CraigerGamer
Member
I have recently began playing Counter Strike. I had heard about how bad the community was and at times it can be unbearable. But last night I played for a few hours and, low and behold, I played with a girl. I know this sounds weird that it would be such a monumental event, but it was the very first time in 19 hours of playing the game that a girl was vocal on chat...and I have to say, it was amazing.
First off, she was awesome. Always coming in 1st or 2nd during Deathmatch. (I don't play casual or competitive because I am not good enough yet. Deathmatch is helping me learn the game and how to get gud.) When she first spoke, the whole room sort of went quiet. Soon after she joined, several other friends of hers joined (all males) and you could tell they were all very close. The entire first hour was just a lot of good banter, nothing sexist, and I was very happy that she was able to play without any incident of sexism and, damn, she was good.
At one point, though, in came one guy who insisted on saying that every time he killed her, that he "raped" her. It got to the point where he would just say the word "rape" after every kill. Since she was good, the word bitch, and other derogatory word soon began to flow as well. It was awful. It got so bad that her friends, maybe 4 of the other players, (one of them wasn't on her team) circled around her and began killing the bigot every time he tried to get near her. This enraged him to no end, calling her friends "faggots", "homos" and other crazy shit. Eventually he was kicked from the room. None of this seemed to bother the girl, like it was a common occurrence. She must have had some really thick skin. I doubt I could have handled it as well as she did.
Anyway, we all played together for another 2 hours or so and that was the only incident. Otherwise it was lots of shit talking about skill (or lack there of in my case) but for some odd reason it was a very special session of gaming. Which is terrible in itself, because it shouldn't have been. It should just be normal that women play all types of games. Maybe its a me problem, and my own sexism is showing by thinking how unique the whole experience was. These kind of experiences make me try and identify my own blindspots. In the end I didn't try and add her as a friend on Steam but I do hope to run into that whole group again at some point. It was too much fun.
Fake edit: I know I have probably played with other girls who just weren't vocal on chat. This person was just the first one that was.
First off, she was awesome. Always coming in 1st or 2nd during Deathmatch. (I don't play casual or competitive because I am not good enough yet. Deathmatch is helping me learn the game and how to get gud.) When she first spoke, the whole room sort of went quiet. Soon after she joined, several other friends of hers joined (all males) and you could tell they were all very close. The entire first hour was just a lot of good banter, nothing sexist, and I was very happy that she was able to play without any incident of sexism and, damn, she was good.
At one point, though, in came one guy who insisted on saying that every time he killed her, that he "raped" her. It got to the point where he would just say the word "rape" after every kill. Since she was good, the word bitch, and other derogatory word soon began to flow as well. It was awful. It got so bad that her friends, maybe 4 of the other players, (one of them wasn't on her team) circled around her and began killing the bigot every time he tried to get near her. This enraged him to no end, calling her friends "faggots", "homos" and other crazy shit. Eventually he was kicked from the room. None of this seemed to bother the girl, like it was a common occurrence. She must have had some really thick skin. I doubt I could have handled it as well as she did.
Anyway, we all played together for another 2 hours or so and that was the only incident. Otherwise it was lots of shit talking about skill (or lack there of in my case) but for some odd reason it was a very special session of gaming. Which is terrible in itself, because it shouldn't have been. It should just be normal that women play all types of games. Maybe its a me problem, and my own sexism is showing by thinking how unique the whole experience was. These kind of experiences make me try and identify my own blindspots. In the end I didn't try and add her as a friend on Steam but I do hope to run into that whole group again at some point. It was too much fun.
Fake edit: I know I have probably played with other girls who just weren't vocal on chat. This person was just the first one that was.