Aibu to hate the girls can't be gamers stereotype

[coolmum223]

So I personally am a gamer. I'm not talking candy crush on my phone I'm talking uncharted, tomb raider and assassins creed on my PS4. But I've gotten a lot of hate on this at work saying girls shouldn't be playing games and what example am i setting to my daughter. The scary thing is this is women saying this.
Now I personally feel I'm setting a pretty decent example to my Daughter by showing her that men aren't the only ones who can play video games and that women can be just as good at them or better (because I always dominate at battlefield I'm not kidding)
so Aibu to think there's nothing wrong with women gaming and that women should feel free to do it if they want to/can

I consider my gaming starting with the ping pong game in the 70's

I have two sons, but I love that when they get stuck on a game they’re as happy to ask me to help as they are asking their dad - they know I’m just as good

We all love playing Zelda together at the moment.

Any retro gamers on here? I like playing through old games! I think my favourite game ever was Tomb Raider 2, though I did enjoy Assassins Creed (the Ezio ones,
I lost interest fast in the others). At the moment I'm enjoying classic Everquest - the P1999 version. I am part of a phalanx of geeks (HD's excellent description, he's one too) who meet up once a week to go on exciting adventures with long corpse runs

The gaming industry is horrifically sexist so you’re up against all of them really

I think it’s really important to point out that not everyone in the games industry is Neanderthal man.

Sweeping generalisations aren’t helpful.

Mumsnet is full of (what I presume to be women) who love gaming. I wouldn't give a stuff what society or people at work think, why do you care? (spoken as some one who is not a fan of gaming)

When I was way at work (NHS professional role) my female colleagues were all bitching about their husbands and how pathetic it was that they played games as adults, I've had to hide that I play games since!

Seems like a really outdated way of thinking. I don't know anyone who has this POV but know plenty girl gamers, including me and DD.
I do however know plenty people who don't think adults should be gaming, maybe this is really their issue?
P.s I also dominate BF much to DPs irritation

I've found my people! See my username

I've just completed red dead redemption 2. I keep my gaming habits under wraps at work but when I heard some of the guys talking about red dead I had to join in and I think they were amazed that I could give them all sorts of hints that they hadn't worked out for themselves yet. I got the "women don't game" from some of the other women in the office but I pointed out that games are probably better for me than watching towie and im a celebrity as they do. At least games are interactive.

Lots of games are extremely sexist, but I think the rise of female gamers and developers is having an effect. They now realise that lots of people don't want the male view of women that used to feature in games. Lots of games coming out now have playable female characters who are fully as capable as the male characters - assassins creed odyssey and syndicate for example. The witcher 3 you play as ciri for a little bit and although most of the women in that are scantily dressed they're powerful, capable and fully fleshed out with their backgrounds and motives.

Red dead 2 online you can play as a female and it's impossible to pretty them up, they all look weatherbeaten and worn which I thought was quite realistic for a game that's set in the wild West. You can choose your age from 18-75 and they age realistically. Red dead 2 main story has a brilliant female NPC who kicks arse.

Even fortnite has equal male and female avatars and they're randomly assigned so all the young boys and girls playing that are seeing female characters whereas a few years ago there were NONE apart from Lara croft.

OP you need to learn the stare. The women will then realise what they are saying isn't acceptable as if they are sexist over gaming who knows what other sexist shit they will come out with.

I’m 32 with 2 children and would class myself as a gamer. I’ve been playing as long as I can remember, James Pond, Rainbow Island, Dizzy then onto Mario, Theme Hospital, Dingeon keeper, Sims, Crash Bandicoot the original GTA and Pokemon then Battlefield, Age of Mythology etc.

I don’t get to play as much as I used to now as I work part time and have a 5 and 1 year old but I still play Candy crush and Pokemon go on my phone and I’ve got Let’s go Pikachu for Christmas which I’m ridiculously excited about.

Dh has a switch and a ps4 and until dd2 came along he had a top notch gaming pc that he built himself. Alas it had to go as the toddler needs a room to sleep in apparently.

He has recently got a Raspberry Pie (sp?) and is getting all the old games again which I’m excited to play.

My fondest memories of when we first started dating was him at one PC, me at the other catching flags on Battlefield. Dd1 is just starting to get into minecraft and enjoys playing Mariokart as long as we let her win, there’s no issue at all.

I can't say I've heard that about women gamers. I used to get stick for being a female when playing CS if I used the microphone about 18 years ago, but that was it.

Love gaming, really miss the hours and hours of playing lotro pre-children, and before they changed the subscription format (ruined it totally imo).

It all started with Zelda on my nintendo ...

I'm 58 & keen on games! Obviously started on Spectrum & C64 and in my 20s not as a child. I'm an iOS developer by trade too.

I've never really got into console gaming (Mac instead) but just recently had a tax rebate and DH & I sprung for a PS4 each.

Currently loving Red Dead 2, though as a console novice it can be disheartening to play through a long cut scene multiple times to die in the shootout! I wish there was a PS4 intro / training game for me - all the games assume you've been playing for years!

If it's not derailing the thread, any suggestions for non-turn based online co-op games for me & DH?

Interesting thread. My DD2 has applied to do a BTEC next year in IT and Game Design and is hoping to go on to do this at uni. When I asked about the girl/boy ratio on this years course there are 60 boys and 2 girls. I was quite shocked as I presumed nowadays it would be a more equal number. DD2 was not put off by this luckily.

Gaming doesn't require genitals to operate it so it's not a sex based activity. Men, women, boys or girls can game.

However, I find it a bit unusual to dress up your choice to game as being some sort of feminist role model to your children. It's a hobby. People have hobbies. I don't see the role model argument.

However, I find it a bit unusual to dress up your choice to game as being some sort of feminist role model to your children. It's a hobby. People have hobbies. I don't see the role model argument

I think showing your children you don’t have to be bound by gender stereotypes whether in the world of education, work or leisure is a pretty valuable behaviour to model.

People are knobs. I got my love of gaming from my mum (we bought her an XBox 360 and XBox Live for her 60th birthday along with the complete Rock Band kit). DH and I play regularly, separately and together, and I can’t bloody wait until DD has the attention span for us to start on the Lego games in co-op together.

What example are you giving your daughter? One where she learns patience and the need to practice to get better to overcome challenges, problem solving, lateral thinking and how you should unashamedly do things you love rather than be pressured into doing things you don’t want to because society deems them somehow unseemly.

You get my vote OP!

We had a spectrum, my mum and older sister used to play it so I started too, I loved the old games on there Horace goes skiing jet pack etc .. funnily enough I don't remember my dad playing it. Mum still likes playing games, she has a Wii.

Me and DH a both quite into the PS4 so have to take turns. DD and DS both love gaming too, we will often play as a family.

I still get the shocked look when I tell people that I am a gamer.

My husband and I have a PlayStation and TV each side by side so we can play co-op games together. It’s fun and social, I see no issues!

I can't wait until my kids are old enough to appreciate Monkey Island. Spent so much of my life playing that game, and want to waste some more on it!

@areyoufree monkey island one of the best games ever to learn patience and how to use anything with everything to make it work.... "I don't think i should do that"

I have completed all the games so many times.

Discworld was also amazing!

Marmite, my dd started a general computing/IT NVQ 3 when she was 18. Then she went on to do a degree in cyber security. There weren't many females on her course either.

Come LARPing!! We need more lady LARPers. 🧝‍♀️

I think showing your children you don’t have to be bound by gender stereotypes whether in the world of education, work or leisure is a pretty valuable behaviour to model
It's just doing a hobby. Otherwise any woman doing any hobby is somehow a feminist act. So enjoying baking is feminist, weightlifting is feminist, ballet is feminist.
Or is it just a feminist role model if women do stereotypically male hobbies?

People can (and should) do whatever hobby they like, but it's enjoying a hobby not a political act.

People can (and should) do whatever hobby they like, but it's enjoying a hobby not a political act

You’ve extrapolated way too much.

Nobody said it’s a political act. I’m saying it’s valuable for a parent to model to THEIR children that they don’t have to fit into a box defined by their gender.

I don’t see it being “just a hobby” as making that less valuable. There’s a very great potential for that hobby to lead to a career.