Are females on racketboy?

[Niode]

I know quite a few girl gamers and one of which kicks my ass (and most of the other guys on the server) at Left 4 Dead, TF2, CS:S, HL:DM, you name a shooter and she's automatically genius at it. I don't really see any difference between the gaming habits of the girls who have played games for a long time. Coincidentally they all grew up with brothers who were into their gaming pretty heavily, and I'm friends with them (that's how I know em).

My fiancée has a brother who is into gaming quite big and so she grew up playing NES and then Mega Drive etc, just because she wanted to play with her brother. It wasn't that much of a stretch to get her into modern gaming, she had already built the necessary skills to play games.

I don't think girls are into games that much (although quite a lot of girls are getting into it without realising it, such as the popcap games on facebook etc) purely because they haven't been exposed to it. I reckon once the current generation of youngsters grows up they will have a better exposure to the whole gaming industry since it's much more in the mainstream conciousness.

[the7k]

Well, the things working against women as far as gaming goes is this:

- The target market for most games are male. Even when they do throw female characters in the leader position, they still appeal more to guys than girls. This isn't helped by things like Bayonetta's Vapor Wear or Samus' very form-fitting Zero Suit.

- Games which try to appeal to girls tend to be shovelware like Barbie Horse Adventures, Hanna Montana, High School Musical, etc. The only girl-oriented game I can think of that was worth a damn was Capcom's The Little Mermaid. Whenever you give girls shitty games to start with, it gives gaming a bad first impression, and just like the tobacco industry, ya gotta hook 'em early.

- Social stigma. Video Games are still very much a "Men's Room". Any girl that plays more than The Sims, Animal Crossing or puzzle games will automatically be looked at by other girls as 'unwomanly' and looked at by guys as 'OMG so cool, can I has yer autograph?'... which I'm sure can get pretty damn annoying.

There is little that can be done about the third point, but the first and second could easily be fixed by a decent developer.

[MrPopo]

- Social stigma. Video Games are still very much a "Men's Room". Any girl that plays more than The Sims, Animal Crossing or puzzle games will automatically be looked at by other girls as 'unwomanly' and looked at by guys as 'OMG so cool, can I has yer autograph?'... which I'm sure can get pretty damn annoying.

I suspect this may play a larger role than one might think. Pretty much every girl gamer I've known never hangs around with a large group of other girls. They might have one or two girl friends but they're pretty much all originally introduced through a guy friend.

[vash23n]

My wife and I play games together all the time. Not just the expected stuff like someone said - current generation, Wii games - but retro stuff as well. I admit, I am the one who usually picks up a game and starts playing, she becomes interested, and we end up competing for whose turn it is on the system. We both just recently finished Mario 64, I enjoyed watching her play. She had her own way of doing things, which made me laugh nonstop (I have never enjoyed watching someone else play games), but she was actually pretty damn good.

Oh I forgot, she does not come to racketboy.com. She enjoys playing the games, but researching them and obsessing about them is my territory.

[gradualmeltdown]

there are lots of people who would classify most of us on here as "girls" but thats a whole other topic

[newt42]

My girlfriend is a gamer (and not one who only plays DDR and Bejeweled.) She actually plays REAL video games. She recently got addicted to Lost Odyssey after beating Assassins Creed. She has a massive collection of PS2 games in her room. If she had frequent access to the internet at her house, than she would probably join this forum.

[Ack]

DDR isn't a real video game?

[Gamerforlife]

You know it's actually kind of sad how women are often portrayed in games and I'm sure it has something to do with why more women aren't into video games. Look at recent games like the new Prince of Persia or Resident Evil 5. Elika and Sheva are both relegated to sidekick status. Some will argue that Sheva is Chris' partner, but she's actually just some nobody character who was shoe-horned into the game. Chris is the only character with any history with the franchise, and thus, the MAIN character.

Also, these ladies are completely useless. Sheva's AI is hit and miss and Elika spends most of her time pissing you off in combat by either getting knocked out by the enemy or giving you excuses for why she can't help you. "You're too far away", "I'm not ready","bring him closer","I have a headache","I don't feel like it", etc, etc. Granted, I exaggerated there, but it's amazing how many times she REFUSES to attack the enemy for you. Oh, and I love how when an enemy knocks her out, she's out of the fight for like three minutes but if you happen to walk near her, she's just magically okay again. God, I hate that b****. Than there's Alex Vance from Half Life 2, who runs around shooting at a pack of hunters in Episode 2 with a useless pistol, yet is so deluded she actually thinks she's helping you.

Of course, when a female actually does get a lead role in a game, she spends a good chunk of her time running around in a diving suit showing off her ass(see Tomb Raider:Underworld)

Sometimes I wonder if the gaming industry is ever going to grow up. At least I can take comfort in games like Beyond Good and Evil. Few and far between though they are

[HeavyMetalMe]

The last girl I dated still has my Dreamcast, a SNES, my copy of that 7-up game, Donkey Kong 1-3, my Nester disc, and a whole bunch of other shit.

So, yeah... fuck female gamers.

[fast]

So, yeah... fuck female gamers.

Isnt that the point?