I’ve been gaming a long time. I’m glad that the numbers of female gamers have been steadily increasing over the years, but one thing that the female gamers I know seem to be almost categorically bad at is PvP/competitive style games. One theory I have is that maybe males have just grown up playing these kinds of games way more often, so of course we’re going to be better at them than someone who is a much more casual gamer, male or female.
But then, when I played WoW, I knew a lot of female players who played just as much as me - i.e., all the friggin’ time, so they were hardly “casual” players. Yet almost all of them sucked at PvP, with a few rare exceptions. Same thing with FPSes. Yes, there are definitely a few females who can hold their own in a Halo match full of General-ranked players but they are exceedingly rare.
So do males tend to have faster reaction times on average, or are we just more competitively driven, or what?
I think it’s the latter part of your last sentence. Whenever I talk to a girl that’s into any nonathletic competitive stuff, her bigger answer is still usually the social aspect of the game and not the “I must win!” factor.
EDIT: I used to know a girl that was in the competitive Soul Calibur and Tekken scene and would challenge guys and beat them as her very nerdy method of flirting and striking up conversation. With me, I had to break the ice and strike up conversation because she could never really get the better of me.
I just assumed it was because there weren’t as many girls playing video games. You might be on to something about the competitiveness though. All the females I’ve ever played with always seem to have fun playing, no matter how well or poorly they do. Some guys, on the other hand, can get pretty pissed off when they’re doing bad.
Males are better at competitive everything. Even in sports which are 90% female and don’t rely on brute strength or skill like equestrian, men are still better.
I played WoW for 4 years and my absolute favorite thing to do was shred the healing leaderboard in battlegrounds. I was very competitive-- I constantly checked it and I’d get pissed if a druid or shaman got close and would do everything I could to put distance between us. Pop trinkets, tweak my gear, heal trees and passing wildlife in AV, whatever.
I played DPS classes in battlegrounds too, and I didn’t care so much about killing other players or my overall DPS. I preferred to be the sneaky rogue taking the mines, or the distraction so that others could take the flag in WSG. It was group PvP, sure, but it was always about me versus the other guy in that moment. Didn’t care so much about the overall team objective, though I did try to make my efforts beneficial to our side.
Hmm, I don’t know. Of all the games I’ve played, none of them have had any obvious way to find out for certain what the gender of my opponent is. Of those that extensively use microphones, I rarely actually hear female voices. On the odd occasion that I do, they are harassed constantly by the male gamers.
The world of the LAN party is a whole different ball game. I’ve met and played against some really skilled female Tekken players and back when we’d play UT, I’d often find female gamers who are quite skilled.
Though the top calibre of game players I’ve met are exclusively male, so who knows.
I don’t think there are, necessarily. I’d venture to say that there are more females playing video games on a competitive scale, but I’ve got nothing at all to back it up.
Women DO have to go through a special kind of hell with regards to video gaming. If the other team finds out you’re female, there’s usually heck to pay. Heck, I tell ya.
I could see this being the case if women were just being out-competed at the top level, but that’s not so. Certain kinds of games are male-dominated in general, so there’s clearly not as much interest from women.
There is a certain amount of confirmation bias, though. There’s already a stigma against women playing FPS-type games (even video games in general), I’ve found. And it’s not the most welcoming environment, either. I tend to leave my mic off when playing most games since I don’t find it adds to the experience. I loves me some Team Fortress 2, and have played countless hours – but I don’t really talk, and my screenname isn’t exactly oozing femininity.
Hot ones, too. Seriously. They just don’t want to be swamped by hordes of nerds, so you have to know how to signal to them that it’s safe to admit their love of gaming.
Confirmation bias mixed with there being more male gamers than females.
If you were to set some arbitrary skill bar I think the same percentage of male and female gamers would reach that bar. There would be more individuals on the male side, of course, because there are more male gamers to begin with. The percentage would be the same, though, I think.
You’re rolling your eyes at me for being skeptical at your rather bold claim? The reason I can’t buy it is because while the gender gap is fairly large in say, FPS games, it’s not that large for WoW (there are a ton of female players on there). Yet they still virtually all sucked at high-end arena PvP.
I’d say that it’s because many of those male players are “hardcore” gamers while fewer of the female players are. And among the hardcore gamers I think the percentages of skilled players are the same among both genders.
I beat the crap out of most of my female friends at video games. But most of them don’t play regularly or even have a system at their house. Nearly all of my male friends do.
Maybe lack of interest? I’m a hugely competitive person about games, but I hate video games. When it comes to online, Scrabble, though I must win at all costs!
Did you read my OP? I knew a lot of females who played WoW constantly but were still bad at PvP, although I’m willing to acknowledge that if you break it down into “male vs. female players” and then “male ‘hardcore’ players vs. female ‘hardcore’ players” you are going to get an even bigger gap.
But I still don’t accept the fact that the percentages of skilled players are the same. It’s just not true. I don’t have hard data to back it up (but neither do you), but my experience encompasses a pretty damn large sample size. And if you want to say “but how do you know the genders of people playing?” well - when you play all day every day you get to know the people you are playing with. You talk about the key players on not just your server but in your battlegroup (servers you compete with), you talk to them on the forums, and you learn things about these people. Most people have mics, and if they don’t, their genders still become known at some point. And among our battlegroup there was exactly one female player who was competitive in the upper echelon of the arena circuit (and she happened to be my 2v2 partner. A little Asian chick who was an awesome druid), despite the countless female players who just couldn’t hack it.
