After his answer which I won't mention here I searched some things online and came across a couple of articles online that dealt with the topic of girls playing games and genderplay.

 

As a woman who plays video games, I've had to think about gender in videogames, because it's so obvious that I'm playing in a boys' world.

 

This is especially true where everything from the environment (the marketing, the merchandising, the image of the industry) to the peripherals (the laughably phallic joystick, the original Xbox controllers which are way too big for my hands) are male-friendly. The attitude seems to be, "Maybe some women play our games, but we don't really know, and frankly, we don't care."

When designing characters, it's important to keep in mind the tension between identification and alienation, because the player is both actor and spectator. This is a good tension, it drives a lot of gameplay and innovation. Without identification, you create a game which has little emotional impact, little drama. That's okay in a characterless game like Tetris, but in games with characters, the characters should probably function as vehicles for something greater. Similarily, you need to allow some players some room for a certain amount of alienation. You want to preserve player identity. How many boys would have played Tomb Raider if they really felt that they were somehow taking on a feminine role? Maintaining distance is a way of being able to play characters who are not you, and being able to inhabit that genderspace comfortably, without the risk of a split personality.

The issue of alienation/identification intensifies, I would argue, in an online multiplayer setting, because while in a single-player game you are free to experiment with multiple characters in private, in a multiplayer environment, the way others react to you is through your avatar. Therefore some people either take great pains to distance themselves from the avatar, or conversely, create avatars with which they identify very closely. I think these behaviors lead to some very interesting gender play in online environments.

I'm using the somewhat clumsy term "genderspace" because "gender" connotes an either-or, black and white proposition, and I think that we often see in games a more fluid range of gender construction, within prescribed limits. The way gender is programmed, incorporated, and manipulated describes a "gender space" - it defines a range for gendered experiences in four ways:

1. The environment around the character outside of the game: the marketing, the merchandising, the advertising. The image of the character, and how that character is described. The iconic legacy of that character, apart from the actual character as a function of gameplay.

2. The aesthetics of the character in the game. The character's appearance, movements, actions, voice, characteristics.

3. The programmatic aspects of the character in the game. The character's choices, other character's reactions, the encoded abilities and biases.

4. Character as avatar in a multiplayer environment - a special category: how other characters played by other people react to your character, and how you choose to interact with others.

A great example of failure in the marketing environment around a character is the Tomb Raider series - games which should have been breakthrough girl games.

I never played this game. It looked fun, and I was excited about having a female protagonist. Outside of fighting games there hadn't been a whole lot of games starring strong women. But frankly, the way this game was marketed and talked about totally turned me off. It was immediately clear to me that I wasn't supposed to identify with her. In fact it seemed to go out of its way to assure young teenage boys that they shouldn't identify with her, they should just ogle her.  It's not the fault of the packaging. Okay, so her breasts are lethal weapons, sure. But I like the cover art. It shows that she's strong, she's tough, she's an adventurer, she's solo - she doesn't need a man! She *pwns* with those guns, and she knows how to use them. What's not to like?

But the hype surrounding Lara Croft was gross. The hype undercut her image as strong smart archeologist. The hype made her into a sex kitten. Where are her guns now? I rather think it demonstrates how immature gaming culture still was then, and is now.

The reviews and previews obsessively focused on the male gaze traversing her body more than the gameplay. That turned me off immediately. She's just a toy, to be played with, manipulated in an environement, not an avatar to identify with, a personality to inhabit. The message wasn't, "Hey, girls, an empowered woman to play in a game!" but rather, "Hey, boys, check out this chick's boobs while you lead her around a dungeon!" I consider this the great wasted potential of Lara Croft to transform the videogame cultural landscape.

Highly sexualized characters are not immediately a turnoff for females, though. It depends entirely on the context. For example, the notorious DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball was shocking when I heard about it. I thought, "What the hell is this game?"

But you know, it's an absolutely gorgeous game. It does a marvelous job of articulating characters. Their movements are fluid and beautiful. And it's totally transparent! It's a pin-up game - you can't argue with that. And as a pin-up game, it's an outstanding success. I've never played it, and I don't think it's very interesting to other women, but it's an honest game and I don't feel offended by it. It's silly, it's like a beach-bunny movie, a "men's magazine". The domain is explicitly for men, and that's okay. Nothing's wrong with it, even if there's nothing compelling to a female audience, either.

As far as the name Hoe, it sounded like a good name to get to people when I killed them. I cant tell you how many "f**king Hoe" tells I get. To my suprise though, I cant tell you how many people assume Im a girl and send me some weird tells and then tk me when I tell the sick f**k im not a girl. It really gave me a wierd view of what some guys will randomly say to a girl in a video game.

 

to quote her "Why would you play a game where your charecter is ugly?"

she loves the latest tomb raider game, she feels it is verry empowering.

ive never really played a chick charecter instaid of a guy, it dosent matter really to me tho. its all the same at the other end of the barrel.

also, always assume evrebody in a game is a guy. and if you get them on TS and it sounds like a chick, its probably an 9 year old kid from england.

 

a while ago, i was on Xbox live, and i came into this room where two others where alraidy there, so we start the race and this guy start treing to hit on the other player, complimenting their driving skills and what not. and the SECOND the other player start to talk, i notice a high-pitched squeeky voice. and i start laughing so hard i fall of my chair, the guy asks why im laughing.

 

i ask " hey, kid are you an 9 year old from England?"

he says " Yeah! how did you know?"

the other player disconected immediatly :P

 

 

 

but yeah, i have seen the way men treat women in video games, it is really disgusting. i treat them indifrently, but from what i have seen, they can all be catagorized in 3 groops when it comes down to how they treat them.

 

1. probably the most common type, they treat women like dirt, saying they shouldent play video games and so on.

 

2. they make evre attemp to pick up the girl, annoying her to hell and back

 

3. they pretend not to want to pick up the girl, and defend her from the first two kinds of guys. always making sure to try and pick up the girl for himself, without being so open about it.

 

 

 

i can see why women dont play video games verry much, with the combination of these 3 kinds of people, it tends to be an incredibly frustating experiance for them.

i know this because i often watch my little sister playing WoW or other online games, and some of the tells she gets are just abseloutly infuriating, i dont know how she can deal with these people, i would log off and never play again.

 

in most games, she has resorted to using a male charecter, with a male name, so she dosent get harrased.

 

Just didn't feel right to me, I'm a guy(YA RYLY!), and I choose to stay true to that so I go with the big burly dudes I suppose.

 

I've been a male gamer for about 6 years (while Planetside appears to be the last of such games I may be committing to), and I've personally come to despise the interaction between female and male gamers.  Albeit I am not certain exactly what is the root cause of this dislike, but it probably has to do with how I perceive online gamers to be - a standard deviation below the average in terms of communicating with females, the subsequent removal of inhibition to behave (usually in a negative manner) in an online medium.  If these preconceved notions are false, even then you have a situation in which there is that one attractive girl in that sports bar syndrome, in which I have to bear witness to acts that I can easily avoid outside of a game. 

 

In short, female gamers are prone to causing drama in the games I have been involved.  Perhaps the idea is much more offensive to me, since I log on to play a game undisturbed from all of the worldly cares, a sort of escape from the routine aspects of life: having to make a living, studying for classes, dealing with immutable problems between family members, friends, colleagues, people of power and resigned individuals, and accepting the fact that some of these problems will never go away.  I treat gaming the same way I approach music, sports, and literature.  A departure from the norm.  By that logic, I've also come to despise having to earn money in a game, or do any character-building required by a MMORPG, in which it is possible to construct a 'fantasy world' mirroring the real world. I don't want to work in a game, I want objectives, competition, and swift interaction (in planetisde, a weapon) I suppose.  So how does all of this relate to what I was talking about earlier?  In my experience, females have made my gaming experience equivalent to going to a sports bar with only one attractive female, except worse, since there is very little in the way of inhibiting what is said. 

 

I've thought this is more true to the MMORPGs then planetside (since there really is too little time to converse, other than via TS/ventrillo), but it appears Isabel is still subject to the same sort of abuse from male gamers.  I can definetely think of one exception in which playing with a female gamer was quite enjoyable, and that was when I played in an outfit with a female who was married to a respected individual in the outfit.  Since she was happily married, the flirting (or rather pathetic flirting attempts) was kept at a minima over teamspeakl, and because she was content with her marriage, she never took advantage of the scarcity of supply (in this case, female) to demand (generated by males).  The result was: a drama free time, while logging on to planetside with this individual. 

 

My personal thoughts are that women like yourselves, Isabel, will have to wait at least one more generation to be subject to normal treatment by your gaming peers.  Already, the face of male gamers is becoming mainstream because of the popularity of games like WoW, as the portrayal of the stereotypical gamer as a social misfit living in his parent's basement, is beginning to change.  As more and more females brave the gaming barrier as it is still against the social norms, it's only inevitable.

 

 

 

 

Drama caused by females online are inevitable, I suppose by everyone male and female alike. StarRaven for example, but then again, she never would get on TS when asked and I like to think someone like that really isn't female, but I can't be sure.

 

Here's a tell I got today by someone I thought to be a friend.

 

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There's a saying that goes "You never know someone until you fight them." I suppose it holds true here. I've been on his TS, we've talked, laughed, he even wants me to go VS and join his A-S-L? outfit. But suddenly I kill him in a 1v1, agile vs agile, jackhammer vs jackhammer, and this is what happens? Had I been male would he have even sent a tell?

 

The topic of my sexual activity is not up for discussion in such an environment. Did I wrong him in some way that he would react to me, his "friend" like this? And who the heck is Chris? Needless to say they both found their way on my ignore list but am I really to blame for this? Is it because I'm not supposed to be able to kill him or anyone else? Should I somehow not be as skilled or capable because I have long brunette hair that constantly gets in my face and has caused several deaths, or because when I type you can hear the clicking sounds of nails clashing into the alphanumeric keyboard?

 

But let me not be one-sided, I've gotten the oh so famous "You're pretty good for a girl" comment. Is this supposed to be a compliment?

 

I like to think I can hold my own and to be honest there's only a handful of players that will make me sit up right, turn off the TV / Radio, and actually focus 100% on the game when I know they are in the vicinity.

 

But what used to be "Isabel has that door, you take the other one" is now "Hey Isabel, why don't you come to the CC with us and let someone else guard the door." As though suddenly it's impossible to conceive the notation that maybe this player (not male or female - but player) can be just as capable. Perhaps I'm being a bit too emtional and causing drama right here? I don't know but have you ever been pissed off because you died or died too much? We share the same feelings, just in a different context for a different reason.

 

i think the people who are sending you tells are 14 year old, who arent having any luck with women at school, and taking out their frustations online. because as evrebody knows, being an ass online has no concequence.

 

 

It looks like you're being treated as a 'minority', Isabel. And there's no denying that you are precisely that in planetside.  You're just going to have to find the individuals who do not equate you to the negative stereotypes that usually accompany that minority group and ignore the rest.  I also applaud your desire to be treated as an equal, not as a good "female gamer."  It annoys me to hell, when a girl desiring equal treatment also demands to be given 'special treatment' as a lady.  It's either one or the other.

 

There's one thing I've noticed from MMO games, and that is, we are virtually observing a world in which, difference in appearance has been dented.  Being different is both a blessing and a curse to humanity.  We identify ourselves through them.  We strive on our recognition of differences.  Take the avatars in Planetside for example.  Other than faction-based weaponry and a relatively minor variation in character faces and voices, there are no significant differences to be observed.  However, we immediately segregate by being sensitive about our differences.  When you interact in Planetside, there's very little about our culture and history that we bring into the gunning down our enemies or collectively holding a hack on Dagda, but still there is a tremendous degree of animosity between players. 

 

That dislike is fueled by difference of opinion in styles, intelligence levels, and most notably, we bring our worldly constructs into the game.  The funny thing is: very few of them actually have any relavance to the game.  (except for the core themes like, loyalty, honesty, etc).  One of the most common insults in an MMO game is, I am better than you in real life.  This is usually out of frustration of not being aware of more differences to fan the hatred you are developing for the individual in the game.  There's just so much more in life that we can use as ammo that isn't there in planetside.  We don't want to be just another player in our so called online game -- some people, much more so than others.  I think the sooner you realize this, the less you will be offended by such ignorant comments.  Also, in case you haven't noticed, the guy world is so very different from a girl world. We are more crude, direct, and unmethodical on average than women.  If the players knew some other information about you that makes you a minority, they will abuse that too.

 

The Smacktards of VS.

 

They should stick to what they do best, which is cooking, cleaning, getting beaten by their significant other, etc.

 

Unless it's a housework simulation game, I just don't see any exceptions.

 

you could always just play male avatars and get a voice synthisizer for the TS, and pretend your a guy ;)

 

 

It might be the little girl inside screaming to get out but that's another story.

 

/sign