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for so long it never occurred to me there would be very many female gamers. But here they were. Their ages ranged from 15 to 75 years old. This was important to me because I am among the over 50' age group.
I did not find it as much of a boys versus girls' game as a game where both males and females interacted in a friendly, helpful fashion. Age has not been an issue as much as skill and knowledge. There appeared to be about an equal number of male and female players in the guilds and raid groups to which I belonged in WOW.

According to more than one online study, women appear to make up a whopping 62% of all online gamers. In addition, one online newsletter for older gamers showed how on average women between the ages of 35 and 65 give teenage boys a definite run for their money when it comes to online gaming. These are impressive numbers.
There are hundreds of articles written bout men versus women in gaming. Not every article or blog will be in agreement as to which sex rules in the gaming community, men or women. In fact, given gamer demographics, age, sex, and types of games played, the above stats will differ.
One thing I noticed in all my games was definite gender bias in the character arena, though not in the player sex arena. More males played female characters than the reverse. Though I did meet females who enjoyed playing male toons, the majority of females played female toons. When I queried my husband and other males about their choices of female only characters, I was told they felt female toons emoted better, were drawn better, and were more versatile characters.
I had not considered gender bias or harassment when I first began gaming. Because I played with mostly guys I was considered one of the guys. We just had fun. Of course, we also knew one another personally. Everything said was fun among friends, but nothing offensive.
My initial foray into online gaming, previous to WOW, was Sony's STAR WARS GALAXIES. I am not very technical minded, and flying in space gave me motion sickness. Still, I enjoyed all the STAR WARS games for the X-BOX and wanted to give this game a chance. I had several online propositions in SWG, which got on my nerves. I felt like there were a lot of 13 year-old players trying to prove they were hot-shots. I had to report one kid to a GM for spamming me constantly. He asked me not to because his mom would not let him play anymore. Sadly, he was banned from the game for repeatedly harassing not only me, but other players.
When

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