The latest edition of The World:
http://www.theworld.org/latesteditions/20040113.shtml
has an interesting story about the growing number of women becoming professional gamers. Check it out here:
http://www.theworld.org/content/01139.wma
I personally thought that this was a fairly compelling piece. What did you think?
Edit: My bad, links fixed.
Are you sure you have the right link? That piece didn’t mention women gamers at all. It was just a puff piece on the “Cyber X Games”…
I heard the piece on the radio this evening. I didn’t think it was that interesting, but that’s just me. They interviewed stevie case and another female player from Finland. Mostly, they bitched about the disparity of the tournament prizes between the male and female divisions. The men’s purse was $100,000, while the women’s was $10,000.
There are gender divisions in digital sports? WTF? What could possibly justify this? Does someone in charge think that women’s inferior physiology and low upper body strength prevent them from moving around the mouse as quickly as the men, or something equally stupid?
Since I’ve claimed we’re all pathological yes-people in that other thread, I’ll just agree with Kalle. (also because I agree with him)
I didn’t know they had male and female divisions in game tournaments. Why, are females banned from the male tournaments, or do the tournament organizers just want a seperate tournament to have some female winners?
If they are not banned from the male tournament why don’t they just sign up for that and go for the big prize.
$100,000 for playing one game? $10,000 for playing one game?
…I’m in the wrong end of this business! :lol:
In violation of all Netiquitte, I’m going to post a “me-too”.
Besides, gender-split tournaments in gaming is really stupid. :)
Gender-splitting in tournaments is not there in order to ban female competitors from male events, but to encourage them to compete. There are fewer female gamers (when it comes to the competitive games), thus there’s less of a field to choose from and in general, you don’t see girls who are as skilled as guys.
That’s not to say there’s anything preventing them from being so, but the segment of the female gaming population that competes is so small, you don’t really get the cream of the crop.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. The opportunity for achievement (popularity, cash, etc.) by a professional gamer is, oh, about a jillion times greater for a female than for a male. The cult of personality that immediately forms around just about any skilled female, and most of the unskilled ones, is a sight to behold, and it’s a shame for them that more aren’t exploiting this to the fullest. Though perhaps the tradeoff, being exploited and treated like a piece of meat and/or dealing with chivalric Lancelots of the internet is too much to attract many to really devoting themselves to trying to make it big. In most games, and certainly in the ones that pay (relatively) big money, it’s almost impossible to be considered as more than two X chromosomes and the corresponding boobies.
So is the term “professional gamer” any less laughable when it’s attached to women? I’m still not quite clear on that. Thanks!
I think it’s less laughable the moment one of them walks away with a Ferrari. Or when you have a fanclub of 100,000 Koreans, half of them girls. :]
I’m pretty sure it’s still laughable. Pauly Shore is pretty rich and he’s a joke.
No Korean girls.
coughKillcreekcough
What the hell? In what way?
What the hell? In what way?[/quote]
I was being sarcastic.
Yeah, but in that context thinking you should have as much money as the main tournament is just silly. It’s a sub-division tournament. It’s like saying “Hey, how about an all-Ohio tournament”, then be upset that doesn’t have as much prize money as the National tournament. It’s far from some sports where you can make a legitimate argument for “separate but equal”.
But I guess everyone already knows that.
You must be competing with Rywill for the Sanity award these days. Don’t you know you’re supposed to bubble up with ferocious energy until an outraged scream of FUCKING SEXISM, SAYING THAT WOMEN ARE ONLY WORTH 10% OF MEN!!! comes streaming forth, which you follow up by preening your peacock feather while strutting your moral righteousness for all the world to see?
You’re not playing properly along. What are white men good for if not to serve as a moral demon? I hope you recover from the hex Margaret Cho is grimly placing upon you at this moment.