Women are gamers, but largely absent from “e-sports” (arstechnica)

NemosHero · 2014-02-19T07:36:14+00:00

I am a member of an e-sport team. We decided to include a female on the team just for the publicity benefit. So far we've been through two women who proclaimed they were good at the game, but were terrible.

I think the issue here is the definition of gamer being used, much like the definition used by our two newbies. Playing against bots means you are factually a gamer. Playing candy crush makes you factually a gamer. Within that same mindset, cooking water for ramen every night factually makes you a cook. Singing at karaoke once a week factually makes you a singer. However, in none of these situations are you really engrossed in the discourse and symbolic order of the subject matter. You are a gamer, but you are not A Gamer.

That is why women are playing games, but not part of e-sports. Pretty much everyone in a first world country has played games, women came in with that massive population.

Tyger-Tyger · 2014-02-19T04:23:32+00:00

Maybe because:

a) A large number of women gamers don't want to pursue a career in professional gaming, or not interested in e-sports at all

OR

b) There is a short supply in pro gamer women because, simply put, there isn't enough of them or there isn't enough pro gamer women that are actually good enough to compete at professional circuits/tournaments

Plus the whole thing about "gaming communities treat women like shit" is redundant. People in gaming communities will treat people like shit regardless of sex, race or age.

If there are women gamers that think they're good enough, and can prove it, then there's not much stopping them.

I don't want e-sports groups to start turning the scene into another "we don't have enough girls, lets recruit a shit ton of girls to balance it out so that society doesn't get angry" shitfest like everything else in the world has.

I mean, it's just as bad as companies wanting to hire women over men to get good PR rather than hiring people based on their training/experience/skills.

3G6A5W338E · 2014-02-19T03:01:50+00:00

"Given their treatment, you can't blame them."

Of course, men have never been told anything offensive in some online game.

giegerwasright · 2014-02-19T05:27:02+00:00

Video games don't handicap by gender. You either play well or you don't. I wonder if that has something to do with it...

HalfysReddit · 2014-02-19T14:51:34+00:00

Well if the majority of gamers are men, it makes sense that the majority of professional gamers would be as well.

You don't see anyone complaining about the lack of men in roller derby.

2014-02-19T03:29:54+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Seebiscuit369 · 2014-02-19T04:43:03+00:00

Unlike the Olympics, where they only have to compete against other woman, they have to compete against every one in e-sports. I wonder if this is one of the major reasons that there are very few professional woman games too.

izomo · 2014-02-19T07:11:03+00:00

Alright so did this sentence not strike anyone as odd?

For anyone looking to get into video-game spectating, if e-sports doesn't strike your fancy now, Twitch Plays Pokemon and Dota 2 are excellent places to start.

drinkthebleach · 2014-02-19T06:46:06+00:00

Maybe if every girl team didn't flaunt their gender around like a gimmick and make it so hard for the good female players to break into it.

WodensEye · 2014-02-19T09:16:43+00:00

When I've heard the stats thrown around that 40% of gamers are women, I wonder what they consider gamers. I was recently complimented by some guys online at how good I am at a game online, despite how new I am to it, and they were like "but you're a gamer, right?" As in I play lots of games and am good at them in general.

My girlfriend plays games that are slower paced and story based, like final fantasy (which I also play), but she would not be as good at games that require "twitch" gameplay. Hell, the guys who compete at starcraft and measure how many CPM they do is rediculous even to me. I'm just not sure how many women play those games or to that level of intensity.

I'll admit though, I've run into more games recently playing God Of War online than I have elsewhere. I was surprised. I also haven't heard anyone attack them for being women, which is also surprising, though it is mostly a team based game so there is more solidarity.

jugglingisretarded · 2014-02-19T06:38:31+00:00

Women aren't gamers. Well, there are some, but to get the kind of numbers they are claiming you need to include the middle aged women who only play solitaire and farmville.

When it comes to what people commonly think of as gamers, women are far, far in the minority. Like most other off the beaten road hobbies.

2014-02-19T15:47:33+00:00

A history of women and vidya throughout the years.

2014-02-20T00:40:37+00:00

Boohoo! Attention whores, that's for sure.

StarPhoxTheJunglist · 2014-02-20T03:56:52+00:00

This fills me with lulz. Look at any competitive strategic game that is and men will usually be at the top of the pack. Go watch the documentary Word Wars it is about Pro scrabble players. There has never been a woman scrabble champion and there might not ever be. Not because women arn't as good at scrabble due to some inherent biological factor (women's brains are actually much better suited for laungauge comprehension) not because the scrabble community is inherently sexist (Oh the lulz, the lulz!) but because men are highly competitive when it comes to zero sum games. I competed in tournaments for a long time and in Denver there is only one girl who competes regularly and she is in no way looked down upon because of her gender by me or any of my peers.

SpecialFester · 2014-02-19T13:06:27+00:00

I don't understand the whole fury over the girl-gamer thing. I guess maybe it's because I fell out of the gaming industry and found it's gotten so dramatically more complicated and expensive I can't really get back in.

I started on NES or probably even before that, playing arcade games in a shopping cart. FF7 sold me the playstation. Halo sold me the xbox. Probably my best game of all would be Goldeneye, I could proxy mine all the starting points so when I killed you, you would keep dieing etc. Loved warcraft 2 and starcraft. Etc.

I can understand the frustration that "girls dildn't want anything to do with gaming back when it wasn't cool and now that it is, they want in". But I don't completely buy that, a LOT of people weren't into gaming back when it wasn't cool, not just girls. And I knew a few girls who played, mostly friend's sisters.

But yeah, if you think they are so great, than it shouldn't be hard to believe that her interest could be genuine. I guess I never had that much pride attached to the "gamer" label. It was just something I did. I agree it feels a bit like the little sister trying to tag a long, but I just don't think the automatic anti-girl-gamer thing is reasonable.

Deansdale · 2014-02-19T08:43:41+00:00

Maybe there are less women in e-sports because men are better players. Whoaaa, outrageous sexism!!! That is until you realize that men are simply better in pretty much every sport from chess to weightlifting. Why would e-sports be an exception? Tell me just one reason.

Edit: It seems we have a downvote brigade invasion. Hey guys, downvoting is easy, coming up with an actual answer is a lot harder, right?

JaydenPope · 2014-02-19T18:44:20+00:00

There has been professional gaming females but they were never at the same level as professional gaming males. There used to be (i believe i can't remember fully) a team a year or so ago that was all men but had one female and the team focused around the female. She was terrible at online gaming.

If girls want into "esports" then they really need to be as good as men. This means playing games like starcraft and such cause you can't be in esports if you're into pokemon or farmville.

soulslawter · 2014-02-19T03:02:33+00:00

33% identified as other knowing gamers they were probably trolling lol

Title	Women are gamers, but largely absent from “e-sports” (arstechnica)
Author	3G6A5W338E
Upvotes	6
Comments	113
Date	February 19, 2014 3:00 AM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1yb0vj/women_are_gamers_but_largely_absent_from_esports/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/women-are-gamers-but-largely-absent-from-e-sports.1003618 https://theredarchive.com/post/1003618

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