Women in gaming

[Mehfruittea]

I'm really interested in women as gamers, why some are despite the male dominance and how they feel about the overt sexualisation of female characters. What do women gamers actually want to see or experience when playing games?

I'm just moving in to this industry and have already found myself as a lone female voice in the room. Despite 30% of gaming purchases being made by women, the men in the room do not think this is important. An anomoly based in who owns the credit card. Really? Help me out please!

Losing - are you sure it was a woman? I've heard of that technique from some gamers who weren't women - they just get pictures from the internet to get free stuff.

100% certain...there were lots of them but the one I'm referring to was in my clan and I spoke to her over teamspeak so she was definitely real. Just used to play up the "helpless little female" angle while playing to hook them in and then send nudes in private

Over half of gamers are now female:

www.computerweekly.com/news/2240230777/Over-half-of-gamers-are-female

What happens though is the subculture that identifies as "gamer" is particularly unwelcoming to women. Which is a shame as I'm a single father to a toddler and when little one is in bed I have an opportunity to socialise with online gaming buddies, as I haven't as much time/opportunity to keep up with my offline friends.

Some of my online friends are really great, and one guy even though over some baby clothes as he happened to live locally. I think gaming (as a sub-culture) should be able to offer more than it does to women.

I've gamed with many women too over the years and I recognise particularly in mmo's many a woman has been reticent to identify as such. To the OP I think there is a considerable market that currently goes untapped, and whilst taking sensible steps to tone down sexualisation, write better women characters, and to write for women it would be worth casting a critical eye over game mechanics as well.

What I mean by this is that if you look at games that do well with women they are often games that are often very easy to pick up and put down and play over smaller sessions. My own mmo gaming has drastically reduced as doing and organising complex group activities is a non-starter when you need to go afk at a moments notice.

What needs to happen with gaming which I think will happen naturally is gaming will be like reading, watching TV or going to the cinema. Most of us will do it to varying extents it just become a question about what games people play.

At the moment because the cost of games development is so high all the companies just carry on making the same types of games. It will will also make a tonne of difference having more women like yourself involved in the creation of games. Best of luck in your career! I hope it works out for you.

An actual gamer to me is someone who will stick their hand in their pocket and part with money

So people who pirate? Or bought games as gifts (ie teenagers)? What about the paid versions of those free games? Or those people who spend money on Candy Crush bonuses or whatever?

Why is Mystery Case Files less "gamey" than, say, Papers Please?

BTW I have sympathy with the sentiment behind your argument, as somebody who has been a gamer for many year it does feel a little odd to count Peggle players as gamers. Still though I am not sure what the defining factor is because paying for something doesn't work.

An anomoly based in who owns the credit card

Er, I own the credit card

I have been a gamer for most of my life, am in my forties now. I used to game a lot with my housemates, who were all blokes, and I can hold my own, so never experienced any problems there really. I remember us all salivating over Doom on a 486 pc.

Over the years I have been a member of a clan (still am really, although more of a FB thing now) and used to game a lot with them. I was known as the Chainsaw Queen, we played Gears of War a lot! And Halo, although too many over the top Americans made it a bit tedious at times if you ventured into the great unwashed of public gaming. Clan gaming is far more civilised. If gaming against randoms I will mute my mic, and only sometimes join in with the chat if they seem like a nice crowd.

I do find it amusing to think that if they knew they had just had their arse handed to them by a 40 something mother, they would be mortified, the male ego being as it is

Halo is a great game. I get motion sickness from FPS now sadly :(

there was never any of this with toejam and earl

I,ve been a gamer for over 25 years. I used to play RTS , age of empires/conquerors and savage and then switched over to MMO when wow launched. Since then its been a mix of wow , age of conan, wildstar , and back to wow again. I used to raid really hardcore and was in top 50 guilds worldwide during my earlier wow days, cant do that anymore as I dont want to invest the time needed to compete at that level.
I would love to see strong female characters, less bikini armour pieces and oh god yes smaller gaming mouses. Even a razer naga caused me hand ache. Currently using a logitech intellimouse as it was the smallest multi button mouse I could find.

I,ve always been part of a guild and for the most part guild members are respectful. The language can get sexist at times and the jokes near to the knuckle, but I have heard it all before and over so many years its water off a ducks back. You do get the odd player who cant take the fact a female has beaten him, but meh thats their problem.

I,ll game as long as my reaction times remain ok. I still get a little thrill when I kick someones arse in game and think. How much would your ego be bruised if you knew you had just been beaten by a 50 year old woman.

ToneDeafHamster . I loved DOOM. The satisfying squelchy noise the monsters made when you hit them with a plasma gun :D

Meddi - I can still remember the cheat codes for Doom, and the maps! (Can't remember what I did last week though!). Did you ever play Wolfenstein 3D? Thats where it all began with the 3D game engine. Spent so many hours of my life playing that game, I can still hear the sound of the doors opening and closing in my head!

I am playing Horizon Zero Dawn at the moment, its stunning. Its truly amazing how advanced games are now.

Toejam and Earl!!

I can still impress my kids when I play Sonic

Years ago I used to spend hours/days at a time playing various games, I'm old enough that this was on ZX Spectrum, Atari, Super Nintendo, Sega Game Gear, GameBoy... overall the games I enjoyed most were the classics e.g. Sonic, MarioKart, and then there were lean years when playing games really wasn't a priority for me, so at best you could say I'm a casual gamer.

Since having kids I bought them a Nintendo Wii and more recently a PS4 and these have been a success, I pay heed to the PEGI ratings and sometimes I feel there could be better choice and quality in the PEGI 3 & 7 categories, we mostly just have the Lego PS4 games and Minecraft, there doesn't seem to be much else in this category that appeals. I wonder if the new Nintendo Switch might have a broader appeal, their games have typically been more inclusive and fun, and family friendly if that's your thing.

It has occurred to me I could get back into playing games myself, but reading through game descriptions I'm frequently put off by the content, and I suppose it probably is down to being a 'typical' woman, and everything that people already mentioned above - chainmail bikinis pretty much sums it up.

A game that caught my eye recently is Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4, I'm contemplating buying it for myself as it seems maybe to be something I could get into, has anyone on here played it yet? As for playing with the kids it's a PEGI 16 and my eldest kid is just 11 but the content doesn't seem to be too nasty... I'd love to get more into gaming.

Dervel said something about women playing games that they can pick up and put down. I think that's because women still have most of the caring responsibilities.

I can't do online gaming or some other games because the 3d makes me nauseous so I play old games(Monkey Island, anyone?) or the oft scorned hidden object puzzle games. I like the ones I play because all of them have a female protagonist and my children can play them with me.

But those aren't considered 'real' games so not much help to you, OP.

Notjimbo I am playing Horizon Zero Dawn at the moment. It is very good. Stunning visuals, good storyline and loads of things to do. Its very much like the Farcry format (which I loved). A very strong female lead character who doesn't wear skimpy outfits!

I can't do online gaming or some other games because the 3d makes me nauseous so I play old games(Monkey Island, anyone?)

Monkey Island is great.

I am not sure there are even scantily clad women in there.

I wonder if the new Nintendo Switch might have a broader appeal, their games have typically been more inclusive and fun, and family friendly if that's your thing.

Nah, not yet - I think we have perhaps 4 games (one of which is bomberman! Still going strong!)

Mine play lego, minecraft, splatoon is a lot of fun on the wii (and eventually on the switch) and Disney infinity (I just had to ebay the first one again - it's the best - when our PS3 died). Oh, and plants vs zombies which is as adult as I'm prepared to let them go (and only because it's very cartoon).

Personally I prefer platformers to first person (although I had a lot of fun messing with my up/down perception in Descent) - Commander Keen, Flashback, Magic Mushrooms (that tells you how old I am :D)

Yeah Wolfenstein I played too.. I pretty much got hooked when space invaders landed in arcades. Just loved it. Had a zx81 (Horace goes skiing) and then later all the jet pack willy games and manic mining. Back when you had to load the games via cassette and listen to 15 minutes of squealing only for the game to fail to load at the last point. Then moved onto consoles with the atari and commodore. I love PC gaming though, especially if its multi player with voice comms.
When the kids were little and I was on my own, once they were in bed it was the only way I got to hear and take part in adult conversation. It was my lifeline to keep me sane. I still have people I chat too that I gamed with back in the age of empire days.

As for hardware . I look for gaming performance within my budget. I don't care what the case looks like and I honestly cant think of a single female gamer who does and I know a lot. Its all about performance.
In fact if they marketed hardware or peripherals directly towards me as a female, it would turn me off.I would find it patronising. I don't want soft edged cases or pink shit. I want a gaming mouse that's designed for smaller hands, not necessarily female hands. (there are young teens who game too.)

Elaine in Monkey Island is much more capable than Guybrush in pretty much every way.

Dervel said something about women playing games that they can pick up and put down. I think that's because women still have most of the caring responsibilities.

Yep. Why are women better at multitasking? Because being able to single-task is a luxury we are not permitted.