Help Plz?

[PMS Aloma]

Hey!

I write for WorldOfMeh.com and I am working on a girl gamer editorial.

I was wondering if everyone could please help me out (males and females) by leaving a reply with some of your thoughts ...

MALES
- How do you feel about women being gamers?
- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.

FEMALES
- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.


Any help at all would be nice.
Also, please include in your reply, whether or not I would be allowed to include your GT/handle/etc in the editorial piece.

Thx <3

[Hype]

- How do you feel about women being gamers?
--I think its awesome

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
--I warn them to stop and think long and hard before they make their next disrespectful comment. And if they feel the need to continue I tell them how I feel about the situation and try to handle it the best way possible.

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
--Definitely, including my wife and some of her friends.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
--I love the fact that the number of girl gamers is growing.
--And i think they get alot of hate is bc most guys try to act "Hard" in front of them to show their friends how "cool" they are".

These answers are just my opinion though. :)

[H2O SideSwipe]

How do you feel about women being gamers?
I think that women being gamers is a great thing to see. I think that it's great to see females become more active in a male dominated community.

How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
I take it really offensive because I truly believe no person has the right to discriminate against another person no matter the circumstance.

Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
I have seen more girl gamers in the last year than I have in the few years before. Just from playing Gears of War 2 I have noticed a huge increase in female gamers.

Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
I just hope to see more female gamers in the future.

And you can use my gamertag :D

[PMS Salop Girl]

FEMALES
- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer? It's overrated. Not hung up by it, mostly i find they are saying the same things to the guys, do not feel super segmented.
- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby? Lots, in fact, over the years, they have tried when at the house but felt it was to hard or to juvenile to keep up with it, i found most to be easily discouraged. Its ok, i've heard the same girls pimp me up for my love though, never negative.
- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby? haven't ran into it. I find people are more discriminatry about my age and playing than being a girl and playing.
- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers? Yes but they come and go, not the same ones, i have few girls on my friends list that stick around for the long haul. Until I got here of course. :) (WOO WOO PMS!)
- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
Absolutely hate the friend request, 9 out of 10 times its because i am a girl, it drives me nuts. I am super selective. Because i am a girl i have groupies, its not how good i am, thats for sho'

Thanks for taking the time, hope your piece rocks it!

[PinkIsDeadly]

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?

I play along with them haha. I get called fat.. "P-H- PHAT I KNOW RIGHT!?"
"You suck!" "Well that's very personal, I don't think you have the right to know about my personal life."
"OMG IT'S A GIRL!" "*ahem* woman and how about you get in the kitchen and make me a sammich!"

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?

Nope, not at all

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?

Uhm, not sure.

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?

From when xbox live first started, yes. I notice a lot of serious gamer girls too, which makes me smile!

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.

I'd like to ignore it, but it does upset me and I will throw some swearing in a conversation if a guy is being rude. But I enjoy messing with the guys who think they dominate video games. ;)

[H2O Avatar]

- How do you feel about women being gamers?
im all for girls in gaming most times you run into girls who destroy online but arent taking seriously cause they are girls . and 9-10 there always on the top of the leader boards
- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
oh i dont take it very well. i have def had to put many an online d-bags in there place. you dont disrespect women at anytime its called being a gentleman. And if you wanna act like a jerk face you will be treated accordingly
- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
yes i have seen many more all girl clans show up and are now being taken serious girls are here to stay in the video game world you can be on the winning side who r willing to accept them or you can b on the dbag side and get put in your place your choice
- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
they are awesome so glad that ive meet so many females in gaming they are some of the kewlest people you will ever meet

[BRx ReiRei]

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
I mute or block them depending on what was said.

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
Not so much that they don't support it, it's that they don't understand it. They don't play games at all.

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
I've had friends say "that's a bit of a guy thing isn't it?" etc, it doesn't really bother me as they aren't into gaming at all.

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
Not really, I think they have always been there. I had female relatives playing games when I was a kid, even my mum.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
Some people won't like me for this comment but it's how I feel - I don't like this whole "hahahaha you got owned by a girl, and haha a girl beat you" attitude, after all, we should be treated as equals, it doesn't matter if it's a girl or a guy that wins in my opinion, it's fine to represent a females I think, but I think to laugh in someone's face that they have just been beaten by a girl (unless they have been hating on girls beforehand) just makes things worse.

[esgeeone]

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
Doesn't bother me much, either just mute/block them and leave the lobby.

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
Wouldn't so much say that they do not support it is just that they don't understand it really.

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
Once again doesn't bother me much as everyone has their own thing I guess.

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
Yeah I would say so.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
To pick up on what I said about their being an increase in female gamers is that sadly imo some of these new girl gamers are the ones that give a bad name to female gamers. Ie the ones that only play to get attention from male gamers or the ones that play and are like 'oh hahaha you got killed by a girl'. For me this is one thing that I dislike very much as there are so many girls out there that want to be treated as equals on the gaming field too yet a few female gamers are ruining it for the many.

[H2O Hamlet]

MALES
- How do you feel about women being gamers?
I think it's great. Much like any social gathering, it's important to have both sexes, and a variety of personalities in attendance. It makes the experience more enjoyable. Who goes to a house party that has only guys? It's good to have balance, and gaming fits into that category. It creates an environment where males and females can interact.

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
Unfortunately, I can get a little overly aggressive. Most of the time I'll give them a "Chill bro, that's not cool" response. If they respond in anyway that I don't find appealing, I tend to get more aggressive in my responses, often calling them out on their actions. I'm trying to settle down a bit, a quick mute solves the problem (something some of the lovely PMS Girls taught me).

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
I have actually. Obviously, as an H2O, I spend a lot of time playing with PMS Girls. But when I'm with a small group of H2O's playing public, or even when I'm playing solo, I'll occasionally run into a female gamer that isn't in PMS. It's not THAT common, but it's a lot more common than in years past. Girls usually play in groups (much like the grouping that PMS provides). The interesting thing though, is that most girls I run across have never heard of PMS- I usually give them a quick overview and tell them to check the website out.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
Personally, I feel like there is still a lot of arrogance and immaturity on the male side of gaming, in regards to female gamers. We still have the guys that run their mouth whenever they get a chance, and we still have the immature 10-17 year olds running around on LIVE saying things they wouldn't if their mother was standing next to them watching. But that won't change, ever. I mean, we still have racism and that was abolished way before my time. Some people don't like change; and according to their perspective, if they can't understand something then it shouldn't exist. For the same reason someone makes a lame excuse when a more talented player beats them, "Wow you're such a nerd- get a life and stop playing this game!" The same justification is used when they get beat by girls "Wow, go back to the kitchen, you must be fat or ugly to be playing this game." Most of these immature and arrogant individuals just can't accept the fact that they aren't the next Fatal1ty- so they come up with an unoriginal response, usually negative, to justify their uncertainties. The anonymity of being Online definitely provides confidence to those that in actuality have little confidence Offline.

However, on the girls side of gaming, I definitely feel like it's improving. More and more girls are being more open about their gaming habits. Girls have been gaming for years, but it wasn't well known because of the fact that it wasn't socially acceptable. I don't think it's so much that there are more girl gamers now, rather there are more girl gamers letting their habits be known. "Coming out of the closet" would be the cliche response. In the past girls would use unisex tags, or masculine tags, and mute their mics to avoid confrontation. I think this trend is slowly fading.

The solution, isn't so much trying to change the views of others, but being more open about female gaming. And that is dependent on female gamers themselves. Clans such as PMS, allow for an environment and atmosphere that is accepting of female gamers, which allows girls to be more open about their gaming habits (Providing a Strength in Numbers aspect).

The only negative, and I know we don't have any girls like this in PMS, but there are some of the "groupie"-esque girl gamers in the gaming community. Some girls use their looks to get onto GB teams to increase their GB rank (they don't compete, just take up roster space and gain XP for being on the Top Ranked Teams). You also see groups of girls at events talking to the Pro Gamers, in attempts to find a little spotlight. However, this isn't the norm- so I wouldn't put much emphasis on this nor take away from the average female gamer. But, I couldn't write all positives as that would just be naive.

And yes, if you'd like to, you may use any of the above response in your article.
http://www.pmsclan.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=2788&pictureid=34007
H2O Hamlet (H2O Clan)
Team KAPPA | Captain

[PMS Aloma]

You guys & gals all rock ... keep the responses coming :D

[Harpy PMS]

Hey Aloma- I am actually a researcher and I'm doing a study on female gamers. Lol I can send you some articles if you'd like. :)

FEMALES

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
I mute them. LOL!! I really dislike trash talking. I let my playing do the talking!

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
Yeah, a few don't really understand why I have to go home and practice on xbox. Lol

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
I just blow it off really. We all have hobbies and likes. If they cannot accept that, we probably aren't that good of friends anyway. :)

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
Yes, for sure! I run into more and more women on XBL and I love it! :)

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
The thing that bothers me the most is females on XBL that feel the need to trash talk other women. It makes no sense to me at all. It is almost as if they are trying to be the "alpha" female in the room or something. We don't need to be trash talking each other, we need to stand together! :) You can use my handle, etc.

[PMS Aloma]

Harpy - please do! Can you email them to me? xalomax@gmail.com Thx hun <3

[H2O Knuckles]

MALES
- How do you feel about women being gamers?
I believe it's great. Women deserve the right to destroy the competition.

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
It depends on what type of mood i am in. If i'm in a bad mood I go off the other people and mute them. If i'm in a good mood I'll mess with them. I'll say something to the like " Hey, I like guys who hate female gamers, so what are you wearing (insert Gamertag here)?" and at the end of it I mute them and laugh.

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
Oh yeah, when I was searching for clans to join, I was surprised to find a ton of all female clans.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
When I play by myself I get paired with the trashtalker team and female gamers on the other team. I look at everybody's stats before the game and most of the time the trashtalkers seem to suck and the female gamers have great stats. I mute my team and say to myself "this could be fun. (sarcasm)" and to the other team i say "good luck". The game starts and I get kill and the first thing I here was "that guy F***ing sucked" I looked and I checked to see who said that and it was one of the female gamers on the other team on my proximity chat.

All I should say is that i'm tired of verbal hostility in the game. I understand being competitive, but why cant we just let our score do the talking? Everyone should be considered equal and stop harassing each other online. And until that happens I love the mute button.

[PMS NJ]

FEMALES

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
I usually ask why they have to say such hurtful things. Haha. And if they keep it coming then I put them on mute. I don't want to get affected by people saying stuff about me when they don't even know me. And I don't know who they are either so I don't trashtalk. I curse a lot instead. Haha.

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
I don't have any friends who are opposed to it. They don't get it of course but they don't hate on it. My family on the other hand is another story. Haha.

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
When I tell people that I like to play video games I get a look. The judging kind. There's no point reasoning with those people who judge you.

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
I haven't really noticed 'cause I haven't been playing in a while.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
Most guys who know that I play video games find it cool. And I don't get how that admiration doesn't translate online. Maybe some guys just have really poor social skills and regress to when they were in kindergarten and picked on the girl they liked. Haha. And I think female gamers who trash talk aren't really better than the guys who do. I wish more people used their mics though. Just for talking and communicating so that people can actually work together to accomplish whatever goal. No more hatin' please!

Good luck! Make sure to let us know when your article's finished. And you can use my gamertag. :D

[PMS Aloma]

I'll definitely post it when it's all done ... I'm gonna wait for maybe Monday for a bunch of responses, then write it up :D

[JSTAR04]

I like playing with girl gamers
I never heard anyone discriminste them
I feel there has been an increase
I think that girl gamers should involve there friends into video games

[PMS NinjaMuffin]

FEMALES
- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
I think its out right disrespectful. Honestly i get it all the time on xbox live, everything to the "OMG are you a girl?" and the "Shouldn't you be cleaning the house or something?" It's just dumb. I normally go off on them in a verbal rampage but i have learned to just ignore it. It makes me the better person

- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
I only have a couple friends that play video games. One of my friend who is a girl is addicted to MW2. She is on it morning, noon, and night! So she understands my gaming addiction :) All of my other friends just think im crazy but respect my hobbies and don't say anything.

- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
I tell them "hey look here, everyone has there choice of hobbies, don't hate on mine just because i like video games and always have since i was 5" I have a friend who think video games are just plain stupid and doesn't really understand my choice of hobbies

- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
Most def!! I think its great! :D Power to the girls!

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
People just need to learn to respect the fact that there are a TON of female gamer all over the country. They just need to get over it and move on! :)

By the way..Great questions! :D

[H2O AbstraqT]

MALES
- How do you feel about women being gamers?
Don't really have an opinion on it. A gamer is a gamer, regardless of gender.

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
Each to their own, you can't force your own values on someone else. TBH, it's not any worse than male on male discrimination that happens.

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
Generally yeah.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
I sense an air of superiority when i play with girls. Perhaps they feel they have something to prove, or they believe they are better. Whatever it is, it's a cockiness that affects both male and females gamers alike. Generally, not all girls. From my own experience.

[H2O Mercury]

- How do you feel about women being gamers?
Heh heh, well I honestly feel there should be more of them! The current gender distribution between male and female for games is gradually becoming more even, why this has taken so many years I do not know. Developers are making a "more concious effort to try and reach out to the female members of the market", what they mean by this is a little convoluted... who says girls dont like the alot of the same stuff guys do? A matter for marketing to worry about, I will not get involved with that pshycology debate.

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
Society as a whole needs to shake many of the stereotypes and expectations towards women. In some ways I think this is gradually happenning, media attention to female role models who are breaking the mould in regards to social etiquette and manerisms is taking its effect. I don't like the phrase but it's becoming more socially acceptable for women to share the same interests or mentalities that men have.

Generally if I see sexist remarks made by guys in a lobby towards ladies I pitty them ( the guy making the comments) more than anything. Such narrow mindedness is bad for yourself, such a person will have social problems in life if they keep it up. Other than that I just ignore them, no need to lower myself to their level by responding to them, no need to give them feedback and fuel the fire.

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
Hmmm, this is a tough question really, I have seen ebbs and flows with regards to this, on some games I play the female composition of the community has declined. Others games have seen an increase... however on the whole I would say yes, as has the publicity for female gamers increased.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
Hah, as someone on a university course that teaches programming for the games industry I feel that more women need to step forward and put themselves at the heart of the industry. At the momment we have very few ladies on our course, seeing more women working in the industry is another big step towards bridging that gender gap we see in the player base.

[H2O Obsidian]

Males
- How do you feel about women being gamers?
I think it's cool to see women and girls moving into a prodominately male community(and showing up some guys :D ).

- How do you respond when you hear other gamers discriminate against female gamers?
I just feel bad for them and how stupid they are.I mean seriously just because they are female doesn't mean you can be jerks to them and insult them.Most of the time they are just mad because they were beat by a girl which they believe to be a bad thing.I know female gamers who destroy me and it's no big deal.

- Aside from PMS or FragDolls, have you seen an increase of girl gamers?
I have started meeting more girls on online gaming than i have in the past.I have also noticed a few more female clans.

- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or the things you feel about female gamers.
Female gamers seem to be more interested in having a good time which is why I think they are more fun to play with and be friends with. Keep gaming girls and please get your friends into it.

[Stiletto]

- How do you react when men say hurtful or discriminatory things about you being a gamer?
To be honest, the first time I was trash-talked for being a female gamer was just a few years ago. I was pretty upset, tears and all. Never in my life have I heard men speak to any female like that. I reflected on what was said to me, and realized that the stereotypes most definately didn't apply to me, so I brushed it off. Plain and simple, some men enjoy bullying others to make themselves feel more adequate, and they have the safety of doing it behind a television or computer screen. It probably won't ever change, and us female gamers need to realize that. This is a competetive world we live in, and it's not getting easier. Let your skill do the talking, ladies.
- Do you have any female friends who do not support your choice of a hobby?
I've had mixed reactions, depending on the females. At a previous job I had at a restaurant, my female coworkers and I were bored at work and decided to surf the web in the office. I decided to spill the beans that I was a pretty serious female gamer, and showed pmsclan.com to them. Needless to say, the girls actually made fun of me, and even started talking crap behind my back about me. It was rude and immature, but they weren't really my friends so it didn't really matter much to me. The only females that I've had positive reactions from were other girls who game that I've either met online or at local tournaments. I think it really takes a female gamer to really understand another.
- How do you react when other women are discriminatory based on your choice of hobby?
I simply let them do their thing. I love my hobbies, and I'm sure they love their's. Just because someone thinks what I do is dorky doesn't mean I'm ever going to stop, and I'm damn sure going to try my hardest to be awesome at what I do.
- Have you noticed an increase of girl gamers?
Growing up, my female cousins and I would play Nintendo all day, and this was the norm for me. I'd hang out at local arcades with my uncle (who was then in high school) starting when I was about 6 years old. The games were my babysitter, and I always noticed lots of other girls there. I don't think there's really been a huge increase in female gamers in recent years; I simply think that the majority of us have "come out of the closet" with our gaming. Now, it's acceptable to most people to play video games. Times have changed, and I feel that us ladies are just changing with it.
- Any other thoughts on the things you hear or feel about female gamers.
I'd like to see less animosity amongst some female gamers. There's been many a time when I've joined a public match on a game that had a random female in the lobby. For no reason, I'd get trash-talked, possibly because the girl would feel threatened and feared that I'd get alot of attention from the guys in the room, or that I would do better than her. That's not at all what I'm out to do. I'm here to play the game, practice my skills and help my team win a match. It's hard enough being a female gamer; it's even tougher when we choose not to be polite to other females. We should be sticking together and showing the men what we're about, not having cat fights.
On another topic, I'm pretty sick of guys talking filthy to me in games. I've heard things that would make a prostitute blush. I don't know who started the rumor that girl gamers like being talked to like that, but someone needs to sew their mouth shut.



*(You may use my GT or w/e you want. I'm okay with it. :) )