Why does the internet react wierdly to...

Girl gamers?

I know, this is similar to an old thread, but most people think of girl gamers as either hopeless people at games, or people who are instantly going to want to have sex with them. When I made a female toon, and did some PvP in my Maneater Mildred cosplay, about 3 people sent me friend requests, of which I denied. I think I know what their motivation is... Regardng the first point, my girlfriend always kicks my *** at PvP, what with those rolling skills and Chaos Rapier +5 backstabs... So why do people think of them as incapable, or different from male gamers?

RenegadeCop wrote:Girl gamers?

I know, this is similar to an old thread, but most people think of girl gamers as either hopeless people at games, or people who are instantly going to want to have sex with them. When I made a female toon, and did some PvP in my Maneater Mildred cosplay, about 3 people sent me friend requests, of which I denied. I think I know what their motivation is... Regardng the first point, my girlfriend always kicks my *** at PvP, what with those rolling skills and Chaos Rapier +5 backstabs... So why do people think of them as incapable, or different from male gamers?

I'm just going to break this down:

In cyan: Hah that is bull on many levels! Face it girl gamers can be just as, and better at games than guys. I think the early days of gaming made it a male-dominated industry from their advertisments.

In red: I always stuck between a mix of petty and digust. But I'm clear on one thing: it's not reality!

In blue: I'm just disturbed...which makes me wonder about that cosplay build for the event when it come to randoms....

They have boobs.

Because as much as it pains me to say it, gaming has a terribly misogynistic community. The culture has been labeled everything from nerds, no lifers, people who play themselves to death, never amount to anything, bad at social skills, causing mass violence, that its grown into this almost niche club, part of that entails that those who are more prone to prejudice would believe that girl gamers only exist to entertain their fantasies or only play casual games like Farmville. Best thing you can do is try to change that mindset, one gamer at a time.

Most gamers you are going to run into online are 13 year old boys who just learned what sex is last week.

They also have the courage of anonymity.

You should accept the friends request and use your power for your own gain. Lead them on and get them to give you items. Remember, "When a woman is made a mans equal she shall become his superior".

https://youtu.be/bsdIMGOLhkg

I think that should explain it all.

i also get a surprisingly high amount of requests just because of my ciarin toon.

Everyone already covered it. But yes, it's disheartening. Here we are in 2013 and the gaming community either marginalizes girl gamers or sexualizes them to the point of debasement.

The misogyny is terrible. The xenophobia and the racism is also quite the problem.

The worst part though, is there are woman who definitely are not helping that image.

There are of course those women who know, "If I'm attractive looking, I just have to play games while going on camera from time to time with a low cut top. Nerds will eat this **** up."

Damn business women taking advantage of the market!

https://youtu.be/6aVvETNngco

And then there is this.

Has Jessica Alba ever even heard about Dark/Demon's Souls, or have we been manipulated? Doesn't matter, I'm totally getting it just because she announced it. Well played Bamco... well played, now take my money!

Hahah, Dark Souls is sooooooooo not as bad as the FPS community (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty). There are so many misogynist gamers and the anonymity of the online community doesn't exactly help.

It doesn't seem like you guys have had very unpleasant experiences being mistaken for a girl though? Friend requests seem benign enough! I'm really proud of the Dark Souls community if that's the typical Dark Souls response to girl gamers.

I don't actually receive friend requests for playing a girl character (or for even having a girly PSN ID) when playing Dark Souls.


However, in FPS games When guys find out I'm a "REAL GIRL", I usually just get insulted. "Go back to the kitchen." "Go make me a sandwich." "You must be fat and/or ugly." are the most typical comments, but there are way worse. :|


That's my two cents. I maintain that Dark Souls has one of the best communities in gaming.

bunnywink wrote:However, in FPS games When guys find out I'm a "REAL GIRL", I usually just get insulted. "Go back to the kitchen." "Go make me a sandwich." "You must be fat and/or ugly." are the most typical comments, but there are way worse. :|

That honestly makes me mad.

I used to play TF2 Jules.

https://youtu.be/PYUbUvzlvFw

And Jules, I remember for a time I had my steam profile as Mara Jade, a character I like from Star Wars. Just a picture, I still had my name listed as Max.

I got some **** pics sent to me.

One of them was actually pretty nice looking, but I'm pretty sure it was a pic of a porn star.

Yeah, I think because they feel like video games are strictly a male domain... when they encounter a girl gamer, they think one of two things:

1. She is a fake gamer / attention ****. She is only playing video games for male attention, so it's okay for me to hit on her or accost her with pictures of my penis. That's clearly what she wants.

2. She must be ugly or fat. She is only playing video games because she's socially unacceptable / unattractive as a girl, otherwise she would be on a date with her man right now.

:x


Meh, I haven't encountered any of the above on Dark Souls, so it's been a great experience for me. Everybody here has been very respectful and mature. I'd really like to hear from other women on the forums though. I know we have quite a few!

bunnywink wrote:However, in FPS games When guys find out I'm a "REAL GIRL", I usually just get insulted. "Go back to the kitchen." "Go make me a sandwich." "You must be fat and/or ugly." are the most typical comments, but there are way worse. :|


That's my two cents. I maintain that Dark Souls has one of the best communities in gaming.

And that's one of many reasons I stay out of FPS games with multiplayer, gender prejudice. If I get an FPS I stay out of multiplayer expect Halo 4 since I find it slightly better than COD in terms of people. Though lets face it, Dark Souls and Demon Souls have such a high rage chance that I doubt few of those "beast" FPS players would stand playing a game where skill, inteligence matter more than luck.

Well, people enjoy the games they enjoy I think we should just leave it at that. I dislike COD, but I'm not going to insult people for playing it.

I would have to agree with Jules about the majority of the Dark Souls Community. Most guys, are decent and don't care if your a girl gamer.

But yes, there are a few here and many more elsewhere who hide behind their internet persona and, essentially, act-out and on "their own desperate fantasies" about girl gamers and by association girls in general. It is unfortunate.

Their behavior actually says more about their "own troubled issues" then anything else...really.

Because girls... you can't play with them and you can't play without them~

(I have no idea what I'm saying)

Because misogyny is rampant everywhere. I don't think it's necessarily a mindset endemic to the gamer demographic exclusively. It's just that the internet and it's anonymity (which modern gaming reside in) permit easy expression of those opinions without many consequences (look no further than youtube comments for something other than gaming). Back in the early era of gaming, when coop play involved people in the same room, face to face, guys and girls played equally and any undercurrents of misogyny went expressed because of social filters.

As much as I love Dark Souls, even I would stop short of absolving the community of those tendencies. Wiping out perceptual distortions like misogyny and racism require constant vigilance. The world around us is constantly feeding us with images to reinforce norms and many of them are inaccurate, so it would be a danger to assume "hey we're good with that issue" and become complacent.

Emergence wrote:Because misogyny is rampant everywhere. I don't think it's necessarily a mindset endemic to the gamer demographic exclusively. It's just that the internet and it's anonymity (which modern gaming reside in) permit easy expression of those opinions without many consequences (look no further than youtube comments for something other than gaming). Back in the early era of gaming, when coop play involved people in the same room, face to face, guys and girls played equally and any undercurrents of misogyny went expressed because of social filters.

As much as I love Dark Souls, even I would stop short of absolving the community of those tendencies. Wiping out perceptual distortions like misogyny and racism require constant vigilance. The world around us is constantly feeding us with images to reinforce norms and many of them are inaccurate, so it would be a danger to assume "hey we're good with that issue" and become complacent.

/thread.

Plus I think we all know, Subway makes the best Sandwiches.

So go on down to your local subway, and have a five dollar foot long everybody!

RULE 37

Why am I on the internet and don't give a that some girls play video games of any kind.

Vinyl Scratch wrote:Why am I on the internet and don't give a that some girls play video games of any kind.

Probably because you're not an idiot.

Tolvo wrote:Plus I think we all know, Subway makes the best Sandwiches.

So go on down to your local subway, and have a five dollar foot long everybody!

I had to. Subway really does want to give you the whole 12 inches.