So, this article got me to thinking. What do the men (and women?) of DRL think of women and gaming (And the internets in general)?

My opinion is neither of the view expressed in the article (that I hate people who give me special attention), nor of the "gamer grrl" referenced (who use that attention to gain advantage/favors/cause drama). I would just prefer to be acknowledged as a woman and then treated like just another dude, but I won't deny that it feels pretty good to be special.

Thoughts, comments, etc?

I don't really think of people whose gender doesn't really effect me in terms of genders very much.

Unless you do the entire gamer grrl act I'm just gonna treat you as any other player. Sure I'll give you attention if your car is all pink with flowers, but who wouldn't?
And I guess I would kind of change jokes a bit. Get me mah hoe! :Minecraft, just wouldn't work on guys.

Tl;dr You're lazy! Girl gamers should just be treated normal and play along.

I recently wrote a report on misogyny in intercourse, and I've been having discussions with quite a few feminists. This is something that comes up fairly often, especially in more internet-centric circles.
It's frustrating to see how many of communities (the words "xbox" and "halo" spring to mind) respond to someone being female but at the same time I do think that the issue is slowly resolving itself. Too slowly for my tastes, but it is getting noticeably better on a lot of the more indie scenes.

Beh, no time for a huge response. I like that more girls are playing games, dont like that they're staying out of communities for the most part and think that if everyone were a little less lonely and predatory it'd all go away.
(Strongly worded in parts intentionally for effect.)

I don't mind it at all really.
Ofc unless they do the whole "OMG HEY GUYS IMA GIRL!!" thing.
This is pretty annoying tbh.
Other than that, I don't really see girls gaming as anything special, and I fail to see why it should be.

yes but you have to remmbure people will say anything on the internet because , the other person or people can't do a thing about it.

Unless they point it out (in which case they're likely trying to get attention), I rarely notice if somebody is a girl, and as such don't treat them differently.

In the case of noting it on a mic in a TF2 server or something, I will be interested in the novelty of a girl on the internet (only really seen it about twice ever, and every female I know IRL hates gaming/computers), but I'll usually be too busy playing the game to act noticeably different.

I think females are certainly more accepted nowadays than they would have been near the start of the video game industry, where the general consensus was that video games were solely for nerds. The problem is, a lot of guys will still somehow find an idiotic way to react to females differently than males- either they'll intentionally target/focus on a girl and act mean to get her attention, or they'll let her win at stuff just because she's a girl. Eg; playing Metal Gear Online a few days ago, there were actually 2 or 3 girls in a single server*, and this one moron kept following them around acting as a meatshield and dropping all of his extra ammo so they could pick it up.

*Of course, you can never really tell if a girl is a girl when they lack a headset, but that brings me to a related issue; guys pretending to be girls on online games. Sickeningly amusing, but on a decline, I should think.

I played a shitload of girls on PSN in Soul Calibur, most of which were using mics. They are the same as guys in terms of skill. Most of them are complete trash at the game, and there are fewer and fewer players the higher you go up in skill, but I'd say the percentages are roughly the same. Then there is the factor of girls pretending to be dudes.

If there are any generalizations I could make, it's that I find that girl gamers generally don't play a lot of different games, mostly just a few. On the other hand the people who play a tonne of games are the people I usually gravitate towards, and they are also a minority.

Variation? How could that possibly be fun? There's nothing better than playing the same thing for years on end, especially when the online fan base has deteriorated to about 20 people.

Also, never met a girl trying to act like a guy. OR HAVE I? Maybe I just didn't pay attention. Anyways, that's definitely something I haven't heard of before. I'm assuming they would do that so that guys wouldn't act like idiots towards them?

I accept female gamers mostly on the basis that plenty of them could whop ma ass on the games I feel most confident in. It's weird... I feel a strange combination of sadness and a slight longing to meet one of them in person...

Is this directed at me? I think you don't have much experience with deep games. Games like Starcraft and Soul Calibur are deep enough to play for years. People are still playing GG and the Street Fighters and Starcraft religiously.

Anyways is this that big of a problem? What are your personal experiences, Duh? I find that most of the people who are ♥♥♥holes to women are ♥♥♥holes to everybody. And people like that guy who drops ammo for the ladies are prats in general.

There have been a lot of famous girl gamers (Kayane, Tossgirl, etc.) over the years, I think we've had a lot of time to get used to it.

>Is this directed at me? I think you don't have much experience with deep games. Games like Starcraft and Soul Calibur are deep enough to play for years. People are still playing GG and the Street Fighters and Starcraft religiously.

In general, most modern games get boring (even online) after a few months. Sure, there are some games which you can literally play for years on end without getting bored, but they are few and far between.

My experience isn't very useful as the "girl perspective", but I've found my time as a DRL member interesting since I've been on both sides of the fence in the same community. Up until whenever I told some people on my Minecraft server, I've always been a guy online. After that though, I noticed that attitudes around me shifted perceptibly, though that may have been because at the same time I became more visible as a community member.
People do treat you differently, for example when topics of racy things pop up. If it's just guys in a group (or so they think), they'll all joke along and get down and dirty. If a girl is present, though, some of the guys might suddenly develop a distaste for the topic of conversation, while others may use the topic of discussion to tease one of the other participants (whitty, I'm talking about you and your tentacles!). The exact actions really depend on the demographics of the group, but it's been obvious to me that the mood does change.
A real life example of this was that one Paranoia game where MLC wouldn't let me get the helicopter pilot to talk. I imagine that if we had been a group of all guys, the struggle wouldn't have lasted quite as long because the others would have gotten rather tired of waiting for me to finally subdue the pilot, even if it had been erotic in nature as it was. I could be quite wrong, but that's what I felt happened (or would have happened, rather).

Interesting topic to go in-depth. To be honest, I've never been bothered to change my behavior in the presence of female gamers. Although I get a bit intimidated not knowing what to expect during a halo match, I still play as ruthlessly as I usually do.

When it comes to teamwork, I tend to drown out the girl on my team (with strategizing, talking like a sailor, arguing) 'cuz I'm a douche but really I'm the same way with anyone I play with. Not a whole lot changes for myself with the gamer girls, but honestly I think they get razzed as much as any other gamer. When they do get razzed it just becomes a sexist issue or something depending on the comments and where directed, a more personal attack than "You're a homo and you mod your box to see through walls you jerkfaced hollowspine" to some dude. I just think thiis is less of a deal than a few people make it out to be because it's a feminism issue.

(edited my post a bit)