A girl in a the gaming space
This past weekend I was happy to re-discover another local comic/gaming store (I say rediscover b/c it’s always been in a mall near my house, but it seems to have been revamped recently)! It’s actually split into two stores- one for comics, TPBs, toys, and the like, and one for table top gaming and cool board games like Bang!, Settlers of Catan, etc. They also have a huge library of MTG cards for you to look through, but I promised myself I’d go back another weekend when I had time to look through the many boxes. The thing I was most excited about though were the tables in the back for open play! But… I have very mixed feelings about this.
Although you may think that it’s easy for a female to participate in casual table top gaming, I have to tell you from experience through pro-gaming (video games) that it is not. The minute you step out into a male dominated area, people are highly judgmental. Not all, but many. You get a range of guys who are either too nice to you in a creepy way, guys who treat you normal as they should, or haters who think you don’t belong in that arena. The haters are the worst b/c they hate on you more if you don’t perform well or even average and then they have reason to put you down even more. And sometimes they just really hate losing to girls. I mean, you take any average guy and throw him in a gaming tournament. Whether he wins or loses, most people don’t care. But then once you put in a girl, all eyes are on her. Honestly, it’s just the attention that makes me hesitant to want to participate, which is why playing with friends is always the safe bet. Anyhow, we’ll see. Hopefully I can muster enough courage to go to one of these events!
2 Comments
Katrice Alvarez
Hey! OK I love your blog! I love fashion but also gaming and can relate. I rarely find girls like myself who can spend whole weekends gaming and the next doll out for a night of dancing! If you think MTG tables are bad try first person shooter game lobbies (COD, Gears of War, Resident Evil). You’re breakdown of the male gamers reaction to a female gamer is DEAD ON. In my teens I played the Pokemon card game in an after-school club and was always to intimidated to ask the boys to let me/teach me how to play MTG!
I love how you have fun with fashion and post pictures of your efforts! I have a plethora of clothe, a love for dressing up and have always wanted to do a blog! You’ve inspired me. Happy to see I’m not the only girl geek/fashionista out there!!
emilyo
Hi Katrice! Thanks for the awesome feedback! And yes, I totally used to feel the same way about finding other geeky girls, but you’d be surprised that there are actually quite a lot! After I joined the Frag Dolls, I had a whole new realization of other girl gamers out there. And trust me, I’ve totally had my share of hate talk on XBL as well. You should check out my friend’s site – fatuglyorslutty.com, which is based on user submitted content of the type of stuff us female gamers have to experience out there. Ever since the site blew up on reddit, I think people are a lot more aware of the type of abuse we get online. Also, after I left the Frag Dolls, they started up a program called the Frag Doll Cadettes which totally supports other girls trying to learn about the industry – thought I’d through that out there if you were interested! Anyhow, thank you for the kind words and please send me your blog when you do end up starting one!