5 absurd but popular misconceptions about gamer women
Yuriy Sheremet![5 absurd but popular misconceptions about gamer women 5 absurd but popular misconceptions about gamer women](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fegamersworld.com%2Fuploads%2Fblog%2F1607695412326.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Video games stopped being a hobby for particular persons in recent years. Today, it is a whole industry, in which not only game developers but gamers themselves make money. And all of this is due to esports and such streaming services like Twitch and YouTube. Gaming is traditionally frowned upon by older people. According to their opinion, video games are a useless and harmful hobby (despite many research proving otherwise). But the interesting thing is that myths about gamers exist not only outside the gaming community. Some absurd statements about video game fans are actively spread by gamers. Gamer women suffer from it most of all.
Myth No.1. Women don’t know how to play video games
The emergence of this stereotype happened a long time ago. The division of traditional yard games into the ones only boys play and the ones only girls play moved to video games. Each group considered that their hobby was more interesting and complicated in learning. Boys completely did not want to play the games of «the opposite camp» and vice versa. It just happened that the first video games were mainly played by male representatives. This activity was considered to be pretty «geeky» (a geek – a person who is fond of modern technologies). Girls did not play not because they did not know how but they simply didn’t try it.
No one is born with a ready set of skills for video games. You need to practice, like in any other activity. You need to learn the basic mechanics and rules of every new game and then to train reflexes. This approach works equally for both men and women. Today, almost half of the gaming community is women who play both on amateur and professional levels. The female part demonstrates a high skill in all online games: tactical shooters (CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch), battle royals (PUBG, Apex Legends, Fortnite), strategies (StarCraft).
Myth No.2. Gamer women play only to attract the boys’ attention
Lots of interesting gaming channels run by women can be found on Twitch and YouTube. At the same time, there is a statement that such kind of content is created by women only to attract more attention to a channel. In other words, they use the image, which is adored by the male part of gamers (which is allegedly the majority), on purpose and they make it just to monetize a channel on Twitch or YouTube.
In fact, everyone has his/her own reasons to play video games. The majority of women and men play video games for a story and gameplay. Nowadays game developers know that gender differences do not play a big role in the gaming community, so they create projects, which are interesting for everyone. For example, let’s consider the video games that have been widely discussed recently, Assassin's Creed Valhalla or Cyberpunk 2077. It is believed that gamers mostly create heroes who look like them. So role-playing games have an opportunity to choose a character’s gender. Women also can play online games to demonstrate their skill or to chat with friends.
Myth No.3. Gamer women are «tomboys»
Those who consider video games to be a hobby only for boys often state this. Of course, it is difficult to save your habits under the influence of a company. According to the third myth, if a woman is fond of video games, her company fully consists of male representatives and the lifestyle is «tomboyish».
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Popular culture has helped to create this kind of image – gamer girls or female programmers often look this way in movies, series, and other pieces of art. Actually, the connection between the outside world, habits, and video games is not that strong.
Myth No.4. Women are fond of video games due to the lack of social life
According to another fake statement, all women who spend time in video games regularly are lonely in real life. It is considered that it is easier for women to socialize than men, so it is strange that they refuse to spend time with their friends in favor of video games.
The truth is that video games are just a hobby and entertainment, which does not harm social life. What is more, if women play video games, it does not mean that they do so all alone. Gamer girls often play cooperative or multiplayer games with friends. Modern gaming with a major part of online games is not an opposition to social life, it is a good addition to it.
Myth No.5. Do women play video games? Nah, it is just fiction!
The conception of the Internet was the basis for this myth. A person does not have to reveal his/her personality to chat with others in the global network. On the Internet, there is always a chance that a user on the other side who sends messages, writes something on a forum or in a chat, plays a game is not the person he/she claims to be. So it can be said that women in online games are actually male players who use the concept of gamer woman for their benefit (additional communication, assistance in matches, the feeling of being special, and others).
In fact, everything is not that sad. It is pretty easy to prove that women play video games nowadays. Almost all gamers use microphones for a voice chat. Gaming services like Steam and social networks use reliable schemes of verification, which creates problems for fans of making «alternative accounts». And it is not that difficult to meet a woman in an online game.
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Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.