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girlgamers Aug. 25th, 2010 03:11 am)
jack_of_none posting in girlgamers Aug. 25th, 2010 03:11 am)So. I'm not entirely sure this isn't more appropriate for my regular journal than for a community, but I figured it's actually probably relevant to more people than just me, so here goes.
First off, is anyone here a 2D fighting game player? I'm personally a BlazBlue/Guilty Gear kind of girl, but I also enjoy Street Fighter 4 and some of the later Darkstalkers. I know fighting games are kind of a niche genre (and they're really hard to get into -- my friend did his Interaction Design master's thesis on this very problem) but I figured there might be a few people lurking here and there. Oh, and if you play BlazBlue: Continuum Shift on the PS3 and are interested in fighting online, let me know! I'm always looking for new opponents.
Second, and slightly more relevant to the community at hand:
Some of my friends have been recently getting into the fighting game 'scene', as it were. I've been to a couple of tournaments, and both times I was the only girl playing. At one, I was the only girl in the room. I didn't do THAT poorly at either of them, and I didn't feel like the guys were treating me with either hostility or condescension, but...there's that nagging feeling in the back of my head I can't get rid of.
Most of my gaming experience has been in JRPG fandom, where EVERYONE is a girl until proven otherwise, and table-top RPGs and World of Warcraft, where even if the general environment can get pretty hostile, there were always other girls around. On the contrary, at the tournaments I stuck out like a sore thumb. I also had this XKCD in the back of my head the whole time because, well...I was the only girl there, like I said. Additionally, I never see anyone obviously female posting on fighting game forums. Being sole representative of something not only makes me feel pretty damned self-conscious in general, it also makes me more self-conscious about my skills -- or rather, the lack thereof. I'm still learning, after all. Intellectually I know that it's not my job to play ambassador for the entire female gender, but...I still felt bad about it when I lost. And the urge to avoid the XKCD Effect made me even more nervous than I already was, and that nervousness affected my performance (my friend who knocked me out of my second tournament even commented on my shaking hands). If nothing else, this is a hurdle I'm going to have to cross in order to stop sucking at tournaments.
I've posted about this before in my own journal, but I thought I'd broach the question here, especially since my nervousness still hadn't gone away by my second tournament. Anyone else have experiences with gaming in an all-male environment, especially a competitive one? Or thoughts on the subject in general? Like I said, this is kind of a new experience for me.
First off, is anyone here a 2D fighting game player? I'm personally a BlazBlue/Guilty Gear kind of girl, but I also enjoy Street Fighter 4 and some of the later Darkstalkers. I know fighting games are kind of a niche genre (and they're really hard to get into -- my friend did his Interaction Design master's thesis on this very problem) but I figured there might be a few people lurking here and there. Oh, and if you play BlazBlue: Continuum Shift on the PS3 and are interested in fighting online, let me know! I'm always looking for new opponents.
Second, and slightly more relevant to the community at hand:
Some of my friends have been recently getting into the fighting game 'scene', as it were. I've been to a couple of tournaments, and both times I was the only girl playing. At one, I was the only girl in the room. I didn't do THAT poorly at either of them, and I didn't feel like the guys were treating me with either hostility or condescension, but...there's that nagging feeling in the back of my head I can't get rid of.
Most of my gaming experience has been in JRPG fandom, where EVERYONE is a girl until proven otherwise, and table-top RPGs and World of Warcraft, where even if the general environment can get pretty hostile, there were always other girls around. On the contrary, at the tournaments I stuck out like a sore thumb. I also had this XKCD in the back of my head the whole time because, well...I was the only girl there, like I said. Additionally, I never see anyone obviously female posting on fighting game forums. Being sole representative of something not only makes me feel pretty damned self-conscious in general, it also makes me more self-conscious about my skills -- or rather, the lack thereof. I'm still learning, after all. Intellectually I know that it's not my job to play ambassador for the entire female gender, but...I still felt bad about it when I lost. And the urge to avoid the XKCD Effect made me even more nervous than I already was, and that nervousness affected my performance (my friend who knocked me out of my second tournament even commented on my shaking hands). If nothing else, this is a hurdle I'm going to have to cross in order to stop sucking at tournaments.
I've posted about this before in my own journal, but I thought I'd broach the question here, especially since my nervousness still hadn't gone away by my second tournament. Anyone else have experiences with gaming in an all-male environment, especially a competitive one? Or thoughts on the subject in general? Like I said, this is kind of a new experience for me.