Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsLove, raiding, and everything in between: how women are taking charge in WoW
by Kelly Aarons 
Mar 1st 2010 at 7:00PM
So, here we have it, folks -- in this new age of gaming, more and more women are picking up the controller, or sporting a mean WASD. What do the guys think?
They think it's perfectly okay.
Now, I'm not writing this to be sensationalist or to seek drama. I'm a bit of a feminist myself and having been a gamer since I was nine years old; I've seen my fair share of guys who "don't think you've got it." Or just because I have two X chromosomes I somehow can't pull some sweet DPS on a random heroic 5-man.
The times, they are a'changing. From the report:
It's believed that women have more fun with social gaming for the sheer fact that it's social. If you're running a 25-man, you need to be able to work together -- there's no room for ego or swinging your 'epeen' around. You need to be able to drop the macho-ism, smarten up and listen to your teammates."A Nielsen report published in 2009 found that women aged 25 and older make up the largest block of gamers in the United States, accounting for 54.6 per cent of all game play minutes in December 2008. For WoW, the male/female ratio is fairly balanced, with 428,621 women between 25 and 54 playing in December 2008 versus 675,713 men in the same age group.Another report suggests that in Britain women make up 48 per cent of total gamers who play online once a week."
Women also connect in ways when things are quiet. A thriving US guild, Got Girls, has bonded over everything from child-rearing, birthdays, relationships, and everything in between. Says member ShawnAnne Dixon:
It's not always easy being a female gamer, especially in a very male-dominated gaming culture. I have heard of much less-forgiving people and guilds who make comments regarding our monthly cycles, certain body parts, personalities and the like. I think it's great that more women are playing the game -- giving some balance to the testosterone-laden playing field."We celebrated a guild member's 21st birthday and a wedding recently. One of our members has a son getting ready to deploy to Iraq -- Got Girls has become a big part of her support system. We have truly become a family."
At this point, sometimes the best thing to do is to beat the guys at their own game.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 8 of 8)
SarahTheGnome Mar 2nd 2010 10:23AM
Erm, you are 'a bit of a feminist'? Since feminism seeks only equality between men and women, not for women to be deemed better than men, I would think everyone is completely a feminist. Unless you believe men are better than women, or vice versa.
Deathknighty Mar 2nd 2010 11:23AM
Cool, that means I'm a feminist!
Nikkiezorz Mar 2nd 2010 10:52AM
lol that duhhh.... moment on vent is priceless sometimes. i love it.
in BC i was heal lead for my old guild, and the only female on the raid team. It was always hella fun, but friday nights i sat through ever so many aquard flirtations and jokes from some of my drunken guildmates.
My husband and i both have female human toons, his a prot pally and mine a holy priest, we actually MET on wow, back in BC when his pally was holy and part of my healing team.
Ahh, wow romance.
moosejaw Mar 2nd 2010 11:11AM
During the midsummer event last year I tanked Ahune (I'm a bear) for a balance druid that had sent me a tell asking for help. He commented that he was from a city quite near my name sake and we had a little chat about that. We added each other to our friends list and carried on our way.
A week or so ago he filled a spot in the guild ICC ten man that I was in. I was healing rather than tanking. We said "Hi" and "long time no see" type stuff and it was nice to see another familiar face. We were in vent and in the normal course of the raid I would speak to confirm something or other. After speaking up a few times, I got a tell from him - "Is that your BF's toon?" and I replied "Nope - It's mine." He hadn't realized (and how would he?) that I was female and he said "I'd assumed Moosejaw was a guy."
Now, is is possible that Moosejaw was a male character at the time of the midsummer festival as I did roll that way for over a year. However, when the sex change became available I took advantage of it, as I had gotten tired of the male tauren model and had become fond of the female. Also, as a druid, one is often shape-shifted so it's not surprising when one assumes a male tauren is under there and a male human is behind the action.
I don't seek to correct folks when they assume I'm a guy playing any of my characters (I tank and heal as a druid and paladin, heal as a shaman and tank as a death knight). I seem to take offense more when folks assume I'm a gal because I'm healing or a guy because I'm tanking - though I don't express it because it doesn't really matter.
When it all comes down to it, the only thing that matters is that there is another actual human being behind that character - who cares if it's female or male? Try and be nice!
elizadams Mar 4th 2010 5:30PM
I am a 24-year-old female. I've been playing the game since April 2009, and I'm currently raiding ICC.
I met my boyfriend on WoW... we had some late night conversations on vent and fell hard in love. I saved up money, packed my bags, and moved from NYC to Arkansas to be with him. So far, so good.
I too, relish that moment in a new guild or on a PuG's vent when all the guys are dumbfounded by my voice, but happily (because it means more girls on WoW!) I find it occurring less and less often.
Zandrae Mar 2nd 2010 2:04PM
My 10 man raid is 50% female.
Hnoss Mar 2nd 2010 2:29PM
Deathknighty, I think you misunderstood my point. I don't want to be treated differently, as a girl, because of my gender. I want us all to treat each other respectfully, as people. That is, equally. I think the standard for the "equal" treatment needs to be shifted though, and change. As a general rule, I think people need to treat each other differently -- not as in differently on a, say, gender basis, but differently as a whole. (There is some implied ambiguity in the word, which makes trying to explain this difficult. Hopefully, this is more clear.)
At any rate, you're starting with one of the premises I find distasteful -- that somehow, the most basic treatment you'd get to receive, as an equal, is rude disregard. I would challenge that. That, honestly, I think needs to change. In these comments, that sort of behavior, this rude disregard, has been thrown around as being "male," and I also challenge that somehow I need to conform to this gender-based stereotype instead of asking that, well, people treat each other decently, regardless of whether "boys always are jerks to each other." I'm not a boy, and I do not want to be told I have to man up or get out of the internet. I am a person, regardless of gender. Basically, I don't understand why the bar for how people feel they need to treat each other is so low. :P
Hnoss Mar 2nd 2010 2:29PM
Whoo, this was supposed to be a reply. How did this fail? XD Ignore.
Kinuye Mar 2nd 2010 3:20PM
Interesting comments all...and some funny discussions. One of the oddest themes I find running through this conversation is the reference to "girls" playing WoW. If you're over 12, you're probably a "woman". Maybe not in the social sense, but certainly in the physical. So, how many persons of the female gender play WoW? A lot more than some of the posters seem to think--and we play a lot more roles than just healers.
The point that seemed to get lost was the average age of women gamers: 25-54. I started playing WoW when I was 55. I'm in a raiding guild, we're at 7/12 in ICC, working on the wing end-bosses. I'm an officer in my guild, too, and while I'm one of the older members, very few are much younger than mid-20's and a good number are female *and* efficient raiders.
I think part of what makes the trade channel so annoying is that the loudest voices are the trolls...and they are everything from adolescent boys flexing their epeens, to provocateurs seeking to rile up the channel, to the ones who are talking (typing) and can't seem to shut themselves up (diarrhea of the keyboard! /ignore works wonders for those, btw).
And because those voices are loud, people tend to think they are also representative of the group as whole--when in fact they only represent themselves.
You're not going to hear about most of the 'girls' playing WoW, simply because as a group we're actually women, older, and don't engage in verbal epeenery in public. We'll kick your butt in ICC or Wintergrasp, and you won't have clue!
Muse Mar 3rd 2010 5:57AM
Good grief, why is this comment not on the first page? :( As silly as "female gamer" sometimes looks (this isn't the discovery channel), it beats being called girl.
Valtastic Mar 2nd 2010 3:42PM
Got Girls of Proudmoore is very excited to be involved in these articles. As Guild Master of Got Girls I am proud to call my guild members family and friends.
If anyone is interested you can check us out at www.pmsunleashed.com.
Thank you to Phoebe Frangoul and wow.com for portraying women gamers in a positive way. I would also say thank you to Felicia Day, Alice Taylor, Jennifer, Sheena and all the women of WoW who stand up for our right to run an all female ICC raid successfully.
James Mar 3rd 2010 12:16AM
I get so tired of articles like this.
I mean, come on - it's been done to death, there is no special consensus, and everyone is right and wrong at the same time. I believe in equality, and the two best raid tanks I've ever played with were a female in TBC and a male currently. I also know that the vast majority of known females I play with in WoW don't play as well as the average known male, and that while guys will make crude comments, girls will use their gender to their advantage, too.
The particular workings of the brain that differ between males and females tend to make guys more inclined toward and better at playing video games, WoW included (though it's more balanced because it is less twitchy), and I know that there are still a lot of women that play WoW well.
But you know what else I know? What I say doesn't matter, because it's based on basic science, generic statistics and biased personal experience.
And that is why I'm tired of these articles - because they are all based on the above.
Almoderate Mar 2nd 2010 7:04PM
I started playing WoW because my husband thought it would be fun to get me addicted and in so doing sneak a bit more game time for himself. He rolled a pair of night elf druids and considered himself a genius-- until I rolled Horde and corpse camped his purple ass for a good half-hour.
arhra Mar 3rd 2010 9:17AM
Amusingly, my guild is one of the ones mentioned in the Times article, and we ARE one of the "much less-forgiving people and guilds who make comments regarding [...] monthly cycles [etc]".
Luckily, our girls give as good as they get.
censorman Mar 3rd 2010 11:02AM
There is a dark side to chics in gaming. Moody, catty, and sometimes irrational. Not worse than idiot guys showing off, whining cause something isn't fair, or raging out - just different.
Volenti Mar 4th 2010 3:13PM
My guild is kinda a couple's guild. My girlfriend is having a blast being a hunter and collecting cute hunter pets (that means a White Devilsaur named HelloDino). She crossed from MapleStory and had a hard time with the 3D at first. I think she's a pretty good hunter.