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[Jintor]

“Video games are a boy thing,” my sister explains to me. “I feel like it’s a known fact. GameStop is a boy store. The commercials are for boys. It’s just something everyone knows.”

My sister is 17. She runs a One Direction fan Twitter with 10,000 followers. She plans to major in fashion marketing. She’s a cheerleader. She is as close as anyone can get to what gaming’s sweaty fever dreams envision, desire, and shame as "Girl."

Like me, she knows from personal experience that girls play video games, and would hotly defend it if challenged. But a second tenet holds sway, as contrary as it is simultaneous: video games are for boys. The video games we’ve played don’t count. They’re concessions, scraps, snatches at the lucrative attention of little girls. It's not that my sister and I don’t like real games; it's that the games we like aren’t real.

I ask about Style Savvy, Cooking Mama, Super Princess Peach—games she played without fanfare, without self-doubt, surrounded by torn-out Tiger Beat posters. Weren’t those fun? Didn’t she spend hours with friends, swapping Nintendogs? Doesn’t she remember the giggly hours she devoted to Club Penguin?

“Oh yeah, those were fun,” she says. “I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t grow out of video games. Maybe video games just didn’t grow up with me.”

It would be easy to cast my sister and I as opposites. I received a book of essays on The Scarlet Letter for my 16th birthday. She received Our Moment, the One Direction branded fragrance. I went to a college where I devoted myself to post-war politics and anime screenings. She dreams of a higher education experience full of tailgating and adorably slouched cardigans. A teen movie would have a field day: she, the blue-eyed beauty in a LOVE PINK hoodie, blinking blankly as she holds an Xbox controller upside down. I, the frizz-headed harpy, explaining that my half-elf duchess of darkness uses water spells, not fire.

But I nod in agreement. “Yeah. Same.”

I have a Steam account. I have a favorite Soul Calibur title. But fundamentally, we feel the same: not gamers, not welcome, and not interested in most of what we see at GameStop. Those years we spent swapping DS cartridges were, for the both of us, our only experience of games as uncomplicated fun. Then we grew up, and an avalanche of qualifiers buried us.

We’re not gamers. We don’t play real games. We should stay out. My proximity to nerdhood, her proximity to the mainstream—neither matters. Video games did not grow up with us; video games did not grow up for us.

http://boingboing.net/2015/08/08/no-girl-wins-three-ways-women.html

For me, I first noticed this phenomenon first with my little cousin, who is about ten years younger than me and thus fairly easy to keep track of her gaming habits, which have begun to change as she reaches adolescence - not because she doesn't enjoy games anymore, but because she feels like she shouldn't. I've also noticed this with an Australian publicly-funded videogame show, Good Game, which has a Kids event called Spawn Point. Spawn Point audiences are regularly about 50/50 in terms of gender. Good Game audiences are, well, not.

Is there a solution? Is this an ouroboros situation of marketing selling to audiences who buy who inspire more marketing to those audiences?

Please read the article before commenting.

 

[benicillin]

This was a great article and Offworld has quickly become one of my favorite new publications. Totally agree with pretty much everything in the article, it's a bunch of things all mixed together that all lead to the same problem.

Thankfully, I really believe that the industry is moving in the right direction and we'll see less of these problems as time goes on. There are some growing pains right now and a lot of the backlash we see is because games as a medium are getting way more inclusive and developers are being free to take more risks.

Slow process, but I think it's happening.

 

[Demoskinos]

There are obviously larger macro level issues here but I also think a lot of this depends on the person themselves. And as odd as it sounds I think it has a lot to do with home life. And what I mean by that is if you never get the opportunity to play a lot of games your tastes may go in other directions. I often wonder if my tastes would be entirely different if my dad didn't buy me an NES when I was 4 years old.

Which that in itself I suppose lends itself to the larger issue of having more breadth of variety so more girls might find the types of games that they like.

 

[Maedhros]

I dunno if developers really need to make games with appeal to one sex, instead of just age group.

IMO, there's no such thing as games for boys/girls... unless we're talking about those facebook/smartphone games, which I don't even care or count. If that's what they are talking about... there's tons on smartphones.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I dunno if developers really need to make games with appeal to one sex, instead of just age group.

IMO, there's no such thing as games for boys/girls... unless we're talking about those facebook/smartphone games, which I don't even care or count. If that's what they are talking about... there's tons on smartphones.

Having two daughters, I can tell you that while there aren't necessarily "games for boys" and "games for girls", they tend to perceive a game that has no/few female characters and only a male protagonist as "boy games".

Thankfully, they will still play those games and enjoy them, but it's very clear to me that they would prefer more games gave them the option to play as a girl, and wish more games had great female characters in them.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I think the "games aren't for girls" attitude is kind of a hangover from a time when that was much truer than it is now. That idea is going to be hard to dispel, regardless of how much the games themselves have changed over the years.

Until we manage to unstick it, girls are going to continue to drift away from gaming as they get older for fear of ridicule from their peers. The further they drift, the more their perception of games will be shaped by the titles with the most visible and expensive advertising, rather than the many fantastic games that don't skew towards traditionally male interests. And so the whole thing loops on and on.

 

[lazygecko]

I think the "games aren't for girls" attitude is kind of a hangover from a time when that was much truer than it is now. That idea is going to be hard to dispel, regardless of how much the games themselves have changed over the years.

Seems to mainly stem from console marketing in the 90's. If you look at the computer game market before that for example, it's quite diverse in comparison. Especially once Sony started advertising with more of a lifestyle angle and framing it pretty overtly as a guy thing, there was a shift that seemed to affect the industry as a whole.

 

[BGBW]

When even Mario Kart is described as not a real game you know you're facing an uphill struggle.

It's interesting that despite all the talk that gaming is expanding, blue ocean strategies and it being bigger than movies, the industry still seems to feel small and exclusive.

Since GameStop is mentioned, it's interesting to note that if one went to a book store the shelves are separated by type of book, in a music store the music is broken down into genres, whereas in a game shop it's by platform. While obviously it makes sense to separate games by platform it doesn't help to demonstrate the wide variety of types of games. In order to really be aware of what is on offer one really has to be in the hobby but of course people don't want to be in this hobby because they just see it as a heap of violent shooting games.

Seeing names like Cooking Mama and Super Princess Peach mentioned so positively after reading years of opinions, often by those who didn't play them, calling them patronising and demeaning came as a surprise to be honest. Probably goes to show that the industry probably does need more games that are unashamedly focused on the female market. Saying it is for everyone doesn't mean much if a [subset] of the male market is just going to claim ownership of it. But it did highlight another problem, these games were seen as girls games but not women games. It's OK to play games when you're young, but once a girl grows up it's time to put the games away. As someone who has played Nintendo most of his life the concept of caring whether a game is seen as kiddy or not is something I long learnt to ignore, but as I saw in the comments, it also helps that as a male, being childish isn't seen as a negative. This is both a wider social issue that gaming is still seen as childish, and honestly I only think time can solve this as the older generation, to put it frankly, die off and games that are seen as being aimed at an older audience are often just violent games with little variety. Of course that's because a game that can deal with adult issues doesn't necessarily have to unsuitable content ergo can get a 3+ rating but also as I said earlier, shops (the primary source for game exposure) don't do a good job of showing games to adults that are not of the usual AAA shooting type.

Of course nothing will help if we still have a vocal group who makes it their mission to make everyone else feel unwelcome in this hobby.

 

[Lime]

Once children reach their identity-forming years, each gender tries to conform to the normative ideals of what a man and what a woman should like.

You see across all statistics that there's a huge drop in how many girls play video games once they reach adolescence/teenage years. Because society and the games industry are telling them that "this is for boys/men".

 

[SolidSnakex]

Seems to mainly stem from console marketing in the 90's. If you look at the computer game market before that for example, it's quite diverse in comparison. Especially once Sony started advertising with more of a lifestyle angle and framing it pretty overtly as a guy thing, there was a shift that seemed to affect the industry as a whole.

I see this mentioned often, but I don't think it's true. Here are Atari commercials from the 70's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KVgvtwOe_g

You'll notice something that they pretty much all have in common is that they feature boys or men playing games. Rarely were girls or women featured in those commercials. That alone would create a perception of who they're designed for. It's the same theme that you'll find with 80's gaming commercials. Or what about Nintendo calling their most popular device the Gameboy? Gaming has always been pushed toward males.

 

[Lime]

And this was just released a couple of days ago. Pew research suggests that gaming is a more social activity for teen boys than it is for teen girls:

and

and

and

 

[Nephtes]

Well written article.
It makes me want to get back into the games industry to make games that would fill the void in the market of games that age with girls.

The issue is still how to market to girls who are in the process of becoming women that games can be and are still for them...

As a community, we have to stop devaluing games that are not implicitly designed for men.

I believe games and gaming are positive for everyone, not just men and women.

My wife actually fits the mold mentioned in the article. She grew up playing Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past, but if you ask her to pick up a controller now, she won't for very long.

She missed out on generations of games because society told her games are not for her. She doesn't know how to use analog sticks and she doesn't get all the triggers and bumpers because she didn't experience these things during her formative years. These things are alien to her and so of course my gaming habit is eschewed into the spare bedroom... Away from the rest of the house.

 

[Wulfram]

The proportion of game players who are women is higher for adults than children.

Based on the numbers in the ESA survey, 59% of under 18s who play games are men, while the split among adults is 50/50

So, this article is a little strange to me. It's concluded with a big list of things women want from games, and seems to ignore that there are a ton of games that deliver on that, more being made and lots of lots of women playing them.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

My sister (23) always feels uncomfortable in Game Stop.

She likes games like GTA and Zelda, but shopping in a game store, the workers try to awkwardly flirt with her or steer her towards games like Wii Fit which she has no interest in, so she doesn't go the game store anymore and just buys everything online.

She also doesn't dare use a headset when playing games online. Which is pretty sad that she feels she can't do that.

 

[Nephtes]

She likes games like GTA and Zelda, but shopping in a game store, the workers try to awkwardly flirt with her or steer her towards games like Wii Fit which she has no interest in, so she doesn't go the game store anymore and just buys everything online.

That's absolutely disgusting on the part of the Gamestop employees. Both in terms of the ethics of hitting on a customer, but also breaking the first rule of sales as set forth by Harry Selfridge. The customer should always be made to feel welcome and comfortable in the store.

 

[Mesoian]

That's absolutely disgusting on the part of the Gamestop employees. Both in terms of the ethics of hitting on a customer, but also breaking the first rule of sales as set forth by Harry Selfridge. The customer should always be made to feel welcome and comfortable in the store.

I'd say that Harry Selfridge's mandate only really applies if you care about your job. Considering most GS employees are male teenagers, I'd say the percentage that actually care about doing their jobs well is very low. Most of them are probably just enjoying the high of "working with video games". Gamespot is still just retail.

 

[Vinc]

My sister (23) always feels uncomfortable in Game Stop.

She likes games like GTA and Zelda, but shopping in a game store, the workers try to awkwardly flirt with her or steer her towards games like Wii Fit which she has no interest in, so she doesn't go the game store anymore and just buys everything online.

She also doesn't dare use a headset when playing games online. Which is pretty sad that she feels she can't do that.

Goddamn.

Stuff like this should never happen. I really wish more people played games, regardless of anything else. We need to be an inclusive community, not exclusive.

 

[Nephtes]

I'd say that Harry Selfridge's mandate only really applies if you care about your job. Considering most GS employees are male teenagers, I'd say the percentage that actually care about doing their jobs well is very low. Most of them are probably just enjoying the high of "working with video games". Gamespot is still just retail.

I worked at a Gamestop back in the day during the PS2 launch era as a summer job when I was in college, still very much a teenage male. I understand the "high of working with videogames". I recall using Gamestop's games collection as my personal "free rental" store during my tenure as an employee.

But I never would have presumed to hit on a customer. I once pestered New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Haslett for an autograph when he came in the store, but I don't think that counts...

We were never encouraged to steer people towards one game or another. Rather the idea as to get a feeling for what the customer liked and help them find similar games. Which is what the employees should have done in the case presented above. "Oh? You like GTA V? Maybe you would like Watch_Dogs..." Or something like that..Watch_Dogs being absolute shit (in my opinion).

All we were really asked to do was push Game Informer like our lives depended on it...

 

[Amory]

My sister (23) always feels uncomfortable in Game Stop.

She likes games like GTA and Zelda, but shopping in a game store, the workers try to awkwardly flirt with her or steer her towards games like Wii Fit which she has no interest in, so she doesn't go the game store anymore and just buys everything online.

She also doesn't dare use a headset when playing games online. Which is pretty sad that she feels she can't do that.

pretty much everyone feels uncomfortable at gamestop though

Spoiler

yes I get your point

 

[Velkyn]

I'm a new father of a wonderful 2-month old who's been listening to the wife and I playing games since before she was born, and thinking about her being pushed out of games because she's a girl is making my heart sink. There are games out there like Her Story and Contradiction and The Talos Principle and many others that I'd consider for all audiences, but the author's sister is right; you don't see a Life Is Strange standee in the window at Gamestop, you don't see TV spots for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or Hakuoki billboards.

You'd think this would be a more inclusive hobby given how many video game diehards are bulled or ostracized in school growing up. Why do we put so much emphasis on how "real" someone is and why do we use game difficulty as a barometer for what a "real" game is?

 

[Sinfamy]

My girlfriend just bought Bloodborne and killed the first boss.
Be jealous.

 

[RockTurtle]

My niece loved the shit out of super princess peach. But that game was deemed problematic.

 

[Serra]

Mentioning that GameStop doesn't appeal to them isn't really unique to girls. Every male "gamer" I know in real life dislikes that place too.

 

[Nephtes]

I'm a new father of a wonderful 2-month old who's been listening to the wife and I playing games since before she was born, and thinking about her being pushed out of games because she's a girl is making my heart sink.

So much this. My wife and I aren't pregnant yet, but the scenario you present is one of my fears. The other fear being that if we have a boy I will be completely lost attempting to mentor him in sports... D:

Fatherhood can't be easy either gender your kid ends up...can it?

 

[Raggie]

That's absolutely disgusting on the part of the Gamestop employees. Both in terms of the ethics of hitting on a customer, but also breaking the first rule of sales as set forth by Harry Selfridge. The customer should always be made to feel welcome and comfortable in the store.

They probably don't come to think they're being disgusting. All they see is a girl who plays games, ergo they want her to be their girlfriend. I've been there over and over. My first exposure was in the early 90's in a gaming BBS, where I was swamped with messages ever since I let it out I was a girl. The last time was a few years back, in a subway, when some man who was obviously a nerd saw my DS and started terribly awkward attempts to flirt.

It's not something I've terribly minded, but the amount of attention can be overwhelming and if the guy is really bad at flirting and/or definitely not something you'd ever want to date (I'm very sorry to say it, lots of gamers are both), it's somewhat embarrassing.

Anyway, whenever there's talk about how many female gamers are these days, there's always someone who will refuse it as fact, saying the statistics are obviously wrong because you don't see girls in game stores pretty much ever. But gamer girls I've known don't go to game stores. They are definitely places that say "not for you" for any woman with so many subtle things. It's like a man shopping for cross stitch patterns in a craft store.

 

[Curufinwe]

My wife and niece both play Skyrim (among other console and handheld games), which I'm sure that girl in the story would erroneously assume is just a boy's game. Neither of them have ever mentioned feeling uncomfortable in a Gamestop to me.

 

[Tigress]

You'd think this would be a more inclusive hobby given how many video game diehards are bulled or ostracized in school growing up. Why do we put so much emphasis on how "real" someone is and why do we use game difficulty as a barometer for what a "real" game is?

Honestly, it's what teens do. They are looking for identity and if they find it in games, they want to make sure they have the real identity. Wanting to have imposters kinda makes them feel more authentic and their identity more real.

I thought it was BS when I was a teen to worry so much about "fakers" but I also really liked heavy metal and being female a lot of metalheads didn't take me seriously (I think it's gotten more open but metal was seen as a guy thing when I was younger). And for me liking metal that was what I was trying to tie my identity to. So I got the end where you can't find many people to talk about what you like so I was able to see the BS end of it easier (Then again I don't think I ever was of the opinion that it was ok to be snobby to some one).

Honestly, you'll find this attitude in any group that people, especially teens, tend to use as an identity (music, games, fashion, computers, goth, emo, anything that is popular that people start seeing as part of their identity). I think when you grow up you realize it's not that important but as teens finding identity it's a lot more important so you see the attitude more. And not all teens are like that. Some do see through the BS (maybe they just mature faster). But some get really caught up in it. It also tends to be worse in groups that feel like they are ostracized by mainstream (goth, gamers, metalheads, hell, apparently some Macintosh fans who actually don't want to see Mac ever be popular despite meaning more software availability). Because they start really wanting to at least be able to say, "Well at least I'm unique" and if more people start trying to tie themselves in with the same identity that makes them less unique.

 

[Gnilres]

I think articles like this are part of the problem. Stop treating and talking about video games with a "girls v boys" attitude and people will eventually stop thinking about games that way.

 

[MogCakes]

The Gamestop near my place has some pretty awesome workers who make everyone feel welcome, but one of them is female so that likely skews things.

 

[EMT0]

My girlfriend just bought Bloodborne and killed the first boss.
Be jealous.

Already better than me at it, lol

 

[Nephtes]

They probably don't come to think they're being disgusting. All they see is a girl who plays games, ergo they want her to be their girlfriend. I've been there over and over. My first exposure was in the early 90's in a gaming BBS, where I was swamped with messages ever since I let it out I was a girl. The last time was a few years back, in a subway, when some man who was obviously a nerd saw my DS and started terribly awkward attempts to flirt.

It's not something I've terribly minded, but the amount of attention can be overwhelming and if the guy is really bad at flirting and/or definitely not something you'd ever want to date (I'm very sorry to say it, lots of gamers are both), it's somewhat embarrassing.

Stereotypes swing both ways...
Male "gamers" are stereotyping you as a "girl who plays games" and all that it's come to entail, but you're also stereotyping "gamers" as terrible flirts and things you wouldn't want to date... ^_^;

Stereotyping is bad. Any way you slice it.
I don't think a people should be judged by their "classification" but rather by the content of their character.

I'm a "gamer", but someone thought I was good enough to date and marry. ^_^

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I think articles like this are part of the problem. Stop treating and talking about video games with a "girls v boys" attitude and people will eventually stop thinking about games that way.

Articles like this aren't part of the problem. They're addressing the problem: people (consumers and creators) think about games this way, something that they haven't stopped doing for 30 years.

 

[Htown]

I think articles like this are part of the problem. Stop treating and talking about video games with a "girls v boys" attitude and people will eventually stop thinking about games that way.

When in the history of the planet has ignoring a problem made it go away?

Ever?

 

[BTA]

Read it this morning and it's pretty great. I think that 3rd point especially is worth thinking about, because it's something someone like me (who doesn't watch live TV 99% of the time) probably doesn't think about as much as they should.

 

[dark10x]

There are obviously larger macro level issues here but I also think a lot of this depends on the person themselves. And as odd as it sounds I think it has a lot to do with home life. And what I mean by that is if you never get the opportunity to play a lot of games your tastes may go in other directions. I often wonder if my tastes would be entirely different if my dad didn't buy me an NES when I was 4 years old.

Which that in itself I suppose lends itself to the larger issue of having more breadth of variety so more girls might find the types of games that they like.

Well, from the opposite side, I can tell you that was not even ALLOWED to own or really touch video games for the first 8 or 9 years of my life. I was still super interested but was never allowed to get into them. I sometimes wonder if THAT actually pushed me towards the hobby more.

 

[Raggie]

Stereotypes swing both ways...
Gamers are stereotyping you as a female gamer and all that it's come to entail, but you're also stereotyping "gamers" as terrible flirts and things you wouldn't want to date... ^_^;

Stereotyping is bad. Any way you slice it.
I don't think a people should be judged by their "classification" but rather by the content of their character.

I'm a "gamer", but someone thought I was good enough to date and marry. ^_^

I didn't mean all gamers or even most gamers are not something you'd date. I said "lots" of them are. Any type of a person can be a gamer, but let's face it. If you compare a group of gamers to a group of general populace, you're going to see more people who have poor social skills. And I'm also a nerd, a gamer, and married.

 

[Nirolak]

My niece loved the shit out of super princess peach. But that game was deemed problematic.

Well, yes, that's why the word problematic was used instead of ghastly or terrible.

There are certainly a lot of positive elements. Peach gets to be the star of the game and goes to save Mario, Luigi, and Toad for a change instead of perennially being the victim.

This doesn't change that the game is still heavily based on gender stereotypes, often extended even to the mechanics, which didn't always sit well with everyone. That doesn't mean people can't enjoy the game, find positive things about it, or not be bothered by these issues, but it doesn't change that nuanced criticism can still occur.

 

[Raggie]

One part of the problem is that in this community, anything that's considered feminine is devalued. Games about Transformers, ninja turtles or Batman are okay and good, but games about fashion, ponies, or somesuch is not just silliness. Bright colors are out, grimdark is in. Killing stuff in games is great, exploring romantic relationships is something to laugh at. People can get downright aggressive at the sight of these things.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Well written, thanks for sharing. I'd care to read more by this author, I'll have to look her up.

 

[CoLaN]

I just find it sad how society wants to put everyone in cages, and dictate what people should do or like. If people dont follow those standards, they get judged.

Bright colours are "feminine"? What the hell.

 

[fabricated backlash]

I think articles like this are part of the problem. Stop treating and talking about video games with a "girls v boys" attitude and people will eventually stop thinking about games that way.

Right, because ignoring something has ever solved anything...

 

[Lime]

One part of the problem is that in this community, anything that's considered feminine is devalued. Games about Transformers, ninja turtles or Batman are okay and good, but games about fashion, ponies, or somesuch is not just silliness. Bright colors are out, grimdark is in. Killing stuff in games is great, exploring romantic relationships is something to laugh at. People can get downright aggressive at the sight of these things.

Yeah it really stifles the diversity of what video games as a cultural medium have to offer. It's sad to look at threads like this and this and see how few games in the span of 40+ years that simply involve relationships.

 

[Grimalkin]

My girlfriend just bought Bloodborne and killed the first boss.
Be jealous.

I would argue that Bloodbourne is a fairly female-positive game. The Victorian-Gothic-horror art style is appealing, you can play as a woman, and the game is on the whole more intelligent than most AAA offerings. The entire series can be summed up as combat puzzles that reward critical thinking and trial-and-error style of play. Which is what most women are looking for in games.

Well, yes, that's why the word problematic was used instead of ghastly or terrible.

There are certainly a lot of positive elements. Peach gets to be the star of the game and goes to save Mario, Luigi, and Toad for a change instead of perennially being the victim.

This doesn't change that the game is still heavily based on gender stereotypes, often extended even to the mechanics, which didn't always sit well with everyone. That doesn't mean people can't enjoy the game, find positive things about it, or not be bothered by these issues, but it doesn't change that nuanced criticism can still occur.

To me Super Princess Peach is about as problematic as any other Mario game in that it features conservative values.

The average person wants to fit in and be "normal" so no, Peach being emotional instead of rational in the game isn't seen as weird. This is accepted as "how women are" in our broader culture and even if it is problematic it isn't seen as abnormal.

I 100% completed Super Princess Peach and I loved it. It's colorful, Peach is the hero, and yes she has emotions which I saw as funny and a positive change to the usual "hero stoically trudging through various hellscapes, murdering almost everything in its path" trope.

 

[domlolz]

You'd think this would be a more inclusive hobby given how many video game diehards are bulled or ostracized in school growing up.

maybe in the past, everyone plays now. and generally those people arent the ones who become the CEOs and heads of marketing

 

[Tigress]

One part of the problem is that in this community, anything that's considered feminine is devalued. Games about Transformers, ninja turtles or Batman are okay and good, but games about fashion, ponies, or somesuch is not just silliness. Bright colors are out, grimdark is in. Killing stuff in games is great, exploring romantic relationships is something to laugh at. People can get downright aggressive at the sight of these things.

I think a lot of people ignore this part entirely (and this goes for more than just games. Think about jobs that are considered female jobs. I'll give you an excellent example. A teacher used to be a really respected profession that had prestige. It lost that when it started being perceived as a more female profession. The prestige then went to being a professor which was seen as one more males were in).

A big problem isn't just that games aren't catering to females, but something seen as for females is seen as "lesser". Values that are seen as good for females are not seen as important/prestigious in general. Things that are seen as feminine are seen as ok for females but "lowered" for males. I honestly will say I think it's worse to be a guy who likes stuff perceived as female stuff vs. a tomboy.

A guy liking female stuff is lowering himself to like inferior stuff. It's ok for females cause they are inferior so it's ok for them to like inferior stuff. Where as a tomboy at least is liking the good stuff and is able to be better than most females. As a tomboy I got this attitude a lot. Good for you for liking substantial stuff and not that stupid female stuff (I heard this a lot from my dad's friends). I didn't even think much of it and totally fell into it until pointed out why it's offensive in some college class I took that was looking at social values.

 

[bearythebear]

Yup, we need more good games designed for women. There's no reason guys can't enjoy them. Heck, I love stuff like "Orange is the New Black" and "Mean Girls", and one of the reasons why is that they weren't made with me as the target audience.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

When in the history of the planet has ignoring a problem made it go away?

Ever?

Well all these gender and similar issues weren't issues for me until people started making them be!

 

[cheststrongwell]

The most bigoted shit I've ever heard or seen has been in online games. The second a girl uses the mic, you can bet someone will comment on it. I actually change my slight southern accent while playing CSGO. Shit is toxic.

I would never let anyone know I was a girl gamer.

 

[MogCakes]

Stereotypes swing both ways...
Male "gamers" are stereotyping you as a "girl who plays games" and all that it's come to entail, but you're also stereotyping "gamers" as terrible flirts and things you wouldn't want to date... ^_^;

Stereotyping is bad. Any way you slice it.
I don't think a people should be judged by their "classification" but rather by the content of their character.

I'm a "gamer", but someone thought I was good enough to date and marry. ^_^

She was just stating her experience which happened to align with the stereotypes. And let's be frank here, there is no time to judge 'by the content of their character' when that someone is trying to hit on you and they weren't even registered in your brain until a few seconds before the sudden attention like on a bus. It may not seem like it to most guys but that can be very intimidating and I don't blame anyone who would be taken aback. Especially women.

If we're talking 'content of character', mayhap thirsty dudes should tone down on the 'SHE HAS A VAGINA AND IS PLAYING VIDEO GAMES' angle and go for the 'oh cool, this person shares my interests' mindset.

 

[shiba5]

I like to use the Bioshock: Infinite box art as an example of how the industry is still fumbling around in the dark when it comes to marketing to female gamers. Where's Elizabeth? Oh... she's on the back. But hey, check out Booker DeDudebro on the front! So, if you know nothing else about the game, this already colors your opinion of how the game actually is, and maybe, if you're a woman, you don't bother to buy it.
I've been gaming since Intellivision, and I belong to this forum so I read a lot of different opinions and don't pay much attention to box art, like the above, other than to roll my eyes. But imagine you're a female gamer - or trying to get into gaming - wandering through a GameStop and looking at the typical marketing. Even games that let you pick a gender generally only put the guy on the box art and in the marketing. Hello, Mass Effect! Bethesda showed a quick little section of Fallout 4's female customization options and then everything since has been done with the male character. And yet I can say that, from my perspective, the choices for female gamers now are better than they have been in decades (not a high bar). The marketing, however, sucks.

So I'm hoping that as the industry tries treading new ground it also starts to expand on how it generally markets games. Someday I hope to see the equivalent of a Life is Strange poster in a GameStop.
It's awesome that there are more female protagonists, but if they are regulated to the back cover or only mentioned in some small print blurb, then they're being treated as an afterthought.

Oh, and I NEVER use a mic unless I'm online with friends. Online is toxic.