In addition to "hear, hear" I'd just like to add that at my school, a CS major is required to take a course called "Social Implications in Technology" (I think). I'm a CS minor (Cognitive Science major), and that was one of the best courses ever. There should be two of those courses, one in the first two years and one in the last two.
It went into the whole thing of technological utopianism (hooray, no more bugs!) to the disenchantment and complete rejection of a technology (oh shit, DDT kills animals) to not even seeing any benefits anymore (he mentioned something about how in one area, having a light spraying of DDT on the (inside?) walls of a house was beneficial and not really harmful -- I think for bugs or something -- but EVERYONE thinks DDT is still completely terrible so it's completely rejected).
Sorry. Just had to mention that if I had the will/drive, I would totally do social research with regards to technology. I think it'd be cool to study girl gamer/geek habits/reactions/anything someday. (don't take that in a creepy way -- I'm a girl, I wanna know how I tick too)
Right...so...better tell the article authors. Your one school proves that their numbers gathered from across many schools is incorrect.
My school, estimate about 10%. And I should know, I notice the other brave souls in class who are in it with me. We live in a high-tech-company city, so higher numbers than some other school elsewhere shouldn't be surprising. Hearing 28% doesn't surprise me, there's gotta be girls down near Silicon Valley who see where the action's at. Their interest in CS will be welcomed there, just as it is here.
I hear ya. It's better sometimes, it's worse others, it depends on the particular environment.
I was on my university's Computing Science IRC channel at the insistence of one of the CS majors. Another chatter asked me to introduce myself, so I said I was just a typical (insert university here) CS student. Then the insistent friend pointed out that I was among the 10% or so in CS courses who lack a Y chromosome. Then the conversation went something like this between he and I
Me: jesus him. stop outing me.
Him: haha well you're not exactly 'in the closet'.
*buncha closet jokes*
Me: i find that in most online areas is it preferable to go as long as possible without revealing i'm female. it's ridiculous.
Him: "Do you have breasts?" "yes" "with a matching vagina?" "yes" "YOU ARE INTERESTING CONVERSATION. I MUST PAINT YOU."
sad thing is, he's dead on about those situations.:)
Though I'll grant, everyone WAS cool with it and he wouldn't have outed me if he thought they'd be assholes.
Hmm, perhaps, then, it may be true...I guess my only real experience is with CoH (watched WoW, played a friend's char briefly, and for some reason it wasn't my thing at the time. Someday, who knows. Maybe I'm just all jaded to everything non-CoH:) ). Now that I think about it, some other games (like EverCrack) have different reward and mission structures entirely.
So, you may be right. It may be the case for games that are structured such that constant communication is essential to accomplish anything, TS may be a good measuring stick. In CoH, you can often solo (some people solo exclusively), so that's not always the case.
Honestly, everyone cries nerf all the time. But, honestly, you roll with it. You think about your character. You think about strategy. If, after nerfs, you can overcome and still have fun, then it doesn't really matter if it's a nerf in the long run.
I may game, but I don't game often. I have kind of a "General Studies" degree in gaming, I guess.:) So, when a nerf comes along, what's really useful for me is learning the nuances and understanding the game a lot better. I still find myself doing stupid stuff, so I like learning more. A nuance in one game will likely transfer to another game.
I used to have this set on my Fire Blaster that was, like, Fire Blast(short recharge), Fire Ball(long recharge), Fire Breath(long recharge), repeat, for lots of my attacks. I felt really stupid when I realized that by using my short-recharge powers first, then my long-recharge power, I was doing less damage/second. I should have been doing some other combination (such as long-recharge (both powers), short recharge, then the first long-recharge should be almost ready again). I would have never have realized that I was playing that sequence poorly if perma-Hasten hadn't been taken away. That kind of information will help me in other games, I'm sure.
In short, whenever I hear "Nerf!", I read about it, I play it, I think about it. I've been playing CoH off-and-on for a year and a half now, and it's still fun. Some people just don't like to adjust, and I can understand that. So far, adjusting has been fine for me.
But hey, City of Villains just came out. Some of the stuff in there is still CRAZY powerful (Fire Corruptors, especially with the style of play me and my bf have, are insane). If you want some non-nerf fun, you can start anew in CoV.:D There's stuff in there they probably won't figure out for a while.
My point is that the girls I claim you have played with who have male avatars are probably in hiding. I suggest that if they are in hiding, they are more likely to diversify their avatar-types. But, if they are in hiding, as if they would go on Team Speak. That first time that they speak mid-battle is almost guaranteed team wipe while all the guys freak out.
Anyway, kind of a useless thing to argue about since neither of us ACTUALLY know, but still. Food for thought: They're out there, and they don't want to be hounded by guys trying to chat them up, so they don't do anything to indicate they're female.
I don't argue with your other statistical speculations. I do agree that women choose female avatars more often. Even if they are in hiding, they can get away with it because guys choose female avatars all the time.
I'd be curious, however, to know the actual numbers of female and male players of MMOs. City of Heroes, I hear, has a high number. But who knows what it actually is? All speculation.
I'm male, but play female avatars because I don't feel like looking at a guy's butt for hours on end as I play the game.
hahaha! I just posted the same thing re: my boyfriend above! I knew there was more!
But, to respond, I think everyone here is kind of posting a "Nuh-uh!! not what I've seen!" in response to grand generalizations. Kind of responding to generalizations with generalizations. Reading this, I realize I kind of did the same above.
Maybe what we really need is real facts, numbers, and research. I saw a posting at school this semester seeking out gamers for an attention study. Sure, fine, whatever. But instead of having article after article about games and genders, why doesn't anyone ACTUALLY study the female gamer? And relate it to the female avatar (IF it is found that the female avatar has a SIGNIFICANT impact on female gamers). Do studies to find out what they really respond to (and I mean scientifically, not just subjectively "Sure, I'll buy that, whatever, can I have my money now?") Perhaps, if you find out what regular female gamers respond to, you will find some sort of common ground with the rest of the female population. And if you don't, so what? KEEP RESEARCHING.
Someone mentioned there's 3 billion women in the world. Why is no one studying this potential market, instead of just throwing out these crappy hit-and-miss titles? Find out the actual effect of these hit-and-misses, and work with it. Don't just keep stabbing in the dark. Or, as many have pointed out, give up on girls entirely and just consciously appeal to males.
You THINK you haven't. I play City of Heroes, and I play all ways (har har har...). Chick, guy, armoured-up robot. Nobody there knows that I'm a girl yet. I suggest that you have played with girls with non-female characters, but they have no desire yet to reveal themselves as women. I sure don't. One of my boyfriend's friends let his girlfriend go on his City of Heroes account. She just CHATTED for TWO HOURS and EVERYBODY talked to her because she's a GIRL. So effin' retarded.
Granted, if I play a chick, I notice myself trying to adjust the proportions such that she's more realistic...big breasts reminds me of someone I know who got surgery because of serious back problems. So now a big chest just makes me go "augh. it just FEELS like I'll play worse because I shouldn't be able to even stand up straight."
This will sound odd, but, I guess just writing that now shows that I must have some sort of bias towards realistic chicks. Yet I don't feel 'threatened' by big girls. Maybe I have some sort of weird thing where I take the physical features of the character as an indication of their athleticism. As such, maybe I don't feel threatened by the out-of-proportion girls because I know my slimmed-down chick could kick their ass any day. Of course, this is just speculation. I don't have, and haven't really thought about, why (when given a choice), I make more realistic girls, but don't feel threatened by big ones. I can only speculate that I unconsciously think I'll just play worse because she's not built right.
As a side note, my boyfriend plays chicks almost exclusively (and so do his friends) because they'd rather stare at the back of a chick with long hair and a great ass while playing a game like City of Heroes (or WoW).
Hmm...perhaps. It's the part that says, "... you could never have found a female one" that gets me. Maybe it's just the word 'never' itself...and how I matched up the meanings of 'never' and 'geek women'.
Upon further review, the university department qualifier suggests to me that I'm not 100% correct in my rant. I saw the word 'never' and suddenly everything went blurry. Withdrawn, your honour.
Judging by my university's engineering department(s?), that's probably because you could never have found a female one.
Translation:
Blah blah blah, typical/. response of "geek girls don't exist at all in such-and-such a technological area, blah blah blah.
Yes, I GET IT, we women are few. But we do EXIST.
Christ, that shit gets old fast. Hell, I'd even advocate heading over to thinkgeek or jinxhackwear and checking out the customer shots of the ladies wear. Remind yourself that there's SOME of us out there. The parent comment is completely missing the point of the grandparent post -- they're just trying to regurgitate the always-hilarious and insightful geek-chick equivalent of "First post!"
Ha! Have you seen some of the whipped guys out there? It's insane. Their girlfriend's presence in their life is constant. And in the case of the whipped guys, she gets the better of more than one type of situation.
Only explanation I can think of is that it's a control thing. "See? My boyfriend comes shopping with me. *baby/puppy/small animal talk* That's a good boy...oh yes you are! Yes you are! *boy's tail wags happily*"
Also known to occur in the semi-opposite situation where she still wins: the implied couple invitation that girls dream up out of nowhere. This drives me nuts sometimes when I see it. Example:
Girl calls boy for a ride home from work later on.
Before her shift ends, the boy has made plans with a friend of his to grab something to eat later.
Boy picks up his friend.
Boy picks up girlfriend at work.
Girl, boy, and friend all go out to eat, in spite of her never being asked to join them. Her presence is just IMPLIED since she is there with the boy in the car and they are a couple.
In both cases, the girl and boy end up doing things together, whether it's stuff that a) she likes/he hates, or b) he likes.
Are you allowed to re-post previous/. responses? Don't know why I always feel compelled to add my voice to/. relationship discussions. So, here is an update/edit of a previous post I made long ago on the subject...keeping in mind that I'm on graveyard shift right now and posting on sleep-deprivation may not be as great of an idea as it sounds at the moment...
For a semi-specific reply to the parent, couple of points:
- explaining emotional state to SO: Thumbs up for that one. NEEDS to happen. See below.
- understanding that SO will continue with hobby after relationship start: Another thumbs up. Some people are just dumb. What, do women think that a guy's life is Games XOR Relationship? As if many of them would ever agree that their lives should be Shopping XOR Relationship. But, granted, the article includes comments from girlfriends that are bad and not as bad: 'Grow up and give them up' (basically the Games XOR Relationship idea) and 'Spend some of your gaming time with me instead' respectively.
Personal example: I remember when my boyfriend first got Earth & Beyond. It was soon after our relationship began, and I wasn't a fan of it. Granted, there are some new-relationship-sillies involved in that("LET'S BE TOGETHER ALL THE TIME, HOORAAAAY!"). But I got over it, and when he got bored of the game, I got him back, as it were.
Then came City of Heroes. I didn't like it for the first few days of watching my bf play it. From what I saw of the gameplay, it sucked. But, I later realized, I was only seeing the first few levels, so the combat seemed slow because of lame recharge times on your character's powers...so it looked like he was choosing a CRAPPY and SLOW game over me. So I got upset. Long story short, now I'm into it. Recently we moved our computers in the same room shortly before we got our City of Villains Beta invites. Heh, communicating verbally when you team together in the same room is WAY easier than typing.
Anyways, I got over my aversion to City of Heroes because we had a talk about how the amount of time he spent playing upset me. In that, we figured some stuff out. Part of which is that I made a big assumption that was wrong: he was choosing the game over me (not to say that there aren't any guys out there who DO actively choose games over their girlfriends all the time...but I can't speak to that, luckily). The reality, he said, was that he was choosing the game over doing nothing. I was afraid to speak up and ask to do things with him because I assumed that all he wanted to do was play games all the time. Turns out that isn't the case; it was just a vicious cycle of: him playing --> me assuming he doesn't ever wanna hang out with me because he's playing --> me not saying we should do something because he obviously already has something to do --> him assuming I don't wanna do anything because I never said anything --> so he played the game. Luckily it wasn't long before that stupidness was all straightened out.
In short: something I have learned in our relationship is to just SAY SOMETHING. Don't mindfuck him with weird ultimatums, don't try and show how you're upset by saying you're "Fine, I'm JUST. FINE." (and ladies: Ever seen another girl try and do that? Personally, I've never seen it work), don't be evil. We're currently watching a friend have trouble with her relationship because she has a tendency to just silently stew about an issue instead of talking about it. Sometimes with little mindgames to try and 'prove her point' (that he misses / doesn't take the 'bait' for). And her boyfriend thinks that things are great because he's not much of a talker himself. I stopped stewing when this City of Heroes problem happened, and any problems that come up have always been solved more easily since through good ol' fashioned straight-up communication.
You're assuming that gaming is the last activity enjoyed by the author (and from the "Mod Parent Down!" reply to my post, you are including my boyfriend as well) without the SO. I agree that people need separate activities, but do not assume that gaming is the "last escape" that is now being threatened by the author's SO and me to our respective boyfriends. Some activities can be shared and be fun, but I agree sharing every activity is lame and destructive. Not to be harsh, but don't screech about modding down based on easily defeated assumptions.
In short, cue the, "Man, you don't know me!" à la trashy Springer-talk-show-style. heh.;)
Mod parent up! I remember when my boyfriend first got Earth & Beyond. It was soon after our relationship began, and I wasn't a fan of it. Granted, there are some new-relationship-sillies involved in that, like wanting to be together all the freakin' time. But I got over it, and when he got bored of the game, I got him back, as it were.
Now City of Heroes. I didn't like it for the first few days(because from what I saw of the gameplay, it sucked...but that was because it was just for the first few levels, so the combat seemed slow because of lame recharge times)...so it looked like he was choosing a crappy game over me.
But now I'm into it. And I'm lucky that my boyfriend encourages the inner gamer geek in me. He helps me and suggests strategies for when I'm/we're playing Soul Caliber 2, Diablo 2, City of Heroes, etc. etc. I say I'm lucky because he could just as easily be protective of his Xbox or computer(mine's old and can't handle much more than Alice). I also got over my aversion to City of Heroes because we had a talk about it. I made a big assumption that was wrong: he was choosing the game over me. But the reality, he said, was that he was choosing the game over doing nothing. I was afraid to speak up and ask to do things with him because I assumed I would annoy him and interrupt his levelling. Turns out that isn't the case; it was just a vicious cycle of him playing, me assuming he doesn't wanna be with me, me not saying we should do something, him assuming I don't wanna do anything, so he played the game. Luckily it was only a few days before that was straightened out.:)
Ok, I just watched the trailer, and something in the background music sounded awwwwwwwfully familiar...
I just got out my Matrix Revolutions soundtrack CD, and though I only viewed the I, Robot trailer once...track 16, Juno Reactor vs. Don Davis - Navras sure sounds like the music heard in the trailer...
Ok, I'll check again in the trailer...the relevant part in the trailer starts right at the city shot after Will Smith says "when people were killed by other people." Relevant part in song on soundtrack starts at about 16 seconds in.
Anyone agree? Anyone know if both the trailer and soundtrack got that section from a mutual source, or if the trailer just got it from the soundtrack?
If any student has still to turn in their registration fee, it should give it to the registrar immediately. If any student has failed to do this by friday, it only has itself to blame.
I guess I need to go ask one of my friends for money for tonight. If it doesn't give me any, I can't go to the movie...which sucks, because it looks really good.
I heard one of the students cheated on an essay. One should be careful, and I bet you they are going to make an example of it.
Once the user has performed this task, it should then move on to exercise 3.
I saw the book, gave it to the librarian, and it gave it to its supervisor, and the supervisor talked to it about whether it should be removed from the library immediately.
English has well-defined rules that are consistently broken by itself.
Take a linguistics course. Learn how languages evolve and why they evolve in the distinct patterns that they do.
Language is always undergoing change. The only reason that style books need to be updated is to accommodate that. There is still debate going on about whether to introduce a gender-neutral third-person singular term, or if "they" or "s/he" or something else is acceptable. Google it for several impassioned pages.
So if it shows up in one of your style books, will you then correct everyone on it?
Thank you. Argh. I probably shouldn't drag myself into this, but I've been a female interested in stereotypically male things all my life and am consistently amazed at the sides of the fence that people are on. Thankfully, most people just don't care anymore -- I'd love it if everyone was like that.
I feel that I'm part of the first generation who was plagued by the "You can do anything you want to! You're female! Anything!!" people, trying to be helpful. Meanwhile, I sat back and was like, "yes, I know...I get it! Ok! Can I -- please, I just want to...ARGH! Can you just shut up and let me go and actually DO those things you say I can do?!" Every single one of them felt they were the first person to tell me that I was a free girl. Bet they sure felt important.
While I am grateful that I don't feel restricted, it just pisses me off more when people try to then restrict me. Of course I currently suck at CounterStrike. Of course I currently suck at Diablo. There is a lot of stuff to get used to in terms of UI, and just plain memorizing whatever the hell you're carrying. But all it takes is time.
My boyfriend is currently helping me learn Soul Calibur 2 because I'm addicted.:) Re-teaching me, in a way, because I've had such little chance to play fighting games that I used to resort to button mashing. At first, when I watched him and his friends play and hear them all laugh at the same time at some move on screen, I couldn't pick it up on what was so funny. But it just takes time. I feel more confident about seeing the attacks/blocks/parries and seeing the chess game (He just attacked and was parried three horizontal hits -- what're the odds the next one will be vertical?) involved. After playing lots, now I start laughing and calling people out. (Heheh...just stay far away a liiiittle longer while your cheap-ass sword builds your health back up, Nightmare...)
Parent is right. Ok, so it just so happens that activities that have been made with men in mind currently are having trouble finding women working at the same level. Big surprise. People are apparently not ready to deal with a female, and everything is still tailored to males. I'm not saying change it. As I said before, all it takes is time...for me, anyways. I tried a different thing -- fighting games in the above example -- and did the best I could(button-mashed), but I'm with time I'm able to differentiate what's going on a bit better. Give anyone, male or female, something to do that's not in their current paradigm, and they will get it with practice. Or maybe I'm just honestly slow compared to most girls.
Every time on/. that someone brings up females and techsomething, there's a discouraging amount of commenters who just fling insults. Did I grow up in some sort of encouragement-dream-world? I consistently see the amount of girl geeks around me growing in every compsci class I take. Is my world the exception?
Commence flaming, because I admit I'm a little irked by some insulting commenters, so this may be a little rant-ish and incoherent...ah well.:)
I'm a Canadian video store clerk....
on
Canadian Privacy Act
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· Score: 2, Insightful
...and I'm interested by how the article says "essential to the transaction". I, unfortunately, am not convinced that how I have to deal with customers at my store complies with "essential to the transaction", but I do believe it is essential for knowing if we're gonna get our shit back or not.
Now, granted, I work at a chain store, so this varies from store to store in terms of membership requirements policies. I guess the policy is the same, but the neighbourhood determines how it's enforced(at the store in the richest neighbourhood in Canada, you just plain don't ever check a person's picture ID. It's always just by phone number. Interestingly, this is also where nobody blinks if they've racked up $100 in late charges). At my store, the requirements are a driver's license(some sort of picture ID), a credit card(we perform a $2.00 pre-authorization, which holds $2.00 for three days, then gives it back to make sure it's valid and active -- and yes, we have had instances with invalid credit cards), and if they don't have a credit card, then they need two additional pieces of government issued ID besides the driver's license. (SIN if they offer it, birth certificate, citizenship, health card...) Some stores that I've seen don't even use membership forms, which blows my mind...I mean, doesn't that mean that they haven't signed anything and technically don't have to bring anything back? I guess it hasn't come up yet.
Vast majority of people are ok with this. But I hate the arguers. I've thought about it myself, and I've made up my mind(for what it's worth) on why we need all this stuff -- and made sure it's valid: As a rental store, we're trusting you to bring our stuff back. If you don't, we still need it back, and we need to be able to find you to get our stuff back.
I had to deny rentals to a customer today because her phone number was not in service(we found out when we tried to call her on the late list to remind her her stuff was overdue). She gave the same phone number, I tried it again, and it still said not in service. So I said I couldn't rent to her without a working phone number, and she left.
Sometimes it seems harsh, but given the outrageous customer stuff that happens...I still can understand why the rules are there. It is an all-too-regular thing for people to come in to different stores(some with more lenient rental membership policies), rent 3-5 games, and go rent more games from three more stores, never to be heard from again. $70 game for $7. Not a bad deal. I wouldn't be surprised if we start making it a blanket policy to check the phone number at till every single time we sign up a new member.
Ivy -- frickin' cool and unpredictable. And even chicks love a purple dominatrix outfit.:)
Talim -- This may sound weird, but to me she has the most imaginative weapons in the game(if I have the name right -- I'm thinking of the 15-year-old with the two short swords that swing around).
Cervantes(he's the one I'm spending the most time playing, and so far the only one I've spent time with in practice mode to learn my timing a bit better) -- two swords, lots of power, there's no telling which hand he'll hit you with.
Xianghua(sp?) -- powerful and quick
My boyfriend is way too good at Kilik, so I've grown to hate Kilik("CATS!!") because I always see that char kick my ass.:) I'm not a fan of Nightmare, either, for the same reason with my boyfriend's cousin. Plus, he's a bitch to play against with a weapon that huge. Mitsirugi's pretty powerful, as well.
My boyfriend's cousin sets up the controller with the R button set up to do whatever combo usually does throws because his fingers are too big to press 'em properly. I was practicing doing those "slide" button moves -- my boyfriend has trouble with doing the G-A(I think...I think it's B-X on Xbox) slides, but my thumb is small enough to fit through the B and K buttons that it's fine for me.
Hey, I'm all about playing videogames with my boyfriend. He's studying to be a teacher, and he's just naturally good at helping me learn the different controls. Though I frickin' hate reverse-mouse/analog. Drives me nuts. If I wanna look down, I should move my hand/analog down, right??
I'm kind of a button masher, but he's slowly but surely teaching me the intricacies of Soul Calibur II for Xbox. I've never been good at fighting games of that style, but hey, if you know one you can learn 'em all, and for some reason I'm really into Soul Calibur 2, so that's gonna be the one I learn fighting games with.
For some reason when playing multiplayer games with them, I'm not a fan of playing online. I really like Counterstrike, but for some reason I was hesitant to join my boyfriend's cousin in an online game he was playing. I know it's lame, but I think I'm just pretty self conscious about my playing ability, and I don't wanna drag the team down against people we don't know. For some reason, I don't mind as much when it's just people I know at a LAN. It's weird.
heh, currently, the only way I win at SC2 is because they have played so much that they have a rhythm of attacking/blocking/parrying/whathaveyou. I can't quite get the timing down yet, so I win by being unpredictable. Once I learn how to play the game better, I'm gonna lose all the time.:)
I will never, ever forget when I decided to kill some time and do some price checking at a mall computer store while my mom was checking out clothes. Whilst I was in there, I finally decided that yeah, I'm _that_ type of gamer, and I wanted Riven.
The salesman(greying, maybe in his 50s) proceeded to do his absolute best to try and sell me a copy of Cosmo Makeover software or some such makeover sh*t. I eventually asked him where Riven is, and he led me to the printer section. "No, not ribbon...Riven."
Then there's the time that I went with my male friends to a store well known for its cheap deals on hardware. One of my friends was getting a new video card. Now, I admit, I see anything shiny and tech and I must have a closer look. I forget what I was looking at(probably one of the 21" monitors or something), but the loud fat sales guy whom I doubt leaves his chair made extremely rude comments to me. Granted, I can't quite remember how it went, but I probably made some comment like "kickass monitor" and he's like "Watch your language young lady! I oughtta take you over my knee and spank ya!" and then he said aside to my friend "I bet she'd like it, too!"
It's getting better and better when I go to tech stores, but I still can't quite discern whether, when I'm alone, they're wondering whether I'm in the wrong section or am trying to steal something.
Oh well. If they think I'm trying to steal something, that at least gives me the credit that I know what the f*ck I'm doing looking at motherboards.
Ok, though my boyfriend and anatomy likely indicate otherwise, I'm more convinced that I'm not a woman everytime someone brings up the topic of shoes. I just don't get it. I never inherited the female shoe fetish.
My boyfriend, on the otherhand, was adament that I get a pair of hooker boots. I almost bought a pair of silver thigh-highs. I liked 'em because I like anything silver, and he would like the hooker boots aspect. But I still couldn't do it. "No, I already have enough shoes to last me."
Slashdot Mirror
It went into the whole thing of technological utopianism (hooray, no more bugs!) to the disenchantment and complete rejection of a technology (oh shit, DDT kills animals) to not even seeing any benefits anymore (he mentioned something about how in one area, having a light spraying of DDT on the (inside?) walls of a house was beneficial and not really harmful -- I think for bugs or something -- but EVERYONE thinks DDT is still completely terrible so it's completely rejected).
Sorry. Just had to mention that if I had the will/drive, I would totally do social research with regards to technology. I think it'd be cool to study girl gamer/geek habits/reactions/anything someday. (don't take that in a creepy way -- I'm a girl, I wanna know how I tick too)
My school, estimate about 10%. And I should know, I notice the other brave souls in class who are in it with me. We live in a high-tech-company city, so higher numbers than some other school elsewhere shouldn't be surprising. Hearing 28% doesn't surprise me, there's gotta be girls down near Silicon Valley who see where the action's at. Their interest in CS will be welcomed there, just as it is here.
I was on my university's Computing Science IRC channel at the insistence of one of the CS majors. Another chatter asked me to introduce myself, so I said I was just a typical (insert university here) CS student. Then the insistent friend pointed out that I was among the 10% or so in CS courses who lack a Y chromosome. Then the conversation went something like this between he and I
Me: jesus him. stop outing me.
Him: haha well you're not exactly 'in the closet'.
*buncha closet jokes*
Me: i find that in most online areas is it preferable to go as long as possible without revealing i'm female. it's ridiculous.
Him: "Do you have breasts?" "yes" "with a matching vagina?" "yes" "YOU ARE INTERESTING CONVERSATION. I MUST PAINT YOU."
sad thing is, he's dead on about those situations. :)
Though I'll grant, everyone WAS cool with it and he wouldn't have outed me if he thought they'd be assholes.
So, you may be right. It may be the case for games that are structured such that constant communication is essential to accomplish anything, TS may be a good measuring stick. In CoH, you can often solo (some people solo exclusively), so that's not always the case.
Doh! Shoulda previewed better. First line above should have been quoted, italicized...
I may game, but I don't game often. I have kind of a "General Studies" degree in gaming, I guess. :) So, when a nerf comes along, what's really useful for me is learning the nuances and understanding the game a lot better. I still find myself doing stupid stuff, so I like learning more. A nuance in one game will likely transfer to another game.
I used to have this set on my Fire Blaster that was, like, Fire Blast(short recharge), Fire Ball(long recharge), Fire Breath(long recharge), repeat, for lots of my attacks. I felt really stupid when I realized that by using my short-recharge powers first, then my long-recharge power, I was doing less damage/second. I should have been doing some other combination (such as long-recharge (both powers), short recharge, then the first long-recharge should be almost ready again). I would have never have realized that I was playing that sequence poorly if perma-Hasten hadn't been taken away. That kind of information will help me in other games, I'm sure.
In short, whenever I hear "Nerf!", I read about it, I play it, I think about it. I've been playing CoH off-and-on for a year and a half now, and it's still fun. Some people just don't like to adjust, and I can understand that. So far, adjusting has been fine for me.
But hey, City of Villains just came out. Some of the stuff in there is still CRAZY powerful (Fire Corruptors, especially with the style of play me and my bf have, are insane). If you want some non-nerf fun, you can start anew in CoV. :D There's stuff in there they probably won't figure out for a while.
Anyway, kind of a useless thing to argue about since neither of us ACTUALLY know, but still. Food for thought: They're out there, and they don't want to be hounded by guys trying to chat them up, so they don't do anything to indicate they're female.
I don't argue with your other statistical speculations. I do agree that women choose female avatars more often. Even if they are in hiding, they can get away with it because guys choose female avatars all the time.
I'd be curious, however, to know the actual numbers of female and male players of MMOs. City of Heroes, I hear, has a high number. But who knows what it actually is? All speculation.
hahaha! I just posted the same thing re: my boyfriend above! I knew there was more!
But, to respond, I think everyone here is kind of posting a "Nuh-uh!! not what I've seen!" in response to grand generalizations. Kind of responding to generalizations with generalizations. Reading this, I realize I kind of did the same above.
Maybe what we really need is real facts, numbers, and research. I saw a posting at school this semester seeking out gamers for an attention study. Sure, fine, whatever. But instead of having article after article about games and genders, why doesn't anyone ACTUALLY study the female gamer? And relate it to the female avatar (IF it is found that the female avatar has a SIGNIFICANT impact on female gamers). Do studies to find out what they really respond to (and I mean scientifically, not just subjectively "Sure, I'll buy that, whatever, can I have my money now?") Perhaps, if you find out what regular female gamers respond to, you will find some sort of common ground with the rest of the female population. And if you don't, so what? KEEP RESEARCHING.
Someone mentioned there's 3 billion women in the world. Why is no one studying this potential market, instead of just throwing out these crappy hit-and-miss titles? Find out the actual effect of these hit-and-misses, and work with it. Don't just keep stabbing in the dark. Or, as many have pointed out, give up on girls entirely and just consciously appeal to males.
Granted, if I play a chick, I notice myself trying to adjust the proportions such that she's more realistic...big breasts reminds me of someone I know who got surgery because of serious back problems. So now a big chest just makes me go "augh. it just FEELS like I'll play worse because I shouldn't be able to even stand up straight."
This will sound odd, but, I guess just writing that now shows that I must have some sort of bias towards realistic chicks. Yet I don't feel 'threatened' by big girls. Maybe I have some sort of weird thing where I take the physical features of the character as an indication of their athleticism. As such, maybe I don't feel threatened by the out-of-proportion girls because I know my slimmed-down chick could kick their ass any day. Of course, this is just speculation. I don't have, and haven't really thought about, why (when given a choice), I make more realistic girls, but don't feel threatened by big ones. I can only speculate that I unconsciously think I'll just play worse because she's not built right.
As a side note, my boyfriend plays chicks almost exclusively (and so do his friends) because they'd rather stare at the back of a chick with long hair and a great ass while playing a game like City of Heroes (or WoW).
Upon further review, the university department qualifier suggests to me that I'm not 100% correct in my rant. I saw the word 'never' and suddenly everything went blurry. Withdrawn, your honour.
Translation:
Blah blah blah, typicalYes, I GET IT, we women are few. But we do EXIST.
Christ, that shit gets old fast. Hell, I'd even advocate heading over to thinkgeek or jinxhackwear and checking out the customer shots of the ladies wear. Remind yourself that there's SOME of us out there. The parent comment is completely missing the point of the grandparent post -- they're just trying to regurgitate the always-hilarious and insightful geek-chick equivalent of "First post!"
Only explanation I can think of is that it's a control thing. "See? My boyfriend comes shopping with me. *baby/puppy/small animal talk* That's a good boy...oh yes you are! Yes you are! *boy's tail wags happily*"
Also known to occur in the semi-opposite situation where she still wins: the implied couple invitation that girls dream up out of nowhere. This drives me nuts sometimes when I see it. Example:
In both cases, the girl and boy end up doing things together, whether it's stuff that a) she likes/he hates, or b) he likes.
For a semi-specific reply to the parent, couple of points:
- explaining emotional state to SO: Thumbs up for that one. NEEDS to happen. See below.
- understanding that SO will continue with hobby after relationship start: Another thumbs up. Some people are just dumb. What, do women think that a guy's life is Games XOR Relationship? As if many of them would ever agree that their lives should be Shopping XOR Relationship. But, granted, the article includes comments from girlfriends that are bad and not as bad: 'Grow up and give them up' (basically the Games XOR Relationship idea) and 'Spend some of your gaming time with me instead' respectively.
Personal example: I remember when my boyfriend first got Earth & Beyond. It was soon after our relationship began, and I wasn't a fan of it. Granted, there are some new-relationship-sillies involved in that("LET'S BE TOGETHER ALL THE TIME, HOORAAAAY!"). But I got over it, and when he got bored of the game, I got him back, as it were.
Then came City of Heroes. I didn't like it for the first few days of watching my bf play it. From what I saw of the gameplay, it sucked. But, I later realized, I was only seeing the first few levels, so the combat seemed slow because of lame recharge times on your character's powers...so it looked like he was choosing a CRAPPY and SLOW game over me. So I got upset. Long story short, now I'm into it. Recently we moved our computers in the same room shortly before we got our City of Villains Beta invites. Heh, communicating verbally when you team together in the same room is WAY easier than typing.
Anyways, I got over my aversion to City of Heroes because we had a talk about how the amount of time he spent playing upset me. In that, we figured some stuff out. Part of which is that I made a big assumption that was wrong: he was choosing the game over me (not to say that there aren't any guys out there who DO actively choose games over their girlfriends all the time...but I can't speak to that, luckily). The reality, he said, was that he was choosing the game over doing nothing. I was afraid to speak up and ask to do things with him because I assumed that all he wanted to do was play games all the time. Turns out that isn't the case; it was just a vicious cycle of: him playing --> me assuming he doesn't ever wanna hang out with me because he's playing --> me not saying we should do something because he obviously already has something to do --> him assuming I don't wanna do anything because I never said anything --> so he played the game. Luckily it wasn't long before that stupidness was all straightened out.
In short: something I have learned in our relationship is to just SAY SOMETHING. Don't mindfuck him with weird ultimatums, don't try and show how you're upset by saying you're "Fine, I'm JUST. FINE." (and ladies: Ever seen another girl try and do that? Personally, I've never seen it work), don't be evil. We're currently watching a friend have trouble with her relationship because she has a tendency to just silently stew about an issue instead of talking about it. Sometimes with little mindgames to try and 'prove her point' (that he misses / doesn't take the 'bait' for). And her boyfriend thinks that things are great because he's not much of a talker himself. I stopped stewing when this City of Heroes problem happened, and any problems that come up have always been solved more easily since through good ol' fashioned straight-up communication.
In short, cue the, "Man, you don't know me!" à la trashy Springer-talk-show-style. heh. ;)
Now City of Heroes. I didn't like it for the first few days(because from what I saw of the gameplay, it sucked...but that was because it was just for the first few levels, so the combat seemed slow because of lame recharge times)...so it looked like he was choosing a crappy game over me.
But now I'm into it. And I'm lucky that my boyfriend encourages the inner gamer geek in me. He helps me and suggests strategies for when I'm/we're playing Soul Caliber 2, Diablo 2, City of Heroes, etc. etc. I say I'm lucky because he could just as easily be protective of his Xbox or computer(mine's old and can't handle much more than Alice). I also got over my aversion to City of Heroes because we had a talk about it. I made a big assumption that was wrong: he was choosing the game over me. But the reality, he said, was that he was choosing the game over doing nothing. I was afraid to speak up and ask to do things with him because I assumed I would annoy him and interrupt his levelling. Turns out that isn't the case; it was just a vicious cycle of him playing, me assuming he doesn't wanna be with me, me not saying we should do something, him assuming I don't wanna do anything, so he played the game. Luckily it was only a few days before that was straightened out. :)
I just got out my Matrix Revolutions soundtrack CD, and though I only viewed the I, Robot trailer once...track 16, Juno Reactor vs. Don Davis - Navras sure sounds like the music heard in the trailer...
Ok, I'll check again in the trailer...the relevant part in the trailer starts right at the city shot after Will Smith says "when people were killed by other people." Relevant part in song on soundtrack starts at about 16 seconds in.
Anyone agree? Anyone know if both the trailer and soundtrack got that section from a mutual source, or if the trailer just got it from the soundtrack?
If any student has still to turn in their registration fee, it should give it to the registrar immediately. If any student has failed to do this by friday, it only has itself to blame.
I guess I need to go ask one of my friends for money for tonight. If it doesn't give me any, I can't go to the movie...which sucks, because it looks really good.
I heard one of the students cheated on an essay. One should be careful, and I bet you they are going to make an example of it.
Once the user has performed this task, it should then move on to exercise 3.
I saw the book, gave it to the librarian, and it gave it to its supervisor, and the supervisor talked to it about whether it should be removed from the library immediately.
Any further examples? :)
3VOlu+IoN 0wNZ0R$ 3N9LIsH!
Just be glad that "[Something something something]...NOT!!" is mostly destroyed.
Take a linguistics course. Learn how languages evolve and why they evolve in the distinct patterns that they do.
Language is always undergoing change. The only reason that style books need to be updated is to accommodate that. There is still debate going on about whether to introduce a gender-neutral third-person singular term, or if "they" or "s/he" or something else is acceptable. Google it for several impassioned pages.
So if it shows up in one of your style books, will you then correct everyone on it?
I feel that I'm part of the first generation who was plagued by the "You can do anything you want to! You're female! Anything!!" people, trying to be helpful. Meanwhile, I sat back and was like, "yes, I know...I get it! Ok! Can I -- please, I just want to...ARGH! Can you just shut up and let me go and actually DO those things you say I can do?!" Every single one of them felt they were the first person to tell me that I was a free girl. Bet they sure felt important.
While I am grateful that I don't feel restricted, it just pisses me off more when people try to then restrict me. Of course I currently suck at CounterStrike. Of course I currently suck at Diablo. There is a lot of stuff to get used to in terms of UI, and just plain memorizing whatever the hell you're carrying. But all it takes is time.
My boyfriend is currently helping me learn Soul Calibur 2 because I'm addicted. :) Re-teaching me, in a way, because I've had such little chance to play fighting games that I used to resort to button mashing. At first, when I watched him and his friends play and hear them all laugh at the same time at some move on screen, I couldn't pick it up on what was so funny. But it just takes time. I feel more confident about seeing the attacks/blocks/parries and seeing the chess game (He just attacked and was parried three horizontal hits -- what're the odds the next one will be vertical?) involved. After playing lots, now I start laughing and calling people out. (Heheh...just stay far away a liiiittle longer while your cheap-ass sword builds your health back up, Nightmare...)
Parent is right. Ok, so it just so happens that activities that have been made with men in mind currently are having trouble finding women working at the same level. Big surprise. People are apparently not ready to deal with a female, and everything is still tailored to males. I'm not saying change it. As I said before, all it takes is time...for me, anyways. I tried a different thing -- fighting games in the above example -- and did the best I could(button-mashed), but I'm with time I'm able to differentiate what's going on a bit better. Give anyone, male or female, something to do that's not in their current paradigm, and they will get it with practice. Or maybe I'm just honestly slow compared to most girls.
Every time on /. that someone brings up females and techsomething, there's a discouraging amount of commenters who just fling insults. Did I grow up in some sort of encouragement-dream-world? I consistently see the amount of girl geeks around me growing in every compsci class I take. Is my world the exception?
Commence flaming, because I admit I'm a little irked by some insulting commenters, so this may be a little rant-ish and incoherent...ah well. :)
Now, granted, I work at a chain store, so this varies from store to store in terms of membership requirements policies. I guess the policy is the same, but the neighbourhood determines how it's enforced(at the store in the richest neighbourhood in Canada, you just plain don't ever check a person's picture ID. It's always just by phone number. Interestingly, this is also where nobody blinks if they've racked up $100 in late charges). At my store, the requirements are a driver's license(some sort of picture ID), a credit card(we perform a $2.00 pre-authorization, which holds $2.00 for three days, then gives it back to make sure it's valid and active -- and yes, we have had instances with invalid credit cards), and if they don't have a credit card, then they need two additional pieces of government issued ID besides the driver's license. (SIN if they offer it, birth certificate, citizenship, health card...) Some stores that I've seen don't even use membership forms, which blows my mind...I mean, doesn't that mean that they haven't signed anything and technically don't have to bring anything back? I guess it hasn't come up yet.
Vast majority of people are ok with this. But I hate the arguers. I've thought about it myself, and I've made up my mind(for what it's worth) on why we need all this stuff -- and made sure it's valid: As a rental store, we're trusting you to bring our stuff back. If you don't, we still need it back, and we need to be able to find you to get our stuff back.
I had to deny rentals to a customer today because her phone number was not in service(we found out when we tried to call her on the late list to remind her her stuff was overdue). She gave the same phone number, I tried it again, and it still said not in service. So I said I couldn't rent to her without a working phone number, and she left.
Sometimes it seems harsh, but given the outrageous customer stuff that happens...I still can understand why the rules are there. It is an all-too-regular thing for people to come in to different stores(some with more lenient rental membership policies), rent 3-5 games, and go rent more games from three more stores, never to be heard from again. $70 game for $7. Not a bad deal. I wouldn't be surprised if we start making it a blanket policy to check the phone number at till every single time we sign up a new member.
My boyfriend is way too good at Kilik, so I've grown to hate Kilik("CATS!!") because I always see that char kick my ass. :) I'm not a fan of Nightmare, either, for the same reason with my boyfriend's cousin. Plus, he's a bitch to play against with a weapon that huge. Mitsirugi's pretty powerful, as well.
My boyfriend's cousin sets up the controller with the R button set up to do whatever combo usually does throws because his fingers are too big to press 'em properly. I was practicing doing those "slide" button moves -- my boyfriend has trouble with doing the G-A(I think...I think it's B-X on Xbox) slides, but my thumb is small enough to fit through the B and K buttons that it's fine for me.
I'm kind of a button masher, but he's slowly but surely teaching me the intricacies of Soul Calibur II for Xbox. I've never been good at fighting games of that style, but hey, if you know one you can learn 'em all, and for some reason I'm really into Soul Calibur 2, so that's gonna be the one I learn fighting games with.
For some reason when playing multiplayer games with them, I'm not a fan of playing online. I really like Counterstrike, but for some reason I was hesitant to join my boyfriend's cousin in an online game he was playing. I know it's lame, but I think I'm just pretty self conscious about my playing ability, and I don't wanna drag the team down against people we don't know. For some reason, I don't mind as much when it's just people I know at a LAN. It's weird.
heh, currently, the only way I win at SC2 is because they have played so much that they have a rhythm of attacking/blocking/parrying/whathaveyou. I can't quite get the timing down yet, so I win by being unpredictable. Once I learn how to play the game better, I'm gonna lose all the time. :)
I will never, ever forget when I decided to kill some time and do some price checking at a mall computer store while my mom was checking out clothes. Whilst I was in there, I finally decided that yeah, I'm _that_ type of gamer, and I wanted Riven.
The salesman(greying, maybe in his 50s) proceeded to do his absolute best to try and sell me a copy of Cosmo Makeover software or some such makeover sh*t. I eventually asked him where Riven is, and he led me to the printer section. "No, not ribbon...Riven."
Then there's the time that I went with my male friends to a store well known for its cheap deals on hardware. One of my friends was getting a new video card. Now, I admit, I see anything shiny and tech and I must have a closer look. I forget what I was looking at(probably one of the 21" monitors or something), but the loud fat sales guy whom I doubt leaves his chair made extremely rude comments to me. Granted, I can't quite remember how it went, but I probably made some comment like "kickass monitor" and he's like "Watch your language young lady! I oughtta take you over my knee and spank ya!" and then he said aside to my friend "I bet she'd like it, too!"
It's getting better and better when I go to tech stores, but I still can't quite discern whether, when I'm alone, they're wondering whether I'm in the wrong section or am trying to steal something.
Oh well. If they think I'm trying to steal something, that at least gives me the credit that I know what the f*ck I'm doing looking at motherboards.
My boyfriend, on the otherhand, was adament that I get a pair of hooker boots. I almost bought a pair of silver thigh-highs. I liked 'em because I like anything silver, and he would like the hooker boots aspect. But I still couldn't do it. "No, I already have enough shoes to last me."