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Hey guys! This is my first blog post. I'm going to start this off with a pretty controversial video I made. I'd love it if you guys would share your experiences with me. It is a Vlog entry about my personal experience getting involved in the SC2 scene and testing the waters with the DotA2 community and the reception I got with it being the 2nd esports community I got involved with. Feel free to disagree with my opinions and statements. Those aren't necessarily what is actually going on, but they represent how I perceive the scene and the community and how I think it is. Might be wrong, might be right, you tell me! Also, feel free to tell me how you think I could better my Blog & Vlog and any topics you'd like me to cover!
 
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Keep up the good work Gen!
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Canada11497 Posts
I think everything is 'amplified' is a good word/ observation. It may be that that women will get extra views for being female, but I don't envy their trial by fire to become legitimized as a 'true gamer.' It seems very difficult to enter the scene and be viewed neutrally. The supposed automatic positive reception of females has led to a very hostile reception to many new female gamers until they can prove they are not 'that kind of gamer girl.' Guilty until proven innocent.
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TBH, I don't even know why you bother making a v-log purely based on something people said to you online. Not that it's bad or anything, but it simply does not adress the matter you wanted to focus onto.
In any sort of online activity, your job is to discuss the things you are passionate about and people's job is to throw any kind of funny, weird or ungodly stupid feedback on you. Jumping on their side of the fence seems to me more like a waste of time.
And the part of truth about 'stigmatizing girls who get involved in the community' is that girls give a little bit more fuck about what's being said about them online so some douchebags will always use this opportunity to bring someone down nvm, on second thought, it's all about bunch of insecure sexist virgins with underlining unresolved homosexual dillemas.
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I would say that on the whole, the community, or I suspect (though without being able to speak at all for the DotA, LoL, CoD etc. communities) the "gaming" communities want more women involved, but they always expect or even demand (and I would say not unfairly) equal interest in the game to men; if they are to be employed in something like an interviewing job, men/boys/guys expect the same dedication to trying to know what you are talking about, the same effort put into researching things you really should know for an interview etc.
+ Show Spoiler +To be clear, Genevieve, I'm talking in the general sense, objectively, so this isn't about you. 
On August 23 2013 12:45 Falling wrote:
The supposed automatic positive reception of females has led to a very hostile reception to many new female gamers until they can prove they are not 'that kind of gamer girl.' Guilty until proven innocent.
I mostly agree, but if they know all that they should know and sound competent when interviewing, most people probably won't be too resentful.
They MAY still feel like "pfft, she probably only got the job because she's a girl and is wearing make-up", but they probably won't (and damn well shouldn't) be really harsh if she is doing everything else right.
It's true that certain standards of appearance are expected, maybe especially for women, though I would say for them it's mainly just that they are (unfairly) expected to wear make-up (as long as they look clean and all, I don't agree that make-up should be a must), but possibly in some places they are also expected to be 'pretty'. Maybe in some places you weight might be an issue, but I'm not sure those same places would hire males that are overweight either.
Some judgemental people also have such double standards though, so it's possible.
It doesn't feel right if women seem to get employed and take all the e-Sports money (hehe) just because they're female and have an interest, when so many others (who are male) will be working hard to make their way in the e-Sports scene with no 'edge' on their side.
Obviously the worst (that I know of) time we saw a female interviewer show how inappropriate it was that she was hired was the one at the first NASL (is that Lauren Elise or someone else?), who asked Drewbie "if it was his first NASL", when it was THE FIRST NASL.
There's being crap at playing the game while having plenty of knowledge and understanding of the game - that's allowed.
There's being crap at the game and not really know or understand the game above a very low level - that causes some problems and negative feedback.
Then there's not putting any effort into understanding the game, tournament, scene (eSports as a thing), any history about any players, treating it seemingly based on the assumption that all the people attending are complete amateur kids turning up to some fun little gameplaying tournament.
When a community full of people who like detailed intellectual debate about the intricacies of the game, probably with an average IQ score above any nation's average*, that puts an amazing amount of time, effort and thought into discussion of, playing of and promotion of the game, seems to get indirectly ridiculed by some young thing who hasn't done research into the scene, nor her employers and seems a bit ditsy and very naïve...when someone like that gets employed, the community's bound to wonder why the @#$% they hired her and feel very negatively about the whole thing.
Of course, they did and there was a lot of deserved backlash, though it should mainly have been at the brain-dead employers who clearly don't know what they're doing. In reality, maybe it was.
*+ Show Spoiler +might be a guess but I thought the general consensus was despite all the people who claimed to be fucking geniuses at everything, we were "smarter than average". I don't recall how well this was backed up though and maybe I'm just repeating something that was really just someone's assuming crap that the community on the whole might like to believe. XD It's true I'm willing to believe that we're a little smarter on average. :Þ
So that event really amplified the critical approach people have towards "girl gamers" in the SC2 scene at least, because we want the women involved to deserve the job at least as much, so that the best person won and even so that we can feel comfortable that they deserve it, rather than feel they're been chosen as some marketing tool.
We want + Show Spoiler +(bah, I at least think I'm speaking for many, anyway)
All of those "want" lines are true for men in those jobs too, but there's that "fear" of women getting an edge just because of gender making them either a marketing tool ("flashy! pretty!") rather than competent and deserving of the position or just because they're different (but then that one would apply for any men with physical standards that "fit in" but some other traits that help them to "stand out").
As long as you don't present yourself as really good without being reeeeallly good, gamers mostly shouldn't be too mad about it.
Youtube and reddit can be bitchy, childish and hyper-critical (unproductively and with many judgemental assumptions too) though, so there's always that influence to make things seem worse.
Most of those comments about looks or way of speaking are not constructive. Of course, if someone regularly doesn't speak English well when they are meant to be presenting in that language, it can seem inappropriate for them to be chosen to represent or work for the community, but mostly people would just be picking on your accent. I think, on average, your sentence structure has less problems than that of Apollo + Show Spoiler +(  I like him still though) 
Is the "don't talk about the haters" advice from other casters and interviewers? It might be wise, but personally I'm more naturally inclined towards people who are willing to show emotion and bite back at nasty types, so long as they don't get carried away or say try to vilify someone who they feel hard done by, when it's clear that person has done little to deserve it.
It's probably safer to avoid getting into such things, but as long as I think the person did mean well and didn't act too much worse than they meant, I like the honesty of expression. =D
I've loved watching you learn Dungeons & Dragons and really try to be a participating part of the party (which is my main exposure to you within the SC2 community, honestly, though I watched you play terran on stream a couple of times).
It's a little bit of a shame when people + Show Spoiler + just talk over you or act really impatiently at/don't care about your words just because you're not always quite as sure about the wording you want to use or because you're a little unsure of what you want your character to do
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Don't look to the internet for self-affirmation.
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Obviously the worst (that I know of) time we saw a female interviewer show how inappropriate it was that she was hired was the one at the first NASL (is that Lauren Elise or someone else?), who asked Drewbie "if it was his first NASL", when it was THE FIRST NASL.
Lindsey Sporrer or?
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for some reason I'm reluctant to watch girls streaming but in this case, once livinpink got involved and produced decent content (the mlg interviews), it got totally ok^^
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On August 23 2013 18:42 deathly rat wrote:
Don't look to the internet for self-affirmation.
yes
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Hey Gen. Seeing this and your recent interview with Tara Babcock got me thinking enough to eventually compile my own blogpost on the subject. posted earlier today: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=426553
keep up the good work with the pleasant interviews at events!
... ive watched a lot of the rollplay shows as well, with mixed feelings that ill keep to myself or maybe to a PM. regardless, its great that you're sticking with it, producing those long winded storylines of super-nerdy content
Peace & love!
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man i really do love this girl, she seems like such a strong personality and is always positive. I'm so glad to see her achieving her goals and expanding into a new (less toxic) scene with more money!
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Wow you guys are so nice. Sometimes I forget how the response I get fluctuates from site to site (ex : reddit vs. youtube vs. twitter vs. TL etc.) Basically everyone is quite receptive except Reddit (from my experience, which is a bit harsher, but I do extract feedback I can use as constructive from there). Thanks, makes me a happy panda.
+ Show Spoiler +And now I prob just jinxed it haha!
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It must be tough. You just look one way and that gets you attention but do you want the attention? I think you're a good sc2 player to watch because you have an organized and clean sensibility in your play. It's like.. a bigger issue than just gaming.. it's about gender roles in society.
I like the interviews you do. Never heard your casting but i don't think i'd like it much. C'est peut etre mieux en francais comme pomf et tud. not to imply that your english is bad like my french or anything, but sometimes casting seems like it's easier than it is and maybe you just haven't tried hard enough yet.. tu fait le cast francais avec desrow! :D
but yo- i just watched your "vlogs" and i laughed so much. Funniness is the most important thing for a caster!
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Just do things because you enjoy it, if you look for self-affirmation from the community and dictate your content based on the initial reaction and reception of this community, then you're looking to be disappointed each and every time. Even the idea of thinking about making a financial return on something you enjoy; you have your priorities wrong. You're getting donations from your stream and use it to travel, take advantage to pursue what you like and don't think so much about your reputation when you personally surround yourself by publicly great people and people you personally like.
Take it from someone who let the smallest negative affect me and constantly thought long-term (financials) when in reality; I had no idea how little people knew me and/or my work (in a positive way).
That's really it. There's so much more to say, but you honestly just need to realign your goals and focus and let the results be that; the results, nothing more to interpret.
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On August 25 2013 02:19 Torte de Lini wrote:
Just do things because you enjoy it, if you look for self-affirmation from the community and dictate your content based on the initial reaction and reception of this community, then you're looking to be disappointed each and every time. Even the idea of thinking about making a financial return on something you enjoy; you have your priorities wrong. You're getting donations from your stream and use it to travel, take advantage to pursue what you like and don't think so much about your reputation when you personally surround yourself by publicly great people and people you personally like.
Take it from someone who let the smallest negative affect me and constantly thought long-term (financials) when in reality; I had no idea how little people knew me and/or my work (in a positive way).
That's really it. There's so much more to say, but you honestly just need to realign your goals and focus and let the results be that; the results, nothing more to interpret.
That's actually what I did. I finished lawschool, hated it, figured I'd give streaming full-time a shot until I figured out what to do with my life (secretly hoping I could be financially stable enough to keep doing it, but not expecting it). I didn't get a good response from the community initially but it didn't stop me. It motivates me to get better and prove them wrong. I enjoy the challenge. Everyone needs to make a living, I wouldn't want to be in debt but I wasn't either looking to be rolling in money. I haven't asked for donations to travel in forever, I only did that for my first 2 events. Then, I got picked up by companies like Quantic Gaming and Flaming Cow. I'm trying it once again because I'd like to break into the European market and I feel like I need to go there in order to establish contacts and prove myself there to hopefully get hired in the future. I care about my reputation, can't change that. I don't think about my finances anymore as all I wanted was to be able to cover my basic needs and Ubisoft fills that.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5E5lm.png)
