Are Girl Gamers Underestimated?
SodaHead Gaming
2012/06/19 13:00:00
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E3 wrapped up last weekend, and it wasn't long before actress and Ubisoft host Aisha Taylor was inundated with hate mail accusing her of not being a real gamer. She fired back on Facebook, arguing that she has been a gamer all her life, and could probably beat a lot of the offending guys on Halo. This week, Kotaku writer Katie Williams expressed similar frustrations with her time at E3.
In an opinion article titled "So What If I'm A Woman? Let Me Play The Damn Game," Williams recalls how she was "guided towards the Facebook games," and walked through the simplest first-person shooter mechanics as if she couldn't possibly have a clue how to work them. She calls the experience a "hurtful underestimation of my capabilities, both as a journalist and as a gamer." Do you think girl gamers are underestimated, or did Taylor and Williams just have some bad experiences?
In an opinion article titled "So What If I'm A Woman? Let Me Play The Damn Game," Williams recalls how she was "guided towards the Facebook games," and walked through the simplest first-person shooter mechanics as if she couldn't possibly have a clue how to work them. She calls the experience a "hurtful underestimation of my capabilities, both as a journalist and as a gamer." Do you think girl gamers are underestimated, or did Taylor and Williams just have some bad experiences?
Top Opinion
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kyle 2012/06/19 16:45:46
Also, you didn't make any point about this but I'll say it here anyway - hiding the fact that you're a girl - as a means to avoid abuse - is not always easy. I, for instance, don't even play co-op online games because I'm not into shooters, but I used to play mmos and I participate in gaming forums; I've never gone out of my way to let anyone know I was a girl and yet somehow it does come up on occasion. If any guy doubts let them try to pretend to be a girl for the entirety of their gaming life and see how they go.
Some guys are better than girls, some girls are better than guys... So what?
There is nothing wrong with being a causal gamer, but I dislike the girls that got into video gaming as a tactic to pick up guys and then pretend that they know anything about video games. Especially since I've been a gamer since I was 4 years old, and growing up some of these same "self-proclaimed gamer girls" made fun of me for playing video games and hanging around the boys who played video games. I don't know why, but they had this idea that video gaming was somehow something very boyish, when in reality if they had started as early as I had, they probably would've seen the entertainment in it too.
I have no reason to call myself a "Gamer girl" because I'm just a gamer, like many people, I've spend a lot of my childhood and life dedicating my time to playing games, I have very fond memories of days spent doing exactly that, and I didn't do it to impress anybody, I did it because I enjoyed it. And I still enjoy it. When I play online I don't make it very obvious that I'm a female, sometimes I get messages from people online congratulating me on being good and asking me to join their team, and usually they are shocked when they fi...
There is nothing wrong with being a causal gamer, but I dislike the girls that got into video gaming as a tactic to pick up guys and then pretend that they know anything about video games. Especially since I've been a gamer since I was 4 years old, and growing up some of these same "self-proclaimed gamer girls" made fun of me for playing video games and hanging around the boys who played video games. I don't know why, but they had this idea that video gaming was somehow something very boyish, when in reality if they had started as early as I had, they probably would've seen the entertainment in it too.
I have no reason to call myself a "Gamer girl" because I'm just a gamer, like many people, I've spend a lot of my childhood and life dedicating my time to playing games, I have very fond memories of days spent doing exactly that, and I didn't do it to impress anybody, I did it because I enjoyed it. And I still enjoy it. When I play online I don't make it very obvious that I'm a female, sometimes I get messages from people online congratulating me on being good and asking me to join their team, and usually they are shocked when they find out that I'm female, which I suppose is an indication of underestimation. Or perhaps it's just that it's uncommon. There really aren't as many dedicated female gamers as there are males.
It makes us wary, especially the "gamer girl pride" sort.
I have been playing Real-time strategy games since I can remember. One of the first games my father bought me was a very complex strategy game which required a lot of focus and thought, I was only 6 years old and played it quite obsessively. Of course back then he helped me too, there is only so much a 6 year old mind can do.
Since then I've developed as a gamer into many directions, I'm good with speed and action, have fast reflexes, I'm good at planning ahead and my favorite games always include having to use stealth and make quick decisions on the spot; as well as thinking ahead.
Whenever I get into a RTS game though I become rather controlling and obsessive, I focus on every detail and aim for perfectionism, but due to my lack of free time these days it's quite hard to find time for such dedication.
Majority of casual gamers, male or female, do get bored of strategy games, since we have become quite impatient as a generation. But whenever I have time I always enjoy slow paced games which require thought and skillful planning, I find it's harder to get bored of them then it is to get bored of constant repetitive action.
Geez. SEE, THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Another DUDE who just ASSUMES that most girls will get bored playing RTS games. I have been playing RTS games with my mother since I was 4-5 years old. This is how I started out. I also loved to sit on my dad's lap and observe him play his RTS games when I was really young.
And I don't know about other girls, but I CERTAINLY don't get bored doing that. You know what I get bored doing? Listening to guys like you talk about women like they don't have a clue how to play a good game.
Good day to you sir, I hope you come to your senses soon.
"One of the most interesting differences appear in the way men and women estimate time, judge speed of things, carry out mental mathematical calculations, orient in space and visualize objects in three dimensions, etc. In all these tasks, women and men are strikingly different, as they are too in the way their brains process language. This may account, scientists say, for the fact that there are many more male mathematicians, airplane pilots, bush guides, mechanical engineers, architects and race car drivers than female ones."
I don't make assumptions.
"One of the most interesting differences appear in the way men and women estimate time, judge speed of things, carry out mental mathematical calculations, orient in space and visualize objects in three dimensions, etc. In all these tasks, women and men are strikingly different, as they are too in the way their brains process language. This may account, scientists say, for the fact that there are many more male mathematicians, airplane pilots, bush guides, mechanical engineers, architects and race car drivers than female ones."
Despite being 30% smarter than me you don't seem to be able to understand the way quotations work. I wasn't quoting myself. But God your intellect is impressive. Plus "Proof or GTFO?" My my. Indulging in popular culture and simplistic internet acronyms. Clearly I've been completely outmatched by your brilliance. Next time why don't you just keep your mouth shut?
"Men perform better on certain spatial tasks; for example, mentally rotating objects in space and reading maps/locating landmarks." Eliot 1999: 221; Understanding the Brain
Do you even have any idea how extremely important it is in regards to strategy to be able to quickly and accurately assess topography and geography? You probably don't because you likely don't even know anything about either. For example, what is your strategic assessment of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941?