Voice-chat and women who play WoW
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 9th 2007 at 3:00PM
My wife, as I've stated several times, is an excellent player, one of the best hunters I've ever run with and has created in me a healthy respect for women who game. When we were both raiding, the biggest problem we had was that if she ever spoke in a raid, there was always someone who would hit on her until it was explained that she was engaged to and then married to the tank, and he would have no compunction about letting the mob come over and eat said person until such time as the supposedly funny come-ons stopped.Fast forward a year to this post on wow_ladies and poster amalana asks if the new voice chat feature is giving other women who play the same kinds of experiences she mentions: running a PuG and the other players hitting on her as soon as they realize she's a woman. To be honest, I expected this. In my experience, WoW has the same ratio of jerks to decent folks as regular life, but something like John Gabriel's Theory always seems to come into effect and there's always someone in a PuG who feels comfortable making racist jokes or blindly hitting on someone based just on ten seconds of voice chat.
Have your experiences with the new voice chat feature been positive, or are you being subjected to crude commentary and unwelcome advances?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Coherent Oct 9th 2007 3:11PM
I haven't used it yet. I just don't seem to have an urge to play WoW with my mouth in gear.
Slayblaze Oct 9th 2007 3:19PM
(Okay I'm on to you guys now...putting up another chat related post just gives you an excuse to put that picture up of the geekily-hot redhead for us all to drool over! Yeah I'm onto you now)
I've been waiting for Blizz to work out the bugs with the built-in chat a bit before using it much - something it looks like they just made a little better with today's patch. In the meantime I'm sticking to the guild's vent, but fully expect the immaturity that comes with fully open voice chat in online games. Wow is not that much different in that regard so it comes as no surprise if people are experiencing harrassment, bad jokes, etc.
Garthnak Oct 9th 2007 3:20PM
I see positives and negatives to this over time, actually. Even today, I don't think that many male players realize just how many women play WoW, so the sexist Boy's Club culture still exists to some extent. As guys realize that they've been playing with more females than they knew about, that will hopefully change some perceptions about female gamers for the better.
At the same time, I can totally see how this could be bad for women who don't want to get hit on every time they pipe up in a PuG. I've known women who specifically play male toons so that they don't get that kind of unwanted attention (and, conversely, guys who play female toons because they LIKE that extra attention). If women are made to reveal their gender to J. Random Gamer on WoW, that could have a discouraging influence.
I don't think we can know which way the balance will work, ultimately. But I'm hopeful that, on balance, it will be a positive change for gender relations in WoW.
Garthnak Oct 9th 2007 3:21PM
Oh, and btw, if the girl in your stock photo is single, plz 2 b sending me her number. Kthx!
(HHOS)
Maz Oct 9th 2007 3:27PM
I've yet to run into any women in PUGs. In my guild, we have several females in our Ventrilo, though the guild is usually riding stag. We have ~4 couples in our guild and I'm pretty shameless with the females of two of them. I'm decent friends with the 'male' half, so they write me off as just being me and feel no need to defend their ladies' honor. I get shutdown and take it in good humor if my jocularity is unappreciated. Cause I know I'm an ass. :D
Admittedly, I'd probably be the same if I encounter one of these non-tripods in a PUG. Am I expecting play or cyborz? Not really. It's just how I am. I'm not lewd, crude or anything overly negative. I guess 'flirtatious' would be fitting.
Sylythn Oct 9th 2007 3:27PM
I'm waiting for the day when some brat hits on me in game, only to group up with me and hear the male voice in response to his come-ons...not THAT will be priceless.
As for your pics...you really have to stop reminding me how lonely I am... :)
MechChef Oct 9th 2007 3:30PM
Just got a response from the redhead photo-model.
"Sorry, Garthnak. I don't date gamers."
I've seen it go both ways:
1. Women either shy away from the attention and don't use whatever voice-chat is available.
2. Thrive on it and become attention whores who exploit the men coming on to them.
Phedre Oct 9th 2007 3:34PM
As a female gamer, and not a bad one at that, yeah this change is difficult for women. I am engaged, will be married in 6 months, and constantly hit on in game, and by people who have no idea what city or even time zone I am in. I do not mind the guys who are nice about it (Oh cool. A female gamer, hey, you wouldn't want to hang out sometime? No, I'm in a relationship. Oh well, thanks!) But the guys who ask for things like my bra size, I've just taken to admitting I'm female and then telling them I am 56, overweight and wearing a lime green MouMou. My voice however is younger, and accented. As soon as voice chat hit I couldn't disguise the mid-twenties and intelligent, and I feel bad being the only person not on Voice in the group. So not always great. Others are pleasantly surprised to learn that I am female and say that they appreciate female gamers as apparently we offer a different social dynamic and are just as capable as players.
hjungle Oct 9th 2007 3:31PM
"(Okay I'm on to you guys now...putting up another chat related post just gives you an excuse to put that picture up of the geekily-hot redhead for us all to drool over! Yeah I'm onto you now)"
"Oh, and btw, if the girl in your stock photo is single, plz 2 b sending me her number. Kthx!"
I hope those were written for satirical purposes, otherwise you two are providing strong support for women NOT to use voice chat.
JediGadget Oct 9th 2007 3:39PM
I've had this problem too. (YES, there are girls on the internet :P)
The very night of the patch, I was on my (then) 59 druid beating up orcs around Thrallmar and I got invited to a Hellfire Ramparts group to heal (I'm balance, but I heal anyway, and I do it well :D)
The group had 3 people all from the same guild, me and one other person. Everyone was experimenting with the Voice Chat and having a good time. I was kind of suprised with myself because I was shy for the first time in a long time (I'm very much not shy on our guild TS ;P) The tank, who was a level 70 tauren warrior, with a VERY thick southern accent, kept trying to get me to talk, but the more he prodded, the less I wanted to talk. I don't know why, it was strange to me too, but I just DID not want to talk to them. I chatted though, and had tons of fun and got tons of laughs through text chat. But they kept asking me to talk, and I refused.
Anyway, we finished the run with no problems and the tank whispered me privatly and asked me if I would just say "goodbye" and even then I was still shy, so I told him maybe some other time. I left the group and continued PWNING orcs and had a good evening. But it got me thinking about my own reaction.
It's weird being a girl, playing an online game, and being.....so....singled out. I have several 70s, play many different classes, and I play them WELL, but on top of that I'm a girl. So I almost feel the need to hide myself to save myself from ackward situations.
I dunno, it's been interesting so far. We've been using the Voice Chat to ween guildies onto or TS server also.
Akiotena Oct 9th 2007 3:41PM
I haven't had any problems with harassment of any sort, but then again, the people my guild raids with know better than to be immature during a raid.
If/when I'm in a PuG, I probably won't use the voice chat. I'm not really comfortable with the idea, kind of on the line of what #3 said. Other WoW players don't need to know my gender to judge my skill at the game.
Askren Oct 9th 2007 3:58PM
Once again, I find myself needing to say something, even if it'll be ignored and flooded over with other comments.
I've played WoW with a lot of women before. I guarentee, anyone who has been in a mature guild (by that I mean, not a LOLCHUCKNORRIS guild), has probably had the same experience. A lot of the women I've run with have been girlfriends/wives of other guild members, and most of them are more hardcore gamers than I am. My point is, they've always been there, in the game, but until you get on Vent (and I guess the ingame voice now), there was really no way to look, or reason to care.
But yeah, about the whole sexual harrassment thing, I think the new voice chat feature will increase this phenomenon a ton. Previously, I assume it would be limited to game chat and (much more rarely) Vent, but I've never seen it actually happen between guildies in Vent (God know's I'd have some explaining to do to my guildies if I tried to hit on one of girlfriends in Vent.). But WoW is a lot like Myspace, in that it's full of asshats and jerks, and I guarentee many of them would have no problem crossing the decency line in voice chat.
That's my two cents.
Krick Oct 9th 2007 4:00PM
Isn't there some sort of realtime voice modification software that changes the pitch of your voice?
Krick
...
http://www.tankadin.com
KitKatDruid Oct 9th 2007 4:01PM
I made a big, buff male Tauren Warrior named Steady partially just so maybe even once I can hear the "Wait, what? Who's the girl?" in a PuG. Especially since I plan to regularly group with a guy who plays a female Tauren Shaman. Oh the fun we will have.
But otherwise, I was shy for a long time in my own guild Vent just because they put me on the spot, though I spoke when necessary. Now I have no problem speaking out about needing the heals and such :)
Goldwolf Oct 9th 2007 4:02PM
I've gotten my fair share of "OH MY !@#$ it's really a girl!" reactions in my day, even before Blizz's voice chat.
URSAD Oct 9th 2007 4:07PM
1) You hope people hit on your wife in WoW, because you know in reality this never happens.
2) Women are worse and games than men, accept it. There are exceptions, but in general they suck.
3) If you need to PuG at all, then you're a social gamer and you are not that good.
4) Get a real guild, guilds that are serious about their raids will not tolerate people 'hitting' on their members.
5) Who the hell hits on a woman without seeing their picture? You can pretty much assume that if they are playing WoW, they are not good looking.
Nathan Oct 9th 2007 4:14PM
@16
I PuG so that when I run into people like you, I can ignore them for life without a lot of drama
Phedre Oct 9th 2007 4:15PM
Wow just a reply to the last comment. Women /are/ just as capable at games as men, proportionally at least. There are just a significantly larger number of men than women playing so you see larger numbers of good men. Also a portion of female gaming community chooses to pretend to be male just to avoid the kind of remarks you just made.
Some social gamers are quite good actually, it's just a matter of time you spend in game. I know some people who played a lot once and are now only casuals because of changes in life circumstance (ie. having a child).
Lastly, most women I know who play WoW are actually rather attractive. I myself am a figure model, and former dancer, and am told regularly that I'm very attractive. I play WoW because appearance does not matter, and I am being taken for my abilities not my looks.
BigBearButt Oct 9th 2007 4:17PM
lol @ URSAD... 13 must hurt, huh? Do your insides feel like broken glass? Let it out little forum troll, let it all out.
Cailleach Oct 9th 2007 4:18PM
Just because you can use voice chat doesn't mean you have to chat. Tell 'em you don't have a mic, but you do have headphones and will listen in. That happens for real often enough no-one will know the difference.
OK, so I'm not a 20-something anymore, but I HAVE been told I sound like it, so I don't think it's my voice, but.. I don't get hit on. Well, not crudely and offensively. I'm not sure what 'anti-hit-on-me' vibe I give off, or I'd share, but I just don't. Maybe it's because MY mental perception of most MALE gamers are of young boys/men I could probably have given birth to. That may well make me as bad as the guys.. probably so.
Still.. "no mic, dood, sorry, but I'm happy to get on to listen to instructions." How are they going to prove differently?