How Women are Treated in Game Communities

I have never encountered anything like it. I play with girls and guys all the time and they all seem to be quite normal toward each other. Most gamers don't really care when they are gaming, they are too focused on the game at hand. Outside of gaming however, is another story.

 

I don't know any women they play MMO's, but I have heard of similar things happening in games as such which why I am sure why a lot of them stay hidden, but if it got out of hand she could report it.

 

Well, it is THE internet, where everyone gets to keep their anonymity. When people do not have to worry about getting into real life trouble with what they said online, or when they have nothing to lose, most tend to behave more aggressively or display a rude manner. It's not a healthy practice, but some people think of the internet as their way of releasing their pent-up stress because they can't say rude things directly to their bosses, superiors, teachers, etc......

 

In almost every guild I have been in WoW there has always been at least 1 woman in it and I have to say that there has never been any discrimination. Even in my current guild there is 1 woman at the moment and I have to say that she is treated the same way anyone else is. She is extremely fun and can handle a joke and is exceptionally skilled as well

 

Yeah general chat always gets full with inappropriate comments whenever a woman talks. Just yesterday when I was raiding I could see that type of behavior, but I generally /leave general whenever I don't feel like reading it

 

I've never encountered any harassment or discrimination when playing online. My Guild on Guild Wars 1 had many female players and we were all treated the same.
I do have to admit that we got a little bit more attention from the male players, in a good way I'm not going to complain about compliments

 

Never really encountered that while playing FFXI. I encountered it plenty during my old school days of runescape though.

 

I have played several games over the years and I have to say that WoW is the worst for this sort of behavior. When I play LOTRO, I never see any issue with women or anyone else for that matter. I think a lot of the female characters in WoW are young boys anyhow - who knows who is behind the avatar? I know one female gamer in real life and she just rolls male characters to prevent any issues.

 

Well my guild also have a fair amount of girls, and some of them are actually cute , though they kept their gender anonymous behind those avatars until we actually met in person (my guild used to have monthly gatherings where we will rent an internet cafe for a day and gather everyone from the guild to play there). And mind you they are not just all-looks as they can actually compete at a decent level, which is why they are not treated differently because they are able to prove themselves as equal to male gamers.

 

I think that guild members are more serious to their duties than just the random players we meet. Guilds I've been with are mostly discussing about things game related and don't care if you're a guy or a girl. The only thing they care are whether you're good at the game and don't drag others down.

 

Lately I have been playing quite often with females and I have to say that while some might lack the skill they compensate with their attitude. They don't go crazy when something doesn't work out and to be honest in the past years I've come to respect that.
When I was younger I myself would go crazy whenever someone failed on something simple, but now I do understand that things happen and it's stupid to flame another person for doing a mistake.

 

To my knowledge, the only times I've seen this are teens and pre-teens reacting a certain way toward female gamers.

I was at a Minecraft multiplayer server at the wee hours of the morning, digging the usual endless tunnel that went no where, when some people started talking in general chat. One thing lead to another, when one member asked if the other member is a girl. The second member responded she is and the first person said, "Nice".

At that moment, I thought, "Why is it nice?"

Another instance would be in WoW when I was still relatively new to the game and I joined a social guild, where tons of chatter was happening. Someone asked, "Anyone a girl?" Chatter went on until he repeated himself again, in which a couple of members responded saying they were. The kid then remarked right after, "How old are you two? I'm X years old."

At that moment, I thought, "Why does that matter?"

Personally, for all I care, everyone in WoW and Minecraft are actually dual-gender aliens from the planet Klaxon disguised as robots or humans playing the game. In other words, I don't give a rat's butt what their gender is until I end up sleeping with that person. ^_^

As for WoW general/trade chat, I normally create tabs for Party and Guild chat. So I don't see general and trade most of the time.

 

Yeah I do the same with the chat as well. I have separate whisper/guild chat and 99% of the time I'm using that, however during raids there are just moments where I want to see what's happening in the general chat and oh boy is it fun

 

Girls playing video games is viewed the same way as chicks in the military... most dudes are shocked when they see it happen. It's considered to be a manly thing (unfortunately).

 

This will happen even in 2050 I think. Most male gamers have a huge ego, and when they get beaten in what they do best, by a girl, they just crack and start harassing her, calling her names and so on. Other dudes refuse to play with a girl just because she is female and by default is bad at playing games. That`s sadly the general way of thinking and I doubt it will change anytime soon.

 

You an't do anything. Minorities will always be mistreated. Basic human nature.

 

Nope I haven't noticed, as far as social institutions go Guilds and GCs are among the most equal in my opinion...

 

I generally dislike telling people my gender while playing on gaming servers. The reaction is usually as you've described. Men do not even need to know what I look like, they just randomly start blowing me up on private message and acting as if I need all the help I can get.

I enjoy being an Anon when it comes to playing video games and majority of the time staying off of the microphone.