Women in Gaming White Papers

Many thanks to GameJournalism.com for the heads up on two white papers put out last month by the Women in Gaming Special Interest Group. The two papers (both excellent reads) are Chicks with Joysticks: An exploration of women in Gaming, and Why are there so few Women in Games? In a related topic, TerraNova has a piece on the Women 's Game Conference and MMOGs.

Comments

Re:Sex ratio?

[antifoidulus]

Actually, in societies that don't participate in aborting female fetuses(China and India namely) females outnumber males, even though your stat is correct? Why? Because at every age males have higher fatality rates than females. Seriously, look at the demographics of the US from the CIA world fact book:
for the US
Canada
France
Japan(though there the ratio roughly stays the same
For all of these countries, you see that there are a lot more males under 15 than females, but from 15-65 the numbers tend to even out(in the US there are more females than males in this group) But for contrast look at:
China and
India
where because of gender selective abortions, there are significantly less females than males in the age 15-65 group. Actually, that is becoming a major concern in those places, as you can imagine what problems a group of males who really need sex can cause.....

Ob Vonnegut quotation

[nekoniku]

"Why should I bother with made-up games when there are so many real ones going on?" (Cat's Cradle)

Shoryukens and wedding bells

[evilmousse]

In related news, my 12-year-old offer to marry
the first woman to regularly defeat me at
StreetFighter regardless of age, race, or looks,
goes entirely unanswered.

I think I was born 5 years or so too late;
I've seen a few teenage girls who contend
in Soul Calibur...

I gotta move to California where they have more asians...

-evilme

Re:Shoryukens and wedding bells

[Seumas]

Meh. I posted this anonymously on accident, the first time. That'll teach me to post from someone else's computer. :(

======

I can't speak for StreetFighter, but I know a girl in Lake Oswego that could probably hand you your ass in a few rounds of Counter Strike. Some guys at the UofO and I used to run a popular CS server (before I stopped playing most video games) and this girl named 'Val' was always on. She was probably around 18 at the time and she learned quickly. Oh, I actually knew another girl too on the same server from the same area, now that I think about it. She was pretty good, too.

Other than those two, the only females I've known who did much gaming played things like Sims, EverQuest and Ultima Online. There's clearly a distinction between the interests of both sexes, for the most part. Generally, it seems that females tend to avoid hard-core puzzle, strategy and action games. Even in MMORPGs, the 'action' and the 'fighting' tends to be a secondary or tertiary requisit for them. That's a broad description based on the women I've been around and people I've talked to, but it probably isn't too far off the mark, in general.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I played The Sims Online for about a week. It wasn't for me. Boring and pointless. I gave it a chance, but it fell short (just like a lot of more male-oriented games did, like Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, ATITD, Rubies of Eventide...) The one thing that did stand out about The Sims Online, however, was the social interaction among players. Especially females. Within a few minutes of entering the game, I was invited to join a group of women who showed me the ropes, helped me out, gave me tips and eventually invited me to join their "house" (or whatever you call it in the game). The game play was painfully dull to me, but the community was unique. In most games, you won't see that kind of treatment. With most MMORPGs or FPS games, you join a server, create a character, figure out what the hell you are doing and start hacking stuff to bits all the while dodging the offcolor racist, homophobic and sexist remarks of pre-pubescent boys.

I wouldn't try to read some social theory or explanation into why there aren't many female gamers and why they're attracted to certain areas. Men and women are very different creatures and some things come more natural and are more appealing to one sex over the other (with interesting exceptions). The important thing is to welcome those people who do cross the boundaries and find enjoyment in it.

What bothers me more is the reaction of males any time someone with a female voice is playing (using the mic) or even just a female name logs into a server. You have three typical responses, such as those below:

The person who doubts that it's a female and makes a point of doubting it.

The person who goes out of their way to be a jerk to the female just to be a jerk.

The person who can't stop talking about the girl and sucks up to her and flirts with her and can't shut up about how hot he thinks it is that a person with breasts is playing his favorite game.

It would be nice if a female could join a server and we could all continue to play as normal without regressing into a pack of slobbering penises.

I also have a sister who has always played videogames. Not addictively like myself, my brother or any other male I know, but quite a bit nevertheless. She doesn't play online games, but has played almost everythign else on PS2/X-Box that she's come across. The frustrating thing is that it comes so natural to her. She's almost 20 now and as long as I can remember, she could walk into a room while my younger brother and I are playing and pick up a controller... and breeze right through things that we'd spent hours trying to beat. We'd take days or weeks to beat a game and she could do it in a couple sittings. ARGH! She's a bit of a tom-boy, but not much. She's just very *very* adept at the videogame thing, I guess.

Women gamers

[Deorus]

They may be less than men, but they exist and form communities.

Why fewer women gamers?

[Henry V .009]

Why are there fewer women in sports of all kinds? Why are there fewer women in the hard sciences? Why are there fewer women in prisions?

Maybe we're kind of different.

Re:Sex ratio?

[TVC15]

> as you can imagine what problems a group of males who really need sex can cause.....

more duplicate posts and bad moderating on slashdot?

Great articles!

[kria]

While I've never been a computer game programmer, I'm a programmer and a table-top and MMORPG player, and I have to say that this is a very insightful article.

I'm very happy that the place I work seems to have no problems hiring female programmers... but I'm still one of two female programmers on my approx 20 person team. Because there aren't that many women out there, because so many women were discouraged from technical fields for so long.

I have felt the atmosphere that discourages women frequently in gamer circles, when I'm around gamers I don't know - guys who tend to be crude, rude, and are there just to hack n'slash. My gaming circle is playing a campaign that features a lot more political intrigue, as well as has major male and female npcs who are more than window dressing. My group is nearly half and half on gender. It's wonderful.

Anyway, the more we make the reasons known, the less we'll have people claiming it's all just "well, women don't want to do that" or "men and women are wired differently, that's all".

One quick nitpick about the first article...

[Morrisguy]

...where the author credits Roberta Williams as creating the first female protagonist in a video game in 1987.

Wasn't the first lead lady in a video game Ms. Pacman? in 1981?

Why are there fewer women?

[valkenar]

Look at the comments to this article. Half are openly misogynistic (although I'm sure someone will try to argue that attempts at humor excuses all) others focus on whethere females gamers are hawt enough.

Maybe this kind of thing wouldn't bother you, but it's the kind of thing you hear complaints about from women in the geek scene. If you care to listen.

Re:Shoryukens and wedding bells (apology)

[evilmousse]

Let me apologize to any woman reading for all
the comments in this thread that indicate women
gamers are unwelcome if less than attractive. ..As if every single social interation between
the sexes need be sexual. We need you as gamers
if only to dilute this kind of idiocy among us.

-g

Female Gamers Do Get Attention

[EngineeringMarvel]

I'm the main Battlefield editor over at AmpedNews so I keep up with gaming trends and personal since I cover the main online gaming leagues. One thing I have noticed about the female gamers is the attention they get from others playing in the online leagues. One in particular, who is on my Amped staff, is constantly getting attention from the male gamers.

It takes a certain type of girl to deal with the type of stuff that she handles all the time. She cannot get onto IRC without some male gamer wanting to bother her. I'm sure there are other gamers that I have played with regularly that are female, but choose not to say it. Mainly to avoid all the harrassement from the other online gamers. My point is, not only are girls different, but they have to be ready to put up with a community that is mostly made up of horny male teenagers.