Women experience guilt, shame and exclusion in gaming culture, study finds
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Dr Seán Roberts, who researches gaming at Cardiff University, said: “When I ask people if they play video games, women often say no. But if you ask about playing games on a mobile, many of them will suddenly say yes. It’s like they have an idea of what a real gamer is in their heads, and they feel like they don’t meet that ideal.”
TBF I don’t really consider myself a gamer anymore… even though I clock a few hours a week on the playstation. But like I used to play competitive FPS/MOBA/RTS 10+ hours a week.
… feel like they don’t meet that ideal.
Well, there’s your problem, idealizing the traditional “gamer” persona. I play computer games every day, for a long time, and I also don’t feel like a “gamer,” because I don’t want to be associated with people I would consider “gamers.”
That might be a side effect of my not wanting to be associated with anyone, but there you have it.
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oh dang, women have been telling you for the past like 40 years that video games are an incredibly exclusionary space and turns out they weren’t just lying??? crazy, it’s almost like we should be listening to people when they have problems in a community. i mean jfc people actually needed a study to prove this? ask any woman who’s ever attempted to speak in game chat what happens, just ask.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
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Valid question. 0.
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Valid question. 0.
Def not a gamer then.
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How can you call yourself competitive when you didn’t even clock 40+ hours a week? Competitive gaming isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of life… Poser.
//This comment was brought to you by Raid: Shadow Legends! Play now!!!//
lmao.
40+??? That’s scrub level commitment. Get gud and you’ll be on the leaderboards playing 10+ a week. /s
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It was the reason I started playing it.
It’s one of the first things I bring up when recommending it to other women who aren’t playing online multiplayer games usually.
Most women I know who play it don’t play any other multiplayer games online, at least none with VC.
Games with VC usually do have the option to turn it off, but doing so you’ll have less information than players who use it. You’ll be a detriment to your team if they would otherwise have had efficient comms. You are turning off a feature, where the game is built on the expectations that it is turned on. I’d rather not have that option at all and instead have everyone be on the same page, with no expectations of comms with strangers. One less thing to consider, say no to, to disappoint others with.
Nowadays I’d probably use VC if they had it, but I never would have started playing if they did, so I’m glad there are still games where it’s not even an option.
So I’d say for a fair percentage that absolutely is the reason. That, and the horror icons.
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Interesting study. Explicitly about mobile gaming, not PC gaming, though …
just looking at it as a classification of genres, they (men & women) rightly feel shame and exclusion because mobile gaming is to gaming as connect4 is to table top gaming.
-as decreed from the Assistant to the High Stellarch of the PC Master Race 69th Group, Section 420.
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i mean of course youre going to have a conclusion like that polling exclusively mobile game players. For example had they polled female MMO players (there are a lot), the results would likely be far different.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
So, to participate in modern gaming, women should play games from 40 years ago?
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So, to participate in modern gaming, women should play games from 40 years ago?
Or just single player games in general. If Super Mario is fine (main “story” being that a princess gets abducted by a male villain and rescued by a man), there really aren’t that many games that are significantly worse.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
oh yeah i’m sure your half rotten memory is a reliable source, thanks grandpappy
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Goood, I can feel your Gamer anger. Beneath the skin we are already one. Even now the evil seed of the Gamer germinates within you. strike me down and your journey to the dark side will be complete.
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I’ve been playing a certain well known game for over a decade now. I’ve developed such skill at never specifying anything that could out my gender I could put it on a resume.
It’s actually quite fun. Oh the stuff men talk about when they don’t know there’s a lass in their raid group lolol
Now that I’m “old”, it ain’t about guilt, shame, or exclusion, it’s about how fun this facade is. Y’all neeeever know. So keep talking.
My first thought was why would anyone know. Granted I pretty much assume no one in the game is female. I know some are but I think my assumption will apply a large majority of the time. I mean I know my wife was on the game.
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Or just single player games in general. If Super Mario is fine (main “story” being that a princess gets abducted by a male villain and rescued by a man), there really aren’t that many games that are significantly worse.
So, again, to participate in modern gaming, women should play only single-player games. Like, to avoid men?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
Oh wow, I didn’t knew that Super Mario or Tetris on the NES was an “incredibly exclusionary space” because that’s not how I remember it.
I’m glad you taught me that.
Being a girl trying to talk about video games with boys was generally horrible, it’s not just the multiplayer experience, the ‘you like games, then name every X ever!’ followed by bullying has been alive and well for over 30 years.
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Goood, I can feel your Gamer anger. Beneath the skin we are already one. Even now the evil seed of the Gamer germinates within you. strike me down and your journey to the dark side will be complete.
lmfaoooooo
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Many men are emotionally unable to accept things like this. I think the reasoning goes like
- i’m a good person
- i like my hobby
- someone is saying bad things about my hobby
- this makes me feel bad, so it must be false
- furthermore, the person bringing it up is attacking me
Facts don’t matter. There’s really nothing you can do if you’re not someone they like.
I also think about this comic a lot: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1151.html - Some people are too cowardly to grow.
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Many men are emotionally unable to accept things like this. I think the reasoning goes like
- i’m a good person
- i like my hobby
- someone is saying bad things about my hobby
- this makes me feel bad, so it must be false
- furthermore, the person bringing it up is attacking me
Facts don’t matter. There’s really nothing you can do if you’re not someone they like.
I also think about this comic a lot: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1151.html - Some people are too cowardly to grow.
I also think it may be just… sexism… I know people who behave like this towards women, but not other men…
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It was the reason I started playing it.
It’s one of the first things I bring up when recommending it to other women who aren’t playing online multiplayer games usually.
Most women I know who play it don’t play any other multiplayer games online, at least none with VC.
Games with VC usually do have the option to turn it off, but doing so you’ll have less information than players who use it. You’ll be a detriment to your team if they would otherwise have had efficient comms. You are turning off a feature, where the game is built on the expectations that it is turned on. I’d rather not have that option at all and instead have everyone be on the same page, with no expectations of comms with strangers. One less thing to consider, say no to, to disappoint others with.
Nowadays I’d probably use VC if they had it, but I never would have started playing if they did, so I’m glad there are still games where it’s not even an option.
So I’d say for a fair percentage that absolutely is the reason. That, and the horror icons.
I see that and it certainly takes that initial worry out, but DBD isn’t that competitive, so there would be no pressure to talk really even if it did exist (different for each person I guess, how they feel about that). It’s a more chill game and the community in my experience is a lot more open-minded than your hyper-competitive games like CS where you find all the degenerates, I think that’s why its mostly more welcoming.
Text-chat has been way more toxic in my experience anyway. Usually they stop talking on the mic and start typing.
