I’m No Myth: The Girl Gamer Experience in the Philippines
Posted Saturday, March 17th, 2007 3:40 am by PJ Punla
Viewed 3922 times | Related entries: Gaming, Open Mike, The Internet
I started playing PC games seriously about six years ago, with my baptism of fire being the now-classic Dungeons and Dragons-based Neverwinter Nights 1.
Some time after a freak system crash erased all my game data, I turned to MMORPGs for solace.
For the first MMORPG that I tried playing, I was lucky enough to join a guild / gaming group of people I actually knew in real life, a group that then included two other female players.
Eventually, though, the other two dropped out, and I was left the sole female player in the group.
Whenever I went out to play, whether on my own or with the guild, I was almost always the target of what I later discovered was called the “aquarium effect”: the other players - invariably male - would lean out of their cubicles to stare at me. They did a lot of watching over my shoulders; I clearly remember times when there were two or three guys standing nearly at my back.
It was kind of creepy to have guys watch my every move in that manner.
That wasn’t the only thing. Other players’ characters would talk to me in-game; after watching my (usually) female avatar kill stuff, the following question would nearly always pop up:
“Are you really a girl?”
I kind of find that rather annoying and strange at the same time. Annoying, because anyone who asked that question had necessarily made the assumption that I was, in reality, a guy playing a female character; and strange, because, hey, don’t girls want to play, too?
I’ve been playing for some time now and while it makes me feel happy some new games are ditching hack-’n'-slash altogether in favor of, say, music and golf, such that more girls might be encouraged to start playing, I still feel somewhat strange about being a member of the minority gender in this field.
There’s a gamers’ myth that says no girls actually play MMO games.
Dudes. We are not a myth.
About the PTB Guest Blogger:
PJ is currently a Closed Beta Tester for the new MMORPG Granado Espada. No affiliations with publishers HanbitSoft, IAH Games, or even the local licensee e-Games Philippines. She’s just a fairly obsessed girl gamer. More about PJ on her Granado Espada blog.
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6 Responses to “I’m No Myth: The Girl Gamer Experience in the Philippines ”
wahooo!! it’s fun to have people like me. i’m more of a ps2 girl rather than an mmo girl. Work usually takes out a chunk of my day. but i’ll never forget my college days of counterstrike, warcraft tft, red alert (command and conquer), gunbound, and also tekken series. but now, if i’m bored, i know i’ll have my ps2 around, probably buy a wii in the future. i don’t feel a minority, i see a lot of girl gamers these days.
I always find it funny when people are surprised to see girl gamers. A lot of my female friends are gamers and a good number of my guild/clan/crew (whatever you want to call it) mates are female.
Generally, the types who tend to be surprised that there are females around are younger guys who don’t have much experience with girls period, let alone girls in “their” territory. (gaming)
I believe ya 100%. The Philippine Pangya champion who went on to Italy for the World Cyber Games was a girl
[...] I’m No Myth: The Girl Gamer Experience in the Philippines. [...]
Hehe nice to see more pinay players voice out! I personally know some serious female gamers and trust me they are a helluva lot better than me(or perhaps most male players)when it comes to counter-strike and Dota. =P
I appreciate and like the fact that there are girl gamers out there. I know a few of them, and my ex was a semi-gamer as well. But the truth of the matter is that girl gamers are still the minority, so the odds of a guy (or a fruit, even) masquerading as a girl in an MMORPG is still pretty big.
Also, that fact that you have friends who are girl gamers doesn’t mean much. A friend once told me that just because the people within your circle of friends like to do something, it doesn’t mean that everyone else follows suit.
There are 10 women in my office, and only one of them is a confirmed gamer with her own DS Lite. I think that’s still more or less a better represtation of the gaming populace as a whole. What’s my point?
Until those numbers start evening out, don’t get too pissed that people ask if you’re really a girl.
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