No Girls Allowed

[Svrtnsse]

Yes, it's a provocative attention seeking thread-title. It's also the title of this article about how come we - as a society - think that games are for guys.

No girls allowed | Polygon

It's a good read.

 

[GeekDavid]

My GW2 guild is led by a married couple, and the wife is online playing more than the hubby.

Stereotypes are often false.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I don't dispute that girls play games and neither does the article I linked. I'm well aware that "games is for guys" is a stereotype but in all honesty I haven't spent very much time thinking about where the stereotype comes from. The article does a pretty good job at trying to explain that.
It shows the power of marketing and the impact it has on us. Whether we "fall for it" or not it's still shaping the world we live in.

 

[Jabrosky]

I was just thinking back to the Mortal Kombat games, specifically how ridiculous their female characters' costumes look. I'm all for attractive warrior heroines, but it seems unfair that the chicks get only bikinis while the dudes get to be fully clothed. And don't women in Asian cultures tend to dress modestly anyway?

 

[Svrtnsse]

I was just thinking back to the Mortal Kombat games, specifically how ridiculous their female characters' costumes look. I'm all for attractive warrior heroines, but it seems unfair that the chicks get only bikinis while the dudes get to be fully clothed. And don't women in Asian cultures tend to dress modestly anyway?

It's related to what's described in the article. Those games are marketed towards guys and the women in them are dolled up to match marketing's impression of what guys find appealing. It has nothing to do with what a real woman would wear if she went to fight someone - at least if I go by my Tai Chi trainer (5th degree shaolin black belt).

As mentioned in the article somewhere. Young males turned out to be the biggest group of people who were identified as being into games and all marketing efforts focused on selling games to them. Like this:

And the ad for Battlecruiser showed an attractive blond woman wearing only a bra, one finger coyly in her mouth, with a copy of the game placed in front of her crotch. "She really wants it," the caption reads. The game is about fighting alien aircraft in space.

:/

 

[Ophiucha]

I understand that they were going for a feminine layout for the article given the subject matter, but pink and lavender are really hard background colours to read against. I ended up reading the whole thing in Clearly. :Þ

• Most "girls' sections," if they exist, are lined with fitness titles and Ubisoft's simplified career simulation series, Imagine, which lets players pretend they're doctors, teachers, gymnasts and babysitters.

I always hate that fitness titles get put in the girls section. I actually enjoy 'career simulation'-sort games. Style Savvy, Cooking Mama, Babysitting Mama. Good stuff. I don't like that it gets put into the little 'girl games' area because some stores don't even bother carrying them and also misogyny, but 'girl games' are not bad games. They're just not the only games girls play (nor are they games only girls play).

• Many of Sierra's audience were women in their 30s.

My mother was one of them. When I was a little girl, my momtried to play video games with me and my brother. She wasn't any good at most of them, but she did play adventure and simulation games with me. It's honestly sort of... heart-warming to know Sierra knew that there were women like her who played those games, considered them part of their audience.

• Bogost uses bookstores as an example. No one is surprised when they go into a bookstore and find that there are books for children, books about gardening or books about cooking. It's accepted that books are a general purpose medium that can address lots of interests.

I love this analogy. Quoting for emphasis.

As a 'girl gamer', I admit that my gender has influenced me in certain ways in response to marketing and the gaming culture that spawned as a result. I prefer to play games on PC, since I can buy them through Steam instead of going to the game store nearby and being critiqued and judged for my purchases. I avoid certain genres, particularly FPS, not because I do not enjoy them, but because they use voice chat if you're playing seriously and my voice is feminine enough that this is a unique hell.

I also find myself tending towards more niche games just because the audience isn't the same as mainstream gamers. Like, Skyrim is a game I've clocked more hours into than nearly any other in my life... but so have the same men who ruin Halo for me. It's easier to talk with people about something like Europa Universalis simply because I know that the audience for that game doesn't crossover as much with, for lack of a better word, 'dudebros'.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I think the article also makes an interesting analogy where it lines out how there's a difference between games and games. Angry Birds and Solitaire are just as much games as Skyrim or Call of Duty, but they're perceived differently.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

The article is mainly a historical analysis of why video game marketing is so starkly divided into "AAA-title games for males" and "casual games for... whoever (mainly women)." It's a good read, although I have to agree that the pink backgrounds did make reading it a little hard. The sectional graphics are nice, but I think I prefer good ol' white on black.

 

[Sam Evren]

I'm an old fan of Unreal Tournament. I love straight deathmatch. No unlocks. No teams. I'll even toss on the insta-kill mutator if I'm feeling cheeky.

About a year ago, I had a couple women visiting, and, as always, I try to gently introduce them (or anyone) into gaming. I'd created an opening with Portal, literally, and wanted to exploit it by continuing with old school Deathmatch.

I knew both women very well. Sharp minds, excellent reflexes, and I just knew they'd excel at UT2k4.

What I noticed about the exchange was that they both had experiences where men (or boys) they'd known had either humiliated or "ganged up" on them. I honestly don't understand why the hell most males do this. Maybe it's because they're afraid of their own abilities. I suppose I'm just secure in mine. I digress.

I managed to get one of the women to chase me around UT2k4, promising that I wouldn't kill her, just be a hard-to-hit target. Once she was comfortable with that, I moved faster and faster until she really impressed me with her speed and skill. Then I introduced her to bots.

Bots make the BEST intro to shooter gaming. Killing a bot is hurting no one. My friends didn't want to "hurt" me, didn't want that sort of confrontation, but the bots, they were fair game.

After one of the women started cleaning house with the bots, the other began to take a bit of umbrage. I could see it in her eyes - and she confirmed it to me later - that if her friend could do it, she damn well knew she could, too. Within a few minutes, I had her set up with her own bots.

As I watched them play, I was continually astonished by their abilities. Not because they were women, but because they had just started the game and were actually both amazing.

Over the years, I've found women to be - consistently - some of the best gamers I've played. I think the biggest barrier to entry is their introduction, be it via another human or the game's tutorial. Women are fabulous gamers, but both the male audience and industry need to be a lot more welcoming.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Over the years, I've found women to be - consistently - some of the best gamers I've played. I think the biggest barrier to entry is their introduction, be it via another human or the game's tutorial. Women are fabulous gamers, but both the male audience and industry need to be a lot more welcoming.

This kind of behaviour is really strange. It's like gaming is some kind of boys club and girls really aren't allowed. Just look at the comments section when some gaming site publishes something about women in gaming, or the misogyny of the gaming scene etc. Those comments will be full of self righteous gamers (SWM) who complain about some minor detail in the article while completely failing to see the big picture.
...on second thought, don't read those comments, it's a sad and depressing example of the world.

 

[Sam Evren]

...on second thought, don't read those comments, it's a sad and depressing example of the world.

I do tend to avoid those "discussions," they decrease my faith in humanity.

It just makes no sense to me. I've been a PC gamer since 1987 - earlier if you want to include things like the Commodore 64/Vic 20. Throughout all those years, I've attempted to convert just about everyone I've met into a gamer. Young, old, male, female, I'll try to hook anybody I can.

I could sermonize about the benefits of gaming. I can espouse my beliefs that gaming is the next level of entertainment - beyond books, movies, or televions - a medium of truly interactive storytelling. I can even point you to a wonderful women who made a fabulous video that, on occasion, has helped me in my missionary work. That being this TED talk: Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games - YouTube

What I don't understand, at all, is the exclusive attitude some "gamers" have. It's like saying books are for only one gender - or age group. It truly boggles my mind. As a male gamer, I've been over the moon when any of my significant female others have shown an interest in gaming - and honestly, those have been the best of gaming times!

Whether it is with friend or lover, stranger or family, with games, as with any hobby or pastime, show respect to individual and topic, and you'll both learn, both have fun, and have a new aspect of relationship to build upon.

 

[SM-Dreamer]

I grew up watching my dad play video games. It wasn't a 'boy' thing, just a computer geek thing. My younger sisters had games that they liked to play (Barbie and horse racing and fashion stuff) and I (also a girl) liked the shooters or fantasy (immersive? the story aspects, maybe?) games, but I didn't really see it as a male vs female thing until middle and high school. I was always a tomboy, so mentioning video games as a hobby was just one more thing that I did that made me 'like the boys' but my best friends were also gamers.

I noticed one of you mentioned the hell of using voice chat with games - I always was defiant about it. Yes I'm a girl, and yes I'm just as good a gamer as you are. But for the most part, it was something, at least in my gaming circle, that was accepted.

I do think its sad that the mass perception is that guys play games, not girls, because video games are a really great thing that cover a vast array of interests.