'Fake' Gamer Girls

In the gaming community, there is this epidemic known as the Fake Gamer Girl. These are females that, knowing video gaming is a male-dominated society, is a great place to get attention from guys. Whether or not they would actually date a gamer is irrelevant. They dress in revealing cosplay, talk about how they play Call of Duty or Mario like it's the only game in existence, all the while knowing little about the game they claim the love. The girls that call Link Zelda, or visa versa.

These girls DO exist, but are not nearly as prevalent as we think. I am a female gamer. I have been playing video games since I could hold a controller, and watching others play them before that. Yet, not once, have I come across a girl that plays video games in order to get the attention of boys. I certainly don't. I also don't cosplay to get the attention of men, but that's a conversation for another blog post. I have heard stories about the elusive 'Fake Gamer Girl', but have yet to actually meet one.

Men do not make the overwhelming majority of gamers anymore. Us girls make up nearly half, though not exactly a full half, of gamers. Yet there are so many tropes and stigmas to being a female gamer that men do not face. This is one of them.

If a girl claims to be a gamer, but doesn't meet some kind of hidden criteria to the person asking, they are called 'fake'. If they dress in revealing costumes, there is no way they can be ACTUAL gamers, because ACTUAL gamers just don't, so it HAS to be because they want the attention of men. It couldn't possibly be because we generally like the character, and the fact that the costume is revealing is the fault of the - usually male - designers. If a girl is pretty, they can't be gamers because real girl gamers are ugly and/or fat. Now, ignoring the fact that pretty is in the eye of the beholder, my good friend Gina, aka RikkuGrape, definitely a gamer. Through and through. She's also a very pretty girl, and a semi-well known Cosplayer, as well as a Geek Girl. She isn't fake; I've seen her freak out over the League of Legends development team at PAX, play very enthusiastic games of Mario Party, and named Tidus from FFX Turdus the first time through and spent years accidentally (sometimes on purpose) calling him thus in random conversations. It's a similar case with most of my other girl friends (the gamers, at leasts).

Name a stereotype about female gamers, or gamers in general, and I can show you a true gamer who breaks that trope. When I play online games, I don't yell and scream at the screen when I don't win, or call people 'n00bs' or 'fags' or anything else. I'm relatively quite, focused, or if I'm in a room with friends, laughing and having a good time. When I play by myself, I usually play in a lit room and don't play for hours on end at a time. I don't have the attention span for it (except for a few games. Like Minecraft. I could play Minecraft for DAYS).

Every now and then, a 'real' Fake Gamer Girl comes along. And these girls make a terrible name for the rest of us. But guys, it's not just the girls. There are Fake Gamer Boys as well. Ones who only play CoD and nothing else, denouncing all other video games that don't involve mass killing as childish and not worth their time. Then there are those who claim to play games to impress us, the girl gamers. Seems silly, doesn't it? Well, they exist too, guys. They are rare, just like Fake Gamer Girls, but their counterpart exists.

Why do we hear about the girls more? Because humans fear change. The video game industry has been dominated by men for most of its life, both the players and developers. Because of that, females were largely thought to be either extremely rare, or to not exist at all. But when that demographic started changing, some refused to accept it. Even now, there is harassment in gaming based solely on the outdated idea that girls that don't play games.

Sometimes, its easier to believe that these 'outsiders' (females) are only trying to impress us. That they really don't LIKE or WANT to be gamers, but want our attention.

But girl gamers are here to stay. Pretty, ugly, skinny, fat, dark, light, gay, bi, straight, amazing female gamers. We're not here to impress you, we are here to game.

So let's game.

A female gamer,
Scarlet

On Writing and NaNoWriMo

I am participating in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writer's Month. The challenge, for those who don't know, is to write 50000 words, or roughly half a fantasy novel, in a month. This is extremely difficult and not many people actually succeed in it. I, however, am ahead at the moment. I've written about 22000 words so far, and hope to write more before bed tonight. That translated to about 91 pages, with the way I have my computer document formatted.

Anyway, I've had people ask if I'm participating in NaNo this year. I say yes, but with the caveat that I plan to complete it and complete the novel. I've seen friends who use NaNo as an opportunity just to write something they now will never be published simply for the sake of writing it. Others use it to write fanfiction, or get their asses in gear. So I've always found that saying you're 'participating in NaNo' is a bit inaccurate. I want to publish someday, and I put all my effort into my stories. The stereotype of NaNo novels is that they are all terrible, unedited pieces of trash. But guess what? They are also first drafts, so of course they're terrible. I have never come across a first draft of any novel that's written well. And that includes what I write.

Writing for fun is different than writing to be published. The difference is, with the first when you're done your done. With the second, you are never done. A manuscript is never finished until it's in print. Even as an unpublished author, I understand this. And even then, you find typos, like the one's I've found in Harry Potter books. They are few and far between, but that's the way it is. Nothing's perfect. And a first draft, like a NaNo story, is no exception.

Your first draft and your NaNoWriMo story are terrible pieces of trash. Deal with it, and edit the thing into awesomeness.

Resident of the Evil,
Scarlet

A Brief Interlude for Seriousness

My life has undergone many changes in the last year. I've gone between periods of intense productivity, intense depression, and my social and family life falling apart. My grandfather died of cancer, I was diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses, and many, many other things.

But I've kept going.

Why? My friends, my support, those who care for me, and my writing. The things that keep me going, as hard as it may be, are what's important. Your life can completely fall apart, but so long as you have someone who cares about you, there's a reason not to quit. It took me a long time to realize that, and sometimes it's hard for that to be enough.

But it is.

So if you ever feel down, like the world is ending and you just want to leave it, don't. Remember the people you would leave behind. Even the one's you barely know. Because you effect people, even if you've only talked to them once. And if you're gone, you can't effect anyone else. Ever.

So keep going strong, everyone, and don't let yourself get down.

A newbie Nerd Fighter,
Scarlet