This was a Reddit post someone had titled "Occasionally, 4Chan gets it right."
Okay, so here is a comment thread that I had in response to it: I'm the user "Tempestish." (Which is, incidentally, my Skype ID, if any of you have it and want to add me.)
Hit the little plus sign beside the hidden comments. My faith is slightly restored by the fact that more people agreed with me and disagreed with him than vice versa.
Right - so I played WoW from fall of 2007 to winter of 2012. That is a lot of time spent on a game. I've spent it on a couple of different servers (although my main was almost exclusively on Coilfang), and both alliance and horde for alts. I would refer to myself as a casual gamer, not hardcore in any way.
On Coilfang, I had (up until Pandas) two characters at max level that I played most often, since my mage was just for PvP. Morgaina/Morgania/Findabhair, a female blood elf priest (who I am really sad about logging off in that ugly Tillers tabard. What was I thinking?), and Hugsthetrees, a male tauren druid.
The difference between how people treated me as a female blood elf/a player known to be female on the server and as a male tauren was obvious, and slightly shocking.
People assumed Hugs was competent until proven crappy, as opposed to Morg, who people were "pleasantly surprised" when she wasn't terrible. This applied in both PUGs and BGs. Morg got flirted with all the time, poor Hugs was never given the same amount of attention. The incidents in PUGs I mentioned on that Reddit thread were another good example.
And anecdotally, people were more willing to carry sub-par female DPS/healers (I never really saw a sub-par female tank, funny enough - harder to carry?) than a male one. This was true about PUGs before dungeon finder, and true after.
And speaking specifically of Coilfang, can I say how completely freaking annoying that one person on trade was? The chick who was always recruiting for her guild by saying "I'm the sexy queen of Coilfang, you should join my guild because I'm so sexy! And here's a YouTube link to me to prove it." I always wanted to just tell her to STFU and that she was the reason female gamers get all the flack they do for being "attention seeking" and only revealing their gender to try to get things. THAT ONE GIRL influenced all the unintelligent, incapable of critical thinking male gamers into thinking that MUST mean all females are the same way!
I mean, fucking Deus (everyone who played on Coilfang knows who that is) once tried to trade me gold while I was doing stuff at a mailbox. I kept declining. He tried multiple times. More than five, less than ten, because I moved away after I finished my mail stuff. At which point he sent me a tell saying that the only reason I wasn't accepting his gold was because I was playing head games, because girls only play games to get things.
WTF? Or maybe I wasn't accepting his gold because 1) I didn't need it, and 2) he's a fucking creepy dude who once said to me on trade that I was boring, but that he supposed it wouldn't matter that I was boring with handcuffs and duct tape over my mouth. He said that TO ME ON TRADE. But my attempt to report him went nowhere. Thanks, WoW GMs. This is after years of him constantly whispering me in spite of me ignoring him (not actual /ignore, unfortunately, because he talked too damn much on trade for being in a city to make sense with him on ignore).
Which I suppose is another symptom. Don't take it seriously because he can't actually carry it out over the internet, even though that's a fucking terrifying thing to have said to you.
But the issue is that a lot of guys seem to take women playing "their" games as a infringement, while at the same time they bemoan how they can't find women who love games as much as they do. Well, idiot, maybe if you didn't assume all women are faking enjoying games because they all want intangible in-game goods that cost them $15 a month, you might find one.
Re-reading this, I don't have a coherent point. WHATEVER. I'm still tired because I didn't sleep well again last night.
*raises hand*
ReplyDeleteThis is annoying. I mean, ok, it was fun to be in a video game store with Lisa and when they asked how often she played Black Ops II she could say, "I actually haven't played that much, but I worked on the game," and see their jaws drop and start drooling because she's also a hot girl. BUT, she only offered that info when asked, and it's her career, and she only said it to start a conversation about their experience with the game, so I don't see any problem.
But to see some (not all!) of the girls on Achaea who literally trade IG goods for tit pics just makes me livid. Have some respect for yourself and stop giving all girl gamers a bad name, damn it.
Unfortunately, the more low-key, regular people kind of girl gamers aren't in the spotlight as much as those types of people, so they don't have as easy a time setting the standard, if that makes sense.
Don't worry, my comment has even less structure than your post. Lol. And a more abrupt ending to boot.
hai kelsey!
ReplyDeleteRia! Where have you been? Add me on Skype, you slippery devil, you. kelsey-adalie is the Skype name.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I have you on skype... I just don't use it :P I am less internet-y now that I'm getting married.
ReplyDeleteOh hey, fancy that. Congrats!
DeleteOh, congrats! I didn't know you were getting married .... since you never get on Skype anymore! :P
DeleteI know I know. Sorry ladies, missed your chance!
DeleteI think there's two issues here.. but it's late, so I'm not at the top of my game either..
ReplyDelete1) The image I assume is referring to the fact that guys are whining because feminists (and female gamers in general) are starting to actually ask questions like "why are there only plate bikinis for armour? my tank will get a sword through her tummy like that!" or "why can't we have a female character that's actually kind of badass and not just eyecandy?" etc. etc.
But these guys seem to forget the rather simple fact that there's actually quite a lot of women playing games these days. It's no longer a man's world - and they need to get used to it. And because women are playing, games need to move with the flow. You grow with your audience, you don't try to shut them out!
2) The "female gamer" term. Now.. I generally want to be inclusive and say that every woman is okay. No one needs to live up to the standards of their surroundings, but they should live as they please.
That said, I must admit that the women who do flirt their way into getting an advantage do vex me. It's demeaning and I feel like they should know better. But then you realise that it's how must women are brought up; in a world where they're taught from a young age that they're just there to look pretty and be nice (especially to men). So as much as they annoy me, I also see how they ended up the way they are.
I will admittedly sometimes say jokingly in the guild that I'll show boobs for things.. (like a spectral tiger loot card!), but I've played with them all for so long, they know I'm not serious. I'd never actually do that. My guild is mature, and I get no special treatment whatsoever, and neither does or other female player.
Oh, and as we're on the topic of females in games.. Am I the only one.. or do you also always think that "oh, that's so obviously a guy", when a character is named something stupid like "tankgirl" or "sexyshammy".
Most women that I know wouldn't want it so clearly advertised that they're female. Heck, I even refuse to talk on vent if I join some sort of PUG, cause I don't want anyone to know.
P.S. I need to learn to check this page manually now! It no longer shows in my feedreader after the changes.
I was only using "female gamer" in this post to specify they're girls and gamers, not in the sense of "I'm a girl gamer, give me stuff!" (Which is THE MOST ANNOYING thing).
DeleteYes, I definitely think anyone who has a super obvious "girl" name is a guy, or else is just someone who's desperate for attention and still thinks being a female who plays games will get it. And, unfortunately, it is still often true that they will get the attention.
I could never offer to show my boobs to my guild for things, because they were mostly gay men. I think I once offered them nudes of another (straight, male) guild member in exchange for something, but I was also joking. I'd never give out nudes anyone sent me even if I had them. ;)