Difficulty Level: Girl
It’s widely known that lots of women love playing video games, whether that’s competitive fighting games, MMOs, or cozy simulators. But gaming as a girl can come with all sorts of issues. From the toxic community to habits only fellow gamer girls appreciate, here are 20 things most women can relate to.
1. Finding Friends
As a gamer girl, one of the biggest problems can be connecting with other women. Unless you’re lucky enough to have female friends who are fellow gamers, the odds are that you won’t know much about their hobbies. Of course, you can always learn about them, but it would be nice to have a gal pal to play Stardew with.
2. False Competition
Speaking of female friends, whenever you’re in a group and there’s more than one gamer girl, the group starts pitting you against one another. It’s almost like they expect you to be competing, but in reality, you’re just thrilled to meet another one.
3. The Chat
Then there’s the issue of chatting in games. Whether it’s voice or typed out, gamers can get pretty mean when they realize girls are playing. Some gamer girls have gotten online only to be told, “get back in the kitchen.” But by now, most gamer girls have a thick skin.
4. Insta-Love
Of course, there’s the flip side. Instead of insulting you, other gamers instantly fall in love with you. Some men love the idea of a gamer girlfriend and instantly want all your time and attention. Of course, their interest in you fades the moment you tell them you have a partner.
5. Having To Prove Yourself
While this isn’t an issue for more casual or cozy games, it’s a constant problem for competitive games like League of Legends or Call of Duty, where no one will take you seriously or discount you unless you prove yourself. Then, of course, you have to prove yourself again and again.
6. Cozy Gamers
Gamer girls are efficient, so much so that we’ve organized ourselves into different genres. For instance, there are the competitive girlies who play games like League, but then there’s the Cozy Gamers who just want to play Animal Crossing, and the mobile gamers who want to crush some candy. Let’s not forget the RPG gals who are working on their twelfth Baldur’s Gate 3 run.
7. Assuming You Play Casual
When you do tell people you play games, they immediately assume you mean super casual games like Farm Simulator. While there’s nothing wrong with those games, getting lumped into one category when women play all sorts of games is a bit disheartening.
8. Game Store Etiquette
If you ever go to a game store with your male partner, friend, or family member, the clerk will almost always talk to them in your stead. Even if you ask the question, they’ll assume it’s for the man, or perhaps they just feel more comfortable conversing with him than you. Who knows.
9. Girl Games
Then there is the blatant gendering of certain games, marketing pink dress-up games or scandalous dating sims as the only games girls would be interested in. But women enjoy playing all sorts of games, whether that is Sims, Mario Kart, or Tekken.
Muhammad Faiz Zulkeflee on Unsplash
10. Female Streamer Hate
Unfortunately, a lot of female streamers get a bad reputation and are seen as sellouts or just “pretty” girls with nothing more to offer. This can feel pretty hurtful, especially when these women are representing a more professional level of gaming.
11. Simping
Then there’s the idea that all men simp for gamer girls, or if a guy is nice to a girl, he’s a simp. People assume men will gift you in-game currency and items, and this can make you feel even more invalidated.
12. Hoarding Items
When it comes to actual gameplay, especially for roleplaying games, gamer girls, like lots of other gamers, have a hoarding problem. Collecting every scroll and never using it, even for the boss fight, is just typical gamer behavior at this point.
13. Character Creation
Gamer girls also take painfully long in character creation. Jokingly, they can spend hours making the perfect character, as if the creation system is the game itself. Then, even after all that work, they may change their mind and just remake the character from scratch several hours in.
14. The Cutest Setup
Gamer girls are sticklers for aesthetics, and if they have the time and money, they will coordinate everything. This means getting sticker decals for their Nintendo or buying pink headphones to go with their keyboard and mouse.
15. Gender Neutral Names
One clever way a lot of gamer girls avoid toxicity and misogyny is by using gender neutral names. In fact, some women who had handles that gave away their gender would later change it. This way, they can just pretend to be a male player and be left alone.
16. The Ugly Armor
When it comes to intensive RPGs, gamer girls dread that high-level armor that’s way stronger but looks absolutely terrible. After all, if they’re going to be looking at their player character the entire time, they want it to look good.
17. Toxic Communities
Unfortunately, a lot of gaming communities can be toxic toward women. This means going to meetups or joining online forums can open you up to a world of hate and anger.
18. Playing Male Characters
Speaking of character creation, just like men like to make female avatars, women also like to make male avatars. It’s not unheard of to play as a ruggedly handsome rogue or a domineering orc, even if the person behind the keyboard is just your girl next door.
19. Cosplay
Lots of gamer girls dream about debuting the perfect cosplay of their favorite character. Often, this is an expensive or time-consuming task, but going to conventions is a great opportunity to dress up and show off, and gamer girls take it seriously.
20. Scantily Clad
There’s a running issue in games about scantily clad women, but the reality is that most gamer girls don’t mind. They’re happy to enjoy the aesthetically pleasing armor, even if it’s totally impractical. Of course, they’d prefer it to go both ways!
