The vast and expansive universe of gaming isn't only a boy's world, anymore. While it may have started out as such, the past few years have shown an influx of women gamers not only in the United States, but around the world. Often times, women are ridiculed for participating in what is considered to be a man's realm, constantly belittled with either inappropriate or discrediting stereotypes, but I would like to consider the era of the 2000s as one belonging to female gamers and their quickly increasing percentage.
In the Article "Female Gamers On The Rise," Peter C. Beller explains that "New research from NPD Group shows that the number of female gamers increased to 28% of all U.S. console (note: this does not include mmos, other computer games, and non-electronic or console games) gamers compared with 23% a year ago." NPD also states that the percentage increase reflects the fact that 2 million more girls and women started playing games in the past 12 months. "As of 2010, 42 percent of the gaming audience is female, up from 40 percent the previous year. And interestingly enough, turning the whole "video games are for teenage boys" stereotype on its head, women 18 and older make up more of the gaming audience than boys 17 and younger," (Hancock 1).
For years, women have been dealing with different stereotypes when it came to gaming; notably online. Whenever something went wrong, it was easy to blame the one female in your group because everyone knew that men were much more conditioned to play these games; that the girls playing were inferior in every way, shape, and form. In addition to that, many women are also branded with an inappropriate stereotype that highlights them being overly-sexualized, which is often times due to the content of the games themselves. There is the famous example of the 'gamer girl' posing whilst scantily clad and a gaming controller in her mouth. The moment that this went viral, the entire demographic of female gamers, as a whole, became that much less respectable to the other side of the spectra. As a female gamer, myself, I have experienced some - if not all - of these predetermined mindsets, being looked down upon when my gender is made known to my current party or what have you. Funnily enough, there had been nothing but praise until I'd made it known, after which a debate was immediately brought to the surface; do girls really know how to play games? Are they good at stats and crafting and properly balancing a character?
In short: it depends wholly on the person. While there are some girls that are worse than others, you must keep in mind that there are also male gamers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing or, even worse, follow in suit of one Leeroy Jenkins.
In the Article "Female Gamers On The Rise," Peter C. Beller explains that "New research from NPD Group shows that the number of female gamers increased to 28% of all U.S. console (note: this does not include mmos, other computer games, and non-electronic or console games) gamers compared with 23% a year ago." NPD also states that the percentage increase reflects the fact that 2 million more girls and women started playing games in the past 12 months. "As of 2010, 42 percent of the gaming audience is female, up from 40 percent the previous year. And interestingly enough, turning the whole "video games are for teenage boys" stereotype on its head, women 18 and older make up more of the gaming audience than boys 17 and younger," (Hancock 1).For years, women have been dealing with different stereotypes when it came to gaming; notably online. Whenever something went wrong, it was easy to blame the one female in your group because everyone knew that men were much more conditioned to play these games; that the girls playing were inferior in every way, shape, and form. In addition to that, many women are also branded with an inappropriate stereotype that highlights them being overly-sexualized, which is often times due to the content of the games themselves. There is the famous example of the 'gamer girl' posing whilst scantily clad and a gaming controller in her mouth. The moment that this went viral, the entire demographic of female gamers, as a whole, became that much less respectable to the other side of the spectra. As a female gamer, myself, I have experienced some - if not all - of these predetermined mindsets, being looked down upon when my gender is made known to my current party or what have you. Funnily enough, there had been nothing but praise until I'd made it known, after which a debate was immediately brought to the surface; do girls really know how to play games? Are they good at stats and crafting and properly balancing a character?
In short: it depends wholly on the person. While there are some girls that are worse than others, you must keep in mind that there are also male gamers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing or, even worse, follow in suit of one Leeroy Jenkins.
While the audience was originally men, the past few years have shown a spike in not only female gamers, themselves, but also many games produced that have been done so solely for a female audience. In the future, I can only hope that the demographic of female gamers will increase not only in number, but also in the level of respect that they collectively deserve.
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2 comments:
I absolutely agree with you. I play WOW and some of the girls I know in game play really well while some of my guild members play extremely bad. BTW, I like the Leeroy Jenkins video, it's always fun to watch especially the part where one guy says '32.33 repeating or course'
Many men have a mistake to think most women do not play game. But in my relationship, there are quiet many women to play games and have better ability than man. At first I surprised, but it is fair. In only few days ago, I played game with my gril-friend(just friend;;).
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