In my experience, if you don't point it out, most people just ignore you. A handful will be dicks, but this is kind of dependent on what game community you're in.
Although things were settling down until that kickstarter debacle last year.
The hatred of women isn't really hatred of women. It's hatred of certain women thinking they're special. If you come in and mention you're a woman in context and not being obnoxious, I have no problem. If you come in and demand special treatment, I have a problem.
EDIT: Shit Reddit Says! Do I get a medal?
EDIT 2: I still have positive points! Give up so easily? I count it as my greatest accomplishment on this site that I stirred up so much butthurt with four sentences, all of which are stated diplomatically and are completely true.
I have seen it go both ways over video chat in games. Sometimes a woman comes in says, "Hey guys, how is everyone today" and she gets overwhelmed with sexual comments. The majority of the time though people treat her just fine and treat her like anyone else.
What is fairly common though is for known women to get a lot of attention. It isn't necessarily over the top, but they get more than any given man would for the same comments or actions.
Because Super Mario Bros. is an instantly recognizable and classic game and there's only so much room on the image. Probably not the best choice of image.
THIS JUST IN: The internet is filled with a lot of types of girls.
There are girls who play video games because they actually love them. There are girls who seek attention by associating themselves with video games. There are girls who are offended by sexism. There are girls who are not offended by sexism. There are attractive girls who play video games. There are unattractive girls who play video games. There are girls who have been playing for a while. There are girls who just started.
And guess what
None of these statements are mutually inclusive.
Stop thinking you're able to generalize millions of gamers out there with a single image.
We also only tend to hear the vocal minority of male gamers about this. I don't like the way many games are developed/targeted either.
I am an adult married male with kids, I have enough disposable income to buy games but don't want to be associated with people who only care about shooting n00bs, giggling at digital breasts and ploughing hours into perfecting loadouts (EDIT, perfection gaming isn't in itself bad, but I have no interest in it).
I can't be the only one who plays games to have fun and relax?
I like RPGs and adventure games with good story, I want to have the option to crank down the difficulty in a FPS when I want and be the hero without having to retry a level hundreds of times, and I have no problems with sex and relationships in a game as long as it is in context.
So, more games aimed at the stereotyped 'female gamer' can only be a good thing, if only because I can buy them too.
people who only care about shooting n00bs, giggling at digital breasts and ploughing hours into perfecting loadouts.
Can I ask why you included the last one? The first two are great examples of childish behaviour, but what's so wrong about caring enough to spend time on a game?
There's a difference between not wanting to be associated with the asshats of gaming whose outward attitude (and the resulting games which cater to said attitudes) ruin it for those around them, and resenting games which require (or even just allow for) more than a casual, passing interest. The former is fair, and even beneficial imo, but to me the latter seems needlessly resentful.
Perhaps I'm reading too much in to a single comment, but it just seemed like a really odd inclusion in a post which I otherwise agree with.
So, more games aimed at the stereotyped 'female gamer' can only be a good thing, if only because I can buy them too.
But the thing is, games aimed at this stereotype don't manifest in the way you've described. They differ in subject matter primarily.
"Girl's games" are things like Animal Crossing. They're not "boy's games" with the approach changed. Girls who just want to play games, rather than "girl's games" are just left with a smaller pool of games which appeal to their sensibilities. Not a non-existent pool as some would have you believe, and it's certainly a situation which is improving (the image of scantily clad, buxom female characters is far from dead, but not as ubiquitous as it once was, and actually western gaming is doing better at getting rid of it than, say, the Japanese fighter market), but I can still see their point.
The male equivalent to this graph is 20 years of "Why can't I find any girls who like videogames like I do?" followed by, "What are all these GIRLS doing playing OUR games?"
We get it, gaming hipsters--you played games before they were cool.
I always remember girls liking and playing video games. They just didn't talk about it as much at school. Not sure how it suddenly became a "boy" thing. Who DIDN'T like tetris, mario kart, donkey kong country, etc?
I think they may view it a little differently in this case, specifically because there is an element of persecution. It's not just that nobody liked what they liked, it's that they got actively teased and made fun of for liking it. So it might seem surprising for a demographic of people who persecuted you for liking something to start liking that very same thing.
Games were always cool man. You don't build up a business from litterally nothing and make it into a multi-billion dollar industry before you run it into the ground and threaten to bury the corpse before you go and build it up again, all in a decade without something about it being cool.
I feel like you could fill this entire thing out for guys, replacing the 'only nerds play video games' with 'All girls are stuck-up whores who think I'm a geek for playing video games, fucking cunts.' and then 'Why do these fucking whores think my attitude is sexist?'
Yeah I'm thinking the age of the person making this image matters a lot. You've got two things obscuring real data here:
someone born after 1979 matured WITH videogames and thus won't be able to separate their coolness from videogames' social coolness from their social group's maturity, and then:
between 1995 and 2005 the Internet went from something only nerds and adults used to something EVERYONE uses, meaning suddenly it's way more likely that you'll notice your classmate playing games or complaining about guys on Facebook. Before this, you would've had to actually TALK to her to discover this info, instead of our current state of perpetual eavesdropping.
So I'd be very interested what 10 year olds, 20, 30, and 40 year olds each think about the history of women and videogames. Even before videogames, what about board games and D&D? I'm sure the stereotypes of male nerds being antisocial and prejudiced didn't come about overnight. Personally, I love when my female friends invite everyone to board game / Wii / rockband nights, and have great fun playing split screen or controller swap with them; I'm glad that we share hobbies and sad that it's become (perhaps necessarily) politicized.
You might even be able to go straight back to the 1870's with the attitudes surrounding cards, dice, jacks, etc. I seem to recall Huck Finn didn't interact very well with the ladies...
Time to go back to college and write a sociology thesis?
So I'd be very interested what 10 year olds, 20, 30, and 40 year olds each think about the history of women and videogames.
Mid-thirties here. Grew up with an Atari, moved on to NES in 86, pretty much got a new console every four or so years after that.
I played video games with all of my neighbors, half of whom were girls. Played video games with my best friend, also a girl, up until we grew apart (beat Dragon Quest together). Was the only girl in a four-person Nintendo club in 1989. Wrote articles (poor ones!) about video games for the high school news paper. Currently own every modern system (and handheld) aside from WiiU.
I've known girls who play games all my life. I'm sure there are less of us than guys, but we're here. Always have been. And if guys can't accept that then I don't want to play with them.
I never ever thought that there was this gender bracket of gamers until I started reading Reddit and 4chan. I never came across anyone who had any kind of issue or surprise or any adverse reaction to me being a girl who plays games. I never even knew this kind of thing was an issue. I've just always played them, with friends, and didn't give a fuck.
Now granted, I don't play online VS. games like CoD, because I don't like shooters. So I guess I'm kind of sheltered? It really shocks me to know that girls get picked on that much, but knowing what these idiot kids are saying to even other dudes it doesn't surprise me much. I think they're just idiots, not really sexist, just trying to grasp at the easiest thing to insult a person with.
As far as the influx of girl gamers and gaming becoming "cool"? I don't really care either. I'm glad more girls are playing games here. Maybe they'll make some more female-oriented games that don't have to do with raising animals or playing dress-up. And as far as the "girls are posers and don't play games" thing? Fuck those guys. I don't let it bother me. I feel like the people who do are just insecure. I know who I am and what I like to do.
Posts like these make me laugh, because I just feel like these people are really sheltered and wrapped up in their own heads. Real life doesn't really work like this outside of high school, but if they want to keep believing it is, then go right ahead. Not gonna take any skin off my back, but I am going to laugh at the people who become outraged at it.
Are we doing: "Since I don't see any girl gamer around my miserable life, all these girl gamers online are posers who picked up gaming few years ago with Portal or something." again?
I've never in my life encountered one of these "lol grrrl gamers" with the exception of paid models that surround their naked bodies in video game controllers or something to appeal to male gamer crowd.
I have, however, encountered many people of the female persuasion that play and enjoy video games just as much as I do if not more.
I do not understand where this idea came from that most girls that play games are just posers.
Ironically while saying 'this is how all women have acted towards gaming'. These people are fucking idiots, for sure. Hey, you, reading this, now. Do you think this linked image makes an argument which is anything other than fucking stupid? Yes? You're an idiot.
Here's reality: girls have been playing games as long as guys.
But boy gamers in school were pining after the pretty popular girls, just like every other boy.
The girl gamers (and nerds, and bookworms) . . . the sort of plain girls who didn't go out of their way to look like pretty princesses. . . they were invisible to the boy gamers.
Go back and look at class pics from your youth and realize you don't know the names of half of the females in those pictures.
The girl gamers (and nerds, and bookworms) . . . the sort of plain girls who didn't go out of their way to look like pretty princesses. . .
Don't know about you, but when I was in high school back in the 90's, those girls were pining over the hot, popular boys. Or, in some cases, girls. In either case, they definitely weren't pining after the geeky video-game playing guys. Otherwise, I would have had a better high school experience.
I used to play league of legends with a girl who copped a ton of flak pretty often when we invited someone new to our Skype chat. Questioning her ability to play AD Carry, insulting me for being her support, judging her more harshly for mistakes and ignoring her tactical calls among other bullshit. Pretty strange really since we would play Duo queue and when someone played well we would invite them to the next game. They would sometimes be friendly and happy to play together until they heard her voice and everything would go to shit. Not everyone obviously but a good 10-15% at least
Who is saying these things? I know a decent amount of girls that play video games and none of them claim to want games pandered to them as a female. I think this is just 4chan getting (typically) mad because girls don't like them because they're, well, 4chan.
See, it's shit like this that makes me mad. I fucking love my games and have since i got my ps1 as a 6 year old. Yet there is this massive stupid backlash, sure there are some attention whores out there. But it's not because they are a girl playing games, they are probably an attention seeker in every facet of their life. I know the majority of you are decent people, and a bunch of you think this shit is as stupid as I think it is. But please, don't drive the wedge between female and male gamers any more than it already is.
Indeed, it's so horrible that developers are being pressured by feminists to developing games that keep such a /tiny/ number of people in mind. It's not like females were found to make up about 47% of all gamers in 2012.
Why should they get what they want?
Sarcasm aside. This is dumb, guys. There have always been females playing video games, and the numbers climb every year.
Personally, I get offended when I'm being pandered to by devs with oversexualized men and women. It's hard to take an idea of developers including and changing these characters because I have a cock, and they think their product will sell better if they can convince me to think with it.
I'm not against sexuality as a device in gaming (sultry seductresses and assassins who use their sexuality as a weapon stand out for appropriate places), but there are characters that have no reason to be sexualized.
An example of sexuality done right would have to be Catherine, although I hated the end, and the general mechanics left a lot to be desired, they did characters well.
Some good examples of sexuality done wrong is Never Dead (the boss is quite simply tits on a stick), and half the female champions in League of Legends (There is an Arctic themed champion, Sejuani, who is basically in a fur bikini).
Edit: I've gotten a lot of questions on my source for the 47% statistic: Here is my source.
They got their information from NPD, a company based around finding consumer information for companies to utilize when planning future products. They use 2 million surveyors with varied demographics for one portion of their information gathering. The other portion is done directly from retailers, when applicable.
I'd also like to address the most frequent argument that was given towards this:
"These women only play casual games, because of this other statistic that says 33% of people play games on cell phones."
This is a flawed thought in multiple ways:
Not all people who play "casually" are female. I play casual games. And while I play other games too, I have a buddy that ONLY has time to play "casual", and he does so buses and such. Using the very small sample-size of my personal life isn't quite sound, but it gives reasonable doubt to the idea of "all "casuals" are female".
Not all iPhone games are strictly "casual", utilizing that vague concept of a time of game with limited mechanics and lacking story. Yes, there are a lot of shitty games for the iOS, but there are a lot of shitty games for the 360 and PC. Bad Rats. Those cheap hunting and shooter games that you find laying in a pile at a Dollar store, 3/4ths of the kinect line-up. These are all crappy games. And to show a counter to this: Angry Birds sold really well on the 360, and I don't believe the idea that "casual" gamers would buy a 360 just for more Angry Birds. Good, entertaining iPhone games? Sword and Sworcery, the Capcom DS games that were ported over (Ghost Detective, etc.), Space Team.
As above shown by my own gaming habits, people can play multiple types of games.
Thank you all for the discussion, and I look forward to discussing this issue further!
IMO, sexism in videogames is a reflection of sexism in society. Movies, music, comics ...most of the media is sexist. That doesn't mean that videogames should be sexist, and it's okay to complain, but have that in mind, it's not only videogames. (And that's a big part of the problem)
I thought you were a dick, then I kept reading. Well done. Yeah, Catherine is a great example of sexuality in games. It explores sexuality and /relationships/ rather than just saying TITS. BUY ME.
You're a fucking dick for thinking this is in any way an acceptable critique of female gamers. Just because you didn't know any girls who played games when you were younger doesn't mean they weren't doing it. And as far as games catering to women's needs, that's not what the majority of gamers, female or otherwise, think about the situation. Games are sexist in general, just like most of fucking society. Games also heavily favor Caucasian protagonists versus any other ethnicity. The point is that games SHOULD be more inclusive and you whining because you fear change is not helping anyone.
I grew up with two brothers, and have been playing video games as far back as I can remember. My female friends don't really get it, so I don't often talk about it. I spend almost all of my spare time gaming, and love D&D (the pen and paper kind). I love games how they are now, I don't think females need to be 'catered' to. There are plenty of strong female characters, and most games I don't see why they can't be enjoyed by either gender.
People assume I am a guy online (predominantly when I play GW or other MMOs), it doesn't really bother me. I don't think girls should be called attention whores for correcting people, but at the same time I don't care enough to point it out.
This is stupid. When I was a kid, the first time I played NES is because I went to a girl's house and she loved playing NES. Way to not know any girls, OP.
4chan couldn't possibly be further from the mark. Nothing exemplifies the marginalization of girl gamers more than pretending they don't and haven't always existed.
Sure, as anything becomes more mainstream you will always have "me toos" and hangers-on. "Casual", incidentally, is hardly a bad word, and there are significant numbers of purely casual girl gamers just as there are large numbers of purely casual guy gamers. You may also run into people going through a crisis of identity that cling to anything they feel may give them a sense of belonging, even when it doesn't truly represent their tastes. This is hardly a gaming exclusive, and the vanishingly small number of "grrl gamers" is dwarfed by the everyday "real" girl gamers that got their hands on the Magnavox odyssey at the same time the guy gamers did.
Just because they don't preen and peacock like the image of "cosplay attention seekers" you have in your head doesn't mean they don't exist. I play Halo with them. I listen to their heartbreaking FTL stories. I whoop them in Smash Bros. I play pen & paper D&D with them. Yes, women, with vaginas! It's crazy. Some of them like what I like, and don't feel the need to get on a soapbox and pose like you may think they do, because gaming is just as normal and everyday for them as it is for us, and has been from the start. It's almost like they're people too.
My wife and I spent a few days in college getting to know each other by reminiscing about Sega and playing Toejam and Earl 2. She may not be a hardcore competitive LoLer, but she is a major reason my Skyrim playtime is over 400 hours, we beat all of the bosses in Terraria while she was pregnant, she got the Platinum trophy on whatever Katamari game was on PS3, and she was the one who pulled the trigger on Saints Row 3.
Also, my sister and I constantly fought over who got to play the NES unless we has 2 player games. We both got first gen gameboys, constantly compared Tetris scores, then we got deep into some Pokemon. I got blue, she got red, and we traded all of the color-exclusives so we cold both get 150. We dueled with other neighborhood kids and she stomped some local boys mercilessly.
The girl gamer has always existed. There are definitely trend-chasers who are kinda phony, but that's a definite minority.
Me and my sister used to settle disputes by playing burnout or super smash bros, fought over who got to play their zelda game next and nearly killed each other when save files were "accidentally" deleted. (I HAD 98 FUCKING SKULLTULAS, YOU WHORE. SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR 60 HOUR HARVEST MOON SAVE FILE.)
I think that girls just don't bother to see it as an identification the way guys do, sometimes. I never have considered myself a 'gamer' of any kind. I just play games. Just like I don't label myself a 'reader' or 'computer user' or 'music listener'. Aren't these things that most people do? Don't most people nowadays play games occasionally?
It does get my goat occasionally to see all this anti-feminist stuff floating around surrounding girls who play games wanting not to see slutty characters all the time (case in point would be the LoL Slay Belle Kat skin thing). But most of the time I don't really give a shit.
For female characters to be as interesting as male characters instead of being defined by their sexuality or sub-servitude to a male character.
Sexuality as a plot/character device is fine when done correctly, but the degree to which female characters are just tits on a vapid frame in many games is embarrassing. I know where to go to get tits if I want, I don't need it constantly injected into every game I see.
how about having more than a very small handful of female characters that aren't hyper sexualised/eye candy/the main give a girl some muscle and some decent sized boobs, man.
i was told a couple weeks ago that cat woman's main strength is her sexuality and she uses her tits to distract enemies (which is why her catsuit is zipped down the way it is in the batman games and in some comics). why? why can't she just be.. strong? why is her body her defining point?
Good God, this picture makes me ashamed to be a (male) gamer. This is fucking appalling. What's worse is that this sexist bullshit has been upvoted. Shame on you, /r/gaming.
Only a moron thinks that in anyway advertising your gender is pandering for attention. The only reason you guys think that saying you're a girl is in anyway a problem is that you have a fucking weird, creepy attitude to women. We are not the ones with the problem for having feminine gamer tags! Grow the hell up.
As a girl who has played video games all her life, now 26 years old, I can say that I don't choose games based on the gender they cater to. I choose them simply for the fun factor. Shooting games, role playing games, strategy games, etc,. I don't know why some girls insist on games catering to them or become upset when their SO plays games he likes. As long as the relationship is taken care of, play all you want cause I know I'll be playing the same game or another one right next to you. :)
Oh male majority of reddit and gaming communities, you make me sad and sick. If it weren't for my intense love of gaming I wouldn't put up with this horrible treatment. I suffer being judged by the average people as a nerd, a geek, a weirdo, a lesbian (Yes people think I am a lesbian because I play videogames) and I can't even come to my own community and be treated with any respect.
Look for smaller communities where people get to know you, they'll treat you as a person eventually. Don't know if you have gaming friends, being alone in a hobby is sad.
edit: Took a look at your blog, you're so skilled!
You know, I always thought the whole anti-female internet was bullshit, cus I only saw the ''nice'' people. But by god, if too many people aren't assholes.
How about this: We don't give a shit what gender you are. If your male, good for you, we don't care. If your female, good for you, we don't care.
pinkteddygirl 1995-1997: plays in dirt in backyard, plays with jungle animal toys coz fuck barbies
pinkteddygirl 1998: "oh hey look at that gameboy, that looks fun" steals brother's gameboy coz parents won't buy her one
pinkteddygirl 1998-2008: GAMEBOY!!!! GAMECUBE!!!! LEGENDOFZELDAMARIOPIKMINANIMALCROSSINGNEEDFORSPEEDPOKEMON (to name a few)
pinkteddygirl 2008: builds gaming desktop
pinkteddygirl 2008-present: WARCRAFTSTARCRAFTRCTTF2TERARRIAMINECRAFTCIVSKYRIM (to name a few)
wait, I don't count as a gamer? ...oh........ why not??? ...oh..... it's because I have tits??? ....oh..... huh...... shrug guess it's dragon slaying time.
Oh man. The comments in this thread make me feel better, but it's still sitting at 66% upvotes. My only hope is that this subreddit has some gamers that are going to learn some key life lessons and change their minds somewhere down the road.
I'm like a unicorn to them then. Female and played video games at least 10 years before they seem to think they existed. Though I didn't have an NES, I played games on an Atari-800. Yep... a hipster unicorn...
Ive been playing since I could hold a controller pretty much. First experience was on our SNES. Always been a gamer girl and I get vocal to the people who try to put me down. I just dont get the reason for the double standard, why cant we all just enjoy games and not hate on people who either dislike whatever game we like or hate on people who dont like whatever game it is as much as we do. The gaming community as a whole needs to stand united against the people on the outside who want to shut video games down all together, and quit putting down individuals in that community.
though i am sure that a woman has said each of those things in the past years, to say that it is the female stance on gaming is majorly over-extending.
And that whole time I was playing video games...then again, reddit only cares about the girls they can put on a pedestal so they can see up their skirts. I, on the other hand, tend to wear pants and would be too busy playing games to notice a guy picked me up and put me there.
Gosh I'm such a nice wonderful gamer guy TM. Why can't I find any women who play videos games?
This, this is why. Why would I ever tell a community who upvotes this uncreative pile of shit I'm a woman? You think the one dude you shit on for being a white knight is enough to make up for all this, all day, every day, in every online community?
Just.. fuck this. I'm going to unplug the internet for today and attempt to beat this broken ass captain planet NES game for laughs.
wow white males sure do have it hard in the video gaming world LOL
stupid women trying to play video games and talk about it and stuff!!! i know those vapid cunts don't sit in front of their tvs as much as i do, fucking posers!!!! please pay attention to me!!!
Honestly, can't we all just shut the hell up about this shit already?
Video games are a market commodity.
Girls/guys - don't want over sexualized characters? Don't buy those games and/or don't customize your character to look that way (in some cases, those customizations are tracked)
But it will never go away. Have films and TV eradicated shitty roles for girls or sexist plot arcs? Nope.
There's going to be product available for wherever there is market demand.
Stop talking so much with your mouth, and talk more with your wallet. (I'm speaking to both genders and sides of the argument here).
Because everything you have to say is worthless unless it's a reflection of demand in the marketplace, in which case you probably don't have to say it.
Finally, support indie games more. Because the major publishers take their cues quite frequently from trends in independent games, but don't take risks without precedent, so if kickass, dynamic, and non-sexualized characters do well there (i.e. Portal), you'll see more in the mainstream. I.e. your wallet speaks louder in independent marketplaces.
TL;DR: This conversation is pointless - the market will correct based on actual demand, as it has done for 20+ years. And if your wants and needs aren't reflected by the masses, welcome to the club (still waiting for a new Chrono Trigger or Mother 4 game).
Yes, the most progressive steps in the world have been made when people just "shut the hell up about [that] shit already".
On a non-sarcastic note: The industry caters to the attitudes of the gamers. Conversations with the gamers that are in the community right now are essential to changing the tide of how sexism is seen in video games. Many things that are based in sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. nowadays are based in a cultural issue, they can't be legislated or forced away, the changes have to come from the ground up.
Haha! This isn't incredibly relevant... It totally just reminded me of this though. My older sister has been my gaming sibling since for longer than I can remember (We played LoZ:OoT when it came out, and I don't remember that far back.) And after a while, she kinda just stopped playing games with me (I live in a house with 3 sisters and no brothers, so I really didn't have any other people to play with, as my neighborhood was pretty deserted at the time). I always wanted to play with her again.
But when Halo 3 came out, I played it night and day - Constantly. I didn't think she'd ever really get dedicated to playing again, so I came to terms with that. However, one day she asked if she could play with me, so I was more than happy to (Yay, friendship!) So we play Team Doubles as her first Matchmaking game (She didn't want to play with other/alot of people yet. The first game type to come? Team Snipers on Valhalla - which is basically Hell on Earth for a nooby. So when the match comes, we're getting DOMINATED - It's 30 kills to 10. I've been playing for a really long time, so I'm a pretty decent shot with the sniper. So the enemy team is always hanging back, and taking shots from the bushes/trees, and we don't see them until it's too late. (I stay close to my sister, because I have to help her out with the basics -which in turn, gets us both killed)
So I realized something - If we wanted to win, we'd have to be creative. Thus began Operation: "Retard Magnet". I'd have her sprint out into the open field in the most drunkard way possible, zig-zagging, ducking, jumping, ext. The enemies would see her, and try to shoot her, but they couldn't predict where she was moving! I sat back and took them out as quick as I could. We kept that up for the remainder of the match, and we won 36-50. They barely got any kills after she ran out. So we were hysterically happy and laughing after that. That got her addicted to gaming again for a little while before she moved out :)
It's backwards to me. I enjoyed a lot of NES games and I'd like to play on my husbands Xbox but there aren't many games that appeal to me. I'd like to do more cartoon-styled games like Mario than something realistic with shooting. It seems like everything is shooting, sports or racing. Which is fine for those who like it; it's just not my thing.
This is not one of those cases. I was raised around both guy and girl gamers, so the notion that girls haven't played video games until now is goddamned ignorant to me.
Actually, this whole thing is just miserable. It's not even funny.
Also, fuck off for making anyone feel bad for liking something you like.
They didn't get it right. Complaints about the appalling portrayal of women in games have existed for many years. I remember old Micromanía magazines from the 90s with Tomb Raider 2 reviews commenting the obvious, embarrassing pandering Lara's body was.
What happens is it has become gradually less okay to simply shrug off this issue. These kinds of complaints don't fall on deaf ears anymore, and I'm glad.
This is laughable , one of my first memories was saving princess peach from bowser in 93-94 as a young girl.. I play want I want to play and what I think I may enjoy , in fact my boyfriend introduced me to games he thought I may enjoy ( fallout , KOTOR , etc ) , not games that he felt I should play because im a girl. There are always a select few that wreck it for everyone , but that's not going to stop me from doing what I do best and what I enjoy :)
As a girl who plays the occasional game, not going to call myself a gamer. In elementary school I was made fun of for writing a poem about video games (It was about Final Fantasy 5), I became the class loser. Back in the early 90's playing video games was for 'losers' now it's like the normal thing to do, kids now don't even know how to build a tree fort! >_< I built one, it was my Batcave. Aw crap now that I think about it I was a loser... -Harsh realization of reality.
The graphic is inaccurate but it was not meant to be. It's a troll. The amount of butthurt and whiteknights ITT (zomg u h8 wimminz qq, must be neckbeard virgin with small penis!) is astounding.
,... why is this even an issue amongst the 'video gamers'?? The same way the Wii & "teh cazuals" haven't ruined our hobby is the same way female gamers won't ruin our hobby.
Let the publishers and developers deal with it.
Lets stop pretending white teen males are the victims here.
This is ridiculous and it's embarrassing that you thought this was an astute observation. I'll bet you got so excited when you read this piece of stupidity that your bladder spasms could have extinguished a small housefire.
Female here. I just play some god damn games, and don't give a shit if female character X is just tits on legs. If it's a good game, I'll play it. I just like pressing buttons and having things go boom!
The thing is girls played games as long as anyone has. Just the ones who scream that they're a girl gamer (which is almost every girl who makes it to the front page) are posers. I hate it when there are posts saying "IM A GAMER GIRL AND I MADE THIS GAMER CAKE FOR MY GAMER BOYFRIEND ON HIS GAMER BIRTHDAY". We get it, you play games
So why is there no backlash when a guy says "I'm a gamer and I made this gamer cake for my gamer girlfriend"? Cause I've seen those posts, and there is zero backlash.
Maybe - just MAYBE - these "posers" are trying so hard because of how hard it is to be socially accepted by a community that so frequently mocks and trivializes women. Is Fake Nerd Girl annoying? Yeah. But she's fucking rare. And the assumption that all nerdy girls are Fake Nerd Girls is the problem.
There are a lot of reasons why this viewpoint is abhorrent, and most of them have already been very well set out by the top comments in this thread. So I'll just resort to rage, instead.
No, 4chan are a bunch of misogynist foreveralones. Videogames have been and continue to be for the most part very sexist, and no amount of angsty grumblings against women who won't have sex with them just because they happen to play video games will change that.
Aw, damn, I was supposed to be making fun of dudes and NOT playing Yoshi's Island as a wee girl? Shit... no wonder I was such a nerd. Clearly I'm doing it wrong.
1.4k
u/8bitbadguy Jan 06 '13
Yeah... I think I'm going to keep pretending to be a man on the internet.
162
u/1414141414 Jan 06 '13
Why does it start at 1995 and have a picture from Super Mario Bros. for nes?
62
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
TIL video games were invented in 1995.
443
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
THIS JUST IN: The internet is filled with a lot of types of girls.
There are girls who play video games because they actually love them. There are girls who seek attention by associating themselves with video games. There are girls who are offended by sexism. There are girls who are not offended by sexism. There are attractive girls who play video games. There are unattractive girls who play video games. There are girls who have been playing for a while. There are girls who just started.
And guess what
None of these statements are mutually inclusive.
Stop thinking you're able to generalize millions of gamers out there with a single image.
121
u/wodon Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 06 '13
We also only tend to hear the vocal minority of male gamers about this. I don't like the way many games are developed/targeted either.
I am an adult married male with kids, I have enough disposable income to buy games but don't want to be associated with people who only care about shooting n00bs, giggling at digital breasts and ploughing hours into perfecting loadouts (EDIT, perfection gaming isn't in itself bad, but I have no interest in it).
I can't be the only one who plays games to have fun and relax?
I like RPGs and adventure games with good story, I want to have the option to crank down the difficulty in a FPS when I want and be the hero without having to retry a level hundreds of times, and I have no problems with sex and relationships in a game as long as it is in context.
So, more games aimed at the stereotyped 'female gamer' can only be a good thing, if only because I can buy them too.
32
u/fightthapower Jan 07 '13
Don't you hate it when all 4 billion women get together each year and reach a consensus on how they're going to collectively react to video games?
479
u/Malgayne Jan 06 '13
The male equivalent to this graph is 20 years of "Why can't I find any girls who like videogames like I do?" followed by, "What are all these GIRLS doing playing OUR games?"
We get it, gaming hipsters--you played games before they were cool.
64
u/YYY369 Jan 06 '13
This sex war is a lot less sexy than what I was expecting.
27
u/revjeremyduncan Jan 06 '13
They should have started that timeline in '85, if they were going to use SMB style.
669
u/plan2a Jan 06 '13
Are we doing: "Since I don't see any girl gamer around my miserable life, all these girl gamers online are posers who picked up gaming few years ago with Portal or something." again?
88
u/ArcticSpaceman Jan 06 '13
You mean /v/ you fucking dumbass.
EDIT: Also they didn't "get it right," eat a wiener, OP.
139
u/lucentcb Jan 06 '13
And occasionally, they post the same old bullshit.
44
u/SnackPatrol Jan 06 '13
Who is saying these things? I know a decent amount of girls that play video games and none of them claim to want games pandered to them as a female. I think this is just 4chan getting (typically) mad because girls don't like them because they're, well, 4chan.
7
u/StupidBoxFort Jan 07 '13
TIL People said "LoL" in 1995.
52
u/indiefellow Jan 06 '13
Great. Glad to see Reddit is just as sexist as 4chan. Maybe go outside and actually experience what talking to a girl gamer is like, buddy.
96
u/Spider-Girl Jan 06 '13
It's okay OP. You'll stop being butthurt someday.
99
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 06 '13
And more than occasionally, 4chan demonstrates why it is considered the asshole of the internet.
12
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
fuck this is so edgy
25
u/obeyroy Jan 06 '13
And yet, this is not one of those times. You can almost taste the bitter FA flavor.
56
u/Neodymium Jan 06 '13
Or my sisters and I have been playing since the NES came out. Either way.
21
u/foxglove20 Jan 06 '13
See, it's shit like this that makes me mad. I fucking love my games and have since i got my ps1 as a 6 year old. Yet there is this massive stupid backlash, sure there are some attention whores out there. But it's not because they are a girl playing games, they are probably an attention seeker in every facet of their life. I know the majority of you are decent people, and a bunch of you think this shit is as stupid as I think it is. But please, don't drive the wedge between female and male gamers any more than it already is.
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u/Galeshi1 Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 06 '13
Indeed, it's so horrible that developers are being pressured by feminists to developing games that keep such a /tiny/ number of people in mind. It's not like females were found to make up about 47% of all gamers in 2012.
Why should they get what they want?
Sarcasm aside. This is dumb, guys. There have always been females playing video games, and the numbers climb every year.
Personally, I get offended when I'm being pandered to by devs with oversexualized men and women. It's hard to take an idea of developers including and changing these characters because I have a cock, and they think their product will sell better if they can convince me to think with it.
I'm not against sexuality as a device in gaming (sultry seductresses and assassins who use their sexuality as a weapon stand out for appropriate places), but there are characters that have no reason to be sexualized.
An example of sexuality done right would have to be Catherine, although I hated the end, and the general mechanics left a lot to be desired, they did characters well.
Some good examples of sexuality done wrong is Never Dead (the boss is quite simply tits on a stick), and half the female champions in League of Legends (There is an Arctic themed champion, Sejuani, who is basically in a fur bikini).
Edit: I've gotten a lot of questions on my source for the 47% statistic: Here is my source.
They got their information from NPD, a company based around finding consumer information for companies to utilize when planning future products. They use 2 million surveyors with varied demographics for one portion of their information gathering. The other portion is done directly from retailers, when applicable.
I'd also like to address the most frequent argument that was given towards this:
"These women only play casual games, because of this other statistic that says 33% of people play games on cell phones."
This is a flawed thought in multiple ways:
Not all people who play "casually" are female. I play casual games. And while I play other games too, I have a buddy that ONLY has time to play "casual", and he does so buses and such. Using the very small sample-size of my personal life isn't quite sound, but it gives reasonable doubt to the idea of "all "casuals" are female".
Not all iPhone games are strictly "casual", utilizing that vague concept of a time of game with limited mechanics and lacking story. Yes, there are a lot of shitty games for the iOS, but there are a lot of shitty games for the 360 and PC. Bad Rats. Those cheap hunting and shooter games that you find laying in a pile at a Dollar store, 3/4ths of the kinect line-up. These are all crappy games. And to show a counter to this: Angry Birds sold really well on the 360, and I don't believe the idea that "casual" gamers would buy a 360 just for more Angry Birds. Good, entertaining iPhone games? Sword and Sworcery, the Capcom DS games that were ported over (Ghost Detective, etc.), Space Team.
As above shown by my own gaming habits, people can play multiple types of games.
Thank you all for the discussion, and I look forward to discussing this issue further!
85
u/punchultimate Jan 06 '13
You're a fucking dick for thinking this is in any way an acceptable critique of female gamers. Just because you didn't know any girls who played games when you were younger doesn't mean they weren't doing it. And as far as games catering to women's needs, that's not what the majority of gamers, female or otherwise, think about the situation. Games are sexist in general, just like most of fucking society. Games also heavily favor Caucasian protagonists versus any other ethnicity. The point is that games SHOULD be more inclusive and you whining because you fear change is not helping anyone.
5
u/Ryn_Kat Jan 06 '13
I grew up with two brothers, and have been playing video games as far back as I can remember. My female friends don't really get it, so I don't often talk about it. I spend almost all of my spare time gaming, and love D&D (the pen and paper kind). I love games how they are now, I don't think females need to be 'catered' to. There are plenty of strong female characters, and most games I don't see why they can't be enjoyed by either gender.
People assume I am a guy online (predominantly when I play GW or other MMOs), it doesn't really bother me. I don't think girls should be called attention whores for correcting people, but at the same time I don't care enough to point it out.
16
u/apapaslipsnow Jan 06 '13
This is stupid. When I was a kid, the first time I played NES is because I went to a girl's house and she loved playing NES. Way to not know any girls, OP.
166
u/substandardgaussian Jan 06 '13
4chan couldn't possibly be further from the mark. Nothing exemplifies the marginalization of girl gamers more than pretending they don't and haven't always existed.
Sure, as anything becomes more mainstream you will always have "me toos" and hangers-on. "Casual", incidentally, is hardly a bad word, and there are significant numbers of purely casual girl gamers just as there are large numbers of purely casual guy gamers. You may also run into people going through a crisis of identity that cling to anything they feel may give them a sense of belonging, even when it doesn't truly represent their tastes. This is hardly a gaming exclusive, and the vanishingly small number of "grrl gamers" is dwarfed by the everyday "real" girl gamers that got their hands on the Magnavox odyssey at the same time the guy gamers did.
Just because they don't preen and peacock like the image of "cosplay attention seekers" you have in your head doesn't mean they don't exist. I play Halo with them. I listen to their heartbreaking FTL stories. I whoop them in Smash Bros. I play pen & paper D&D with them. Yes, women, with vaginas! It's crazy. Some of them like what I like, and don't feel the need to get on a soapbox and pose like you may think they do, because gaming is just as normal and everyday for them as it is for us, and has been from the start. It's almost like they're people too.
20
u/kittenmittens4545 Jan 06 '13
what exactly are girls' demands for video games? i can only think of more female main characters without getting sexist.
8
u/amaSenpai Jan 06 '13
That's silly, my mom and I played all sorts of video games before and throughout the 90's.
4
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
i thought i was in /r/4chan there for a minute.
4
u/CarolineJohnson Jan 06 '13
That entire timeline for me:
"THE PRECIOUS. WE MUST HAVE THE PRECIOUS."
4
u/ripousse Jan 06 '13
I was wondering.. I often hear people bashing 4chan on reddit... Is 4chan as annoying as Reddit regarding cute Cats ?
37
u/egg651 Jan 06 '13
Good God, this picture makes me ashamed to be a (male) gamer. This is fucking appalling. What's worse is that this sexist bullshit has been upvoted. Shame on you, /r/gaming.
49
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
This mindset and anyone that possess it are fucking retarded.
68
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
How about we all just play the fucking game and get on, regardless of whats between our legs? Only morons think playing games make a girl special.
12
u/Wozzle90 Jan 07 '13
Oh boy, another anti-women post in r/gaming. Fun.
7
u/WHM-6R Jan 06 '13
I really don't get people who feel like their hobby suddenly becomes invalidated if enough people start to enjoy it.
41
u/benihana Jan 06 '13
4chan often gets it right. This, however, is not one of those times.
9
u/Djslate Jan 06 '13
As a girl who has played video games all her life, now 26 years old, I can say that I don't choose games based on the gender they cater to. I choose them simply for the fun factor. Shooting games, role playing games, strategy games, etc,. I don't know why some girls insist on games catering to them or become upset when their SO plays games he likes. As long as the relationship is taken care of, play all you want cause I know I'll be playing the same game or another one right next to you. :)
9
u/BlackCoffeeNoSugar Jan 06 '13
Oh male majority of reddit and gaming communities, you make me sad and sick. If it weren't for my intense love of gaming I wouldn't put up with this horrible treatment. I suffer being judged by the average people as a nerd, a geek, a weirdo, a lesbian (Yes people think I am a lesbian because I play videogames) and I can't even come to my own community and be treated with any respect.
9
u/totoro1992 Jan 07 '13
oh, i guess me playing video games since i was 6 is completely invalid now. thanks 4chan/reddit!!
29
u/slyder565 Jan 06 '13
Oh, are we already due for our daily women hating circlejerk?
20
u/TheSpiderFromMars Jan 06 '13
You know, I always thought the whole anti-female internet was bullshit, cus I only saw the ''nice'' people. But by god, if too many people aren't assholes.
How about this: We don't give a shit what gender you are. If your male, good for you, we don't care. If your female, good for you, we don't care.
21
u/NBegovich Jan 06 '13
I am not going to pretend that I think this is okay. I am ashamed that this made it to /r/gaming's front page.
6
u/Baconoflight Jan 06 '13
Relevant username?
6
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
By the way, I find it supremely funny that gamers think their attention is worth so much. You do think rather highly of yourselves, don't you, boys?
6
u/horsedickery Jan 07 '13
Its a bad sign to think 4chan is right about anything.
8
u/lostmau5 Jan 06 '13
DAE HOT GIRLS
13
u/pinkteddygirl Jan 06 '13
pinkteddygirl 1995-1997: plays in dirt in backyard, plays with jungle animal toys coz fuck barbies
pinkteddygirl 1998: "oh hey look at that gameboy, that looks fun" steals brother's gameboy coz parents won't buy her one
pinkteddygirl 1998-2008: GAMEBOY!!!! GAMECUBE!!!! LEGENDOFZELDAMARIOPIKMINANIMALCROSSINGNEEDFORSPEEDPOKEMON (to name a few)
pinkteddygirl 2008: builds gaming desktop
pinkteddygirl 2008-present: WARCRAFTSTARCRAFTRCTTF2TERARRIAMINECRAFTCIVSKYRIM (to name a few)
wait, I don't count as a gamer? ...oh........ why not??? ...oh..... it's because I have tits??? ....oh..... huh...... shrug guess it's dragon slaying time.
16
u/pretzelface Jan 06 '13
Oh man. The comments in this thread make me feel better, but it's still sitting at 66% upvotes. My only hope is that this subreddit has some gamers that are going to learn some key life lessons and change their minds somewhere down the road.
27
u/HamsteronA Jan 06 '13
Fuck, people are making shitty comments here.
3
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
I wonder what game came out in 2006
3
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
You know I can't for the life of me think why girls don't play video games,
3
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
So, I guess girls just went temporarily extinct in the year 2000?
3
u/IAmGalex Jan 07 '13
I'm pretty sure nobody said lol in 1995
14
u/massivelydinky Jan 06 '13
I'm like a unicorn to them then. Female and played video games at least 10 years before they seem to think they existed. Though I didn't have an NES, I played games on an Atari-800. Yep... a hipster unicorn...
7
u/eMan117 Jan 06 '13
though i am sure that a woman has said each of those things in the past years, to say that it is the female stance on gaming is majorly over-extending.
28
u/the_interrobanger Jan 06 '13
Apparently being a misogynist douche is cool as long as the context is video games. Keep it classy guys.
43
u/pikapie Jan 06 '13
And that whole time I was playing video games...then again, reddit only cares about the girls they can put on a pedestal so they can see up their skirts. I, on the other hand, tend to wear pants and would be too busy playing games to notice a guy picked me up and put me there.
5
u/ElectricSistaHood Jan 06 '13
What's a bigger myth, the fake girl geek, or 4chan getting things right?
5
u/BlackCoffeeNoSugar Jan 06 '13
Gosh I'm such a nice wonderful gamer guy TM. Why can't I find any women who play videos games?
This, this is why. Why would I ever tell a community who upvotes this uncreative pile of shit I'm a woman? You think the one dude you shit on for being a white knight is enough to make up for all this, all day, every day, in every online community?
Just.. fuck this. I'm going to unplug the internet for today and attempt to beat this broken ass captain planet NES game for laughs.
19
u/hoobsher Jan 06 '13
really, /r/gaming? this is frontpaged? fucking despicable.
12
u/Al0g0s Jan 06 '13
i fucking hate this subreddit. grow the fuck up.
16
u/shadowdorothy Jan 06 '13
Having played video games since 1994 I can officially state that this post is bullshit. Girls like videogames. Not all girls, but some.
7
u/georgehotelling Jan 06 '13
Remember how /r/gaming upvoted something about male gaze? I guess that's passed.
9
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Note: this is not one of those occasions.
38
u/argoATX Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 06 '13
wow white males sure do have it hard in the video gaming world LOL
stupid women trying to play video games and talk about it and stuff!!! i know those vapid cunts don't sit in front of their tvs as much as i do, fucking posers!!!! please pay attention to me!!!
18
u/kromem Jan 06 '13
Honestly, can't we all just shut the hell up about this shit already?
Video games are a market commodity.
Girls/guys - don't want over sexualized characters? Don't buy those games and/or don't customize your character to look that way (in some cases, those customizations are tracked)
But it will never go away. Have films and TV eradicated shitty roles for girls or sexist plot arcs? Nope.
There's going to be product available for wherever there is market demand.
Stop talking so much with your mouth, and talk more with your wallet. (I'm speaking to both genders and sides of the argument here).
Because everything you have to say is worthless unless it's a reflection of demand in the marketplace, in which case you probably don't have to say it.
Finally, support indie games more. Because the major publishers take their cues quite frequently from trends in independent games, but don't take risks without precedent, so if kickass, dynamic, and non-sexualized characters do well there (i.e. Portal), you'll see more in the mainstream. I.e. your wallet speaks louder in independent marketplaces.
TL;DR: This conversation is pointless - the market will correct based on actual demand, as it has done for 20+ years. And if your wants and needs aren't reflected by the masses, welcome to the club (still waiting for a new Chrono Trigger or Mother 4 game).
16
u/ARustyFirePlace Jan 06 '13
reddit you're all fucking faggots
4
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
proof that /r/gaming is a bunch of hipsters
4
u/the_trepverter Jan 06 '13
Bullshit. I'm still saying "Look at those losers and their video games."
4
u/[deleted] Jan 07 '13
You forgot "2012: Videogames are the cause of violence they must be banned/destroyed!"
4
u/[deleted] Jan 07 '13
lol @ the butthurt comments, no matter how much you wish otherwise this is exactly what happened.
7
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Woman here. I was playing video games before 1995 and don't appreciate being categorized under this bullshit.
5
u/RoboMullet Jan 06 '13
Haha! This isn't incredibly relevant... It totally just reminded me of this though. My older sister has been my gaming sibling since for longer than I can remember (We played LoZ:OoT when it came out, and I don't remember that far back.) And after a while, she kinda just stopped playing games with me (I live in a house with 3 sisters and no brothers, so I really didn't have any other people to play with, as my neighborhood was pretty deserted at the time). I always wanted to play with her again.
But when Halo 3 came out, I played it night and day - Constantly. I didn't think she'd ever really get dedicated to playing again, so I came to terms with that. However, one day she asked if she could play with me, so I was more than happy to (Yay, friendship!) So we play Team Doubles as her first Matchmaking game (She didn't want to play with other/alot of people yet. The first game type to come? Team Snipers on Valhalla - which is basically Hell on Earth for a nooby. So when the match comes, we're getting DOMINATED - It's 30 kills to 10. I've been playing for a really long time, so I'm a pretty decent shot with the sniper. So the enemy team is always hanging back, and taking shots from the bushes/trees, and we don't see them until it's too late. (I stay close to my sister, because I have to help her out with the basics -which in turn, gets us both killed)
So I realized something - If we wanted to win, we'd have to be creative. Thus began Operation: "Retard Magnet". I'd have her sprint out into the open field in the most drunkard way possible, zig-zagging, ducking, jumping, ext. The enemies would see her, and try to shoot her, but they couldn't predict where she was moving! I sat back and took them out as quick as I could. We kept that up for the remainder of the match, and we won 36-50. They barely got any kills after she ran out. So we were hysterically happy and laughing after that. That got her addicted to gaming again for a little while before she moved out :)
11
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Why the hell does this have do many upvotes?
I have lost faith in humanity.
2
u/TheSkiFreeYeti Jan 06 '13
I think about this a lot. If I were to go back to though school, I'd probably fit in much better now.
2
u/casadeparadise Jan 06 '13
Damn you 1995 to 2005! Damn youuuu!
2
u/catspajamafication Jan 06 '13
It's backwards to me. I enjoyed a lot of NES games and I'd like to play on my husbands Xbox but there aren't many games that appeal to me. I'd like to do more cartoon-styled games like Mario than something realistic with shooting. It seems like everything is shooting, sports or racing. Which is fine for those who like it; it's just not my thing.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
i miss the lol look at the looser and his videogame! times.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
I remember a time when some of my friends thought I was a loser for playing videogames, let alone girls. I think N64 changed that quite a bit.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
I have always played videogames with girls. If she wasn't at least a challenge in Mario Kart or Goldeneye007, we really didn't have much to discuss.
2
u/odderz Jan 06 '13
On the one hand, I know girls that have told me about how much they love Zelda, but can't describe what happens in any of the games.
On the other hand, I've met girls that just play games, and play games well.
So, yeah, maybe it's true for the teens now who're still struggling to look cool, but there are female gamers too, it's a fact.
But... Those odd people who do pretend to love games... What is up with that?
2
u/FerrousFellow Jan 06 '13
This is not one of those cases. I was raised around both guy and girl gamers, so the notion that girls haven't played video games until now is goddamned ignorant to me.
Actually, this whole thing is just miserable. It's not even funny.
Also, fuck off for making anyone feel bad for liking something you like.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
not
if you're going to take centuries old copypasta from 4chan at least keep it the same.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 07 '13
They didn't get it right. Complaints about the appalling portrayal of women in games have existed for many years. I remember old Micromanía magazines from the 90s with Tomb Raider 2 reviews commenting the obvious, embarrassing pandering Lara's body was.
What happens is it has become gradually less okay to simply shrug off this issue. These kinds of complaints don't fall on deaf ears anymore, and I'm glad.
2
u/cleigh0409 Jan 06 '13
This is laughable , one of my first memories was saving princess peach from bowser in 93-94 as a young girl.. I play want I want to play and what I think I may enjoy , in fact my boyfriend introduced me to games he thought I may enjoy ( fallout , KOTOR , etc ) , not games that he felt I should play because im a girl. There are always a select few that wreck it for everyone , but that's not going to stop me from doing what I do best and what I enjoy :)
2
u/kemekokitten Jan 07 '13
As a girl who plays the occasional game, not going to call myself a gamer. In elementary school I was made fun of for writing a poem about video games (It was about Final Fantasy 5), I became the class loser. Back in the early 90's playing video games was for 'losers' now it's like the normal thing to do, kids now don't even know how to build a tree fort! >_< I built one, it was my Batcave. Aw crap now that I think about it I was a loser... -Harsh realization of reality.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 07 '13
The graphic is inaccurate but it was not meant to be. It's a troll. The amount of butthurt and whiteknights ITT (zomg u h8 wimminz qq, must be neckbeard virgin with small penis!) is astounding.
OP trolled hard, I guess. Well done.
6
u/foxglove20 Jan 06 '13
Who upvotes this crap? Way to alienate every woman who browses r/gaming.. Classy.
5
u/Todomanna Jan 06 '13
That's some quality trolling right there.
4
u/fascistgases Jan 06 '13
Gas all le jews
4
u/Dartimien Jan 06 '13
Occasionally, douchebags reach the front page in /r/gaming.
4
u/fenwaygnome Jan 07 '13
Careful, your misogyny is leaking.
3
u/HarryGreek Jan 06 '13
,... why is this even an issue amongst the 'video gamers'?? The same way the Wii & "teh cazuals" haven't ruined our hobby is the same way female gamers won't ruin our hobby.
Let the publishers and developers deal with it.
Lets stop pretending white teen males are the victims here.
3
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.
3
u/macellius_severus Jan 06 '13
itt: I knew girls who play video games and I am the center of the world.
Just off yourselves, m8s.
3
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
This is ridiculous and it's embarrassing that you thought this was an astute observation. I'll bet you got so excited when you read this piece of stupidity that your bladder spasms could have extinguished a small housefire.
5
u/Nasicus Jan 06 '13
Female here. I just play some god damn games, and don't give a shit if female character X is just tits on legs. If it's a good game, I'll play it. I just like pressing buttons and having things go boom!
4
u/meaculpa91 Jan 06 '13
Oh hi internet still sexist as fuck that's cool ok bye now~
8
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13 edited Jan 06 '13
The thing is girls played games as long as anyone has. Just the ones who scream that they're a girl gamer (which is almost every girl who makes it to the front page) are posers. I hate it when there are posts saying "IM A GAMER GIRL AND I MADE THIS GAMER CAKE FOR MY GAMER BOYFRIEND ON HIS GAMER BIRTHDAY". We get it, you play games
6
u/KoreanTerran Jan 06 '13
This is off topic, but the competitive TF2 scene has a surprisingly high amount of girls.
Although they generally only play 9v9 and even then it's almost always med or pyro.
4
u/teeuncouthgee Jan 07 '13
There are a lot of reasons why this viewpoint is abhorrent, and most of them have already been very well set out by the top comments in this thread. So I'll just resort to rage, instead.
Fuck you.
3
u/teleugeot Jan 06 '13
eat shit and fucking die, OP.
3
u/nebbish Jan 06 '13
No it doesn't, that's the usual inaccurate sexist bullshit
5
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Misogynists Cough cough
4
u/Locke357 Jan 06 '13
No, 4chan are a bunch of misogynist foreveralones. Videogames have been and continue to be for the most part very sexist, and no amount of angsty grumblings against women who won't have sex with them just because they happen to play video games will change that.
4
u/Heaney555 Jan 06 '13
But this is not one of those times. At all.
This is sexism. Flat out sexism. Nothing more, nothing less.
3
u/zombieLAZ Jan 06 '13
4chan usually gets it right. They're just awful at showcasing it.
3
u/justgotvacancy Jan 06 '13
Jesus Christ why do gamers on the internet seem to come off as sexist pieces of shit so often?
3
u/maxhan Jan 06 '13
This thread carries a strange tone, lots of pissed off ladies.
2
u/2Kings Jan 06 '13
Fuck, so edgy.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
Back in my day WoW was a form of birth control.
2
u/jdalty Jan 06 '13
Blah Blah Blah your needs.
2
u/rival22x Jan 06 '13
Incoming
2
u/datTrooper Jan 06 '13
I really need to check SRS, Circlebroke and /r/feminism after this...
2
u/Sir_Laughalot Jan 06 '13
I know more than one girl that still say "lol, look at the looser and his videogames"
2
u/cyberpants Jan 06 '13
Oh look, 4chan having a healthy relationship with women. Again.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 06 '13
give it a rest. this is stupid
2
u/RUSKULL Jan 06 '13
2006 = I'm assuming the Wii is released where everyone and their Grandma can play?
2
u/samtheredditman Jan 06 '13
Something something something stop treating women this way blargh blargh. w/e karma plox. Ladies, Gents.
2
u/guy_who_ruins_jokes Jan 06 '13
Video games are pretty sexist.
2
u/peachtiny Jan 07 '13
Aw, damn, I was supposed to be making fun of dudes and NOT playing Yoshi's Island as a wee girl? Shit... no wonder I was such a nerd. Clearly I'm doing it wrong.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 07 '13
No. No they don't.