The Friday Debate – Girls Who Game?

I think boys are more for some action like shooters, action-adventure,…

And girls are more for ‘party’ (social)games with cute characters like buzz, little bigplanet,…

Or is this just a generalisation? Who knows

Girls can play what ever they want. who cares.

I got a couple of girl gamers on my friends list… they are the ones right down the bottom that don’t log in every day… when they have been online, they seem to play the same games as anyone else…. MAG, LBP, Fat Princess whatever… pointless making a distinction for me… I’ll HEADSHOT anyone

@Bassie that’s HUGE generalisation! I game and I play any sort of game! Racers, shooters, action/adventure, platform, retro, etc….you name it, I play it!

It doesn’t bother me most gamers are male because the blokes I have met via gaming have all been lovely to me and it’s made me a lot of friends so long live the girl gamer! I love that poster btw.

Girls are becoming more and more of gamers and new hardware such as PlayStation Move, The Wii Remote and Kinect are taking away even more barriers for females. It’s nice to see both sexes gaming and good for those lonely male gamers to get some female attention

I would say my Girlfriend is a pretty hard core gamer, she is always doing something gaming, and she is great to play online with too.

Although there may not be many, I am sure the numbers are rising.
Many of my girl mates, play the odd PS3 or Xbox game (Mainly COD), and enjoy it.

My girlfriend is a “gamer”, although she’d never admit it. She does love more casual things like The Sims but she can also handle herself on Call of Duty (she loved the zombies in WaW). We had a good session on Fat Princess last week together and she regularly watches me playing games like Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain and gets engrossed in the stories. I’ll train her up eventually

So yeah, long live girl gamers. The more the merrier in my opinion.

My wife plays all types of games. See played Wolfenstein, Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2. Usually the game must have an appealing story and interessting Charakters in order for her to play it.

I myself am a girl, and I know a lot of other girls that enjoy gaming. We play any kinds of games though, I know women that enjoy shooters, others prefer RPG´s and some I know only play sport games. We´re just as diverse as male players.

It´s sad that in some people´s eyes female gamers are still seen as `something special`, something to put on a pedestal or display in your trophy list. But most wouldn´t even classify us as females until they hear our voice in chat.

We are not that different, we play the same games, we want to win just as hard and most of us have been gaming for a big part of our lives.

Hi there, I have been playing games for a long time – and whilst I don’t really enjoy the competitiveness online, I love games like Fallout and Borderlands – and have played games for a really really long time!! I just think that less needs to made of it – there are girl only forums – but often they feed genralisations and so are more of a pain then anything else. There will be some i’m sure, differences, with gender, but then, so what?!

Hi,

I’m a girl gamer. I have been for years. I do love Little Big Planet & Final Fantasy but I do also love Uncharted & Batman Arkham Asylum. I’m hoping to rent God of War at some point to see if I can get into it.

I’m not a ‘stereo-typical’ girl gamer really. If a game is good and comes recommended either by girls (actually I only know one other girl-gamer) or by the boys I’d have a go.

I do probably ignore my hot boyfriend at some points and wow can I swear at the thing when I don’t normally swear that bad in real life.

I believe there are a lot more girl-gamers out there. It’s the 21st Century, girls are allowed to play. I’d love to work in the industry but feel at 30 I’m a bit ‘past it’ lol

Jo

I know a few female gamers. One of the forums i attend a lot has several females on it. My friends list has 4 or 5 that i know are female, though a lot of them i have to say i have never asked them what gender they are, ha.

I’m not sure i really think there’s a certain type of game that definitely appeals to female gamers, really..I’d say games like LBP have a high change of it though. But afterall, as with everyone, people have different tastes so not every female gamer likes the same things – i have one on my list who is nearly always playing God of War 3!

One of the only people I actually use a headset with is female, and while looking at her trophy list I realised that we both owned about 95% of the games on the list. We still mainly play Resistance 1 and are planning on playing through Resident Evil 5 in co-op so I don’t think there’s much difference between male and female gamers (a 5% difference if you take the above trophy lists to be literal).

This Debate topic is a great idea James, you’re already making the Blog more of a community

Also, The Friday Debate is a great idea! More please, will definitely look forward to this on a Friday. I like commenting on things where I can put my opinion across and debate with like minded (and sometimes not) gamers.
As for future topics, I’d like to see something to do with motion control. With the Move just around the corner it’d be cool to see what people have in mind about the uses and potential uses for motion control.

I am also a girl And I would agree with Super–Brad, I am a hard-core gamer XD And as much as I enjoy things like The Sims, I absolutely love shooters and action games and many of RPG’s. I’d say I’m mainly good at MGS4 Online, COD/MW2, Uncharted 2. But I get very offended when every single shooter that is made IE. COD is always a male character you have to play. So please, give us the option to choose either male or female so us women don’t get offended Thank you very much!

Oh, I’d also like to point out that the games on the trophy lists also cover a wide variety of genres. There’s FPS games, RPGs, platformers, action-adventures, fighters and much more to be seen so I think female gamers are just as enthusiastic about gaming, if perhaps less prominent.

I’d like to see a similar survey to the one you mentioned James, but done on Home, as I suspect there’s more females there as on the Blog.

At the moment due to being in an all-girl clan (the Kamikaze Kittens) my friend list is mostly full of other girls. And judging from my own collection and their trophy list they play just about everything.

But at work I’m the only girl and I surprise them every time I beat them at a game. In a sense I’m one of the boys, but at the same time they don’t expect me to be better then them at something.

But girls game, maybe not out in the open and rarely do they show up on gaming websites. Most of them buy their games because ‘they saw that awesome ad/trailer’ on tv.

@james

idd, there is no need for generalisations… but people who have nothing to do with it, make them… Just like most people think gamers are comuternerds with no social life…

I think that the “social pressure” to “fit in” is even bigger on girls. A girl is supposed to like make-up, fashion,… not to play games, that’s for boys ( I think most parents think this way).

There are some stereotypes about male gamers, but i think they are even bigger when you’re female and you game…

This is what I think about it:-) please dont flame me

From a guy gamer,
I’m not a huge fan of online gaming, and if I do play online I usually mute everyone but the friends I’m playing alongside. Perhaps this isn’t the best move tactically (what little tactics there are online), but the inane chatter and taunting and just plain abuse some people feel the need to display over their headsets just does my head in! This can obviously have a knock on effect for girl gamers, I’ve heard it happen many times online, the female gamers getting [DELETED], although most just laugh it off and go on to win the round

I’m a member of several gamer communities (PMS Clan, Gamer Chix) also have my own (Gameinatrix.com and Gamer Girls Radio) and I have to tell you this question shows how little progress is being made on this front. Every single year this question surfaces and in 2008 I had the distinction of being a panelist at PAX, talking about this topic in a round about way. (cont..)

The industry is not necessarily predominantly male, it’s that BECAUSE there are so many men currently in power positions female communities and websites get overlooked and left out. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard or heard of my peers who run their own respective gaming communities, being told by companies that they won’t buy advertising, deal with or even talk to women because…yes we’re women. It’s not the games, women play all kinds of games. We tend to appear to be hidden when we’re not. There is just no where to go at this point and those of us who have communities are barely keeping our heads above water because we get absolutely no support from most game developers. What we get are questions like these: How do I get my girlfriend to game? Do girls like FPSes? Girls only play the Sims (said to me by the VP of marketing at EA) It’s time to step beyond the, are girls really gamers question and start putting a little faith in us as gamers. We make up 52% of all gamers now, it shouldn’t be asked if we’re gamers, but how can we get them play OUR game. /end rant -Gameinatrix

Whoops, apologies about the naughty swear word

What is thing called a ‘Girl’

I wod like to tell you about vicki_ she is a girlgamer and one night 3 Sackboys fell i love to her
do to her skills in Little Big Planet, she did alot of picking up the nice stuff wile us 3 Hardcore gamer boys
sucked BIG time, tears was faling from my eyes, and the 2 otheres Sackboys was shouting we love
you vicki_ we love you vicki_ like cry babyies …………………….

im 34 and im startedet to call my shelf an adult but that evening is the best ever in my gaming life .

Alot of love to vicki_ from Denmark.

sorry my Enghlis

i think its not a question of which sex predominately play games or sterotyping genres to sexs. The thing is a PSN id is just a name and doesnt divulge anything more. It was the same with central station and PS2 online before PSN.
Its one of the reasons i’m kind of glad that PSN is becoming more social in certain areas like facebook intergration and chatting/messaging abilitys. For the first year I had my launch ps3 i never came across any women but 3 and half years on and i have many friends on PSN who are women which goes to show how mature the networks come and just not an outlet for overhormonal teenagers that let loose when they here a girl on the mic.

it is also worth noting that the playstation forums in Europe have a very active female gameing comunity.

I know a few girl gamers in real life and online.
There definately needs to be more awareness into how many girl gamers & developers are out there.
Theres is nothing positive about having “gaming” and the games industry seem male dominated and it would do the industry a whole lot of good if people came to terms with how many developers are acctually female.
On a side note – most of the girl gamers I do know would probably own your average male gamer at most games out there – there definately not casual gamers!

Every girl I know plays games. Admittedly it’s usually Pokemon or Wii Sports or something but I still regard that as a real gamer. Pokemon is for the hardcore!

Girls play any game, and can be better than guys at them too.

My fiance loves a good game of Call of Duty when she is in the mood for it. She spends most of her time playing Singstar at the moment, oh…and ModNation Racers demo (I’m getting sick of her racing around the same track all the time, so will eventually cave in a get the full game, lol)

Every now and then she’ll fire up LittleBigPlanet, although not as much as when it first came out. We had to fight for the PS3! And no doubt it’s going to be the same when LittleBigPlanet 2 comes out!

Oh, and throw in the odd game of Bomberman now and then too.

Generally I think there’s something of a misconception that girls are only interested in games aimed at them. There’s a temptation to write-off anything involving shooting, racing or gore as games for the boys, when really a mechanically accomplished and compelling game will be attractive to all gamers, regardless of gender.

On the other hand games like Gran Turismo and FIFA do nothing for me. That’s not a comment on the quality of the games, I’m simply not interested in the subject matter. Yes, I have a penis; attached to me, it’s not a militant feminist trophy. So here I am, a heterosexual male supposedly breaking the mould. But in reality I’m not so unique, there are plenty of other guys with similar tastes that don’t make a big deal of it because… well, why would you? I don’t make a point of telling everyone I meet that I dislike cheese unless it’s relevant to the situation, and taste in games is no different.

Why are we still having this conversation? Because the media constantly perpetuate the differentiation by writing columns such as this.

I am over 40 and have been gaming on and off since I was a teenager. I introduced my kids to video gaming and my daughter is just as interested (and as good) as my son. For my 40th birthday I asked for a PS3, it was the only thing I wanted.

The only thing that stops me gaming as much as I want is my responsibilities as wife, mother & worker. Sure, when I game, it’s often a casual game due to time constraints, but give me time and a sword and I will hack and slash at the demons with the best of them.

I do get annoyed online – I don’t play but I visit Home regularly – when I get the stupid idiots who like to be abusive (would they say things like that if they knew I was probably old enough to be their mother?) but I have met some nice guys who actually enjoy a conversation. I haven’t met many females online yet but would treat them just the same as anyone I meet; and that should always be the case for every gamer.

Look beyond gender, you may be surprised to find more similarities than you expect. If you see me on Home don’t forget to say ‘hi’.

Currently playing a lot of red dead multiplayer with a regular group of gamers and out of all of us the one girl in the group is by far the best player. She is level 50 and it is very unusual for her not to be getting the highest score in each match – girl gamers are no different to the chaps IMO, it is just they have to put up with more grief from some of the less mature gamers when the do play, which is a shame.

I’m a girlgamer, have been since I was little ( still love the Atari!! ) and am one of the admin at PlaystationLeague.co.uk. Nearly of our active members are male but there are a few girls about. I know of loads of female gamers though and they, like myself, are into all game types. It’s not the genre but how good a game is that determines what I purchase. Can’t wait for KZ3, R3, LBP2, hopes are up for MS3 and TDU2 and loads of others!! So many games so little time.

Attitudes towards female gamers are slowly changing and games are more accessible than they’ve ever been however there are still many girls that don’t advertise their sexuality due the number of sad little men that assume female gamers are in desperate need of their attentions. The continual and high level of harassment of female avatars on Home highlighted this. Most of the time I’m online it’s with fellow PSL members and people on my friends list (only trusted people are allowed on there!) but if I’m ‘in the wild’ on my own, I won’t be on comms. It’s a shame as there’s a ton of great people out there and I’ve made some great and lasting friendships over the PS3.

Give it another 5 years though and the numbers will be a lot more balanced.

Games appeal more to guys i think while some games do appeal more to girls i noticed when using the sing star viewer that there was a lot of girls on there, the rest of the games out there 80-90% are aimed at guys with about 10-15 % of girls liking these games.

Made those numbers up but that is my experience of playing many different types of games on line over the years more guys out there with the odd one o two girls thrown in.

I’m a girl, and I game – a lot. I’m on almost every night playing a diverse assortment of games. My friends list is completely full and there are several other girl gamers on that list.

Most of the guys I game with are cool to fact that I’m a girl, but there are those that are shocked to find a girl playing – even going so far as saying I’m a kid. Another situation that may keep girls from announcing themselves is the harassment they may receive from those few guys that like to spout sexual innuendo or sexist remarks like “Go make me a sandwich”. Fortunately I find that those are few and far between, but when I do run across those few I leave the match and go find another server with more hospitable teammates.

One of my biggest complaints about how the game industry ignores females is the fact that in most multiplayer games there are NO female characters to choose from. There are a few that do offer a female (Red Dead Redemption for one). Someone tell me why must I always run around as a guy? And I don’t want to hear the excuse that it’s too difficult to program a female character.

Okay I’m done

I am a female gamer, and have been since the Commodore 64/Amiga days. I have a fair few female gamers on my friends list and to be honest I don’t think there is a typical selection of games that they prefer. Some like Call of Duty, some like Killzone 2, White knight Chronicles and LittleBigPlanet etc. Just because we’re ‘female gamers’ it doesn’t mean that we are going to like colourful girly games. Male or female, what difference does that make? We all play the same.

I couldn’t agree with you more xHeatherx

I think Histrel (#35) touches on an interesting point: the division is exacerbated by all the attempts to address it. By drawing attention to the stereotype you actually perpetuate it, all good intentions aside. Then again simply sticking your head in the sand won’t change anything, so what’s the alternative? Wait for the generalisation to die of its own accord?

Given the cyclical arguments surrounding nothing terms like “hardcore” and “casual” gamers — useful adjectives transformed into a needless in-group, out-group mentality — perhaps asking the general gaming populace to be reasonable about gender is a fool’s errand. Or should that be the facless population of online games? I suspect headset-abusing misogyny and homophobia go hand-in-hand with the trolling of message boards and comment threads. I like to think such cases aren’t representative of those who play games on the whole; it helps stave off misanthropy if nothing else.

Im a girl gamer and love games of any genre, whilst I do enjoy playing games like MNR and other games that wouldnt be considered hardcore, they are certainly not the games I play the most.

I am in a girl clan hope-gaming and through the site have met a lot of girl gamers, in my experience there certainly isnt a particular game type that appeals to female gamers unless that game type is FPS as most of my friends seem to love MW2.

So I dont think their is any real distinction between male and female gamers, except that maybe as females we play just a little better, lol *ducks*

My GF is a serious gamer, although she doesn’t participate in any communities or clans. She doesn’t use comms either due to the inevitable grief a female voice seems to attract online. I’m sure other women/girls also adopt a similar strategy and I guess this also adds to the perception that females are vastly under-represented online.
Nevertheless she played Warhawk religiously for almost two years and was in the top 0.1% for quite a while.

I can thank my wife for most of my trophies.
She doesn’t have her own psn account because she wants to have full access to all of my psn games so she plays on my account.

Its fun to check my facebook while Im not at home and she gets a trophie for me and it pops up there.

From my perspective, gaming is having fun. Whether it is hardcore or casual. I don’t care what pps say about female gamers being better or worse at this or that game. In the end it is YOU who plays the game. And forum or chat flaming, oh well, there’s always a stick *checks inventory*

I’m a girl and I’d say I’m a serious gamer. My boyfriend and I bought a PS3 together and I dominated it so much that he had to get his own. Not that he doesn’t benefit from my huge game collection, which includes shooters like Bioshock 2, racing games like Blur and Split Second and action games like RDR and Just Cause 2. I like games with a lot of action.

My wife is a gamer, she plays games such as LBP, EyePet, Burn Zombie Burn and she’ll even help me out in multiplayer co-op games such as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

As much as she loves gaming though you wouldn’t find her commenting or even joining up on a blog such as this, she’ll read it over my shoulder sometimes but she never seems to take her interest to the next level (as in discussing it on the net) though she will research how to beat a boss etc on sites such as gamespot. I think you may find that there are lots of girl gamers out there but they are more casual players such as my missus.

James.

Is there any way you can tell sony or someone to suggest they add a psn store to Malta? PLEASE ITS BEEN 3 YEARS AND WE STILL DONT HAVE A PS STORE! I WANT TO BUY PSN+ and alot of other goodies

please reply.. I know this has nothing to do with the topic, but we Maltese really want a ps store

Thanks if you reply.

@lonewolf1994
your an idiot for posting that here your supposse 2 post that at the psn store updates