Girls and video games

While browsing some threads, I came across an interesting signature. I don't remember to whom it belongs, and I can't seem to find it right now, but it says something like: "so there you have it, girls don't play games because there's something wrong with their brains."

I wouldn't say that there is something wrong with their brains, but just that girls, in general, think differently and assign different values to things than males (if I say boys, some will be offended, if I say men that would be giving too much credit to some), and may have a totally different purpose for performing an activity.

It would be interesting to find out why most girls don't play games in general, video games in particular, and even more interesting to know why the girls that do play games, choose to do this.

Very far from being a misogynist, I would really like to know how you think, girl gamers.
If you're a male gamer, by all means, share your opinion and let's see if they agree. If you have the opportunity, ask around and share the answers.

PS: I apologize if the matter has been discussed in another thread. Kindly direct me to it, if that's the case.

 

Something about RPGs:

http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/girlgamers.htm

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theo ... arity.html

Don't have anything on video games specifically, but that's what I can come up with on a lazy trawl for stuff I remember.

 

I don't think the joke in Grossenschwam's signature was meant to be taken seriously. There are several wommenz on the forum.

 

Well, I did not mean that his signature/joke sounded offensive, not at all. It merely triggered a question that I actually had for quite some time.
And this is also not about scientifically proving anything, it's about reading opinions from others.
I have never met a girl that played video games, so it would be nice to hear the ones' on the forum opinion.

 

Although the quote was (probably) meant in jest, I kinda feel like speaking up. Just keep in mind that everything I'm about to say is based on my own observations and there's a good chance that it only applies to the one city I live in.

The single biggest, most important thing I've noticed over the years is this; the girls who game are the girls who think that dressing like a celebrity is stupid, who believe that girls should be allowed to at least hit their teens before the media sexualises them, who think that the current cult of beauty taking over our culture is the sign of moral and cultural decay, and the ones who always thought that playing with Barbie was stupid when there were sports to play or trees to climb.

In other words, girl gamers are tomboys and girls clever enough to recognise and brave enough to reject society's stereotypes of the typical blonde bimbo and the back-stabbing, double-crossing gossip whore.

 

Girl gamers in my opinion try too hard to be 'that girl' that everyone drools over, they either RP outside of accepted areas or act really bitchy but draw reference to sci fi a lot to keep the audience entertained while believing they are sassy and cunning when really they are lonely, otherwise why else would they be here.

 

Pretty much what Xiao said applies to my experience here as well. I'll add that sadly the small handful of female gamers that I have met at the local comics/gamers hub tend to stop soon after starting because of either 1. their other female friends don't play and do that weird peer shit and not as often 2. their boyfriends don't like the idea of "their" woman spending so much time around other guys.

 

If by "people" you mean men, then I have a question. Are there really (mentally sane) men repulsed by the idea of sleeping with a woman, if the woman in question is not behaviourally repulsive*? So you think that the non-gamers are repulsed?

If by "people" you mean girls, then obviously there are girls that do not like to be lesbians (not that they necessarily have a phobia in this direction). So in this case you think that female gamers are more inclined towards lesbianism?

*with little exceptions, I find that no woman is ugly, either on the outside or inside

 

I have spoken today with a female friend and former colleague of mine, and asked her if she played video games. I expected another answer, but instead she started listing them: Caesar III, Pharaoh and some other games ("where I don't have internet connection") and Perfect World ("where I do have it"). Knowing that her lifetime fascination were animals (horses in particular) and knowing that she liked spending a lot of time with them and in nature, I never thought she had time for games.
I asked her why and she sadly answered that life is losing its meaning to her, that she doesn't know who to trust anymore, that her friends do not understand her, because she is and feels lonely and because (referring to Perfect world) in that world she feels helpful, needed and appreciated.
She soon started saying that she hates her life and stuff like that, and I knew it was time for me to change the subject.

There is another example I wanted to leave out of this discussion, when I said I have never met girl gamers. But what the heck... The person I'm talking about is an ex-girlfriend of mine, and when we first met in the 1st year at the University she had more or less broken up with her ex-boyfriend (who happened to go with his family to Canada) - there were actually promises of everlasting overseas love between them. I don't know about him, but she was suffering, and she was very lonely at that time. Long story short, after we hooked up and i started filling her life, she stopped playing Arcanum altogether.

So, to an extent, I agree with Zanza: some, if not all, female gamers are lonely and they choose gaming because they escape for a while from the real world that is less appealing in their eyes.

But there must be other reasons...

 

In the same vein, why would any male gamer that honestly believes they are intellectual or otherwise waste any time here if they weren't lonely? It's not all that different as far as I can see - males instead, being the dominate gender trying to impress their peers which isn't all that different from what you are saying. I actually find that to be a fairly sexist remark but anyway, your opinion.

I do know a few female gamers and in my limited experience they don't nessescarily have to be any of the above. Suggesting that a girl-gamer has to be a tomboy is as much a stereotype as suggesting every non-gamer girl has to be a 2-bit gossip whore or a 'blonde bimbo'. The ones I know are still more sociable than I and most other people I know whilst also being relatively vain if not in a bad way.

Then again, I'm sure the stereotypes do apply in some cases.

I think all of this is an oversimplification and understatement - there are probably more 'girl-gamers' than we might think even if males are still dominate. That's because we're, well, males.

Oh and Monti, I think you'll find that muro in particular has a talent for changing your mind on anything that can be represented pictorialy.

*waits*

 

Because the best way of answering psychological questions is to talk to people (by 'here' I assume you are talking about the forum), and for being part of an adventure, rather than reading a book where you just can't change the course of actions. This is just my personal reason. Anyone, anything else?

I agree. There are so many types of girls, and NONE can be at either of these 2 extremes. They can be more in one direction than the other, true, but it can easily change along with environmental and social changes.

The question is: 'what drives them into becoming gamers?' Spirit of adventure? Lack of better things to do? Way of revealing without fear their true character or just role playing to see how it works? There could be so many reasons.

Are you referring to something in particular? I don't really know what you are talking about.

 

In that last little bit I was referring to this, don't think too much of it:

My comments on why male's are here if they're not lonely weren't really literal and instead I was rebuking zanza's remark as, like I said, I thought it was a sexist comment perhaps directed at one person in particular. Fair enough if you wanted to write it in though

I don't think asking 'what drives them to become gamers?' is any different from asking males the same thing - assuming the reasons are entirely different or entirely the same is overestimating the difference and generalising a gender. In the end it is your thread but to me, it's the same as asking why certain asian cultures don't use various toiletries. It may or may not be cultural or genetic, but in the end it's irrelevant as they're still people.

But hey, what would I know.

 

I've got my girlfriend into RPG gaming. A little bit of video gaming too, but only retro stuff right now. RPGwise, though, I've played more systems with her than with any man. We started with D&D, which we both agreed wasn't that great (maybe it was bias because I hate it so much), and then moved on to M&M, which she likes. We've also played Traveller and World of Darkness (specifically Vampire). There might be one or two others that I missed. The most I ever played with my best friend in High School was three - D&D and World of Darkness throughout, and then Mutants and Mastermind in the past six months. Nobody else would play Traveller with me.

She also tends to be better at it than everybody else. On Solo play, she tends to do poorly in combat, but she's incredibly inventive when it comes to using her character to full effect. Her M&M hero was a teleporter on a motorcycle who would teleport off a tall building, save her falling thread, and then teleport back on top of the bad guys. In Traveller, she once ended a car chase by having her crew member (I let her hire NPC crew members because of the lack of other PCs) fire orbital bombardment on the bounty hunters chasing her. In Vampire, she has fit the mood very well by slowly developing more sinister morals: the first time she killed a guy, she was all upset. Last game, she brutally murdered a priest and his assistant and stuffed them in the tomb that was supposed to host the Cathedral's saint without blinking an eye, and then went to the hunter who saw him as a father figure and bragged about it, a sinister act she would never do in another game.

She's also not a tomboy. And she's not ugly. And the sex is damned good. She doesn't play to get away from anything, either. She started playing because I wanted her to meet all my friends when we first started dating, and helped her make a D&D character in case we played. Which we did. And she loved it.

I'll admit, sometimes it is hard to get her to try new things (she didn't even like the Super Nintendo at first, though now she wants to get an N64), but ultimately she always ends up gaming for the same reasons as any other person. Or at least for the same reason as me. Our games typically go the mystery, drama, or intrigue route, with combat scenes being less like combats and more like short, nasty, bloody scenes that heighten the tension or perhaps serve a climax. We're definitely story gamers.

EDIT: To match with some of the other points here, I am in no way threatened that the people at the local gaming shop will steal my girlfriend (lol!). And I've come across plenty of women who play games lately. The article Ramidel posted that said it cannot be a social institution that drives them away is probably overlooking some of the details of gaming's development. He's right about the artwork, to an extent (it's hard to judge. Natasha's favorite is Vampire: the Requiem and M&M. M&M uses typical comic book style, and she already loves comic books. Requiem is about Vampires, and thus already sexually charged). I don't think the violence really applies. Lots of women go to see slasher movies and gore porns in the current time. My girlfriend is totally unopposed to brutal torture as long as it fits her character. While not as testosterone laden, violence is certainly an aspect of every human being's personality, even womens'.

 

Grakelin, PLEASE introduce me to your girlfriend. She sounds wonderful!

 

Yeah I love muff too, please introduce.

 

Don't be a sexist prick, Zanza.

 

Girls who play video games are girls who have been exposed to video games. Simple as that. There is no greater form of entertainment, and anyone introduced to our glorious hobby either falls in love, or spends the rest of their life in denial.

 

This thread just reminds me of the agonizing wait of downloading Left 4 Dead 2.

The people of Steam have been playing it all day, but since I actually have a life, I only got home two hours ago...

 

Yeah, obviously non-offensive jokes are NOT accepted here! When will you learn!?

THAT'S being sexist, whereas Zanza's just being a regular prick. I don't mean offense, Alessandro is one of those people whose presence doesn't bother me, but I can't ignore that statement. Women are not above men, and just as capable of being prejudiced, evil, and stupid.