Having grown up during the era of the Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and $0.25 arcade games, it was a real rarity to see gamer girls around. Usually, if you found any gamer girls they would either be Asian or some tomboy type. Some how like many things girls ended up getting pegged as people who still were relegated to cooking, cleaning, sewing and having children.
And it’s a strange thing too because the image of most traditional gamers is the Revenge of the Nerds stereotype, where you had some skinny kid with glasses who knew too many annoying trivia facts (or these days some morbidly obese hippy living in his mom’s basement while munching on Hot Pockets, sipping on Energy Drinks and doing things to damage his body in worse ways than being drafted directly for a war in a radiation zone). So you would think that if anything the traditional gamer would welcome the entry of females, especially hot ones, into their realm.
Not so.
In fact, somehow girl gamers still get treated like trash and are looked not at their raw skill but other aspects that ostracize them from a lot of circles. That isn’t to say that all guys treat female gamers in a trashy light, but I tend to find gamer girls struggling far to prove themselves, just like in the office, sports and many areas of life.
While there are those that have attempted to take advantage of their image to do things like gain viewers for their live streams, many just want to have fun and do their best. A lot of the mentality of relegating female gamers to the status of the house wife demonstrates the immature mentality that parts of the world, especially spots like America still have within their culture.
The other day I was watching Yoni’s stream and someone commented how the chat reminded him of the ECW arena. Sadly, that comment was quite poignant and often I’ve felt that in watching various female streamers, the only thing these viewers care for half the time is just trolling them with indignant commentary that at times make me believe ECW was a huge cultural mistake in America that can no longer be covered up.
Yet having girl gamers is great for the industry and for people as a whole. First, you have more people who can participate in games like a World of Warcraft. You have more points of view to share. And for guys who are seeking their soul mates, it gives the possibility of sharing a passionate subject.
Many girl gamers that I’ve seen ended up becoming involved because of their boyfriends or brothers. Yet this might change even more in the future where girls aren’t simply given a Barbie doll in order to train her for the real world (and let’s face it: that’s what toys are often designed to do). Parents will be providing games to them at early stages of their life. As a result, they’ll become tech savvy and perhaps go into careers of programming or other technical aspects that relate to the technology of games. And it’s something sorely that the tech industry needs on a whole.
The thing for someone like myself is that I have moved far past the whole, “Oh wow you’re a girl gamer!” mental state. Instead, I want to see how they perform. My expectation is high no matter what. I want them to perform on equal footing. If they beat me whether it’s in a PVP battle, doing DPS, etc., it doesn’t matter because they’ve earned it just like anyone. And guys who slack will similarly earn my wrath because they do nothing to prove themselves.
I hope that more people move beyond this novelization of female gamers and treat them on equal footing. If they fuck up, tell them. But if they do great, compliment them. It’s all the same and it improves the world to be more equal on a whole.