Video games and women

krudler

Any girl gamers on here? Or casual Wii Fit type players? Do you think games are good for kids or the root of all evil and corrupting our childrens minds? There was a debate of sorts on George Hook yesterday which I was expecting to be all hysterical uninformed mothers but it wasnt that bad.

I like when girls play games, my ex loved the Zelda and Final Fantasy games and she bought me a Wii for christmas one year so had no problem with me playing them with her, the one before her though, gah, anti gamer in the extreme.

liah

Been gaming for about half my life. Was a bit of a late bloomer - got my first N64 when everyone else was getting PS2s 'cuz my mom didn't like the whole TV/videogames thing.

Anyway, I moved onto proper PC gaming shortly after, have played competitively in leagues and LANs in North America for various FPS over the years.

The 'videogames turn kids evil' thing is proven BS (Penn & Teller: Bull****'s episode on Videogames gives my point of view on the whole thing fairly clearly). Won't even bother dignifying it by talking about it any further.

I've played (not all competitively):
Legend of Zelda series
Mario series (incl. Smash Bros, Kart, Party, etc)
Shadow of the Colossus
Final Fantasy series
Day of Defeat 1.3
Day of Defeat: Source
Counterstrike 1.6
Counterstrike: Source
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Red Dead Redemption
Grand Theft Auto series
Dance Dance Revolution series
Mortal Kombat series
Tekken series
Soul Calibur series
Portal series (currently my favourite series)
Half-Life series
Call of Duty series
Silent Hill series
Resident Evil series
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
The Sims series
Age of Empires series
Chrono Trigger

..and loads more I can't remember off the top of my head.

I'm a bit of a PC purist and will always prefer it for FPS, but do love quite a few RPGs on console. I don't play much strategy at all.

Asphyxia

I'm a total gamer girl I love games like Mortal Kombat and Tekken but I also play games like Uncharted and Assasins Creed PS3 is my favorite console but I also play the Wii

rainbow kirby

I used to play an awful lot, but I think spending 2 years completely addicted to World of Warcraft killed me as a gamer. Have barely played anything since then, and didn't even bother replacing my DS when it broke about a year and a half ago. I wish I could get back into a bit of casual console gaming (used to absolutely love RPG and adventure games), but it just doesn't really hold much interest for me these days. I even sold my Wii to my 6 year old cousin last summer because I knew he would get more use out of it than me.

liah

I refuse to ever play WoW after seeing what it does to people.

It's not even a game, it's just endless grind, I never understood the appeal in it at all..

Orizio

Video games are infantile.

parker kent

Orizio wrote: »

Video games are infantile.

Blackout Rugby is infantile. See what I did there? Insulted something I don't really understand because I have no interest in it.

krudler

liah wrote: »

The 'videogames turn kids evil' thing is proven BS (Penn & Teller: Bull****'s episode on Videogames gives my point of view on the whole thing fairly clearly). Won't even bother dignifying it by talking about it any further.

Dont get me started, I was watching a link on the gaming forum of the Alan Titchmarsh show of all things where the editor or CVG was defending the rating system on games against this hysterical, ignorant "games are evil!" woman and the stuff she was coming out with was absolute drivel. I was listening to Joe Duffy of all things when he did the show about Modern Warfare 2 and the people who rang in would just make your blood boil at their ignorance.

I genuinely cant understand why parents buy their kids 18 rated games then complain later. You wouldnt let them watch an 18's movie, why let them play a game with the exact same legal rating? I used to work for HMV and when any of the Grand Theft Auto games came out we had to ID everyone for them,and the amount of parents buying kids who were about 10 the game then saying "sure its just a game" when we were warning them about the adult content was ridiculous, the same people who ring in to Joe to complain their little cherub is now corrupted because of what he say on a playstation game, its ludicrous.

krudler

Orizio wrote: »

Video games are infantile.

Yes, despite the average age of games being 25-33 these days. Go away, get an informed opinion, then come back with an educated response, cheers. Video games are a bigger industry than movies and music these days, thats a fact. Thats an awful lot of infants.

Asphyxia

I'm not interested in internet games I never got WoW! Haven't really played in ages.. I used to love playing Spyro on PS1

yawha

parker kent wrote: »

Blackout Rugby is infantile. See what I did there? Insulted something I don't really understand because I have no interest in it.

The dude has a Starcraft 2 sig.

Methinks he wasn't being 100% serious.

RedXIV

liah wrote: »

Been gaming for about half my life. Was a bit of a late bloomer - got my first N64 when everyone else was getting PS2s 'cuz my mom didn't like the whole TV/videogames thing.

Anyway, I moved onto proper PC gaming shortly after, have played competitively in leagues and LANs in North America for various FPS over the years.

The 'videogames turn kids evil' thing is proven BS (Penn & Teller: Bull****'s episode on Videogames gives my point of view on the whole thing fairly clearly). Won't even bother dignifying it by talking about it any further.

I've played (not all competitively):
Legend of Zelda series
Mario series (incl. Smash Bros, Kart, Party, etc)
Shadow of the Colossus
Final Fantasy series
Day of Defeat 1.3
Day of Defeat: Source
Counterstrike 1.6
Counterstrike: Source
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Red Dead Redemption
Grand Theft Auto series
Dance Dance Revolution series
Mortal Kombat series
Tekken series
Soul Calibur series
Portal series (currently my favourite series)
Half-Life series
Call of Duty series
Silent Hill series
Resident Evil series
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
The Sims series
Age of Empires series
Chrono Trigger

..and loads more I can't remember off the top of my head.

I'm a bit of a PC purist and will always prefer it for FPS, but do love quite a few RPGs on console. I don't play much strategy at all.

Liah, I've read your posts countless times, and I've always felt the need for some reason to butt heads with you, possibly because you're so sure of yourself and your opinions that it slightly concerns me that maybe my opinions are wrong. As such I've always viewed your posts warily and ready to retaliate.

And in one post, all I want to do now is pick your brain in delight and to see how I can convince my gf to become a gamer like that

krudler

liah wrote: »

I refuse to ever play WoW after seeing what it does to people.

It's not even a game, it's just endless grind, I never understood the appeal in it at all..

I hate grinding, in Call of Duty its not really grinding as you're going through the ranks getting kills anyway and most of the time you unlock stuff without specifically meaning to. Its the reason I hated Demons Souls despite it being an industry darling, endless levelling up and replaying 45 minute sections of a level because you walked in a door and died instantly without warning, no bloody thanks.

krudler

yawha wrote: »

The dude has a Starcraft 2 sig.

Methinks he wasn't being 100% serious.

Ha I didnt spot that, well played if he wasnt

liah

RedXIV wrote: »

Liah, I've read your posts countless times, and I've always felt the need for some reason to butt heads with you, possibly because you're so sure of yourself and your opinions that it slightly concerns me that maybe my opinions are wrong. As such I've always viewed your posts warily and ready to retaliate.

And in one post, all I want to do now is pick your brain in delight and to see how I can convince my gf to become a gamer like that

I'll ignore the backhanded part of your compliment and thank you kindly

krudler

Would a guy being a gamer put a girl off? I've been playing games since I was a kid and owned a NES (Mario 3 ftw!) have always had and always will be a gamer, thats never going to change ever. I'd never let gaming get in the way of a relationship though,its just a fun hobby.

Morag

I am not a girl gamer, I am a woman who has for the last 20 year of her life played video games on pcs and a range of consoles from the amiga to the atari to sega saturn and who currently lives in a house with 3 xboxes.
I've played everything from rpg, strat, fps and everything in between.

Both my kids play games and they are currently working their way through portals 2 over the easter holidays, they both have a DS and they have their own pcs and play minecraft.

Like anything else they don't just sit about playing games all day, they do go out to play and often with out me telling to go. The tangential learning aspects of games has been great for them from sims, to spore to fable, it introduces them to new ideas, concepts and games where there are consequences to their actions are good for them.

RedXIV

liah wrote: »

I'll ignore the backhanded part of your compliment and thank you kindly

Didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to, but thanks for taking it the right way!

krudler wrote: »

Would a guy being a gamer put a girl off? I've been playing games since I was a kid and owned a NES (Mario 3 ftw!) have always had and always will be a gamer, thats never going to change ever. I'd never let gaming get in the way of a relationship though,its just a fun hobby.

I've never had it put anyone off but i would consider it my major vice. My gf is pretty understanding of it, she actually has a lot of patience with it, but so far has resisted my major efforts to draw her in. She'll play retro stuff but anything after the megadrive so far is a no go.

liah

krudler wrote: »

Would a guy being a gamer put a girl off? I've been playing games since I was a kid and owned a NES (Mario 3 ftw!) have always had and always will be a gamer, thats never going to change ever. I'd never let gaming get in the way of a relationship though,its just a fun hobby.

Depends on the girl, obviously, but as long as you're not an addict I can't see how it would.

I've always dated gamer guys, anyway, but I suppose I don't count since I get where they're coming from

I never really understood why so many gamer guys go out with girls who don't 'approve' or think it's immature or whatever. I suppose it's harder for guys to find gamer girls than the reverse, though.

krudler

liah wrote: »

Depends on the girl, obviously, but as long as you're not an addict I can't see how it would.

I've always dated gamer guys, anyway, but I suppose I don't count since I get where they're coming from

I never really understood why so many gamer guys go out with girls who don't 'approve' or think it's immature or whatever. I suppose it's harder for guys to find gamer girls than the reverse, though.

True, one of my exes despised it. It was fine for her to sit there reading a book ignoring me on the couch but as soon as I put on the xbox it was "taking away from "us" time" :rolleyes:

Asphyxia

Video games don't affect kids, if pac-man affected us as kids we'd all be walking around in dark rooms munching magic pills while listening to repetitive electronic music - Nintendo CEO

:pac:

liah

Video games don't affect kids, if pac-man affected us as kids we'd all be walking around in dark rooms munching magic pills while listening to repetitive electronic music - Nintendo CEO

...Perhaps I should reconsider my stance.. :pac:

Silverfish

Bill Hicks said that I believe, not the Nintendo CEO

Asphyxia

Silverfish wrote: »

Bill Hicks said that I believe, not the Nintendo CEO

Yeah I heard a few people were meant to have said it, my friend had it on a t-shirt and it had Nintendo CEO on it! Anyway it's still a deadly quote

Malari

I've tried but I can't manage them. I used to make Lara Croft continuously bump into a wall, while I shouted in frustation, much to the amusement of my brother.

Since I got my boyfriend a PS3 I've tried a few of those war games, rally stuff, etc, but I am officially useless. And very impatient.

I'm good at Zelda and Prof Layton though, so maybe it's just the way my brain works.

g'em

I used to have a mild obsession/ addiction to the C&C series but for some reason I could never really ever get into any other games and tried but ultimately failed to get into consoles.

Oh and put me in front of Transport Tycoon Deluxe and you can forget about getting anything coherent from me for at least 6 hours. Gawd I'm showing my age now

Logical Fallacy

Silverfish wrote: »

Bill Hicks said that I believe, not the Nintendo CEO

It was actually a British dude called Marcus Brigstocke I think?

Yep : It's on his Wiki so it must be true! lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Brigstocke#Pac-Man_joke

liah

I faintly remembering playing Dino Park Tycoon on my grandmother's mac when I was quite young. Always wondered why they didn't release more dinosaur games, I loved it

I was an insane Rollercoaster Tycoon addict there for awhile. Tried Zoo tycoon but it didn't have the same appeal.

I was a real sadist in RCT, though - I'd fence off small sections of my customers, then build ridiculously elaborate death trap rollercoasters for them to die in or leave them to wander a miniature, closed-off section of my park for all eternity. I like playing god. :P

Maybe I should download that game again, actually.. :pac:

Anyone ever play a game called Populous?

liliq

krudler wrote: »

Would a guy being a gamer put a girl off? I've been playing games since I was a kid and owned a NES (Mario 3 ftw!) have always had and always will be a gamer, thats never going to change ever. I'd never let gaming get in the way of a relationship though,its just a fun hobby.

I'm not a gamer but it hasn't put me off any guys I've been with...!

My ex loved his ps2 and then his xbox360... spent quite a bit of time playing them... I played some of the games with him... I loved Baldurs Gate, Zelda, Dark Cloud, played the odd bit of PES and Fifa, and had a go at all the Silent Hills up til then, and a few others. Oh and some of the Marvel games!!

My fiance now likes his games too... When he's having some ps time, I have some reading time, or mess about on the internet.
I enjoy watching some of the games more than I enjoy playing them! Watched a 3 hour endurance race in Gran Turismo recently...not sure why, but I got sucked in!

I think I've completed about 10 games in my entire life, and at least half were multiplayer... I'm not good at gaming on my own!

The wii is fun as well, but I don't use it very often, and the ds goes through phases of being used then put down!

g'em

liah wrote: »

I was a real sadist in RCT, though - I'd fence off small sections of my customers, then build ridiculously elaborate death trap rollercoasters for them to die in or leave them to wander a miniature, closed-off section of my park for all eternity. I like playing god. :P

LOL I used to do something similar in TT - buy really cheap engines and crash them into your competitor's high powered super-duper fancy schmancy trains. HA! Take that you random computer opponent :pac:

krudler

liah wrote: »

Anyone ever play a game called Populous?

Was that the sim city type thing where you could wipe out your villagers with floods and the like? remember renting it for the megadrive once.

liah

I also never played Age of Empires conventionally more than a few times - more often than not, I'd just go into the scenario build function and build glorious replicas of cities/villages/wars from fantasy/historical novels/films/etc, or set up hundreds upon hundreds of men, enough to fill the entire map, and let them fight to the death.

With The Sims, again I never played it the conventional way (i.e. following your character's life and all), I just used it to hone my interior design/architectural design skills :pac: Downloaded ridiculous amounts of custom content and created some incredibly interesting rooms/houses. Oh, and people - made beautiful, beautiful people, just to never end up actually playing with them.

Oh man, I'm getting some serious gaming nostalgia here.

Logical Fallacy

liah wrote: »

Anyone ever play a game called Populous?

Yeah, Populous used to be a pretty cool game! Spent many hours wasting my youth on it.

I'll give anyone who can remember Megalomania some major e-props.

LenaClaire

I like WoW

I don't play all the time but I go through phases where I play a lot for a while and then I won't touch it for months. I tend to play more in the winter when it is dreary outside and I need a little alternate reality.

liah

krudler wrote: »

Was that the sim city type thing where you could wipe out your villagers with floods and the like? remember renting it for the megadrive once.

Yeah, it was this tribal thing, it was a bit like Black and White but without the animal god things and not nearly as involved. You just raised your tribe throughout history, dealt with disasters, etc. Had it on PC though. Can't remember if it's any good or not..

krudler

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Yeah, Populous used to be a pretty cool game! Spent many hours wasting my youth on it.

I'll give anyone who can remember Megalomania some major e-props.

I remember Megalomania, I'm proabably getting that confused with Populous though. I think I wa born at the right time to be a gamer. was a kid in the Atari/NES days, early teens in the snes/megadrive, mid teens for the PS1, adult for the PS2 and xbox now the exact demographic for PS3/360.

kids these days dont know how good they have it with online guides and save spots everywhere, try playing Mega Man 2 or Super Ghouls and Ghosts from the beginning every time :cool:

Das Kitty

I don't play as much as I used to but weeks used to get sucked into games so I think that's a good thing!

The last thing I played all in and finished on my own was Black and White 2.

I used to play The Sims a lot. Liked to build the houses and use the money cheats . I built a cursed house once and killed Sims in all the various methods. Had a bitching cemetery plot that house

Morag

g'em wrote: »

Oh and put me in front of Transport Tycoon Deluxe and you can forget about getting anything coherent from me for at least 6 hours. Gawd I'm showing my age now

You should so give Black and White a spin, you get to be a god and you get a look pet to play with and give tummy rubs too.

Malari

Ooh, I just remembered Sonic! I was a whizz at Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive.

I donwloaded it for the iPhone recently but I can't get going. I seem to have lost my superpowers.

krudler

playing GTA Vice City is one of my fondest gaming memories, parking on the beach and watching the sun go down while Mister Mister's Broken Wings was playing, or flying over the city in a helicopter with Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice playing (before diving out and plummeting to the street :pac: ) good times

Cherry_Cola

My ex never used to play videogames but used to really love watching me play them, especially COD. I had my own cheerleader when I was racking up the kills

Silverfish

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

It was actually a British dude called Marcus Brigstocke I think?

Yep : It's on his Wiki so it must be true! lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Brigstocke#Pac-Man_joke

Well, don't I feel QUITE the fool.


Started gaming with my zx spectrum, then the Snes, megadrive, Saturn, etc etc.

Prefer FPS games, my first boards mod gig was the Battlefield forum, at that point I was playing battlefield 2 on average 8 hours a day.
Was actually starting to affect work and things, so had to reduce that
Was in a few BF2 clans, in the Clanbase leagues and stuff.

Then I bought an xbox and turned into Lazy Gamer ( and Games Cmod) but other stuff gets in the way a lot these days, although the last time I stepped down as Tll mod was so I could go play Forza. Looking forward to the next Gears of War and Oblivion.

Logical Fallacy

krudler wrote: »

I remember Megalomania, I'm proabably getting that confused with Populous though. I think I wa born at the right time to be a gamer. was a kid in the Atari/NES days, early teens in the snes/megadrive, mid teens for the PS1, adult for the PS2 and xbox now the exact demographic for PS3/360.

kids these days dont know how good they have it with online guides and save spots everywhere, try playing Mega Man 2 or Super Ghouls and Ghosts from the beginning every time :cool:

Heh, nice one! E-props for you!

My first gaming system was a ZX Spectrum, so i was loading games off tape. Went from that to an Amiga 500, then ended up getting a PC in the mid to late 90's. Switched to consoles when i bought my brothers PSOne off him for 50bucks.

But yeah, the early days were vicious, no saves, no nothing....just start from the start each time.

Silverfish wrote: »

Well, don't I feel QUITE the fool.

Not as bad the Nitendo CEO people....the guy who apparently said it was never, as in EVER, the CEO of Nintendo...it was just a made up name that became part of the myth of the quote. The only reason i even thought it was that British dude is because it's on a list of quotes i am researching for a Cracked article.

baby and crumble

Yup, big gamer here. I'm starting to build up a vaguely decent (for someone with no money!) retro collection too.

Current collection:

Xbox 360
Wii
DS
Xbox (which I lent my brother...)
PS1
Nintendo GameCube
Sega Dreamcast

The jewel in the crown was meant to be a near mint NES I had squirrelled away at home, but when I went to retrieve it my Dad had thrown it out because he thought it was a broken video player. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

At the mo I'm on a serious Guitar/Band Hero kick- just bought 2 controllers this past week and now my very non-gamer girlfriend (who used to to view it as a quirk of mine, and occassionally bought me some retro kit she saw in random shops in the UK when she lived there) is now addicted to it. Bwahahaha. I keep telling her it's a slippery slope... She's so into it we're actually hosting a gaming party this weekend for the bank holiday! Fun!!

My fave game ever, that I keep on replaying is Star Wars: KOTOR. That and Civ Rev for the 360. Oh and GTA IV. And I quite like the Fable series too. And I REALLY want to play Dragon Age II, but alas, I have not the money!

You do get funny looks though when you tell people you like playing video games as a girl. Especially the big role playing games and the like. People don't expect it. Initially when they hear I play video games they think I mean FarmVille.

I don't.

krudler

zoegh wrote: »

The jewel in the crown was meant to be a near mint NES I had squirrelled away at home, but when I went to retrieve it my Dad had thrown it out because he thought it was a broken video player. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Oh dear jesus...I'd lose the rag. I still have my Gameboy, as in the original black and white one from 1989, I bought it on holiday in America before it was released over here, was popular in school when I got back I can tell ya

I love retro games, have hundreds of roms on my laptop for MAME and old snes and megadrive emulators. cant beat a bit of old school arcade action. I had a fight stick controller and hooked my pc up to the tv so we could play 2 player Double Dragon on it, was fcuking awesome

baby and crumble

I honestly nearly did. On the same 'clean out' he nearly threw out my brothers collection of sealed 1st imprint comics.

We have all since moved entirely out of the house... (And come to terms with being a family of nerds!!!)

I defo need to pick another one up, I have some emulators too, but they just don't beat the feeling of knowing, just KNOWING, you're going to have to blow on the cart.

Did DL the original Gauntlet on my 360. Played it with a friend and all you could hear was "Oh God it's death. IT'S DEATH! RUN HE'S ZAPPING ME!!!!" "I can't run the little gnome guys are in the way!" "Shoot them then!" "I can't, they never die!!! Oh wait I have a potion..."
:D:D:D

krudler

zoegh wrote: »

I honestly nearly did. On the same 'clean out' he nearly threw out my brothers collection of sealed 1st imprint comics.

We have all since moved entirely out of the house... (And come to terms with being a family of nerds!!!)

I defo need to pick another one up, I have some emulators too, but they just don't beat the feeling of knowing, just KNOWING, you're going to have to blow on the cart.

Did DL the original Gauntlet on my 360. Played it with a friend and all you could hear was "Oh God it's death. IT'S DEATH! RUN HE'S ZAPPING ME!!!!" "I can't run the little gnome guys are in the way!" "Shoot them then!" "I can't, they never die!!! Oh wait I have a potion..."
:D:D:D

Ha you're not a gamer until you've had to blow into a NES cart to get it working, or wedge down the loading tray with cardboard because the spring broke on it :pac:

Blowfish

I've always been curious as to how games began to be stereotyped more as a guy thing than what it is, which is just another form of media/entertainment. I suppose it may be due to the portrayal of women in games which, bar a few exceptions has been pretty poor throughout video game history.

liah wrote: »

I was a real sadist in RCT, though - I'd fence off small sections of my customers, then build ridiculously elaborate death trap rollercoasters for them to die in or leave them to wander a miniature, closed-off section of my park for all eternity. I like playing god. :P

Maybe I should download that game again, actually.. :pac:

I used to do that too, along with trying to make a rollercoaster with the highest possible nausea rating to see how many people I could get vomiting.

liah

Videogames were branded as a guy thing from the off as they were branded a nerd thing in the beginning and at that time, being a nerd was a pretty much male-only thing; computers and electronics have always been seen as 'guy'/'nerd' things.

But people are finally starting to come around and in the next while the line will get fuzzier and fuzzier.

Dudess

Never got hugely into it but I can see the appeal. My only flirtation with it was in the early '90s and the stuff that was huge then - Super Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog, Street Fighter. SO addictive! There wasn't a games console in the house at that time though - it was only in friends'/cousins' houses that we played it, and when we'd get an occasional loan.

My brothers did have a Sinclair Spectrum in the '80s, with the cassette games and the ear-splitting loading noise, and it had to be connected to the TV.
We had pac-man on it (obligatory :pac:) and that tennis game with the two sticks hitting the little dot.
We also had a few of those tiny hand-held things - they were seriously addictive too. And a Space Invaders bigger hand-held thing (clearly I know my terminology :pac:).

In the mid 90s my brother gave me a loan (which I "forgot" to return) of his Game Boy. It had Supermarioland and Tetris. Man... the addictiveness. And that was where my relationship with games ended.

parker kent

yawha wrote: »

The dude has a Starcraft 2 sig.

Methinks he wasn't being 100% serious.

I've turned off sigs. I just remember during my maiden voyages on Boards finding them very annoying! So all ironic posts relating to sigs should have small print for non-sig people :pac: