A question to our openly female racketboy members?

[PixelPixii]

As a girl who plays a lot of mmorpgs, I have not really ever gotten much abuse in game. I have had guys not believe that I am a girl. The one thing that bothers me the most is once they find you are a girl: "You wanna be my GF?"

To be honest, the only time I have ever had a problem with men wanting to send me nasty pics is when I have been in a chat room of some sort.

As far as here on the forums I have never felt singled out or harassed in any way. I think the community here is great.

I will also agree that back in the day there was a strict stereotype relating to video games. Video games were for boys. I mean, even the name of the GameBOY gives it away. All the commercials showed boys playing the games. Although I think this is improving, I still run into this stereotype a lot. Just yesterday I was waiting for class to start and was playing Phantasy Star 3 on my retrogen and a friend told me, "You are such a boy!" I was a little hurt by that.

I also do not have any problems with men playing female characters or the other way around. When it comes to mmorpgs, role playing is all part of the experience. I think you would give yourself away eventually, but that does not take away from the fun of the game.

[aaron]

plus cammy and chun-li are just so fast. sometimes vega and fei-long won't cut it.

[Limewater]

i never thought we'd ever get on the topic of gender issues on this board, but, hey, here we are.

Relevant:

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

[J T]

That is about as much of my story as I feel comfortable talking about here; there is a lot more to it, but it gets kind of personal after this.

That's cool. Thanks for sharing what you have. I think it's pretty brave that you have told us as much as you have already. I don't know much about being transgendered, but I do know that it's scary to come out about it and can be a real risk because it's not something many understand and it is out of their usual comfort zone (which is putting it nicely, a lot are just flat out bigoted about it).

As for playing female characters in games, I usually do that too. Though I feel comfortable with my real-life gender as a man, I rarely want to play as an overly masculinized character in videogames.

[the7k]

In most of the communities I've dabbled in, I've run across a few females who fully disclose that they are female (or gay, transgendered, etc.) Sometimes newbies will make the mistake of calling them on this, and then they call said newbie on their immaturity.

At least in my cases, the newb is usually chastised for acting like an ass and he either wises up or runs away with his tail between his legs. If anything else happens, it's pretty safe to say that community wasn't worth sticking with anyways.

And yeah, I often play as female characters in games. Really, I just play as whoever appeals to me, and oftentimes female characters have more creativity thrown into their design than the male characters do. That's not always the case (Iori Yagami), but it often is (Juri Han beats out every male character combined in SF4 as far as character design goes, from where I'm sitting.)

[Hobie-wan]

This is probably a good of a time as any to admit that I am actually Transgendered...

Well, if you are, you are. If you come to terms with it, then do what you need to do. People will understand or they will not. You try to help them understand and if they cannot, you seek to surround yourself with more that do. I have a friend that I don't do a particularly good job of keeping in contact with since moving, but they realized and came to terms with it, then started the process and went to Thailand to complete the final procedure. I know of another guy that was a year or two younger than me at my high school that did the same thing. You do what you have to do.

Relevant:

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

Amusingly relevant and also from the old guard EA circle of people:

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

[Ack]

My girlfriend beats me up in Battletoads.

This site is a good space -- but then, smaller communities generally are. I don't care what gender anyone is, as long as they're good people. That being said, being female does affect the way I see the world, my opinions, the games I enjoy and the reasons I enjoy them. That's really the only reason I bother to disclose it.

All this, and she still masturbates to Bayonetta...just like the rest of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0PIdWdw15U

Anyway, moving beyond the jokes, good luck Lisalover. If you decide to formally go through the transition, we'll be supportive (and anybody who isn't will get the swift end of the stick, mod style). A member of the now "old guard" of my university computer gaming club is in the process of going through the transition right now, and as far as I know she's taking it well. My girlfriend thinks she makes a very attractive woman, and she definitely seems to have more confidence than she did as a male.

It's a bit awkward in conversation though, as I'm used to hearing all sorts of raunchy comments amongst the AUCGC crowd, and now I feel the need to check myself. That's not to say she wouldn't be fine with some shit talking, but suddenly the "raped via shield gun" jokes just seem in bad taste. There was also a weird moment when I asked her about if she'd go through the full process, and she responded that it was rude to ask a lady about her privates, which caught me off guard as I'm used to horrendous comments concerning all manner of perversity at times while playing with my friends. Playfully of course, but it was strange to suddenly realize I'd hit a taboo where one previously hadn't been, or at least had never been vocalized. I played it off with a lame excuse about worrying about a friend getting surgery, but I still feel bad about it because ultimately she's right, she's female now, so some things change.

Anyway, story aside, good luck. We're here if you need us.

[GSZX1337]

All this, and she still masturbates to Bayonetta...just like the rest of us.

My sig is already paying off.

[Frizz.Meister]

Gaming online is terrible whatever you are with the violent threats, racism, sexism, ageism ect. Personally i dont think it is any worse for girls in a litteral sense.

However as guys we get insulted everyday. It's just part of how we interact but the difference is how we interpret it usually as banter. Dont get me wrong im not saying every single girl takes it all to heart, but i believe overall guys are just more experienced at being insulted??? and so can shrug it off better. There are many expceptions to this of course and the whole "B3 my b0yfr13nd!!!" thing i never even realised existed due to the stupidity of it.

What interests me is that with my time of work having shifted i now no longer play late at night but during my afternoon. As a result my games are now filled with Brits rather than Americans and the change is really obvious. American gamers (i'm refering to the biggots ofc) love to be racist and sexist. British biggots love to be violent and threatening. Honestly i might just record 2 minutes of audio at the youth club i work at tonight and you should hear the stuff without anonimity. I'm going to rape you till you bleed is a fairly standard saying online now, and having a friend that been raped i know its no laughing matter.

Finally on an interesting note i was removing my xbox live friends today (leaving the overpriced service) and realised that over 40% of my friends were girls. Kinda shocked me really as my friends list is mostly people i've actually "known" but of the people i had only met online 11 were girls and 4 were guys. Just most girls i've played with go silent once the game starts.

[noiseredux]

I tend to use girls in most fighting games. But that's because Chun-Li, Morrigan, Mai, etc... they're just so awesome. I mean I can beat SF2 using Chun-Li and never even touching a PUNCH button.