As with all games, you need to consider the type of games it is and the kinda players involved. Definitely, not all guys are like that and there are some awesome players out there. Certainly the FPS is still a genre catered towards males simply because of its nature. But I’ve noticed in games like World of Warcraft, where the content caters towards both sexes, the presence of those kinda guys and their kinda talk has been practically nonexistent in my experience. Maybe one of the reasons for that is because the nature of WoW gets you into the mindset of Alliace or Horde, or Paladin/Warrior/Priest, etc. But that’s another topic for another day. Excuse my ranting @_@”

BS Angel brings up a point when she says:
“An opponent is an opponent, plain and simple. I hope that attitude is a universal one instead of a rarity. I have faith that other people shoot virtual bullets indiscriminately as I do.”

As a female gamer, I want my opponents and teammates to judge me not by my gender, but by my ability to play the game, my ability to play on the team, and my ability to strategize, know when to follow the leader, and know when to lead. I personally want to earn the respect when it comes to serious gaming with teammates.

Sure, there are things you need to overcome first if you are a female gamer at times, like initial impressions, or the cat calls, or the sexist jokes–whatever. Because of the bias that exists, you may have to double the effort to “earn the respect” of your teammates as they say. This is not only limited to gaming, but to our society at large. I think women in general feel that they need to prove themselves more because of the social constructions we put on ideas of maleness or femaleness that already exist in the country. So it is no surprise to me that female gamers can feel so similarly.

Then again, now that things like XBL chat exists, or Skype, Vent, basically any kind of program that allows for in-game chat, we have to consider our perceptions of people from different ethnicity and age. You bring up the point about noticing people with accent, people who may be young or old. I think we have to check ourselves from perpetuating stereotypes based on these things. We also need to remind ourselves that these things don’t define a group of people as a whole. Whether it is a female, a Mexican, a child, an Asian, a man, whoever it is, we need to remind ourselves that however they play and however they may act in-game is not representative of their gender, ethnicity, age group as a whole. We can’t fall back into stereotypes.

In the idealistic gaming world, I think people should be judged on their gaming, thinking, and communication skills.

In the era of the Wii, DS, casual games, and even comics becoming more accepted in Hollywood, I think the public in general is becoming more receptive of video games. So I think this certainly helps to start diluting these stereotypes in the gaming community.

As a person who wants to see the gaming community grow and be accepted by the public at large, not just as a hobby that little kids play, but as a viable form of entertainment, I can get pretty passionate about issues like these. I want to see gaming move forward positively in every aspect if possible. If it going to be a respectable, acceptable, and genuine source of competition, entertainment, and hobby, we need to keep ourselves from falling into and furthering stereotypes.

After Socom 2 came out, (met my husband in Socom 1) and had a baby around the end of Socom 2, I rarely played. All those years I’ve seen how the online gaming community are welcoming more and more female players! I was so excited! That’s why I love this blog… having someone who is a mom and a gamer makes me think how awesome us female gamers can be. I’ve seen other female games online when I started playing Socom 3 and I tell ya… there is at least 2-3 females in 1 clan, that’s not counting clanless female gamers. I’m really really excited about this! Oh and you know online girl Cat fights happen… I know because I’ve seen one surface while I was on the same team and in the opposite team. How competitive us women can be when it comes to Online Gaming…it’s hillarious and inspiring!

Okay so much for my loooong rant. Girl Gamers Rule!