It's clear that 2013 was a bad year for blogging. I am hoping to improve this year. I'm afraid I'm kicking off with a bit of a rant.
I should confess that I am a girl gamer. I've played video games for a long time and I get a lot of enjoyment from them. I've met some amazing people through gaming. It's a hobby that me and Mr Husband both enjoy. And we have had some laughs through gaming!
Gaming has changed in the last 10 years. Increasing numbers of girls are enjoying video games. I remember a time when some clans wouldn't consider having girls and those experiences are now being far and few. I'm very proud to be part of this movement within women and gaming.
I really want to stress one thing before I continue on. The majority of men play games with women with no problems whatever. We all have a laugh at each other's good and bad points without playing the gender card. But yet, there is still some men who still view women in gaming negatively. Either that we aren't as good or just plan rubbish. These comments don't really bother me. I'm not great at all aspects of gaming, but I'm happy to admit that because no one is.
What bothers me more is some blokes seem to think that women gamers must WANT sexual comments, photos of you-know-wants and clearly want to be hit on. That MUST be the reason why we play games.
The reason I'm writing this is that every so often, I get a random friend request. There's little information, it's not from a clan that I'm part of and I haven't played with them recently. I want to be polite to people so I kindly ask who they are before accepting. It could be "I was on the opposite team on name-a-game-here", "I'm a friend of X-Y-Z" or various reasons. The gamers are being friendly, so I'll add them. But today, I got a friend request and did the same. This got a reaction of a voice message with heavy breathing. Then a party invite a few minutes later. I replied, refusing the invite. By this point, I figured which was going to be the next step - but unsure in what method they were going to do it. I got a message back asking if a was a girl. I pointed out that I was happily married and no reply came back.
Credit where credit is due here. This person was polite and asked if I was a girl. But this has not always been the case. I've had rude sexual comments and I've had photos of various body parts. But when I've refused to take part in their mind games, I've had rude abuse back, name calling and then sometimes, getting negative feedback on my reputation on Xbox live.
If this was done in any other situation, it wouldn't be accepted. But because it's online it's viewed as ok. I want to send out a strong message to any gamer:
It's not ok to be like this.
It is NOT OK.
It's sexualist, rude and really showing your true opinions that all women are objects.
Oddly, this comes a few days after my friend shared an image on girl gaming. It read "Yes, I am a girl gamer. No I don't want: your phone number, random friend request or to hook up with you." But it started an interesting discussion. With someone revealing that they no longer state they are a female on their account. But it shouldn't be like this. We should've able to reveal that we are women and me not to view it as an invite to hit on us.
I hope that the gaming industry help with this. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should actively ban gamers who act like this. And gamers who get this treatment should feel supported by the company. We need to stop this attitude. We should all play games together, regardless of gender.
