Being a Woman in a Man's Game World

Back on topic now. Another thing I've noticed in the gaming world (and more broadly, in the world in general), is a tendency for expectations to be placed on women, for how they should act, what they should do, etc. For example, it's not uncommon to see women in my position as a public relations representative, but how many female coders are there in the world? Sure, I bet there's a bunch of women that play Ultima Online or Diablo 2 or Icewind Dale, but not nearly as many that play Quake 3 Arena. Of course, this is only a guess on my part from playing or witnessing all of the above, but I would say there is a much higher female ratio in Diablo than there is in Q3A. From the men that I've talked to, and the experiences I've had, it's expected that I would like role playing games, but action? Nah, that's a male thing. But, if I did happen to be one of the rare few that played an action game like Half-Life or Quake, then it would be assumed that I'm vicious, not all that feminine, loud, and extroverted. I'd say that at least some of the women that play Quake are like this, but I wouldn't go so far as to brand an entire gender in a game based on the actions of a few.

The fact is, in the gaming world, women are a minority, both in the fields of creating and playing games. Truthfully, female game developers and gamers are much more commonplace than they were years ago, but the common belief amongst most men in the community is that in this world, women are a rare commodity, a precious few that brave against a male-dominated realm, and special measures should be taken to attract more women into developing and playing games. This misconception is best illustrated in the playing of games, particularly massively multiplayer games such as the Quake series. As mentioned by Hellchick at PlanetQuake.com, "QuakeCon 2000 has an entire day devoted to women-only events. This is not only ridiculous, but demeaning". Is it just me, or is such an event blatantly sexist? If it was men only, there'd be feminists by the busloads protesting, but with women? The same is shown in the all-female clans of Quake and Half-Life. No men allowed. But if a woman wanted to join an all-male clan, and they turned her down based on the fact that she's female, she'd be screaming chauvinism. Most would say that's just demanding equality, but the fact is, setting up such female-oriented events and excluding men isn't promoting equality, it's only promoting female dominance. To be honest, choosing to play or even create games is a personal choice of taste, and if there are fewer women than men, so be it. It is harder on the women that do take part, but that doesn't mean we want special attention, good or bad. It's just as hard for a woman to play Counter-Strike or work on a development team as it is for a man to knit booties or sell lingerie for a living. Does that mean a man that does knit or sells bras for a living deserves special treatment? No. You certainly don't see many Victoria's Secret or La Senza locations with an exclusively male staff, or an "Intro to Knitting" seminar geared only for men.

Being a woman anywhere that's male dominated is hard, but there's not much us ladies can do but persevere and keep on doing what we want to do, turning down the marriage proposals from the awe-struck guys that say "Wow! A female gamer? I'm in heaven! Will you marry me?!?!". Believe me, I've heard it myself, and for all you women that haven't heard it yet, hang on, because I'm sure you will eventually.

Samantha Peters is a game designer with Klache Entertainment and a full time student in the school of Communications at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. Views presented in this article are her own based on personal experience and readings. Flames, comments and other such things can be directed to kygva@idmail.com

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