So what makes a girl gamer? Let me break it down for you by this simple checklist:
Are you a girl? (Congratulations, instead of choosing a Y chromosome, you decided to stick with your X.)
Do you enjoy licking your XBOX/PS3/any other console’s controller? (Very sanitary after the fact you’ve just played 5 hours of F.E.A.R 3 on there and possibly sweat a lot, assuming you played at all)
Do you enjoy getting tangled up from the cords of the controllers that is obviously too much for one person to use? (That explains why you’re “stuck” in the first place.)
Can you play games without even touching your gaming console?
Do you make sure you’re in your bra and panties before gaming? (Oh, don’t forget those sexy fishnets!)(Having your hair swishing back while being indoors is always a bonus! Where’s the wind coming from?)
Or do you…
Oh wait, my bad.
If you fit at least 3 of the things I mentioned in the criteria about, congratulations, you’re a gamer girl!
Before I go on I just have to mention that I am not trying to offend anyone, I just thought I’d bring some of my views into the world of sexy female players. I have nothing against these “hot” gamers but I’m going to break down on what is a true female gamer and how to survive in the world of images games paint for females.
Gamer girls can also play games when we can’t even see the screen, we’re that awesome.
Actually there is no such thing as a “gamer girl”, we are merely people who game and we just happen to be female. Are there any “Boy gamers”? No, in a sense that we don’t give them a title for playing games.
However there are differences in being a girl that simply games compared to a “girl gamer”.
The “Girl Gamer”
To put it in simple terms, these “Girl Gamers” do it for attention and play to impress people. Since gaming seems to be predominantly a male thing, it makes women/girls in game more desirable in male population. So in playing video games it gives the girl more attention and the feeling of superiority over other girls that don’t.
Here are a few other symptoms a “Girl Gamer” may have.
-Feeling threatened by a fellow gamer girl and will probably tear them apart to make sure their “place” in the social circle is secure. (Only one queen bee can stay! Who wants to share the attention anyways?)
-Playing to obtain self-esteem from praise/attention/adoration from the men
The fact is, when you’re not looking these girls probably don’t even play the games they said they do, or maybe they’re playing so they don’t look like a complete fool the next time they’re invited to play with the guys.
A female that simply games is well a gamer that just happens to be a girl. We seek to find people with common interests and play with them! We don’t do it for the attention or the love, we do it because gaming is what we enjoy doing. I’ve been playing games for as early as I can remember, even since… I think around when I was 6 or 7? I can’t quite remember. I played Starcraft: Brood Wars, Half-life and Counter Strike ever since I was a kid. And believe me, shooting things with a gun and playing online games was not really something that was cool back then.
Most of my friends rarely hear about my gaming because I don’t feel the need to be vocal about gaming. I’m not ashamed of it, heck I love it, but since I don’t have many friends that game which makes it kind of pointless to talk about. I do it for my enjoyment, I’m not here to put up a show for others.
Many girls get caught in the stereotypes of either being overweight or as super-hot girls. Hell it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, as long as you have boobs and a vagina you’re good to go.
Admittedly I don’t fit into either of those stereotypes, I’m not morbidly obese or super-hot, so do we have to be one or the other? The ones who truly appreciate gaming are probably too busy actually playing to voice their opinions; hence they are underrepresented, so instead we get people who start portraying girls in the wrong way.
To be honest I think that these girls that are posing for the camera are just girls who are willing to well, pose in front of the camera and pretend to play when they probably don’t even know how to aim a gun properly in a game. However putting that assumption aside, maybe these gamer girls do know what they’re doing, which leads to the next problem.
How many times have we been told to make a “sammich”? (Whether it’s jokingly or not) I’ve certainly heard of it many times. When game girls are putting themselves out there in bras and panties holding a gaming controller or licking them really isn’t helping the overall female gamer population. It adds to the image as women being objects rather than people. Sure men love looking at hot babes and you might get attention for a while, in the long run people will lose respect for you as a person. Not only that, it has that it twisted the images of all girls that simply play games because they truly enjoy it, AKA the underrepresented girls.
I don’t know… there’s something about grabbing your boobs and posing in front of the camera that makes me really wonder if I’m staying for the brains.
Media definitely does not help in portraying a healthy image for female gamers. The girls that endorse the games are usually skimpily dressed and usually extremely gorgeous. Sure it’s great eye candy for the guys and it makes games look cooler (that’s what the companies want, to make games cool so they sell) but what does that say about the women?
Games are no longer just for nerds and people who have no life, games are popular, and if we game that make us cool.
I came across sites that are dedicated to hot female gamers and worshipping them, in a sense ( if you call that worshipping). I even read a comment from a girl claiming that if she was hotter she’s be working for a certain site (which I will not mention here). It’s a site where people can pay to play with hot girls for a certain amount of time. They have all sorts of pretty girls posing provocatively waiting to be chosen. Isn’t that a type of prostitution (correct me if I’m wrong)? Have girls really stooped that low?
Female gamers want respect right? However all the pressure from other girls and the media really isn’t helping. It really hurts the girls who are simply just trying to have fun and not trying to turn gaming into an attention grabbing competition.
Know of Assassin’s Creed? Well the female producer got a lot of attention, but not in a good way. Do we really want girls to receive that kind of attention, is that what we want? (In of being seen as a talented game producer, she was looked at as being “hot” or “sexy” rather than looking at her skills. There were even comics that were made that made her in a dumb character and doing… extreme things to get men to buy her game. Excuse me, a little respect please?)
Let me just quote from a great blog post (she puts it way better than I can find in my own words):
I’ve browsed through many blogs that use a “Girl’s” perspective as a selling point. I’ve come across blogs that says along the lines of “Gaming as a girl”, “Tank like a Girl” (World of Warcraft blog, not trying to point fingers, I love the information she has provided me for tanking), or just simple having “Girl” in their blog title. Admittedly I have fallen for it and I have clicked their blogs. I clicked it to see what kinds of things the author has to say about her point of view as a girl on gaming. In all honesty it’s not really different from anyone else’s blog on tanking. They provide quality information, but really not much has changed. Here’s how I look at it.
Everyone is unique so indeed everyone’s blog has their own special pizazz. However I don’t think it is gender that gives it that special touch. We’re all unique individuals and that’s what makes our blogs, writing, art, production, whatever it is, interesting! So if I’m a girl I automatically write 30% better than a man, if I’m a girl my knowledge is better than a guy’s? No! Everyone has their own style in what they do so obviously their teaching method will be different. Some people may learn easily from different people because their tactics match theirs the best, not because someone is male or female.
What is gaming like a girl exactly?
If you’re a female gamer do you get a 10% bonus in attack or do you not have to suffer from durability loss when you die? No, we’re equal, this whole inequality business to just made up by us, the society we live in.
So in my opinion a “Girls’ Point of View” is merely a selling tactic, and heck it works great! Nothing wrong about using it, but these are my views. Personally I won’t be using that way to sell my views because I know I’m giving information as an unique individual, not because I’m a female.
I remember when I was a kid I actually loved playing with rainbow ponies. I forget what they’re called but in my kindergarten class there was always a tub of shiny, pretty ponies. I admit, I like pretty ponies, but that doesn’t mean my gaming life revolves around it.
We enjoy games from all walks of life, maybe sometimes we enjoy cooking games, but we may also like FPS games, RPGS, MMORPG’s as well.
There are times were I like to play “Fashion Designer” (the clothes look awesome ok?!), but I won’t hesitate to grab my controller and blow up some aliens if I had the chance.
Female gamers are dumb, and they suck at it. TITS OR GTFO.
Many may think girls that game are usually pretty bad at it. In fact I am pretty bad at gaming. I was exposed to games at a very young but gaming was always kind of frowned upon since I am a girl, and in fact I’m Asian. Not only is gaming as a girl bad because I’m supposed to be working in the kitchen instead (yes I actually get those comments: Learn how to cook, learn how to sew, if you don’t you husband will divorce you! Great.), I also had to make sure when I showed my parents my grades they were “Asian friendly” (meaning you have to get A’s). I love gaming; however I get little time to play, so I really had no time to practice either.
Sometimes I feel pressured to act a certain way. Not to have to dress sexy and such, but I feel like to prove myself to be separate from the usual stereotypes; I feel like I can’t enjoy “girly games” at times, or I need to be really good to make a place in the gaming world. I always worry that if I don’t play well I’ll be immediately stereotyped and that’ll make other female gamers look bad. I just want to play and have fun, not to have to constantly worry about rules and trying to break stereotypes.
So this must be a post on hating the hot gamers right? Wrong. Heck, I love female gamers, I’d like a get together to know them, but not form some kind of creepy cult that secretly hates each other or just make a social circle to feel powerful in. Personally I want to be able to share my interests with other people. Sadly all my friends do not play video games so I rarely speak about it. Not because I am ashamed of gaming in any way, I just doubt anyone will understand when I tell them I dinged 85 last night on my warrior.
There is nothing wrong about being a pretty female gamer that truly enjoys gaming and knows what they’re talking about! I think there should be more female gamers, let’s face it, we’re so much better than men 😉 (It’s no secret, but we can let them pretend.)
Sometimes when I see a female gamer on XBOX insider and such (my brother always points out how hot she looks… sigh.), I do in fact feel proud that there are more girls out there that appreciate games.
And if you enjoy playing in bras and panties and make up, great! Nothing wrong with that… just I think if you’re playing you’d be busy playing rather than taking photos and evidently leading to someone shooting you to death in the process. When I wake up and want to play Borderlands I just make sure I’m clean and comfortable, I don’t bother putting on make-up or curling my hair and such…
Don’t give men an excuse to point and comment on our boobs an ass, if you want to show it, be prepared for the attention you get for your “assets”, rather than how well you play. At the end of the day, what matters that if you’re gaming you’re doing your job; when we’re raiding we don’t want anyone stupid that has decided to stand in the fire. Of course there are many times we’re accepted into raids/matches (or not) because we’re a girl, but we want them to look at our skills, not because we have boobs. I’m sure many of you have heard of “TITS OR GTFO.”
It is good to put ourselves out there in a way to be respected (Like Jade Raymond, but sadly even though she did not dumb herself down, she still got the wrong kind of attention. I admire her for being such an amazing game producer; she doesn’t deserve to be treated like that). If we make our needs clear too, the developers will take us into consideration and make a more diverse franchise in games. I do enjoy games that have an option to be a female, but I suppose it isn’t mandatory. I like hopping around as Arbiter in Halo as well.
Lastly, I’m not trying to draw attention as a girl. I’m putting it out there because in fact I am a girl (proud to be one), that is who I am and I happen to enjoy gaming. I’m a not a gamer girl, but simply a girl that games.
I’m sure one day; female gamers will become normality and not something of surprise.
Has anyone gotten special treatment/been harassed as a girl?
What are you opinions on being a girl that games?
Any special stories of gamer girls?
(Feel free to comment about anything, those are just ideas.)
I love reading comments; it helps me learn more about the issues I talk about. I may have done my research but there is always something new to learn! Enlighten me!
Links for further reading:
The Difference between ‘Female Gamers’ and ‘Gamer Girls’
Video games: From Boy’s Club to Girls Clique
wickedwed 