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An Editorial Melee About Female Gamers
SR71 writes "Tom's Hardware has a strong debate between two of its editors in a face-off editorial about female gamers." From the article: "I'm not being puritanical - heck, a while ago I wrote about wanting to see more sex in videogames. Neither is this about being against female gamers. I simply take issue with people falling and fawning over these female gamers, and talking high-mindedly about how professional female e-sports will soon be on a par with the male circuit." The article contans some crass language that may be NSFW.
The lead gameplay developer for the recently-released Galactic Civilizations 2, Cari Begle, is female - she just got interviewed by the Detroit Free Press. Cari's the person everyone goes to when there's a bug needs fixing. Maybe playing games isn't yet a place where you can get fair competition, but developing certainly is.
...is this such a big deal? Games are out of the basement now. They don't require hours of toiling around to learn how to play. Hell, my 6 year old cousin plays more games than I ever did at his age. They are a full grown entertainment category. You're obviously going to get more girl gamers, and who cares. You'll get more of every type of gamer, because the technology has become definitely something more immersive than any other type of entertainment. Some girls will play, some won't. Some guys will play, some won't. There's not really a news story here. Attaching a stigma to the fact that there are female gamers is the same thing as saying girls aren't good at math or science or whatever. Stop putting such an emphasis on gender. And I'll still kick that bitch's ass at Quake anyday =P
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
That's exactly what tomshardware is doing. This is basically males talking about the ability, suitability, and presentability of females at sports. This time the "sport" is playing video games--they're looking to troll the male game player into clicking pages for ad revenue.
While whining about camwhores, what is done? They put up scantly-clad women or fake women on every page. In the body of the text and the linked-to blog they basically talk-down women for choosing to use their bodies to sell themselves (something women do in every market possible, because males buy it) and in the process make comments about their competitive ability, whether one thinks they're intellectual equals, and talk about respect. The first person goes so far as to suggest that he'd rather women gamers spent more of their time practicing their skills than putting on makeup. It's the same bullshit people pull with other sports that opt to participate in, but since gaming isn't yet considered a legitimate sport in this part of the world, it just looks more pathetic.
Well I don't care what Fatal1ty does with his spare time. Do you? Do you care how he dresses? He looks like a fucking inbred hick doofus to me. If he wasn't a pro gamer, I'd expect to see him driving a rusty red pickup truck and earn a living pumping gas. Do you care at all? Does anyone? He puts his name on junk-ass hardware. Does anyone here care at all? Do women sit around pondering how respectable he is?
Well no, because they probably think people that spend 12+ hours per day playing video games are fucking losers. Males though, live to bullshit about sports. And women buying their way in on their asses is apparently the intellectual equivalent of who Brad Pitt is having a baby with for men.
... it was about clans, professionals, and media whores. (Media whores come in both genders and don't have to be sexual. Some people will do anything for attention.)
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What percentage of female gamers belong to any sort of 'clan' and have ANY connection to what they were talking about?
For that matter, what percentage of MALE gamers belong to a clan or play professionally?
Sure, maybe professional female gamers are a bit of a joke - but there's a case to be made that ALL professional gamers are a bit of a joke. It's not exactly a recognised sport yet.
Mediawhoring to make money has nothing to do with gaming. Most people who play games don't get articles written about them or their pictures published.
I resent the discussion acting like the loud-and-out-there dolls are the only female gamers in the world up until the last page, when they vaguely mentioned that "Oh yeah, and some people just play the games and don't make such a huge deal about it."
I've gotcher 'Women In Gaming' RIGHT HERE!
Yes, men are generally better at Math, but this is just generally speaking. Women CAN be as good as men at this, just not statistically so. Women CAN be as good gamers as men, just isn't statistically so. So what is 10%-20% less females play games than men. One other thing I would like to mention. Women don't have the ability to desipher 3d environments as well as men, they are missing some of the genetic code of gaging distance. You have all heard those jokes about how women can't tell distance or lengths, they did studies on that and found out that it has to do with their eyes. I've found that a lot of the females I play games with are better at the old style sidescroller, or any 2d game and they instantly encounter more problems when they go into a 3d environment. Just my 2 cents
How many guys won't pretty much melt, at the site of a crying woman? We maybe fast, and good at mathmatics, but when it comes to being the one in the background running everything, women can beat us hands down. It is almost like we are just some pawns in some game at times. :-)