BlogHer - Women in Gaming - Comments

That is great! I have a

ImaGuysGirl — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:15:24 -0600

That is great! I have a found a few sites that cater to women as far as video games are concerned, WomenGamers.com, GrrlGamer.com and Gamervixens.com (still in beta). These sites create a welcoming atmosphere and you dont have to worry about getting picked on just because your a woman.

I have gotten so much support from posting this article, that I decided to post it to those "hard core" gaming sites. I expected to get ripped to shreds by them but there were many females and males that posted so much support for it.

Thanks for helping break the stereotype that video game players are fat male nerds!

Blythe Brumleve

http://www.GuysGirl.com

http://ImaGuysGirl.blogspot.com

Maybe I'm helping break that...

nannygoats — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:38:49 -0600

I was recently asked to write for a video game and have been working with all men during this project. But the game is targeted toward women and they "wisely" chose to look for a women writer rather than do it themselves.

Perhaps as more and more games are designed for women and more women play, it will someday even out and women gamers will get the respect they deserve.

Margaret

Nanny Goats In Panties (www.nannygoatsinpanties.com)

Women in Gaming

ImaGuysGirl — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:46:57 -0600

When I decided I wanted to start writing about my passions, sports and video games, I knew that there are going to be people out there who obviously know more about the categories than I do. But something that troubles me is when I post a video game article on "video game sites", I get completely torn apart by all the males that seem to know everything there is to know about the industry. Insults about my gender quickly follow any post which always seem to include the line "go make me a sandwich". These statements no doubt anger me to the point I want to shove that sandwich they speak of somewhere that is not appropriate to state. A sense of anger would overwhelm me when I would read comments about my posts.

After numerous hateful comments, I started googling the behavior towards women in the video game industry and found out I was not alone. Though not everyone is an ignorant chauvinist, cruel comments and "ganging up" on females during online video game play is quite rampant. I have recently become a strong supporter of women's future in the gaming industry when I ran across a video about the original women in gaming. To be honest, I had no idea that women have played key roles in many classic games since the 80's. Women like Donna Bailey (programmer of Centipede) and Carol Shaw (first video game designer) that are talked about in the video seemed to comfort me. I thought about how much these women have been influences and broke into a completely male dominated industry and paved the way for women to have a future. Though the gaming industry is very slow to adapt, more and more of Corporate America is opening their doors to women.

Thankfully Web 2.0 has come along and open the door to social communities where girls can gather and not feel so hated and alone in the video game world. Sites like GrrlGamer.com, GamerVixens.com (still in beta) and WomenGamers.com are all sites that create a welcoming atmosphere. I look forward to the day of posting a blog article to a "hardcore gamer" site and having a legitimate debate with someone about the topic without being terrified to check the comments.

When I feel frustrated about the way other women are treated, I watch this video and it makes me hold my head up and be proud for writing about what I love and what women have done for the industry that I love so much.

http://onnetworks.com/videos/play-value/women-in-gaming