Beyond Bossfights 2 – Girls and Gaming

Whiteberry of Laurelin and I discuss some of the differences between guys and girls in gaming, have fun with some of the stereotypes, and talk about some of the problems the industry faces.

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Show notes:

Intro Guest this episode: Whiteberry

Reason for Discussion:

This is not to say that the game is actively sexist. Male and female Mechari are both consistently portrayed as being cunning, intelligent, manipulative, and capable. You spend a great deal of time helping both male and female explorers. There’s an extended sequence in the early Exile areas involving a pregnant woman, which raised my eyebrows once or twice, but it didn’t trip anything over into rant mode. But it’s passively there, which means that no one on the team was trying to be sexist. They just weren’t trying not to be.

The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar’s great big sexist elephant in the room by Eliot Lefebvre

Referenced in this episode:

Ear Biscuits (Rhett & Link’s podcast)

Press Heart to Continue (Dodger Leigh’s YouTube gaming channel)

Feedback

Speaking of the topic of discussion, it was especially pertinent to me as I’m a middle-aged gamer myself. If you’d like my two cents worth on the topic: I don’t see us growing out of gaming. I’ll be gaming in one form or fashion until I can’t anymore. I’m pretty sure of that. It’s certainly not a maturity thing. I think about gaming fairly constantly, and I can’t imagine that changing or being replaced by something else. My mother is 80 and she learned how to play bridge in her early twenties. She’s played it all of her life and still plays it 3 times a week at her local senior center. Just swap out bridge with video games and I think that’s going to be my life story as well.

Contact information:

Guest

Twitter: @toarda

Website: http://toarda.com/

Twitter: @Braxwolf

E-mail: braxwolf@gmail.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/braxwolf

YouTube: www.YouTube.com/user/braxwolf

Blog: braxwolf.wordpress.com

#Podcast #Gamergirls #gamingstereotypes

10 thoughts on “Beyond Bossfights 2 – Girls and Gaming”

Whiteberry a true VIP of LOTRO. Great show.
One question that I couldn’t hear the answer properly to was, ‘Why guys play girls in game? Whiteberry answered…because of the ‘boobs’?
Really? My hearing?
In LOTRO have 2 female alts mainly to break the mononoty.
Interestingly I had a main in DOFUS, I ended up a Guild leader and I was noticeably treated differently until it was pointed out that I was a guy…yes there was definitely a maturity issue with the game, DOFUS did (prob still does?) have a very big childish element, but even with more mature groups and in serious conversations I sensed a difference.
I think things are changing for the better to attitudes to gamers, as it becomes more mainstream, and especially the equality of the sexes within games, which is great.
Until next time 🙂

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