Nerds and Male Privilege

[Erik_Twice]

But who is right? We don't know for sure unless we add it all up over time. That's why this is such a maddening issue whenever you are dealing with people unaware of their own biases.

I can totally get behind this

[isiolia]

And what if he really wasn't treating her differently? Or is that an impossiblity?

To pressume guilt is a terrible move.

The author's claim in the article is that she was the only one in the room receiving the Nick Burns treatment.

Obviously, it's just her singular viewpoint being presented - maybe the PR guy did that for whoever was perceived to be working through the demo the slowest, and without sticking around the booth for hours on end she wouldn't see that. Hard to say.

[Zing]

I was going to say the same thing. Maybe she was just acting like a newb. Sure, she goes on and on about how he should have known she was a veteran because she had her hand on specific keys, but that doesn't mean she wasn't fumbling around, or that the guy even noticed where anyone had their hands on the keyboard.

[isiolia]

I was going to say the same thing. Maybe she was just acting like a newb. Sure, she goes on and on about how he should have known she was a veteran because she had her hand on specific keys, but that doesn't mean she wasn't fumbling around, or that the guy even noticed where anyone had their hands on the keyboard.

True, though even in that light, he should have backed off and let her play if she didn't ask him to step in. I think most game press, if not people who would be at a game show in general, would react negatively to what happened to her. Whatever the reason, it was a lack of respect, and while it's hard to say for sure in this case that it was due to her gender, there are certainly cases where that is the situation.

[Michi]

scikoolaid's post is impressive in that I think it equally offends both genders.

I think you're right.

[Ivo]

I was going to say the same thing. Maybe she was just acting like a newb. Sure, she goes on and on about how he should have known she was a veteran because she had her hand on specific keys, but that doesn't mean she wasn't fumbling around, or that the guy even noticed where anyone had their hands on the keyboard.

I found the original article just to confirm I remembered well:

http://kotaku.com/5919386/so-what-if-im ... -damn-game

In my opinion, she WAS acting in a way that communicated she didn't know what to do, regardless of where she had her hands. By her own description:

1. She was basically idling for several minutes (a significant percentage of the 30 minutes she had booked with the game), essentially looking at the scenery instead of actually playing (apparently she did press the "W" key a bit to move forward, she does not give more details). I think it is a fair assumption that most people that are used to playing this type of game (regardless of gender) would use their limited time to try out the combat right away.

2. When the PR rep. asks her if she played PC games (note this was after those "several minutes"), she replied, but on the article states the question should not be necessary given her badge - I don't think the PR rep. should be forced to look at the badge* or remember it at that stage. Also having a media badge for a PC games publication does not necessarily mean you actually play PC games, and behaviour during game rightfully overrides any previous assumptions (so all she needed to do was show him right that then she knew how to play beyond just looking at scenery and moving slowly).

* If he did maybe he would get accused of looking at her chest?

3. The PR rep. then asked if she played shooters. She stayed silent, and writes that for some obtuse reason she is getting asked this despite having her fingers in the WASD keys. Indeed, I think the "obtuse reason" is that she has essentially been idling for several minutes instead of going out and shooting something...

4. From her description I assume she continued silent as the PR rep. "commandeered" the keyboard and showed her the game (including rabbits in the grass, which she apparently took particularly badly, maybe forgetting that she was admiring the grass for several minutes in the first place).

5. She then leaves the booth thinking the main reason this happens is because she is a woman with a pink skirt, long hair and mascara and complains that she learned very little about the game.

6. I left the article thinking the main reason this happened was because she was someone (regardless of gender or appearance) that was idling in a demo station for several minutes looking at scenery in an action game, which I believe is really atypical behaviour in such a situation and not a good way to learn much about the game beyond that it has nice graphics.
Many people don't even look that much at scenery at all. I can even care about the scenery and may consider spending minutes if I have the game at home etc., but I wouldn't waste (or spend, if you rather) minutes in a situation where the time I have with the game is limited (30 minutes in this case).

Then she goes on describing this sort of stuff happened during the day in separate situations, which is probably true. We do not have more details of those though. Other women reportedly did not meet such issues or at least not so widespread. And other did. Maybe for these other situations it was indeed the pink skirt, maybe she was similarly idling in other games, we can only guess so I'm not really interested in discussing those (from her short description, some of those situations do appear to be based on gender or appearance). For the one situation we have more details, I really think that it was not based on gender or appearance (other than the "appearance" that a player idling for several minutes out of a total of 30 needs help playing the game).

[Key-Glyph]

Do most people really not take in a game's graphical environment when it's new to them? I'm really curious about this, because in most games with huge, detailed worlds, I often stop just to spin the camera 360 degrees, and deliberately avoid shortcut transport mechanisms, for the sake of passing through and admiring the scenery. Depending on the game, I sometimes continue this behavior long past the point where one could define my relationship with the game as "new."

I mean, I used to joke with friends that if I signed up for World of Warcraft, I'd spend hours just running around, looking at trees and listening to the music. I thought that was a normal reaction.

[Stark]

Do most people really not take in a game's graphical environment when it's new to them? I'm really curious about this, because in most games with huge, detailed worlds, I often stop just to spin the camera 360 degrees, and deliberately avoid shortcut transport mechanisms, for the sake of passing through and admiring the scenery. Depending on the game, I sometimes continue this behavior long past the point where one could define my relationship with the game as "new."

I mean, I used to joke with friends that if I signed up for World of Warcraft, I'd spend hours just running around, looking at trees and listening to the music. I thought that was a normal reaction.

I think it would depend on the game. I would and have done that in Uncharted, but I probably wouldn't do that in a game like Black Ops 2 or Battlefield 3, which is what it sounds like she was describing.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Do most people really not take in a game's graphical environment when it's new to them? I'm really curious about this, because in most games with huge, detailed worlds, I often stop just to spin the camera 360 degrees, and deliberately avoid shortcut transport mechanisms, for the sake of passing through and admiring the scenery. Depending on the game, I sometimes continue this behavior long past the point where one could define my relationship with the game as "new."

I mean, I used to joke with friends that if I signed up for World of Warcraft, I'd spend hours just running around, looking at trees and listening to the music. I thought that was a normal reaction.

Seems normal to me.

I signed up for WoW after a friend begged me for many months. I ended up simply roaming around, talking to people, whatever. I had it for 2 months and only made it to level 10 (which I guess a real player would do in a matter of hours). Ended up cancelling my subscription because I felt like I was flushing money down the drain.

[J T]

Do most people really not take in a game's graphical environment when it's new to them?

I do. In fact, I often take more screenshots than gunshots.