Life as a girl gamer

I’ve been gaming for about fourteen years now, and yes, I am a female. But even though we are supposedly living in an understanding world, I still find it hard sometimes to properly be a member of the gaming community. This is purely because I’m a girl and god forbid a girl trying to be part of a male dominated activity. Needless to say, I haven’t always been welcomed with open arms. However, there are benefits to being a girl gamer too so it’s not all bad.

One downside to being a girl gamer are the stereotypes. Recent memes have started surfacing all over Facebook depicting girl gamer’s as being these attention seeking beauties, posing with a controller and making some dumb comment which angers the gaming community. But that’s not how it is.

I know most of the games I play inside out to the point where me and my friends will often have a conversation using only quotes from the game, especially Borderlands 2. And I too will pull all nighters but I certainly don’t look pretty whilst doing it.

Yes, girls do stay up all night playing, and no they aren’t all made up. They will generally be sat there in their PJ’s, covered in crumbs from their incessant snacking, slurping down an energy drink with black rings around their crazed eyes, exactly the same as the boys. In fact, girl gamer’s are so similar to guy gamer’s that even they get annoyed with the sarcastic gamer girl memes. Come on people, we’re really not that different.

Another thing that really bothers me about being a girl gamer is the response from other gamer’s. My very first gamer tag on my Playstation 3 was ‘thislittlegirl’ which was the name my dad chose. He came up with it because I was only a kid so he was setting up my account, and we only ever played Call Of Duty together (I was too young at this point to play other games due to their content). He thought it would be funny for it to come up with ‘Killed by thislittlegirl’ in another players killcam. A little joke right?

Well I can remember it flashing up on the screen one day that somebody had sent me a picture message, bearing in mind I was only about nine or ten I think, my dad asked me to leave the room so he could open it. Next thing you know I can hear my dad getting mad and my mum gasping from the next room. Guess we know what that image was. Is there any real need for something like that? Also, my clan tag has always been [GIRL], so even when my gamer tag changed to ‘nread1′ then to ‘demonangel11297′ the odd responses didn’t stop.

The amount of messages I received telling me I was hot even though people had no way of seeing what I looked like was just ridiculous or people trying to chat me up. What’s the point? Do they honestly think I’m going to fall in love with the lame words of a twelve year old kid on COD? I came here to game and to game only.

And to add all that, you then get guys asking you for relationship advice! My friends used to take the mick and call me the agony aunt of the PSN because so many guy gamer’s started asking me for help with their girlfriend’s because they figured that I would automatically know what to do seeing as I was a girl. I am all up for helping people, but when you’re trying to have a serious gaming sesh and you have several people asking you to sort out their problems, it gets annoying.

Speaking of getting annoying, the friend requests that come with being a girl gamer are insane. Nearly every lobby I’m in on COD will lead to me receiving yet another friend request from somebody who can’t quite come to terms with the fact that they had their arse kicked by a girl. Get over it. It’s like they have to verify that it actually just happened because nobody will believe them otherwise. And once they find out you’re actually girl, the game invites are ingratiating. No I don’t want to join your party and no I don’t want to play with you. Deal with it. Nothing is more frustrating then getting killed by somebody who’s snuck up behind you because you can’t see the mini map due to the constant invites from one player covering it.

All in all though, gaming as a girl isn’t completely horrid. One of my closest friends is someone I met online who only invited me to play with them and their friends because they thought it was cool that I was a girl gamer. On top of that, it’s very amusing to watch people getting that little bit more frustrated because not only are they losing, but they’re losing to a girl. I guess that’s why I’ve always shown off the fact that I’m a girl through clan tags and emblems. It’s funny. And it can come in handy having people add you because when you need a decent team for zombies, you’ve got the pick of the bunch. It’s also great in the real world too. There’s no strain in my relationship over my partner gaming too much because most of the time I’m playing with him or enjoying watching him play.

Overall, I love being a girl gamer. It’s nice to kick off your heels and relax after a night out. Or, whilst waiting for the girls to get there, killing a few angry teenagers in the spare time you have. It’s good to be a little different to the other gamer’s in the lobby, and it’s good to stand out a little. People remember you and that’s something to be proud of. You’re not only the person kicking arse at the top of the leader-board, but you’re a girl kicking arse too.