Tom’s Front Room is basically an extension of the old USElessNET comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.whatever groups. Generally male, generally hardcore about gaming, with the vestiges of the middle-school locker room atmosphere the groups had (now greatly toned down because many of us have now Grown The Fuck Up and are staring at grey hairs in our beards). In short, old-school geekdom, with all the d20 rolling, heat checks, CRT lookups, Star Trek babbling, and vague chauvinism that implies. Our groupthink is more academic and focused around whether or not one has a vast knowledge about games. And, let’s face it, none of the above is or has been all that attractive to the fairer sex.
The Other Board [tm], OTOH, reminds me so, so, so much of the local “all-inclusive” (e.g. no war3z) socially-focused 90s BBS. All TOB needs is a few door games and I’d swear I was logging on to one of the boards I used to log on to decades ago. Those boards got all sorts. I remember heading off to a little gathering a local Sysop held at his place, and watching one of the other members practice his standup routine, then we surfed Gary’s Grotesque :_ Men, women, teens, etc. It wasn’t a gaming board, but a social board. That’s what TOB is. Along with the social cliques and groupthink that implies.
I think using analogies to usenet and BBSes to try and explain demographic differences between communities tells anyone reading exactly what they need to know about Qt3 ;)
But why is that? Do you think those games are just inherently male-oriented? I don’t think so, I believe that’s just historically the way things have rolled, and I think it’s moving back as more women are getting interested in gaming. Why shouldn’t women like an FPS or sim? By the same logic, maybe there are good dating sims out there I might enjoy. Who knows? I never would’ve thought I’d enjoy something like Katamari Damacy before I tried it.
Dunno. Socialization? Something inherent in gender makeup? A mix of learned and inherited tendencies? I don’t know why the types of games I like to play tend to be male-dominated.
This has always been my default position on these kinds of things.
I mean if it’s relevant to a specific thing it could I guess? I had a transwoman on another forum make me do a 180 (well, maybe more a 120ish) on how I felt about the subject and the fact that she was trans was certainly an important part of the conversation. Other than scenarios like that it’s mostly irrelevant.
As far as women on the internet, that problem is pretty well documented and has been for decades.
There are more women playing FPS than people think. They just don’t advertise they are women while playing because the 15 years old kids with zero sense of decency will see that as open invitation to verbal abuse them.
Well, according to the article you quote Overwatch is 16% female, and that’s twice as high as other FPS games. So the average FPS is 92% male? Maybe Qt3 is 92% male as well? I still see a correlation between the subject matter of this forum and the audience it attracts.
92% male, that would be about, 1 woman out of 12 FPS players (give or take). That basically means in every 6 vs 6 match there will be a woman there. ON AVERAGE.
That’s a pretty good show isn’t it? Compared with the stereotypical all men all the time FPS match. There will be even more women when playing Overwatch.
True story, half the 13 year old boys saying they banged your fat mom last night in voice chat are actually grown-up ladies! Their camouflage is advanced, yo.
The myth is that it’s 15 year-olds. More often than not it’s men in their 30’s and they go to extreme ends to find out things and contact their targets.
Oh, what a funny gif! But does this mean you’re not going to blow the lid off the true identity of jerks on the internet who harass women? Please tell us more about these internet myths.
Well, the average age of gamers is 35. Then again, when I’m talking about harassment I’m not talking about some kid who says a naughty word on XBOX Live. I’ve known people who’ve had their lives and families threatened and the people threatening them sure as hell weren’t 15.
But if you’re gonna defend a random joke anecdote by demanding that I present facts to defend my anecdote… I’ll pass. I’ve played similar games before and it loses its charm immediately.
