I don't think it's offensive. For someone who in all his years of gaming hasn't met a single female player it might be difficult to understand that we're here, and why we're here. Sort of like meeting a man who stays at home while his wife works: not really uncommon anymore, but still a little weird to some people. It's not that male gamers are appalled by us playing games, they're just surprised, usually in a positive way.

It's not offensive to not understand something that's new; it might be offensive not to want to understand and accept.

You are so diplomatic!

Uhm, okay? So is this one of these threads where male gamers try to find a girlfriend by acting like they're surprised to find out females actually play computer games, and praise them? Because I don't know, but that's a bit late you know? Ten years ago I could still accept guys being surprised about it, but nowadays?
And I mean, it's not like Skyrim is a very gory shooter or horror game. It's a sandbox game, kinda like a sim actually, with some action. What's there to be so surprised about it?

Agree--except each boat should have an advlt capable of keeping the children safe--which would probably be a sailor.

We should also be allowed on the front lines in war--though politicians who vote for war should be on the front of everybody.

That's pretty much my line of thinking and the reason why its never surprised me to find women playing the TES series. The game (ironically) doesn't have its appeal in combat - its more about non-violent aspects that are gender neutral.

My mom, who is 70, is not surprised that so many women play this game.

I think you guys don't know a lot of girl gamers because, how should I say...we are a bit scared to 'come out' about our gender.

For example, Call of Duty online. (I know, not a perfect example, but it's where this happens most)

3 things can happen if you 'come out' about being a girl.

1. You are insulted left right and center, 'Lol she must be a fat B, your probs really ugly'
2. sixual threats. 'Oi B where do you live ima come there and R you'
3. Obsessive harrasment. 'So your a girl huh. Are you single? Why aren't you answering me? *invite to game 100 times* WHY DONT YOU LIKE ME?'

I actually am surprised that people claim "many" girls play games because from high school to uni, I've only personally known 2 females who play games. 3 if you count a mutual friend that I've never met.
I could care less about sources from the internet. I am speaking from personal experience.

Do females play games? Absolutely. But probably as many as females who are interested in football. If you claim many females like football too, stadiums show very little of them.

I guess in your 37 years you've never seen a child taken away from it's mother.... in a situation such as you describe it would take 'someone' dragging each child away kicking and screaming. I vote that we put you in charge of that next time.

haha tru but that's to expected...i'm not hot but i'm not hideous either. I'm a nerd at heart but you wouldn't tell by lookin at me as i don't wear video game shirts, have bad acne issues and my lair isn't moms basemant

I didn't mean to offend you gamer girls but let's face facts, the hotties aren't sitting at home on a saturday nite pulling all niters in a game world. I apologize for being a realist but that's what i see

The idea that only WOMEN can be good parents is indeed close minded and probably a cave woman mentality. There are also fathers who are single parents, where do they fit in this? Are you gonna drag the child away from the father? The term should be parents and children first.

The person you quoted does have a point. A lot of terms have to be changed to take into account the few women in such professions, firemen to firefighters, chairman to chairperson. But of course they conveniently ignore other terms which discriminate against men.

Now, did Summer actually say that she wasn't surprised?

im surprised you made a post about it!

What stadiums? I've been to a lot of college games and the crowds are about half and half I'd say. NFL may be different.

I don't know a lot of female gamers in person, either, just online- and yes those are really women. I wouldn't say it's a common thing, but getting more common. My husband got me playing video games. I did text RPG before I met him, but always had a bad attitude about toon games. Watching him do the Fallout 3 tutorial was what got me playing modern RPGs. Particularly the baby cooing at James caught my attention. I didn't know that video games had good story to them, thought of them as just mindless shooting or puzzle questing.

I have no idea how representative I am of trends. The speculation over it is useless and occasionally demeaning.

Personally I don't care if the person behind a toon in WoW is male or female. I do believe there are girl gamers, just not many. And if people say there are many, then I would be really surprised.

If I were to make a guess, the % of females who play games like Skyrim would be equivalent to the % of males who like Twilight. Do they exist? Absolutely and there is nothing wrong with either. But to say there are many would make me really surprised.

Nah, I just realized that I'd feel offended all the time if I didn't accept that people usually have trouble understanding things. As long as nobody rages "you're a woman, you can't play games!" I don't mind that they're surprised

Well, it's funny, because IRL I know only three guys who play Skyrim, and dozens of guys that don't. Does it mean men don't play video games? Most of male gamers I know play only Fifa or CoD. The only person I've ever met who played HoMM was a girl. Nobody played Civilization, but I'm not going to draw a conclusion that I'm the only person on the planet who has a collection of strategy games on her shelf. I actually do believe internet sources - the truth is, 99% of women in the net are in fact women, and they do play games. It's obvious that we're not a majority here, but it doesn't mean we're all just pretending to be playing.

As for your experiences, did you ask every single woman you've met if she's a gamer? Did you talk to all of them about games? I can say for myself that I don't wear a T-shirt with "female gamer" printed on it and most of people I meet have no idea I play games. Why would they?

Surprisingly, I do ask some of them whether they play games or because I actually want to share my hobby with them. But most of them are not interested in games at all. I even showed Planescape: Torment to 2 girls in particular, but they looked at it like as if they don't know what to do with it.

One I played Diablo 1 with on the 56k modem. The other 2 are WoW gamers.

And there is no need to ask every single female point blank in order to get a more complete statistic. If there were more female gamers, life experiences would sooner or later reveal them. Like if we attend a group session such as group dinner, church service, and the guys start talking about WoW, a few girls would join in and say that they too play WoW, etc. Again, just 1 girl from church I know that plays WoW. If there were that many female gamers, surely I can talk to 10+ girls that play WoW there. But only 1.

Or when I queued up for the midnight release of Burning Crusades at Melbourne Central in Melbourne, Australia. There were barely any females there, and most of them seemed to be girlfriends of guys that they play with. If there were more female WoW gamers, there would be more of them on the midnight release. Sure then you will say most of them probably ordered online or something. Really? Why? You're not afraid to attend Blizzcon, but you're afraid that nerdy guys may try to hit on you on a midnight release? Maybe you say they are afraid of going out after hours. Well, they certainly are brave enough to go to nightclubs where the guys there are even creepier and will try to grab your @$$.

Once again I believe there are girl gamers. I just don't think it is as many as people try to claim.

Why should it be offensive? It`s quite natural that fellas are surprised to see girl gamers. just look around you; how many girl gamers compared to boys do we see. You can throw a stick and hit a boy gamer blindfolded. Good luck finding a girl gamer the same way!

Also, traditionally and still even now girls\women have always somewhat ridiculed boys\men for playing games, especially football. Games for men have always been about competition and survival something that comes from deep within the natural instincts of men to get out there and kill that deer while fighting off the sabretooth tiger. So over the centuries this has stuck. Boys playing games is all about that instinctive desire to hunt and be the `Man`.

Less so for females since traditionally that has not been their job.

So it`s no surprise that some blokes are surprised that some girls play games.

Oh come on, it`s true if you think about it!

lol, blade watcher and his genetic determinism again.

The argument is ridiculous and you just agreed with me. It has nothing to do with this thread or the fact that some gamer guys can't stand to see all the gamer girls in one place. What this thread is really about is how some gamer guys have to leave little steaming dumps all over threads like this to show your disapproval, even to the point of making bizarre correlations to 'male rights' and trying to insult people.

It's mildly amusing and disturbing at the same time....

I find it hard to believe many people have never met a female gamer nowadays. When I started playing RPGs 30 years ago we were pretty unusual but nowadays? I've met plenty of girls in their late teens to 30s who've mentioned videogmes they play in casual conversation. Maybe these males who've never met a female gamer should leave their basemants ocasionally, go talk to some girls, actually find out what they are interested in instead of relying on tired stereotypes. It might surprise them.

You probably don't hear women talking about video games much because there is stigma attached that gaming is mindless, testosterone driven, something that only teenage males do and sign of something unhealthy. And of course there's a little bit of truth to the stereotypes. I don't advertise that I'm a gamer, either, because people wouldn't take me seriously if I did. I think that will change as more women play games and talk about them on social media.

Clearly your experiences are correct, and everyone else's must be wrong.

It doesn't surprise me to see more and more female gamers on the scene. Some very good mods for various games have been either entirely developed or heavily influenced by women players. Rome: Total war has the Amazon :Total War mods, very well done and loads of fun. Morrowind had several, a few maybe silly, but also some excellent, high quality complex quest mods, such as Emma's " Blades Quest: Prophecy of the Lost Heir", "The White Wolf of Lokken Mountain" and several very good companion quest mods (Bethesda can learn from her how to keep followers from blocking doorways, using appropriate weapons and equipment, and actually having a deep personality).Elys, working on mods for Skyrim made some very fun mods for the old Dungeon Siege games. And, as an avid Mount and Blade gamer, I know of more than a few very popular mods that wouldn't be nearly as good without the very hard work and heavy duty input of female mod team members. My wife is a Mount and Blade fanatic, with hundreds of hours in the good old medieval smash face gameplay, although she usually prefers to play as a horse archer, scoot and shoot. I'm glad to see more female gamers, the more popular gaming becomes on a wide spectrum, the better the chance of getting decent stuff made instead of the huge piles of fail we too often see.

No, just different
Maybe it is down to how male gamers treat female gamers so female gamers will talk to other women but not men about games