The Truth About Being A Girl Gamer : And Why There Aren’t As Many As There Should Be.
Ever since I was little and the gaming bug bit me I was lucky enough to embrace an entirely different world to the one I lived in. From fantasy and adventure to horror and strategy, videogames have always been a big part of who I am and we all have unforgettable moments that have shaped us while playing games.
Not even my closest of friends knew how obsessed I could get over a game’s story and not even my sister could understand why I cried over a character’s death or cheered when one returned. Or how I would rush to the bathroom like the speed of sound and rush back to ensure I never missed a second when my dad was playing. I do sometimes regret that people never got to see the real me. The girl that watched way to much anime, superhero movies and played WAY too many video games.
But that was how it was when I was growing up. As I’ve matured, I’ve seen how the industry and the culture around gaming has changed. A lot of it is great! Like really great!! But there has been a shadow growing within the gaming community and it only seems to keep getting bigger and bigger. To be blunt, it’s putting a lot of younger girls off of finding the joy of gaming. It’s making them afraid to take the leap and potentially discover a whole new world of storytelling and adventure.
Girls are missing out on playing masterpieces like The Last Of Us
And with today’s standards who wouldn’t be afraid? I mean with unrealistic beauty standards making their way into the gaming community and portraying “girl gamers” as only being beautiful, sexy and nerdy. To me that’s something I’ll never be, I have bad skin, I eat a lot and will probably never be skinny and to top it all off, sometimes I can be socially awkward. If I was a young girl today who had never played games before and saw all of this I don’t think I would have picked up a controller. I’d be far too worried that I didn’t “fit the image” and that I would be looked down on.
Now I’m not saying gamer girls can’t be pretty, but come on people, first we get told we can’t play video games because we are girls and then someone decides that we can’t play video games if we dont look like a sexy bombshell that makes people drool.
To be honest, I can’t aim at all and it’s something I’ll keep saying over and over again. If we ended up in a zombie apocalypse PLEASE do not hand me anything that requires me to aim because I will not be able to cover you if needed. Does this mean that I don’t play FPS games? No, I do and I really enjoy it. It’s all about finding other players who are willing to teach you and help you improve and if you don’t, they simply laugh at you and you can laugh at them. That in my opinion is what makes video games fun. Not whether I’m a girl or not.
When I started playing an online MMORPG everyone called me a dude since it’s very hard to tell if your actually male or female due to the fact that everyone plays whatever they want. Me being the NOOB in the MMORPG stupidly corrected someone for calling me a dude and a lot of players in our Discord made jokes warning me to run and hide. I thought it was funny at first until I noticed how some other players treated me because of it. It got weird really fast.
Outside of my own experience I’ve seen it happen to other girls too. Sometimes I feel like its a losing battle as I notice that female gamers and streamers gets brought down by either other girls within the gaming community who are trying to one up themselves over their ‘competition’ or some guys from the gaming community either griefing them or just being plain creepy to the point of harassment.
However not everyone in the gaming community is bad and I have met a lot of wonderful players. Some people have become lifelong friends! They’re people I know I can rely on and trust and I’d love to meet them in person in the future! I just hope I’m always lucky enough to continue making friends as I go along my own gaming journey.
Some of my closest friends have been found by playing games and interacting with new people!
I LOVE video games and it’s something I grew up with, sure I might not know about the latest gaming technology or the latest gaming gossip but the bottom line is that gaming is for everyone!! Whether you are 8, 25, 60 or 103 years old, whether you’re male, female, non-binary, or anything in between! Games are for EVERYONE!! As long as the story of the game keeps you entertained and you enjoy the adventure that plays out on your screen you should be allowed to enjoy it without anyone giving you a hard time, for any reason.
My message here is that the fact that I am a girl shouldn’t colour your expectations of how I can or can’t play a game. And it definitely shouldn’t dictate if I’m even allowed to play them!
For the most part gamers and the gaming community are fantastic and caring and they come together over unjust causes. I just wish I could see those same feelings be directed to defending and championing the rising stars within the female gaming community. We have to stick together and build each other up, not tear each other down.
Lots of Love
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This is a big problem in the gaming community. One of my gamer friend who is a girl simply hates it when someone calls her a gamer girl because of the stigma behind it and it sucks because it used to be a compliment to me. Once I had a guy tell me while I was playing fortnite that he will not carry me because I’m a girl, I am a competitive person especially in games just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I want a free ride to the finish I can do that all by my self no matter how long it takes… The stigma must die!!!
Dear Blizzard,
Thank you for reaching out. I believe it’s important that stories like this to get told in order for us to finally put an end to the way girl gamers are treated within the gaming community.
With hard work, I know we can change it and make a better gaming community for both guys and girls of all ages.
Lots of Love
AzuraCub
This is a big problem in the gaming community if you are a gamer girl. I agree with Blizzard.
I can relate to this so much. I have grown having videogames aroud (having a 3 years older brother helped a lot) and they´re a special part of my life.
It seems like if you´re female and play videogames, you must know eeeeeeverything about that game, if not, you´re a fake gamer, or you only play videogames because is trendy. No, I play them because I love videogames. That´s simple.
Hi Bluefy,
Thank you for reaching out, it’s impossible to know everything but at least we are trying.
Lots of Love
AzuraCub
Reading the word non-binary in your article made my heart sing! As someone who presents as female I know exactly what you’re talking about here and I experience it all the time. But I could never be open about my identity in gaming. I’m “everything that’s wrong with PC culture and ruining games”… It will never stop me from doing what I love though… And I will always aggressively support my women/girl gamer friends ❤️