place where I've outed myself, and my mike has a voice modulator. To this day, nobody has ever been able to find me out.

[Gue1]

What I like is when you insult a girl and every man on the game comes to defend her...

[hay]

Honestly I feel compassion for gamer chicks. It sucks to be surrounded by bunch of horny geeks which are mostly behaving like ar$eholes. All those people nagging them are plainly pathetic.
I've seen in Home mall one chick avatar literally surrounded by like 8-10 guys each asking 2 or 3 questions per minute(it appeared that they used gamepads for typing, which would increase to 5-8 if they used keyboard...). Didn't know if I should laugh or cry how lame mankind(pun intented) has became...
But hey, it has some good sides, they're often(if not always) in the centre of attention.

[coolfool]

So here I am, playing a game with a girl. I'm not being patronisingly chivalrous, I'm not going easy and I am not being offensive in anyway. In fact I am just treating her like a gamer regardless of gender.

This is the first time I played against this girl so I didn't know what to expect but I know she has the game herself and was meant to be pretty good at it. Everything seems fair.

So, as expected, we were pretty equal as suggested by the results. But this is where the equality ends...

When I beat her it's all calm and sportsman like, a little banter, but nothing major. But when she won that's when the insults start flying. It's funny the article should mention that guys are worried about their masculinity because that is the exact thing she attacked. It was her who came out with "wow, beaten by a girl" style comments.

I have a couple of other girl friends like this (well, not quite as bad). So, it is my experience that it's girls who give the insults and, unlike playing with guys who I would expect banter from also, the insults are all gender related.

[UltimateIdiot911]

Yeah, my gf does that to me but I secretly give a handicap. I know some other girl gamers, and they are calm.

[Downtown boogey]

Ummm... I mean... Excuse me...
Funny how I never said that.

[LeShin]

Well, I don't discriminate/favour any type of gamer. I shoot/beat-up/stomp all men, women and children gamers equally :)

Currently in need of new victims....err...people to play in Tekken, Soul Calibur or SSF2HDR. Any takers?

[Graphics Whore]

The only real problem with girl gamers is that our voice transmission technology over consoles is really sub-par, you could easily confuse a 25 year old woman for a 12 year old boy.

[gumgum99]

interesting article. Its nice this perspective from the opposite sex, and it just goes to show how far we gamers have come.

I've seen an increase in girl gamers at local gamestop retailers, myself, and I have to say that its something I'm still getting used to.

Still cool though.

[Tony240ZT]

She was buying Wii fitness, right?

[jspc1989]

it helps to diversify the community a little. Its good to know that you can go online and meet a good variety of people with similar interests - rather than the usual 14 year old who will sit there and run his mouth off over xbox live, but doesn't even like going outside out of fear in real life lol - u know the type.

I think over time the more female gamers there are the less gender influenced insults there will be. There isnt any real reason that men should be any better at games what-so-ever (except maybe in competitiveness due to a lack of testosterone in women lol). I do however feel genuinely sorry for the women online that get harassed by boys and men that arent and probably arent going to get any, anytime soon.

[mirroredderorrim]

I enjoyed reading what you posted.

I have to HALF disagree with the comment about someone not doing their job right = death (not in those exact words)

I don't mean to brag, but I will, in co-op I can carry a team of 8 through everything. I can pick up the slack of around 3 players who are doing absolutely nothing (there's been much worse scnarios, like two manning everything, but the game isn't too hard with only 2 people, anyway)

The thing is, I am so competitive on that game, for the points! That I really take the game too serious sometimes; I mean... there is no button biting or ds3 dunking, but I have to throw a verbal dart or two at my TV.

By the way, I'm a HUGE grenade junky. On R2, I can usually packup max capacity grenades (full upgraded medic) and take out entire warping hordes, by myself.

I mean, once you get the game mechanics down in your mind, the rest is predictable.

As for girl gamers kicking ass... I agree, especially in the sack.
Rack up big points in that zone.

[ugabugaz]

All i can say is it just depends on the girl. Usually how you behave in real life reflects what you do online. I really haven't had the experience to play with that many girls but from what I've seen so far theres a couple of different profiles.

1) The one that completely hides her voice and is quite calm and quiet
2) The one that pretty much plays like a guy, even better a lot of the time
3) The one that won't shut up
4) The incredibly obnoxious one that just can't stop insulting people

I've usually ended up with #2 so i can't really speak for everyone.
I pretty much only play COD4 and COD5 so maybe girls there are better than other games(PS3).

What I've noticed is that girls actually listen to instructions better than guys. Especially in Zombie Mode I've been shouting some instructions and no one seems to listen, of course they died i save the day and they respawn and start paying some damn attention. With girls it seems that idiotic phase isn't there. By shouting instructions i mean calmingly explaining what we should possibly do, not screaming at the top of my lungs.

[Danteh]

yep as society grows there will be more and more girls playing, as the videogames-make-you-weird stigma goes away. I have played videgames since I was about 9, and always felt that i was doing something "wrong". The fact that I was that kind of very mature, glasses-wearing and not so hadnsome (hehe) kid didn't help. Now I'm 20 and I still have this lovely hobby, but as I'm no longer the ugly glasses wearing nerd boy people are always stranged.

-Oh so you are not going to buy some ultra-fashion rayban sunglasses really????

-Mmmm not today, i'm going to... (starts thinking of nice chimera heads getting owned in resistance 2)..umm.. reqad some Vogue to keep up... you know :D

Just my 2 cents xD

[evadw]

This chick = totally not helping the cause. http://bitsofjoy.net/?p=284