Help Video Games and Girls Survey

[megumiaraki]

I am doing a masters in video game design and for my last year in school I planned to do a web based video game. I have become interested in the stereotypes of women in games and the women who play games.

I was hoping to do a short of survey of peoples opinions of this topic to help me get some more insight on this matter. Please if you can participate it would be greatly appreciated.

Feel free to also post comments and thoughts, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad or any stuff like that. I would just like honest responses for my project.

Thank you ^_^!
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Editted:

I need much help in getting participants to this survey. I am working on creating a fighting game for girls and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Go here to take survey!!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ySNTSZGV5oPMmj6LxLF21g_3d_3d


THANKIES!

 

[LadyHatake]

I'm addicted to video games, and know many females who are, and I'm actually quite good at some XD The only ones I tend not to like are sports, because those I can do in real life

As far as classifying myself, I'm not overly much "one of the guys." I love hanging out with guys (less drama, less inhibition XD) and watching sports and playing VGs, playing on the comp, but I'm still girly, too. I like pink, having pedicures, shopping for purses, etc. I'm a nice balance, methinks =)

I think the whole stereotype of "girls don't play video games" depends on the girl. Some girls absolutely refuse that kind of thing, and say it's for guys. Others, however, absolutely love it. There are times when I'll be talking to some guy(s) and the subject will go to gaming, and when they realize I like playing, their jaws kinda of drop ,oO. Hell, there's stereotypes in thinking all guys play video games too, because they don't. I know plenty of guys who hate them :/ (silly them >.>)

so yeah >.>

 

[megumiaraki]

guys who hate video games ewwww lolZ
Thanks for your response much appreciated ^_^!

 

[rabb]

theres several xbox live clans just for women. i dont know many woman who play shooters, but i know they are out there. my friends dont play them, so i dont count them. they paly other games. but i've had girls kicking my ass on halo before, and im pretty good, so i tend to not be stereo-typical about it. and besides. i can never tell a little kid apart from a girl on the headset. too high and squeaky either way.

there is that one blue-headed girl in that one anime that loves gaming, especially h games.

 

[megumiaraki]

Thanks for your response ^_^

 

[Ju-da-su]

Well, being a girl and sort of like a gamers (I think), I did know a lot of other girls who play even more games than me. So, about a lot of female gamers, very true. I don't know that much into the MMORPG stuff since I haven't play such game for years now. And as for strong female characters, well, isn't it now quite a cliche thing that there must be at least one tough female character in most of the games, or even in manga and anime? At least, I can think of one for all the manga I saw, and some games as well. Sterotype that girls didn't play game seem to disappear little by little now, looking from gaming forums I'm in.

 

[megumiaraki]

Thanks for your response ^_^

I have a question, if you feel the stereotypes are disappearing, do you also feel that girls are being viewed as equally challenging opponents as guys?

Or do you think as it is for guys they have to prove themselves first?

 

[Fuji]

Well, in my experience, tons of girls play video games. A lot of my friends do but there is something I would like to say about the MMO aspect of it. Most girls I know in person play healer or some hybrid healer class. It's kind of interesting now that I think about it. However, while I was playing World of Warcraft I knew plenty of girls in game that were warriors or hunters, clearly non healer classes. So I think it varies, but in EQ 2 and Guild Wars girls tend to be healer classes, but in WoW they don't... I wonder why... Crap I am scheming now!!! *runs*

 

[megumiaraki]

lol thanks for your post that is very interesting >.<;
I wonder why as wellz _-_.........

 

[rabb]

scheming? how? intentionally gunna get damaged so you can get them to heal you???

i come across way more women in mmorpgs than i do in other types of games. just thought id state that.

 

[Do Kesubei]

I am not a girl, but plenty of girls at my university play video games. Those girls all generally play the same genres: MMORPGs, Square-based RPGs (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts only), music games and casual games. Whenever I ask any girl I come across about games they play, they always fall in those categories, though exceptions exist of course. When I ask them about action/adventure, RPGs that aren't made by Square, sports, fighting or racing, they don't seem to care too much about them. The only racing game exception seems to be Mario Kart.

 

[megumiaraki]

hmmm I never wondered about that. The ratio of male players in mmorpgs vs female playerz. That would also be interesting to know. Especially since you say you come across more girls then guys. I wonder how many others have that same opinion. I play final Fantasy XI but I never really pay attention to that. >.<......I guess I should start _-_............

---

thanks Do Kesubei. ^_^

It is interesting to here you all say that alot of girls already play video games.
I think Do Kesubei makes a point that I was looking for in that most girls don't play fighting games, or sport/racing. I tend to play fighting, racing, and rpgs. I don't touch sports as LadyHatake says she also doesn't like to play them as wellz.

So maybe this is where this idea stems from not that the stereotypes exist for all games that girls play but maybe just in the fighting genre? Mostly because girls tend to not play those types of games? This is where I have experienced alot of stereotypical behavior from guys. Statements like Go easy on her..... as if I need to be played against in a different matter.... already assuming I am the weaker opponent.

So what I am trying to say is...
Does this hold true that stereotypes of girl gamers, since there seem to be many, only apply at times to games that people deem unpopular for girls to play? Unpopular meaning generally girls choose not to play them.

 

[Fuji]

I would say it does because most guys who play fighting or sports games all the time assume that girl's (in my experience anyway) don't get in many fights so they probably aren't very good a simulation of the real thing. Complete bullshit in my opinion. I can't play any tennis video games but I am fairly good at the actual sport.

A similar thing applies to sports games though not as much in my opinion. It seems to only apply to football games, since those are the most competitive and most girls don't play football.

@rabb: well that's only one of the many things that popped in my head as I thought of that statement. I'd rather not delve into the others...

 

[aky0]

I don't know a lot of girls who play games, but the ones that I known or met were really good, and honestly, I don't care if they are girls or not.

I even prefer to play with a girl because they are kinda rare (in my personal experience) (well yeah, I don't play games really often too, only sometimes, when I'm hanging out ^^) and girls are really nice and fun when they lose

Well, in my opinion, girls have a place in game world of course.
Guy aren't all the time better than girls, that's an evidence.

 

[Azurel]

I was an avid gamer before becoming an anime junkie. The games that I play are MMORPGs, RTS and simulations. I'm speaking from my experience of gaming about a year ago, I'm not too sure if there are any changes in the perspection of female gamers now. But I've came across many females in MMORPGs and there's always a female 1 in every 5 player; that's my estimate. I think most gamers generally acknowledge that female gamers do exist. They could probably accept if a noob is a female player but their first reaction when they realize my gender is always surprise. This is especially true if you're a veteran in the game. They will go, "what, you're a girl?" It's like any of those high level players can't possibly be female >.> Perhaps it's because there are male players who uses female avatars. This probably made many gamers believe that all these 'female' players that they see running around are just males. I suppose males player are more open to the idea of female players but I don't think most of them would accept that a female player can play better than them. But that's the general vibe that I get.

In MMORPGs, one of the most biased character-gender game is probably Pirate King Online. I've played it and I hate the fact that there are no male healers avatars and no female champion, crusader and swordsman avatar. The gender discrimination really pisses me off especially since I don't like the stereotyping of female players must be HEALERS! I mostly played Roseonline, and none of my characters were Muse/Healers/Mage. I just don't like dealing with spells. I prefer using weapons like katars, knuckles and katanas. Probably another reason why male players are surprise to see a Hawker or a Champion female player.

I'm not interested in sports or racing either. I guess most girls are not. raI think there are different levels of playing for girls. The 1st level would be simulations such as Sims or simulation strategy game such as SimCity & Rollercoaster Tycoon. I started out with these games too and I think almost every girl that are frequent PC users probably played Sims or other forms of simulation before. The 2nd level would be MMORPGs, RPGs & RTS. Girls who play these games are less common than simulations gamer but there are still quite a lot of them. I think the odds are that there is 1 girl in every class at level 2. The 3rd level is first-person shooter or third-person shooter. I hardly know any girl who plays CS or Halo in my network of friends. Maybe it's because I don't play them myself. so I think FTS female gamers are rare but not unheard of.

<.< woah, that's a long rant.

 

[Impel Down]

I will say this: Whenever I meet a female gamer in real life, they always annoy the fuck out of me and I leave. Same goes for female anime fans in real life.

 

[Lohnt]

My ex kicks my, and all of my friends, asses at Dead or Alive using Ayane... I mean not always, but to be perfectly honest (and I'm castrating myself for admitting this) she wins at least 50% of the time.

She doesn't play a lot of games, and she sucks at Halo, but DOA she picked up like a monster for some reason.

 

[Wild Star]

I'm a girl and I like video games as well. Though most of the time I only play either RPGs (both online and console), action, or adventure games. I don't play sports games. I only play one fighting game (Tekken), and I consider myself fairly good at it. In arcades while playing Dark Resurrection I constantly get stopped in the middle of playing with the "Here Comes a New Challenger!" message, most of the time from boys who think they can get an easy win from "beating a girl". I get an average of 2 or 3 people challenging me per game---all of them are guys. They think I'm an easy prey, they put their guard down, so I can usually take them by surprise, which is why my Tekken data card has gotten 100+ matches now...and I don't even go to the arcade that much. On the contrary to that, my male friends who also play video games don't have the same bias and they treat me as "one of them".

It's surprising to see people in this thread saying how they know a lot of girls who play video games. I'm jealous. Here, I'm the only girl I know who plays video games. Female role models in video games are rare--most women are either healers (i agree with the poll), or physically strong buy scantilly-clad. I'd like to see some strong female characters in video games who don't dress like amateur porn stars. I like Final Fantasy XII, but Fran's character pisses me off.

I've played Ragnarok Online for 3 years (but recently quit when i started to lend most of my free time to translating manga), and you only need to play that game to see how much far back women are in the realm of gaming. I can't even begin to count how many times I've been harassed and underestimated just for being a girl.

 

[Paper]

when playing an MMOPRG everyone is a dude to me...that is untill i'm proven wrong, and even if i am i still treat them like a dude...since no one gets special treatment....

 

[Coup]

I dont care if its a girl or guy playing. Whenever I play a first person game I'm going to kill with no mercy regardless