EPTI'm a female gamer. And I'm sad. - Page 6
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eviltomahawk
United States11135 Posts
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sailorferret
United States66 Posts
The sad truth is that girls are not motivated to play Starcraft. There are far too many other real world attentions out there. Simply put: girls do not need to play Starcraft. As long as the frontrunners are pulling in <$200,000 per year and don't shave or can't control their weight, Starcraft is not going to become overly popular; women are attracted to money, fame, and prestige, and we have to sell that. These are two essentialist statements that do not accurately reflect "what women want" or "need." No one "needs" to play Starcraft. But a lot of people really want to. The main issues preventing women's participation in e-sports in my mind is two fold (1) The e-gaming community is profoundly patriarchal. The language it uses, the culture it creates, the Dr. Pepper girls that sponsor it, etc. When women entering into the gaming world they are confronted with the option of hiding who they are or risk being harassed by others. Watch a few commentaries on female gamers or the comments under commentary by female gamers and it becomes explicit. Hiding who you are to participate in a community is not an open one. Until this chances women entering into e-games will face a hostile community that doesn't foster their continual participation. (2) The cultural conditions that allow people to say the two statements I quote at the start of this post. The belief women are X, men are Y helps to perpetuate the belief that Starcraft is no place for women so there's no reason working on correcting the other problem I state above. If you look at the other threads like gender disparities in e-sports you'll notice time and time again that the community responds in way negatively toward changing it or opening it to others because the belief is the community exists as it does is natural. Ie, there aren't women playing because women don't want to (many people assume for biological reasons). The solution to me consists of (1) promoting the existence of high-level competitive female gamers to create role-models for other female gamers; (2) report people to Blizzard who you see harassing or demeaning people for people women; and (3) be open to the realization that cultural conditions can and do change... and that everything we do either works to solidify things how they are or break them down to form new conditions. | ||
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Porcelain
United States218 Posts
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StarStruck
25339 Posts
I don't know why you people have to keep bringing up such people like Kelly Milkies, who sticks out like sore thumb. It's a terrible example to refute that argument because there is so much more to it. Almost everyone who casts gets shat on. Guy or girl. If you are going to embellish you might as well add every caster. You know how people talk about the forums being a cesspool of shit? Yeah, well... more so in the chat rooms for streamers. There is no code. You can boot them from the channel all you want. They'll just keep coming in droves. Women will come when they realize how main stream it actually is. Same rules apply to things like Comic Con. They see how big and fun it is. They will show up. Sure, there will always be a few douchebags who yell out, "show us your tits." You give them attention and they'll keep trying to egg you on. C'est la vie. As for your solutions... I would love to see a person like Pikachu compete with the boys in MLG. Someone has to break the ice and compete with the boys in the open bracket. Sure. The more women competing and jumping in with both feet are the ones who are going to carry the others further. All they have to do is compete and they'll get exposure. No bones about it. You want to make headlines, just register to play. It doesn't matter what league you are in. The guys will respect you. It worked for Danica Patrick, Hayley Wickenheiser, etc. Number 2. We have something for that already. You can block people you don't want to talk to. Number 3. Sociology 101. Don't let the douche bags win. If you want to break down barriers you take initiative yourself. | ||
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Puporing
Canada44 Posts
To be honest, initially I found the game very hard to get into in SC1, both thanks to the poor graphics and difficulty in understanding the game. I think what really helps is having a few friends that are patient enough to lead a new Starcraft gamer to the right directions. I play the game more socially/entertainingly than competitively, both due to self interest and conflict of time with other commitments in life. But I believe that anyone can get better and do well at this game if they devoted time in practicing and learning (guy or girl). Overall I just find the people in this community and the culture really cool and FAWKING HILARIOUS and keeps me intellectually stimulated.  | ||
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lolsixtynine
United States600 Posts
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EscPlan9
United States2777 Posts
On July 28 2011 18:43 BabyToss! wrote: ... People put too much emphasis on genders n' stuff. It is a fact that girls are sometimes insulted by their male-counter parts, despite of some guys wanting girls to play. Seems to me that even the guys can't make their minds what they really want. At one side, they say that they wish girls would play games (SC2 in this case) more, and at the another instance, when they see one, they instantly go and bash on how bad of a player said girl is or how hot/ugly she is. Thing is, if they really want girls to play, they should not act that way and instead, accept them as part of the community, without pointing fingers 'HEY, IT'S A GURL' kind of style. Not only it gives an unwanted attention to that girl, but it also excludes them from the community. In the end, like I said, gender doesn't matter. The passion we share love for, however, does. Wish we'd move past the stage that women are seen as either unusual, bad or even worse, judged by their looks, instead of for their passion & love for the game! The first paragraph I quoted here was basically what I was going to re-iterate. Many guys here make it sound like they want more gamer girls - but then you see how gamer girls are treated by many gamer guys and you have to wonder. Gender does matter in many cases because there are some differences. Although I agree that women should feel as welcomed to the gaming community as men, that simply is not the case at the moment, and we cannot keep doing the same thing hoping for a different reaction (namely, we cannot keep saying women should be treated "the same" and then not make them feel welcome). | ||
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GreatFall
United States1061 Posts
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
I got my start playing Tomb Raider on my old PC ^_^; My favorite games are; Fatal Frame, Resident Evil (By far the series I've played the most), Forbidden Siren, Silent Hill (Especially 2.) Terrible, but amusing SH games like Obscure (I like laughing at bad voice acting) Plus RPGs such as Final Fantasy. I'm looking to expand into playing things like Zelda etc when I go home to my consoles. As for non-console stuff I like mystery games such as Phoenix Wright. I do indulge in the odd cute game (Cooking Mama, Nintendogs etc.) I really want to try a wider range of DS/PS3 games, but it's hard to find them here in English (and I lack a TV) so I've not gamed for ages! I'm not particularly good at them, but I do enjoy watching others play RTS (SC:BW obviously) plus FPS like Sudden Attack, Quake, Doom, Counterstrike etc. I was a real junkie for going to the non-SC leagues, and doing photo shoots/supporting the teams. Even if it wasn't 'official' eSports journalism. | ||
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Zlasher
United States9129 Posts
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obesechicken13
United States10467 Posts
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=231265 | ||
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Lucumo
6850 Posts
On July 29 2011 09:04 NeverGG wrote: My favorite games are; Fatal Frame, Resident Evil (By far the series I've played the most), Forbidden Siren, Silent Hill (Especially 2.) Terrible, but amusing SH games like Obscure (I like laughing at bad voice acting) Plus RPGs such as Final Fantasy. I'm looking to expand into playing things like Zelda etc when I go home to my consoles. As for non-console stuff I like mystery games such as Phoenix Wright. I do indulge in the odd cute game (Cooking Mama, Nintendogs etc.) I really want to try a wider range of DS/PS3 games, but it's hard to find them here in English (and I lack a TV) so I've not gamed for ages! Well, you are definitely on par with a lot of Japanese (girls). For some reason, they really like those kind of games. Err, "non-console stuff"? Those games are console ones as well ^_^ And since you are in Korea, you should start playing MMOGs, he he. | ||
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
On July 29 2011 10:10 Lucumo wrote: Well, you are definitely on par with a lot of Japanese (girls). For some reason, they really like those kind of games. Err, "non-console stuff"? Those games are console ones as well ^_^ And since you are in Korea, you should start playing MMOGs, he he. They're handheld - I don't consider those to be the same as my consoles that require being hooked up to the TV. | ||
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Louuster
Canada2869 Posts
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ninazerg
United States7291 Posts
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dabom88
United States3483 Posts
On July 29 2011 09:04 NeverGG wrote: (People seem to assume I'm only a retired eSports photographer/journo.) The only thing I've ever assumed about you is that you like Kamen Rider/Super Sentai. Learning that you're a girl, you're another extremely rare kind that watches KR/SS. | ||
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Torenhire
United States11681 Posts
On July 29 2011 09:04 NeverGG wrote: I'm not exactly a lurker, but I am a female gamer (People seem to assume I'm only a retired eSports photographer/journo.) I adore playing games, but they're all single-player affairs (well except for being horrifically bad at beat-em-ups like Soul Caliber and the Tekken series.) My genre of choice is survival horror. I'm a sucker for a good plot, interesting visuals (character design, costuming, locations etc.) gore/creepy elements, and OSTs. I used to spend more time gaming back in university than I did studying. I got my start playing Tomb Raider on my old PC ^_^; My favorite games are; Fatal Frame, Resident Evil (By far the series I've played the most), Forbidden Siren, Silent Hill (Especially 2.) Terrible, but amusing SH games like Obscure (I like laughing at bad voice acting) Plus RPGs such as Final Fantasy. I'm looking to expand into playing things like Zelda etc when I go home to my consoles. As for non-console stuff I like mystery games such as Phoenix Wright. I do indulge in the odd cute game (Cooking Mama, Nintendogs etc.) I really want to try a wider range of DS/PS3 games, but it's hard to find them here in English (and I lack a TV) so I've not gamed for ages! I'm not particularly good at them, but I do enjoy watching others play RTS (SC:BW obviously) plus FPS like Sudden Attack, Quake, Doom, Counterstrike etc. I was a real junkie for going to the non-SC leagues, and doing photo shoots/supporting the teams. Even if it wasn't 'official' eSports journalism. Speaking of which, Neggy... Steam pre-order for Dead Island!! :D You said we'd play! :3 | ||
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skyrunner
371 Posts
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
On July 29 2011 12:28 dabom88 wrote: The only thing I've ever assumed about you is that you like Kamen Rider/Super Sentai. Learning that you're a girl, you're another extremely rare kind that watches KR/SS. I know quite a few KR/SS watching ladies. However, the fandom seems to be concentrated mostly around the main forums (Henshin Justice etc.) and I've heard there's quite a lot of petty drama on them. I tend to stick to chatting with my friends on messaging services instead. (Oh and making precisely a billion gifs of OOOs and Gokaiger) each week ^_^; I regularly drive my other non-tokusatsu watching friend a bit mental by dragging him off on searches for certain types of merchandise. @Torenhire: Aw hell yeah. I'll ask my friend about helping me pay for it. | ||
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