And the Gamer Girl Bitching continues...
Mar. 1And the bitching continues...
I'm going to do my best to leave me opinions out of this and make it as unbiased as I can, because I mostly want your opinions on the matter.
I was reading an article on bingegamer.net. The author Allison Boyer was discussing her experiences while playing XBL. She complains that she doesn't like using her mic due to the fact that she has a woman's voice, as most women do. The problem with having a woman's voice you ask? You get comments like these:
"Ooo, your voice sounds sexy, Ooo, I'll protect you baby, Ooo, you up for some fun?
She says that while playing she will either get killed non-stop by guys thinking its funny to kill a girl or be protected by players who think its chivalrous to keep her from harms way. The bottom line being: "I'm a girl. I like to play video games. STOP RUINING IT FOR ME."
There, a simple painless little article stating how this girl felt she was being harassed and treated differently on live. Hardly breaking news or any kind of oddity. But the part that strikes me is the comments she received. The article went up today and there are already 50+ comments, the majority of which being negative and involving the world kitchen and/or sammiches. [Guys get some new jokes!!!]
- "-Get back to the kitchen" x9000!!!!
- -"grow some balls "
- "Get over it. You know the nature of how online play is on xbox live and PSN. You know what to expect. All that one can do in your position is endure it. You can't change anything by writing a piece crying about how annoying people are towards you when you play online. I get irritated at the idiots who only know how to swear all day and talk over the mic just to hear themselves say something in the game. But I don't care that much to write a cry me a river style article. If I want to play online then that is what I have to expect. It is the "nature" of playing a game online."
-
-"The irony in this article is amazing. The jerks pick on you because you act like a little girl, in fact you ARE a little girl (no i don't care about your real age, someone who cries about the ean people on the internet is as naive as a 8 years old). Instead of whining you should understand that xboxlive is full of morons and the fact that you're a girl is just one more reason to add to a countless list for acting like a complete idiot. I hope you're just a troll playing the old "EHI AIMMA GRRRL GAMER!!!" card for some easy baiting. In that case it was a pleasure to feed you. tl;dr Cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it."
-
-"Don't wear your mic or turn on mute. Seriously, why so many words for a non-issue? And I'm really sure the fellas are waiting in lines to tap your sh--, sister"
-
-"Cute arguement, but one article on the next isn't anything more then a gossip. I appologize but no ones going to look at this and change their ways for it, ethier way it was clevar and I got a few laughs out of it."
- -"WAHHH. Like any woman, all you can f------ do is bitch. Grow some f------ ovaries, and either kill the m----------- trying to kill/protect you, or, hey, tell them to f--- off. Jesus christ, do you honestly expect the internet to feel sorry for you? Why? Because you have a f------ hole between your legs? GTFO, you stupid, worthless, hypocritical c----. Seriously. Just get the f--- off the internet right now. You belong in the kitchen anyways."
I'm gonna avoid bitching about the obvious idiots she has to deal with. I don't see how this will ever change for xbl or anywhere on the internet as long as people can hide behind the anonymity of the internet.
Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous?
And guys, is this how you really are and how you really view girls?
Does talking about these issues actually bring about change for the better?
Is there really anything that can be done to stop stupidity on the internet?
* I tried to censor it a little, in case we have some virgin eyes reading
bunnyXablaze (45)
FemmeFatale (36)
Heather (1)
Ladyluck (32)
Miz_Calamity (65)
Navie (34)
NuyoRiquena (45)
Oh_Snap (24)
Raychul (82)
The Game Girls (16)
Comments
This is quite sad really and makes you wonder why these people think they can talk to people on the internet differently to the way they would in real life. I would be willing to bet a month's wages that they would not go up to any female in person and say some of these things. It's also quite worrying the mindsets some of these people have this day in age; it makes you wonder just how far we have evolved as a species over the years.
I don't care if a gamer is a girl, guy or evil monkey, as long as I can have a good game.
RE: the picture...wow, Microsoft Flight Simulator has never made me *that* angry before. I wonder what level she's on.
RE: the article...I think PSN is more woman-friendly than Live. For one thing, a lot fewer people have mics, so a lot fewer people to mute. Plus, the PS3 has a setting that will change your voice for you, but I don't know if it converts male voice to female and vice versa.
JoeSFO Um.. It's a racing game.. yeah.. takes a bit of looking, I mean, a few miliseconds to notice, so I'm not surprised if you missed it
It was a joke, but, sure, I guess playing a racing game with a flight stick could get me screaming like that.
It is rather sad how oblivious many people are to the fact that they are, in fact, interacting with real people. When the people they are hurting aren't immediately in front of them, when they are protected by anonymity, and when their is no chance of repercussion, a lot of people's immaturity surfaces real quickly.
Maybe in the future, people will be more aware, but right now, Internet gaming is still young enough that many people just haven't learned...
Wow. That last guy was pretty excesive. The suckiest thing is that we (gamers) can't really do much against idiots like this. So I do what I can- give them a bad XBL review. They probably don't care, but at least I won't have to play with them anymore..should we pray to MS for better revenge features?
If you think those are bad, you should've seen some of the ones I had to edit.
~ JW
i dont mean to be a dick but ... thats the way it is and i believe that the ONLY way it will ever change is until there are, maybe not as many girl gamers as guy gamers but until u will be in a game lobby and its normal for there to be a few girl gamers there to ... so basiclly the more girl gamers there are the less steriotism there will be ... it kinda sucks for the GG that will stop playing because of the way they are treated diff but i also no some GG like bein treated like that ... not the majority but there are more then a few
there's this one girl on cs:s that i play with from time to time, and she NEVER uses her mic pretty much. she does from time to time when it's just me and her and some regulars that i know, like late at night when not a lot of people are on... but other than that pretty much never.
it might have to do with what the article was about, or maybe just because she doesnt like to use it.
but even when there's other girls on, a lot of guys are like that to them. probably just weird to see girls playing counter-strike, as it's pretty much 24/7 guys where i mostly play. im not saying that girls dont play, dont take it as that.
P.S. that chick in the picture needs to calm down.
if she's screaming on mic, then the guys better fu*k with her o_O
No offense here. But you're gonna get this kind of thing every where in life. Sometimes you ladies can use it to your advantage. And sometimes you can't.
You also have to remember that XBL is filled with kids that can only imagine what a womens curves feels like against their bodies. So, don't sweat it.
Furthermore, where the heck did you get that pic.... why is that girl playing a racing game with a flightstick? lol...
I am going to state my oyinion so try not to jump too far down my throat. I agree with the general idea of the comments to a certain degree. The way to shut people up is to pwn them horribly. The you talk all sorts of smack and let them feel stupid. That rant really didn't tug at my heartstrings. Especially the part "Does killing a girl make you feel manly?"
-to make a long story short-
It seems from the article that she is more upset about being terrible at video games than she is about anything else.
This is one of those touchy subjects. Though I myself HATE hearing crap from guys on XBL we unfortunately can't do anything to change it..yet. Hopefully one of these days people realize that girls game alot more than they think and just chill out on the subject.
P.S. I just wanted to say Thank you to all the readers who have read and commented on this so far, Thank you guys for being very respectful and not posting comments like the ones that were left on Ms. Boyers article.
ya..thats in no way her point
guys will never get it, they just aren't treated the same way and just can't fathom whats its like.
Everybody killing her because they think it's fun to own a girl, right, yeah. And if there was some douche saying 'hey I'll protect you' blahdy blah blah, kill the loser. Worse comes to worst she could log on with a unisexual name and never use a mic when she games.
Answer to all of Nikole's questions is no.
sucksorrules [dot] com/battles/detail/gaming/246254/whos-your-frontlines-general/#comment_250983
random, but click.
i think everyone needs to calm down. yea u girls get made fun of for gaming w/o a penis, but can you say uv ever been racially ridiculed? "N" word!", "dirty monkey fucker". iv been called both of these on Halo online (might be my favorite game on a MS console) on numerous occasions (im black btw). potentially being racially or sexually discriminated against online comes with the territory of being an online gamer no matter who you are and theres no real way to stop it. yea that sounds bad, but its the truth.
ok, its 3:37 A.M. right now and im hittn some Gears up then goin to bad b/c im crazy tired
I guess that's the point of being a woman. Being treated differently. Like I said, most of the people you're going to run across is teenagers and adolescent children on XBL specifically.
Don't take that shizz to heart, ladies. Prove you got what it takes on the playing field. That's the only way. Sure, I understand you want to be respected more on a personal level.
But, it happens to everyone. I've had kids call me faggot, bitch, etc. The sad thing is, just because you're a woman it gives them an extra excuse to be extremely rude.
But, dudettes, just understand that it doesn't matter. We're all the same, when you get to the nitty gritty. So try to take it in stride like I do. Buckle up, and whoop some b00ner ass, what more can I say.
Ladies... you'll be just fine. =0)
I know what ya mean sonyboy cause I am in the same boat...(?) But there's always Wii's online cause you can't talk to nobody. But I really hate when people with a mic don't say
shit especially when it's a heated game. If it is some every man or woman for himself fine but when it's team and they just quiet like we in a library that sucks because someone is always behind me killing the F*** outta me and they be there looking from behind them not saying a dang word. If you are a girl just tell every guy that you will body'em and your the best even if your not and make mad. Shatter that ego! Every girl can do it. Stop whining and FIGHT BACK! Then and only then will you be respected by those that didn't at first.
At the end of the day in my opinion at least a gamers a gamer no matter sex, race etc. If their good they'll kick my ass if their not i might kill them but i'm not gonna treat anyone different because their a "girl"
Admittedly i'm a fairly open minded guy who tries at least to treat people as people.
Gotta let people be as it were =)
See, this is why I don't like online gaming. Not because I'm afraid of being made fun of for being a girl (I generally make male characters anyway. Not because I want to hide the fact that I'm a girl...I just prefer playing male characters.) It's because most people are idiots.
@Oh_snap: I agree with your post entirely.
The one and only time I tried to use the mic and "interact" with the people online was with Mech Warrier for the XBox. I played for about 15 minutes, having fun when one idiot came into the game and started yelling curse words and just making noise to be an idiot. I did mute him, but once again, 15 minutes later, another entered the game and started doing the same thing. I have not used a headset or interacted online since then (and with these types of stories out there, I am glad that I don't).
Great article Nickole and great posts from everyone so far. The world needs more people like the people here and less of the jack offs that make online gaming un-fun.
I don't talk noise much in games...Hell I wish I could play with more females in online games than males, cause they don't talk shyt, aren't racists they just own u in the game & be all polite with it...I need more female gamers on my friends list lol, I only have a handful...But yeah playin with females are more peaceful & fun...Then u have the kids & some males screaming, being racial, & blasting techno music in ya ears while u trying to concentrate on not gettin on in Gears of War or Halo...An I stopped playin halo after I got all my achievements...Get more racial slurs in that game more than anything its sad...Ok I'm done ranting....
Oh yeah those comments from the other blog was pure funny yet stupid...People of the world I tell u...
no you are not the only one who finds this ridiculous.(did I spell that right?)
I am a guy and I prefer to play against and on teams with female players. It isn't because I am sexist or want to "protect" them. It is because, on average, I find female players to be more mature and easy to work with.
Perhaps that does make me a little sexist, but I don't treat them any different than I do any other mature player. I will frag them just as quickly as anyone else.
Ok, Ok, chances are they are going to frag me, but you get the point.
Once you learn that everybody's an asshole things get a lot easier. Then you can look past the b/s and see that this chick is complaining about the same thing that everybody has to deal with. Dealing with immature people on live. *p.s. Using a headset is not even fun to me unless you are on a team. Since I only team up with friends I have solved my problem.
this post Wins.
It's so sad when there is discrimination online, especially those that pertain to evilmonkeys :(
There are quite a few sickos and weirdos at tehnook.com
I hope you don't mark all guys as the same some some of the freakin idiots on Xbox live. I mean I hear more racism than anything.
Theres really only a few girls I protect when gaming: [p]
1) My little cousin. Whenever my big cousins start picking on her, she asks me to come to the rescue[p]
2)A new girl gamer who has asked for my services, and doesn't want to die before she learns how to play[p]
3) Shammon. She's always asking for me to save her from certain doom.
[p]
This all said, I hate treating other players differently. In fact, I hate it when some girls on XBL will go on and ask me not to kill them. This is when they receive a firm plasma grenade plant on their helmet. [p]
I am a firm believer in providing support to my team, but I mean the whole damn team, not just the girl with a pretty voice. [p]
I will, however, not come to the rescue of an overly annoying and arrogant pre-teen, on my team or not.
If you hop into a public pool full of sexualy frustrated, male teens, do you really think you will get left alone?
There's an article on CNN's website today about women gamers. According to whoever did the article (I forget, AP maybe?) 38% of gamers are female. That's a lot! I don't play FPS, but I do play WoW, and get the typical reaction (omgwtfbbq ur a girl!) and then it's like I have a bunch of 12 year olds hitting on me.
It can't be that hard to figure out that online gaming is not a dating chatroom. Although, I guess it's not new news that teenage boys and young men think with their pee-pees. Naughty boys.
People on Live can be such assholes. Half of the time I play with the headset off cause I don't feel like dealing with all the stupid bs from idiots who wouldn't say anything if they were there in person.
Pee-pees, there's one I haven't heard in a while but's always good for a laugh.
Honestly girls are fair game when it comes to online to me. There's no treating them differently. But as for the pickup lines unfortunately that's just how it is. As for an onslaught on them, that's a dick move. Unless you're a spy in TF2 and they just so happen to be a heavy weapons guy *looks around nervously*.
Seriously though you can only try to play the game like the rest of us and tell people to stop treating you like it's your first time playing online or something. You're just like everyone else playing and to treat you as such.
now what if the comments being made aren't just immature and annoying? what if they are insulting and degrading, does that change anything?
Over half the comments I hear on xbox live are insulting and degrading and I'm an adult white male.
Now here's a question to all the women and girls that are having this problem, do you report anyone or just complain?
I wrote a blog about the negativity that I see in our modern gaming world after watching Aktrez's video, and I already have gotten negative feedback about it. This is what one guy had to say...
"You've got to be kidding me. Epic fail for a stellar performance of misunderstanding the way males relate to each other. Video games will always be an outlet cursing, grunting, competition, and vented frustration. It's just like a typical bar fight, except here nobody even gets hurt. What you're doing is like pushing yourself in the middle of a fight and whining about it when a stray punch knocks you square in the jaw. If you don't like it, enter the bar but don't join the fight. If you don't like trash talk, play the game and mute your mic. It isn't everyone else's job to conform to your >
And -10 points on the "female gamer" diatribe. Guys play games and no one cares. Girls play games and no one cares. Girls play games and talk about how they're girls playing games and the world rolls their collective pair of eyes. Girls play games and whine about how the male-dominated gaming community conducts itself the way men in the world dowith relentless badgering and flaring egos. And people like me respond like this."
*sigh* He seems to think that video games revolves around the male world. I wasn't dissing the trash talking over all or "whining." I was saying how people tend to use crude terms, cuss every other word, and make racial comments. Anyways... you can read my response and the comments at www.pinkdragonfly.wordpress.com so I can stop spamming your comment box, haha. :]
Okay, I play with the PMS clan on COD4 and we have heard so many things. I am to the point now that I just tune people out. Most of them are just kids so I just ignore them. The ones that do make me angry are the adults. I mean, grow up! Of course, they get to hid behind the internet so they think that they can get away with it. It does bother me because sometimes it is so bad that it is to the point of harrassment. I mean, should we really be expected to put up with it just because it is to be expected? I would love for these guys to get treated the way that we do. It is ridiculous. I don't care: I will just whoop the ass of every guy I see, as usual. I will fight with my weapon and show ya'll that girls can play too! By the way, I am not fat, I am not a lesbian, I am educated, I do have a life, I am married (to a MAN), and yes, I am SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOU!
I report EVERY person that gives me a hard time. If it is just one or two little snide remarks I don't bother. But if it is bad, yes I do. REPEATEDLY. What does it matter? Do you really think that XBOX does anything about it? I would love to see some proof that xbox has canceled anyone's account due to the way that they behave
I agree with DGeneral. If we want to be treated like gamers without the seemingly innocuous "girl" proceeding then we have to suck up the trash talking and dish it out every once in awhile. That being said, I am quick to boot anyone who crosses the line. The problem tends to be people's personal 'line.' I played a great deal of sports also and there is trash talking on the court and/or field as well; and most were all girls leagues. Men (or boys in most cases) don't get to make the rules any more than we do, they just think they do. ;0
The guy who thinks XBL is the equivalent to a barfight has some anger management issues to work out and should consider looking into his testosterone levels.
Anyhow, I could on and on but won't. Girl Gamers upset the Boy Gamers for a lot more reasons than we could get into on this site.
P.S. When I was little, I had this shirt that said "Anything boys can, Girls can do better" I still believe that! ;-)
**muah**
If guys playing hero or bodyguard to a female gamer, then be very glad you do not play WoW. Anytime someone is revealed to be a girl irl they are instantly burdened with a great number of in game whispers of random anonymous people trying to get some score in (like they're somehow going to get a chance to score).
I unfortunately had to deal with this on numerous situations for when I used to play a female character and with the name Rose most people took me for a girl. Can I just say that there were a great number of people who quickly joined my ignore list because of their endless efforts to talk to me. However, the only perk of this was actually pretending to be a girl to get in game currency, fools will be tools imo.
inmaturity, racism and sexism is something a lot of people have to put up to when playing online, it's a shame. I just hope those players reviews really made a difference.
1) i protect girls online when im playing a game becuase i usually dont c any girls playing in the 1st place and i think its cool n i want them to come back and ur suposed to use team work so if im protecting people from getting there arses kikked it shouldnt be a big deal
2) those people who left those comments on her lil article thingy are assholes, ignorant, and they probably dont go outside...
3) you cant really do anything about what people say over the internet, (freedom of speech) ive been in plenty of matches where people go on a rant calling me the forbidden "N" word.. n i just sit there n go how do u kno im black n the 1st place? then after that i say ok, n then i kill them like 20 times and then they shut up..
4)Boys will be boys,
Men... act like it
Just found this on pcworld.com that is sorta on point:
pcworld(dot)com/article/id,142229/article.html
The article is entitled "Jerks of the Web". Not really about gaming, but sorta about the discussion on here so far.
I have a friend who gives her mic to her boyfriend when she plays. Maybe worth a try? If you get something really bad, you could always consider sexual harassment charges. You'd have to check with a lawyer about how to go about it. People think they are truly anonymous online, but there are a million and a half ways to trace an online identity to a real one.
carollaverty well Im just saying nothing will happen if no one reports it. And I really do think microsoft does something about it I mean people get suspended a lot.
I will admit it, most guys are assholes, especialy under cover of Anonymity. On Live, mute em, avoid em, and report em. What i find on live is that guys that play with girls on live, get that asses kicked. Most gamer girls are damn good snipers and can out gun most guys. (If anyone knows what makes woman such awsome snipers message me on Live,JoyfulWolf is my tag)
being a guy i can certainly vouch that some of us are assholes, iv been playing games when iv had friends round and as soon as they have realised im playing with/against a girl they start the "chat her up dude" crap, i just hope you dont give up all hope, there are some decent guys out here too
on that note...i guess i have on ocassion said something to the effect of offering to protect someone, although not to be chivalrous or a gentleman, more in a joking way, just for the banter, and usually only to someone i know and know wont take offence, if someone was offended with my humour then id apologise and stop imediatly
Sad Panda.
You must be registered and logged in to leave comments.
If you are already have a login with GamePro.com, Gamerhelp.com, Games.net or GameProFamily.com, then use that login!