how many girls frequent this site?

[masteroftheclaw]

Has anyone ever seen a girl win or come close to winning any kind of video game competition?

Way to be sexist there chief.

I don't think he was trying to be mean but just ask a question lol.

I've never seen this occur, but then I've never seen any competition victories ever.

[Inazuma]

I was just asking the question.

I haven't seen any women even competing in game competitions but to be fair I haven't seen that many. I have watched some Street Fighter and Dungeon and Fighter competitions where I could actually see the people playing and everyone there was male. I agree that there are probably many women who play video games but it seems to me that they aren't as devoted to them as men are.

Although generally speaking women tend to be more emotional and men more logical, I believe that women are equally capable when it comes to video games. We aren't talking about physical sports here, where men have a noticeable advantage. Video games are mostly about mental ability, and men and women should be able to compete fairly.

Speaking of mental competitions, has a woman ever competed in and/or won a chess tournament, or something along those lines?

[DownSince86]

I was just asking the question.

I haven't seen any women even competing in game competitions but to be fair I haven't seen that many. I have watched some Street Fighter and Dungeon and Fighter competitions where I could actually see the people playing and everyone there was male. I agree that there are probably many women who play video games but it seems to me that they aren't as devoted to them as men are.

Although generally speaking women tend to be more emotional and men more logical, I believe that women are equally capable when it comes to video games. We aren't talking about physical sports here, where men have a noticeable advantage. Video games are mostly about mental ability, and men and women should be able to compete fairly.

Speaking of mental competitions, has a woman ever competed in and/or won a chess tournament, or something along those lines?

Unsure about chess, but it is a fact that the first computer programmer was a woman.

[Inazuma]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polgar

I did some searching and found the world's best female chess player. She is rank 46 in the world across both genders today but it says she was rank 8 at one point. However, she is the only woman in the Top 100. How come there aren't more women? Do women not like chess? Is there a mental competition that women do like?

It would be easy to say that men are smarter than women and that might be true but only because woman choose not to engage themselves mentally as often as men do.

Personally speaking, there is nothing I enjoy more than an intense mental competition with strong opponents. Lately I've been really into Dungeon Fighter Online's PVP mode. The main reason I love video games is because its fun for me to take on and eventually overcome mental challenges.

[bacteria]

Male and female brains are wired differently; it isn't a case of one better than the other, males tend to be better at problem solving and females at language and interaction. That isn't sexist, its a fact. (eg your findings about chess players). It therefore has to reflect on things like gaming.

Working on personal experience, my wife likes the Farmville and Cafe World games which I relate to as boring as you can't win or lose or do much (very "PC" games); she says some of my games are just "enter a room and blast away" (referring to Quake 3 for example). I rest my case!!

It would be nice to have more female posters here, to encourage more diversity of comments and thought.

[masteroftheclaw]

It would be easy to say that men are smarter than women and that might be true but only because woman choose not to engage themselves mentally as often as men do.

Well, I might as well hypothesize too.

In certain societies (speaking from US standpoint personally) men are pushed to be victorious/successful. It seems that the stereotype for men that permeates US society is for them to be dominant, on top, the winners. Women's culture, while celebrating their victories, are more founded in teamwork. It's not so much as coming out on top as having a nice time. Yes, this is all generalization but women and men are taught and pushed toward different ways of thinking/acting in our society to this day. It isn't as black and white as it is looking back to even the 50's or so but gender stereotyping still exists to a degree.

As such, women may not feel the need to enter nearly as many competitions as men even if they are as good/better than them. It is more of a male-fueled ideal to compete to WIN.

Perhaps some of that could even be attributed to the unspoken rules of (my) society where men are favored above women in certain fields. It's like how there are very few women at the heads of Fortune 500 companies, but one may attribute that to the glass ceiling. I wouldn't doubt to say that this deep seated idea may permeate other male-dominated fields (competitive chess, gaming, others).

Ergh... I'm getting a little off-topic now. Sorry guys, I just want to put these ideas out there.


EDIT: Bacteria is indeed right about the two brains being wired differently! There are certain aspects men and women are more "programmed" to have an affinity for. Though of course the brains may deviate somewhat from the norm there are things that are generally recognized and true about each.

[Limewater]

Has anyone ever seen a girl win or come close to winning any kind of video game competition?

Sure.

http://www.adaptershack.com/m/files/sta ... 086885.jpg

Didn't you ever see "The Wizard"?

I did some searching and found the world's best female chess player. She is rank 46 in the world across both genders today but it says she was rank 8 at one point. However, she is the only woman in the Top 100. How come there aren't more women? Do women not like chess? Is there a mental competition that women do like?

There are a number of possible factors. One that I think probably factors most heavily is intellectual variance. Chess does not correspond directly with measured IQ, but I believe that, as a skill, it exhibits some similar characteristics. JT can check me on this, but I believe that, while men and women have approximately equal mean IQ, the variance is greater among men. There are more men on the upper end of the spectrum and there are more men on the lower end of the spectrum.

I am sure there are a bunch of other sociological factors, but I think that is a large factor in why men appear to be overrepresented among the elite of the elite in chess. They don't really measure such things, but men would also likely clog up a list of the worst chess players on the planet.

[Hobie-wan]

Has anyone ever seen a girl win or come close to winning any kind of video game competition?

Way to be sexist there chief.

I don't think he was trying to be mean but just ask a question lol.

If the question had just been "Has anyone seen a girl win a video game competition?" I would have taken at face value. But considering Inazuma's propensity for inflammatory language and the phrases "anyone ever" and "win or come close to winning" read to me as implying that it has never happened and never will.

There was that female clan of Quake players a few years ago that I'm sure could kick most people's asses.

[noiseredux]

this place is a Festival Of Sausage. Deal with it.

[Mr.White555]

this place is a Festival Of Sausage. Deal with it.

Germany?