Gender imbalance in gaming communities

Ah... Ok, well chalk me up as one of the folks who misunderstood your intentions with this post.

In that case, I welcome the discussion!
I would be interested to know that as well.  Honestly I can't say as I've met that many female gamers and the few that I have were mainly fans of the most recent Final Fantasy titles and MMORPGs.  I can think of only one that was AT ALL into the more "classic" games like LoZ, Metroid, or Castlevania..... Though to be fair, she was also a D&D chick.

no I don't think you stepped over the line. I agree. again I come from a diverse place where it is not strange for anyone to like video games, anime, manga... it was cool though some jocks and nerds talking about anime and games on the same level... I miss that and that was what I was tiring to invoke here



I understand, and I am sorry about the previous title of the thread... but I personaly think it sucks that girls, women... or whatever, feel they have to hide or change themselves on the net cause of idiots

I strongly disagree.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing anecdotal evidence.  I know some straight women who get more kicks out of those types of enemies than I do as well.

Lines like "personaly I think it bothers most girls less then some make it seem, but thats just an opinion.", on the other hand, are a little concerning.  There is a vocal minority present when it comes to this topic, but that's due in part to the fact that girls who speak up about how uncomfortable it makes them get strong negative responses, ranging from  "it's the norm, stop being a crybaby" (just because something is an established thing doesn't mean it shouldn't change, and if we followed this logic slavery would still be around) to "who asked you, get back in the kitchen" (which is a good damn way to turn girls off of gaming period, as they'll start to think the community is toxic towards females, and they're kind of right).

Oversexualized female characters in games, be they enemies or playable characters, tend to bother a large group of women, and understandably so.  Most of the oversexualized models have physical traits most people can never hope to achieve or compare to, and  having to look at that constantly can be tiring.  On top of that, even when the oversexualized characters are strong in some way (intelligent, brave, users of powerful magic, etc.), portraying them as unrealistically attractive kind of gives the message that their other positive traits aren't enough.  The difference in costume and armor appearance in games is a problem too, to the point where a suit of armor that actually covers all of a girl's vulnerable bits is something people comment on because of its rarity.

I'm not going to get into this more for now, mainly because I have to head to work, but it's a definite issue that needs overcoming.

First off I'm not trying to attack you here, just so you know but I think somethings need to get cleared up, and I don't plan on responding further *not promising not too* because I think that feeding the fire is just gonna burn more people.

Honestly yeah I think you are stepping over the line and putting your own spin on others words, I don't think many if any of the guys were saying that they know what the women want to see, but rather that in the absence of any legatimte female opinions that these were theres, thats only a bad thing if you presume to know better then women but if your just voicing your thoughts then thats fine, the thread was started with one guy seeking the opinons of other guys of why there werent many girls here. What either you or some others suggested was that he should'nt be asking a bunch of dudes but rather women... well if there WERE women to ask the point would be moot would'nt it? Also not being a women dosent automaticly invalidate my opinon I still have the right to have one and it's even correct sometimes.

As I said I'm not trying to start nothing, but brainstorming is never a harmful thing and should'nt be called stupid, cause all it is is spitballing idea's off one another, it's not meant to be the answers... if we had the answers we would'nt have asked the question... or rather if there were some girls around we woulda asked them.

And I know at some point someone I belive it was you and dragon by degree my bad if I'm mistaken took a stab at what I said about some girls liking sexy female enemies more then males do... first off I probably put it in a poor way but what I meant to say was that these girls, my girlfriend and sister specificly, both of witch are hetero liked the desgin of female charecters more then they did of the male chearcters not that they got off on the sexy girls more then guys did... they liked them both for there visual appeal and there charecter design, my girlfriend was an artist and yes... they probably did get off on them alil but thats neither here nor there, second and this was a big presumption on yours or someone elses part I was not talking about them as though they were rare or exotic or whatever, I gave two personal life examples and I stated an opinion and clarifiyed that it was just that my opinon. I DO HAVE THE RIGHT TO AN OPINON AND I DON'T NEED A DAMN UTERUS TO VOICE IT. Some here have said that it was presumptuious of a few guys spit balling ideas of what we could do to attract more famale fans to the threads that it was presumption of us to think we knew what women wanted or needed... well what does that make your presumptions?

OK I lied alil the last bit did piss me off alil but the rest I was just trying to clear up, I'm done not saying another word on the subject

Yeeeeeah... this is done. Or if this isn't done, I'm done. I apologize if I offended or misinterpreted anybody, but I'm out. And I'm never coming back here. Shouldn't have come in in the first place. Feel free to refer to my very first post in this thread.

I agree. We don't need this kind of talk here.