Why do female gamers want to be recognized? The industry considers them as a minority among action and strategy game genres. Sure, it's not nearly as bad as 10 years ago. Minorities want to be proud of who they are. Consider this. How long did it take for women and sports to happen? Women are less known as a minority in this field but do we see football female teams flooding stadiums? Not really because society still believes football is for men.
As times change for the game industry and female gamers continueing to dominate social games, the more often you will notice that there is no need to say one is special for being a specific gender. Many more female gamers do not want a girly game these days than ever before. The game industry is trying to change and accomondate women or girls who want real games, not girl games.
Do men or boys heckle women more now then they did in the day? I think there are more gamers now then there were many years ago and more women are playing male dominated games. It takes courage for female gamers to be in a game room consisting of all men. Some will have a non-gender ingame name and will not speak on the microphone in fear that they will be treated differently (worse or better). Others dont care what others think while others want to get noticed. Are they at fault?
Is it truly bad when a girl wants to get noticed? I think there is a time and place to play certain games and if a girl wants to get noticed she needs to do it through her skills in the game and less about typing or voice chatting in the game. When a female gamer is causing conflict to play in a game this is a PROBLEM when a game is happening for a shooter or strategy game because things are often fast paced. The game becomes all about talking to the female player and this is why some male gamers get ticked off. PLAY THE GAME if you are in a game! Use chatrooms, ventrillo and other outlets outside the game for social conversations.
Some female gamers dont deserve this treatment and are there to play the game. They need to grow thick skin because there are many people who will do anything to harass them. Once a female gamer is immune to the abuse they have strategies about how to get around the name calling or harassment inside the game (when it is no fault of their own). I often get male gamers (on an opposing team) following me around in shooter gamers and it takes a LOT of fun out of the game. Why do they follow me around? Do they think I'm that bad at a game? Some go out of their way to not shoot me but they get close to find a way to stab me in the game. Some are curious and some are just trying to prove a point. Does it bother me? I leave a game if it's annoying, but as long as I am among 'friends' I just let them know what is going on. They typically back me up and I have a new goal to go out of my way to kick this guy's butt in the game.
I can go on and on about the nature of female gamers, but some of you already said it best. I liked MissLibrarian's statement and quite a few others. :)
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