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Although we have tried our darndest, it has taken a whopping 57 episodes to finally get a women's perspective on the BASH webcast.
But 57 is the charm. And that perspective is finally given to us by extremegamerz own...
{eXg}Black Widow.
Black Widow picked up FPS gaming a few years ago...and she's never looked back. She is an accomplished, and highly-competitive CoD2 player. She squeezes in as much practice time with her sniper-rifle as possible while still finding ample room to be a loving wife and mother and work as an artist (as the sketch below attests).
On today's show, Black Widow and I discuss the state of FPS gaming from a woman's perspective. What is it like to mix it up with the guys online? Are men really better than women in CoD? Why are there no female avatars in FPS's? Why are all men pigs? (...sorry, that's my wife's question....how'd she get on here?).
The interview gives a fascinating perspective that is seldom heard by the average male gamer:
SHOW NOTES:
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to BASH, my name is Jock Yitch...
You may or may not have noticed that in all the webcasts we do, even in the bilingual ones like last week, we always put the word "Ladies" first.
We do that on purpose because we think it is vital to attract Lady Gamers to gaming/eSports. They not only swell our numbers, but their presence reduces the stigma FPS gaming has in society.
And frankly, having women in the sport is great, having them on our servers tends to reduce all the shenanigans that go on when only men get together...just ask a yachtsman in Athens Greece during Sail Week.
BASHandSlash.com has, since its inception, tried to get the girls to put their word in edgewise...we have featured many lady gamers on our blog...our first elected CoD Hall of Famer was a woman and heck we even had a lady-gamer as a columnist for a while...
However, our efforts have fallen short apparently. A little while ago a loyal listener alerted us of this post on the extremegamerz.net forum:
And I quote:
"Ya know, I have sit here and thought about playing in COD2 and 4 and how much I love it, but you never see anything about the WOMEN of COD. You know that some of us can really kick some ass and play just like the men.
Why is there not something on how we play?
Is it because the game is considered a "mans" game. I beg to differ. I know that I personally can at least make it to the top 5 scores on each map.
Am I being a whiny little girl?
Maybe, but I think that females can play just as well and sometimes better than the men.
Wouldn't it be awesome for Jock Yitch to do something on BASH about the women?
I think it would be a good read.... Heck, I would even do a dang interview.
Well we have the author of that statement with us today to do that dang interview. She's a member of the eXtremegamerz clan, and she knows how to shoot, let's give a big BASH welcome to {eXg}BlackWidow.
1. Name? Where are you from?
2. Gaming Bio
3. There are a lot of people - both men and women - who think that "FPS Gaming is not for ladies", do you think that these people are a minority in society or is this sentiment an accurate representation of the thought in society today?
If you think this is the way typical society thinks: how do you remove this stigma against women playing violent video games? How do you deal with criticisms that FPS is the last thing that we need right now...that is, turning our nurturers into online killers?
4. Why do YOU go online and specifically why do YOU play FPS? What do you get out of it? Why not WOW or the Sims?
5. What is the reaction of your non-gaming friends when you tell them that you game?
6. Describe what it has been like for you to play online?
7. How many times does your sex come up during the course of play?
8. In your opinion, in this day and age, have the guys accepted women gamers? Or do they still have the attitude that "Men are better than women at gaming".
9. In my opinion women are still not fully respected in the sport because they are not seen to be as serious as male gamers. The fact you are on this program may dissuade people from this argument, but would you agree with it? Do you agree about the respect issue?
10. Do you think that female gamers are hypocrites? After all I always hear about how women complain about the misogynyst male gamers who are rude and crude towards women online...but then I see how they use their femininity as an unfair weapon as well...
As as an example, I once asked guy-readers of BASHandSlash.com whether they would marry lady gamers...90% said absolutely...some said they already had. When i asked women, whether they'd marry a guy-gamer...all said no, cuz they'd have no time for them.
11. Mathilde Abgrall, player coach on the Frag Dolls an all women CS gaming team once described what she wanted in an FPS game:
“Girls want a good story, a good scenario,” she said. “They want to be able to identify themselves to the character they are playing. Somebody much more like them. Someone with more personality, more character and maybe a little more fat and less, uh, physical.”
Do you agree?
a) Speaking of female characters...CoD2 had some SP female soldiers (Russian soldiers). I would have bet the farm that CoD4 would have had as well. But they did not appear in CoD4. Why do you think that is?
What would you say to Treyarch (developers of CoD5) if they were listening on this topic?
b) What would YOU you want in a game? Run down a list of things you would like to see in a game (aside from female avatars):
You can comment on this program at our BASH Boards .
Additional notes:
A March 2008 report released by the Entertainment Software Association found that 38% of gamers are female. The ESA report stated that the majority of female gamers play the Nintendo DS, as well as games such as The Sims. Female gamers make up the majority of the market for casual games, featured on the DS, as well as the Nintendo Wii.
The ESA stated that girls spend 7.4 hours each and every week playing video games. Video games have always thought to have been a male-dominated activity, but things are definitely changing.
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