by Susan Hoffman

Created on: June 24, 2008

Girls Versus Boys Taking A Stand In The Gaming Community

Traditional stereo typed ideas of girls naturally having a more passive nature, being less aggressive and more caring than boys is a myth in the gaming world. The girls are taking the gloves off and are happily kicking the boy's butts and loving every minute of it. The cyber world allows a girl to be as aggressive as she likes, in fact in the case of first person shooter games, if you are not aggressive you may as well not play.

Common perception would have you believe that a girl is only interested in cutesy type games, where pink flowers fall instead of bullets. Wrong. Personally, I for one became completely addicted to a very blood thirsty first person shooter game called "Unreal Tournament" several years ago. Although I am not a violent person in real life, in "U.T" however, I was the total opposite of my real life persona, relishing in each kill as I watched my score climb.

At first, my male opponents would be in disbelief as to my true gender, and interestingly I was compelled to prove them wrong. I attended LAN parties, so these mere males could witness for themselves that I was indeed a woman. The word soon spread in the gaming community that I was a female who was a force to be reckoned with and I relished in that role.

The males in the "U.T." community reacted with mixed emotions. Some would try to put you off your game by insulting you, others by attempting to hit on you and it was an endless source of amusement. Others strangely posed as females in an attempt to discredit the female role in the game, with pathetic attempts to converse as a woman exposed quickly. To loose to a girl in such a manly game was sadly an insult to many males.

More females emerged in the community and alliances between the girls occurred. An all girl clan was formed with girls from all over the world uniting. It was exciting to be a part of this almost revolutionary atmosphere and the girls were a dominant force.

The girls had stood their ground and had proven their worthiness in this male dominated game. The all girl clan disbanded eventually and the women all went either back to individual roles or joined now popular mixed clans of both men and women. The boys and the girls it seemed were able to co exist harmoniously.

This game although probably not intended by the makers, was a huge social experiment in the gaming community. It clearly demonstrated that girls were interested in a lot more than the stereo typed perception and that many males felt threatened as a result. Today the gaming community as a whole is more accepting of females in this type of role and the girls have firmly established their place in it.

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