I don't normally bother replying to threads which involve gender. I don't criticize girls who post their pictures in the "OMG PIX!" threads, but there's no way they could not know what's going to happen if you do. On some forums, it's okay to. But this forum is full of twelve year olds because of what ESF is. I'm responding to this thread because I think it's interesting. I have responses for a lot of people, but in order to keep the quotes down I've shortened their posts a bit.
-JLN- said:
Ha ha, that gave me a laugh
Seriously though, I would say that the main reason that girls don't play as much is because of how we're all brought up. As Shiyojin said, there's the competitive element, which probably makes up the bulk of casual gamers. I would say that men are generally more competitive.
I don't really think it's because of how we're "brought up." It's the video games themselves. Games are
marketed towards men. 95% of the lead characters in video games are male. The female characters are almost always supporting characters who have unrealistically large breasts, gigantic thighs, and are either timid and submissive, or the stereotypical "badass femme fatale." Note that this has a lot to do with Japanese culture, as opposed to American culture. But they make most of our games, so in the end it ends up being our video game culture. In my experience, women are more interested in the story and customization aspect of games than the mindless slashing. Games with select-your-gender main characters or female main characters seem to do well and be more popular with both genders. (Resident Evil 2, FF6, Star Ocean?) But they're pretty few and far between.
Shiyojin Rommyu said:
Men have a natural born desire to compete with one another in order to measure themselves against others. Women, not as much. That's why competitive games such as CS, ESF and the likes are widely popular with men, and not so much with women.
Women can be just as competetive. Obviously I can't speak for every woman more than you can speak for every man.. But I would imagine that most girls in America have no interest in DBZ because that's how the dub and general shonen anime have been marketed. DBZ had a special place in the Japanese culture that was watched by both genders, just as Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon was popular by both male and females. (Don't get me wrong--while both DBZ/SM were liked by both genders, more men liked DBZ and more women liked SM.) But If ESF was a Japanese mod, and made during the height of popularity, that many more girls would be playing it than do now. But there is a truth to what you're saying--CS/ESF/etc, not because they're competetive, but because they're CS/ESF/etc.
I've always hated CounterStrike, for numerous reasons.
1) People cheat. Constantly.
2) It's full of 12 year olds who feel the need to voice-chat their obnoxious high-pitched voices and scream things to the other side like "NEWB! YOU'RE SO ***! STOP SNIPING!"
3) It's unrealistic. People claim it to be realistic, but is a world where you can die from two shots to the foot with a pistol, while wearing full body kevlar realistic? Where you slow down from being shot, only to magically speed back up again?
4) The objectives are meaningless. What kind of counter-terrorists can 'win' when the hostages are killed?
Logan289 said:
Most girl gamers I've seen play Survival Horror games. I've seen a ton of girls on Resident Evil Outbreak File #2
Some are 18. some are 60.
This is funny, and true. I know several girls who only play Resident Evil/Silent Hill, and the Sims.
Davidskiwan said:
Maybe girls dont find the ammount of prebubecant competative retards on the net appealing and therefore steer clear of it. Thats my theory.
dReAm KiLlEr said:
But I think women don't play games or pretend there males becuase they're probably afraid of what will happen to her when they reveal they're girls. There are some immature nazis on the net. But I don't see what the big deal is over a female playing a game. I atleast don't or I try not to act immature. There's no big deal for a female to play a game. I swear, I see some people act like the release date for 1.3 to a female. They're like ZOMG!!!! SECKS ME! This is why I belive females say they're men or why they don't play online/computer games that much.
I completely agree with this. As I said earlier, I rarely if ever "admit" that I'm a girl in games or on forums. People have sent me PMs asking me, or asked me in AIM. Or people that I get to know realize it.
In online video games where you choose your character, I originally made female characters. People are unrealistically 'nice' to you. Although it is funny to take advantage of a twelve year old pining over you, when they really have no idea whether you're a girl or a 105 year old man, willing to give you that 25 platinum or "shining mithril waraxe" for no real reason. So I usually play as male characters, or female characters with loose, ambiguous clothing and a generic name.
To sum it up.. I don't think that women as a gender like video games less, they just like what video games are currently being
made less. I suspect there's a rather large fanbase out there going untapped.