OMG Girlz Don't Exist On Teh Intarweb!

The Escapist has a brilliant article penned by a young woman who has to deal with blatant disbelief at her existence. Why? Because there are no women on the internet. From the article: "This is the story of my internet life. (I'm not quite sure if it's a good or bad thing that I have an internet life, but internet life it is.) I'm a girl, I play games and I exist on the internet. Or so you think. Time after time, I get told I'm not a girl and that I don't exist. It's happened so much that I'm beginning to think that it's true. So, I spend some time getting to know them. Who are these mysterious creatures called girls if they don't exist on the internet? What does this mean for the men of the internet?"

Re:Simple

[Anonymous Coward]

"OMG BOOBZ!!1!"

Don't worry, she complies on page 2 (4?). :facepalm:

(Hint: nice picture, but, uh, it's kinda hard to take someone seriously when they include a boobie-shot. Kinda like "yeah, my argument is weak, here are some boobs to distract you.")

eh..whatever...girls or guys it's all the same

[BlastQuake]

Who cares? Actually I have some very good friends who play Wow that are female - of course I've known them for years from playing a mud we all frequented, But neither I or my close friends have any problems with girl gamers, after all we're all here for the same reason - to have fun.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Something doesn't add up.

[jbellis]

pick one or both:

- hyperbole
- author plays primarily with 12 yr olds

Re:Truth be told...

[QuantumG]

The whole point of a roleplaying game is that you are not supposed to reveal anything about who you are. You are supposed to roleplay. So if your character is male, you should act male, even if you are female. Much like if you character is a big strong barbarian, you should act like a big strong barbarian, even if you're really a short weak accountant. That's the purpose of the game, to provide an outlet for you to express the parts of your personality that you don't get to express in your everyday life. Questions about whether you're a guy or a girl or what you do for a living in "real life" should be met with distain. You should tell such people to mind their own business and get back to roleplaying.

Re:I don't know what this guy is whining about...

[JimmehAH]

...eBay...
Yeah. No better place to vent your feelings and have a long, heartfelt bitch about 'highschool-style romances and betrayals and jealousy' than...eBay.
WTF?

Also, who wants a guy who spends all his time parked in a chair porking-out? Dude, that's one hell of a double-standard you've got there.

I feel for the women of the web

[tolldog]

I am surprised that the women haven't formed their own internet by now. Guys get stupid around girls enough as it is. Adding in the fact that many of the guys escape to games because they have problems relating with people, let alone females, it only gets worse.

I, thankfully, haven't freaked out too much when the person on the other side revealed themselves to be female. On the other hand, there have been a few times where people were roll playing as a female and later revealed themselves to be a guy. It wasn't quite a crying game type of situation, but it was enough of a shock for me to still remember...

And this is news?

[tvadakia]

Simply put: This is an to-be disputed rant about a targeted audiience. It's far from all encompasing and can't even generalize on any experiences outside of the expamples she had given. She might as well have just ranted about immaturity in teenage kids.

Move on.

Re:Who Cares

[dorkygeek]

I hate to break it to you, but your actually reading /. using lots of sand. Ever wondered what your cpu is built from?

Re:It all depends on the medium and the group

[Anonymous Coward]

Well said. My fiance plays games online as well, and gets similar comments. What I always tell her is that if anyone questions who you are in a game, kick their ass. If it's an MMO, then duel and slaughter them. Then laugh at them that they were just beaten by a girl.

Whether a guy says crude and obnoxious things and doesn't believe you, there will be, however small, a doubt in thier mind that perhaps yes, he just got his ass beaten by a woman. Really, there's no better way to get back at a guy than that (what with male pride being what it is and all).

She doesn't tend to like doing this, she thinks it's sorta mean, but everyonce and a while a guy will piss her off so bad, that she has no choice but to teach him a lesson. And of course I'm quite proud of her for that. :)

Re:I don't know what this guy is whining about...

[Chosen Reject]

I will tell you why I like the fact that my wife plays video games: When I go to a LAN party, she comes with me and I stay until it's over, instead of her calling me and whining about when I am going to come home. I've seen other guys have to deal with it. I am so glad I don't.

Testosterone-fueled game genres

[Doctor Cat]

That's the kind of reaction I guess you'll get in the genres that're still mostly played by male players - especially the combat oriented testosterone fueled games like first person shooters (or to a lesser extent, most MMORPGS). But half the users of the Internet are female, and in fact they're the best customers for a lot of the "casual game" genres. I doubt she'd get that kind of reaction in Spades and Hearts gamerooms, or in places like Puzzle Pirates or A Tale in the Desert. I know on my own Furcadia, 57% of the players are female, and half our company's staff are women. Of course if her favorite types of games are the male dominated ones, she's going to run into those kinds of players & reactions. It is a shame, but they're not universal all over the net and in all games.