Girl Gamers and Guys

UO Staff Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 524 Location: Atlanta

Well, we haven't had an open discussion here at UnrealOps in a while, so, I figured I'd get one going. I know it's not Friday, but I'm filling in for Tycho.

My girlfriend is staying with me for a week, sort of taking a vacation from her normal life, and while she's here, she's in love with my 3mb cable line. She has dial-up at her home, so when she plays UT04, or any other game, for that matter, it lags like something horrible. So, here, she's finally able to get her frag on against other people. Yet, she noticed that there were a lot of female avatars on the server she was on, and that all of them were being played by guys. Further, she was afraid that if she said she was a girl, either no one would believe her, or that she would be coddled / laughed at. So, she chose a robot skin to play so as not to betray gender, and avoided the typical end-game discussion. Still, she did pretty good, and when the topic of that fact that she WAS a girl came up, another player said "gj, bitch". She handed him his ass in the next map.

What do you guys (and girls) think? Why do some male gamers use female avatars, and is there still a strong prejudice against girl gamers? Do any of you consider girls to be less capable than a man in multiplayer games?

Speak up!

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:28 am

strange bastards out there. i would be glad if a girl would beat up my ass on a server.

i guess those guys choose female skins because they are gay... or maybe it`s the fact that the hitboxes are a little bit smaller?

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:43 am

I use a female avitar because I like drawing/modeling the female form a lot so that's that. Wink

. And, the people here at work use male avitars, so I stand out a bit more from other team mates.

As for why male gamers get all pissy when there is a female gamer on the server. I think it's the territory thing really, that and fear. Fear of getting humiliated, or fear of loosing because of a "weak link". (Hey, go battle Kornelia in front of hundreds of people...).

But, yeah, I think it doesn't matter, there are @sses in real life, and they now have a place where there are no repricusions for their actions: The internet. They say the things without fear.

They spend their life trying to obtain the opposite sex, yet in a DM they reject and fear it. Funny. If they met your girl in real life they'd stutter and walk away.

UO Noob Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 25 Location: San Diego

I wrote this BTW... forgot to log in.. new browser..

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 1:29 pm

A good friend of mine and I both use female avatars. Both of us are hetero and married. Very Happy

I use a female avatar when playing for aesthetic reasons. Its sorta like wanting to be seen in a sleek sportscar rather than a monster truck.

I'm also an equal opportunity loser. I have no more problem getting fragged by a girl than a guy.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:01 pm

I think people play using female avatars because they appear smaller and do the flip for the second jump.As for women gamers,I fear them as women have this uncanny ability to make guys look stupid without even trying.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:28 pm

I play with both but to be honest I really just simply like some of the female avatars over the male one's. I suppose part of it might be the smaller target, too.

Either way, I really don't care if I'm playing versus men, women, or little green aliens. As long as they are fun to play with (i.e. aren't assfarts) I'm cool with anyone playing. In fact, I got both of my younger sisters hooked on the original UT and my youngest sister loves UT04.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:16 pm

I make maps.
My bf plays maps.
Match made in heaven. Wink

UO Noob Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Minn, USA

When playing a multiplayer game, almost without exception I don't change from using a male avatar (and I am male). I do this because, I think, I prefer a bit of honesty from other people so I offer it myself before being asked.

Currently, in a single-player campaign in Neverwinter Nights, I *have* chosen a female character, but there's a real reason behind it; since my wife for some reason was totally against the name "Penelope" for our upcoming baby, I wanted to get SOME use out of a name that I really liked. Smile

On an unrelated note - Angel Mapper: I like your stuff - good job!

UO Noob Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 8 Location: Netherlands

cant resist saying that we males are the stronger species after all Twisted Evil

nah, just messing, doesnt really matter if it's a girl, guy or something inbetween... and with skins ... you just chose the model/skin you like most ... not for the gender or anything ... I'm not a magdalena (or whatever that model is called ...)

It's just that it's more common that guys game so you actually take it for granted that your playing against guys (not that it matters ...) ..it's the same with age, for me .. you dont expect older gamers since most gamers are in the younger years ...

Due to the clan I'm in I play with a blend of ages, 'races' and genders tough, singles, married, kids ... doesnt really matter since the chance is pretty big that you'll never meet the people your playing against...

Guest

there was a slashdot story that asked the same question a long time ago. It was a survey that had been done, by a student sociologist iirc, about the reasons why some male chose female avatar.
-very few did it to express some feminity.
-a few did it for aesthetics reasons
-most of them did it to gain some advantage in game:
*because most female models are thinner and more difficult to aim at (in some game they even were more difficult to hit).
*because some player have a little time of hesitation before shooting a girl
*because some players get angered when fragged by a girl and play worse thereaftter.
I have been using a female avatar eversince I read that article.
(and saying you're a bimbo bitch, gets the rest of the stupid^Wlonely male players aroused and most female players angered).

Guest

Meh, I would love say I play with a female skin (because I do many times) because I have a terrible case of vagina envy, but the reality is closer to some of the angles FragBitch posted. I really don't care what the gender is of the people I play.

I hate to say it though... I do get a rise out of watching a girl hand a bunch of guy players their asses on a plate. I invited a co-worker to a LAN I hosted, and she hung about 2/3 of the schlubs there out to dry. Twisted Evil

She was also a pretty good smack-talker as well which is always an important part of the game IMO. Laughing

UO Noob Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 25 Location: San Diego

In many fighting games I use the female players, they are usually faster, have more evasive moves ect.. although less powerfull. Besides, I am a twitch player so I play better with rapid-timed button presses.

Hey, Angel Mapper... that spider on your web-page is an adult male mygalomorph (tarantula-like) spider. Yours looks most like a trapdoor spider, which are not hairy the way tarantulas are. Adult males don't build burrows, but spend all their relatively brief adult lives wandering in search of females. Which is probably why he ended up in your pool. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:06 pm

I've been playing and working with Unreal Tournament/UnrealEd since the first UT, never played Unreal though. But the reason for males using females might be lodged deep within the sub-conscience. Who knows, all I know is that the creators make a load of characters for you to pick from. Using just one person the whole time is boring and gets old quick. I change characters almost everytime I play. Most of the time players I have never used before. Each race has similar moves, I prefer the races that can do flips. So overall I've used 50/50 male - female ratio. I think it depends on your mood also. Not sure, the designs are so nice that it's hard just to be a male character all the time if your a male. What would be wrong with a female using a make skin???

Thanks ENocK>>> Very Happy

Crazed Fan Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 268 Location: RC MI

I get toasted by all kinds, but I normally play LAN only so it's rare that a girl plays against me. Still those few times I have been surprised. Not so much because they were girls, but I didn't realize that those particular girls had that much experience.

I do remember once in Duke3D when I was playing a friend over the phone line. My mom came over and I stepped away for a second to get something for her.

My friend came up while my Duke was just standing there and my mom grabbed the mouse and shot him with the rocket launcher! She had never played a game in her life and I bet she never even seen Duke3D before either. I don't know how she managed to figure out which button fired the rockets, but I can tell you that she was ecstatic over the whole thing!

He'll never live it down...

I remember playing Scrabble with mom and my wife once and my mom recited how she won a game of scrabble with her church friends. She down to only a few tiles and she knew another player would go out first unless she played out her tiles first. Well, she played the only word she could make to win..... F**K.....

I never knew she was that competitive! Needless to say we still give her a hard time about it whenever we play scrabble. You'd have to know her to understand how out of character that kind of thing is.