I don’t play WoW at all, so I have no insight here. The competitive games I play are mostly FPSs.
When I used to play Halo online, whenever I heard a chick on the mic, it was typically moments before I had an energy sword stuck up my ass. No, I don’t suck at games. Maybe the only chicks who were willing to wade into the hell that is Xbox LIVE were the ones who were good enough to kick ass? I don’t know. But I certainly saw more competitive play from females than you seem to be seeing.
Maybe it’s the difference between FPSs and MMOs. You could argue that MMOs require more intelligence and obviously men have the advantage there.
But basically what I’m saying is, if you were to poll everyone who plays WoW, a much higher number of the male players would also play other games while a significant number of the female players weren’t really gamers and were into a more relaxed experience. An ex of mine used to be addicted to WoW- again, I’ve never played it, but I’m pretty sure maxing out a character’s level in a week is good and apparently she did that with a bunch of characters for her guild or whatever. But she sucked at PvP and sucked at most other competitive games. What other games did she play? Surprise surprise. Turn based RPGs.
Virtually all WoW players in general suck at high-end arena PvP. I’ve played a lot of WoW too, and got into raiding. I generally didn’t PvP because it just wasn’t as good as cooperative play, in my opinion - after many a try, let me tell you. Very very few WoW players are high level PvPers; should it really be surprising that even fewer of them are women? There are lots of women who play WoW, but it’s still nowhere near 50%, especially with hardcore players.
Besides, if reaction time was the issue, how would women be present in raid guilds? Reflexes are an issue in difficult raids.
You seem to be making some really sweeping judgements about women based on your personal experience with WoW PvP. Let me tell you, as a female who plays lots of competitive games, the biggest boundaries to women being interested are social, not physical. I’ve never had a hard time competing with male players who put in similar time investitures, and I don’t know any women who have.
You could just as soon make the assumption that women who play games just do it to care for other people and nurture them because you see a lot of women playing priests and druids, or that men are naturally sneaky and devious because you see that most rogues are men. But it’s ignoring the social elements involved.
Anyway, if you doubt my reflexes, come play TF2 with me sometime. I won’t say I’m top-tier competition ready, but good enough to hold my own with most classes. (I favor Engineers, Pyros, Snipers, Soldiers, and Medics, and am less skilled at Demomen, Scouts, and Spies; what does that mean about female gamers? Nothing!)
Just to clarify: I play a lot of FPSes and other competitive games as well. It’s just that I mentioned WoW because of the relatively high number of female players there, but you make a valid point about how they’re attracted to it without necessarily being into other games (like FPSes). Also the community aspect I mentioned meant I was more sure of the genders of people I played against.
In Halo, I still feel like every time I hear a girl with a mic and look at the scoreboard at the end she ends up being terrible - but who knows how many play that don’t have mics? I still have my doubts about your claim, but without some sort of scientific study (and I really doubt there is one) I guess we’re not going to be able to settle this point.
And fluid, I don’t play TF2 but if you play Halo at all I’d love to play you. Or AClockwork, since you did mention Halo.
Nothing is stopping you or us from doing a study. Sure, it won’t be the most professional and it won’t be recognized anywhere but it might settle the issue for us. Make a new thread and come up with some sort of testing criteria.
As for you guys who are on Live- I don’t have an Xbox anymore, unfortunately. And I won’t until I get money. But feel free to add me as a friend: AClockworkMelon.
Haha, you know what? I friended “aaa SDMB” a while ago but forgot about it and didn’t actually check the list. Which one are you? I’m online now as GloriousKZ.
Phil Addio. I am, however, contemplating changing it back to a derivative of “Dixon Tufar”, which it originally was. I’ve got some brand knowledge to maintain. I’ve been trying to get my Halo legs back under me in time for the Beta, so if you’ll ever have a chance, it’s now.
Do you play TF2 on a computer? If so we should get in contact, it’s just about the only game I play now-a-days and I suck so badly at it that being in contact with good players won’t hurt.
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Which is why I never speak on TS: even when they may think it’s flirting, or supposed to be flattering, having eight guys go “oooOOOO, speak again, say something!” when I just pointed out a possible tweak to our strategy isn’t what I call a desirable result.
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Meh, I hear females on mics all the time and I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t doubt it happens but people seem to be exaggerating the degree that it does.
I’m sure it happened to you and that’s unfortunate, but I’ve never personally seen something like that happen.
When a girl’s on the mic guys tend to make shameless sexual innuendo before killing her and teabagging her. When a guy’s on the mic they call him a fag before killing him and teabagging him. When it comes to discussing strategy within a team I’ve never heard anyone harassed like that one way or the other.
Yeah guys, especially gamers (since there are a lot of younger men who game), are just crude to everyone. You shouldn’t let one bad experience scare you from ever using a mic again.
