Hello everyone. I want to ask all of you a question. How many of you consider yourselves gamers? I am writing a novel about gamers and superheroes, and the question came up as to the percentage of guys vs girls game. That got me to thinking that maybe the wrong question was being asked. Maybe we should be asking how many LGBT games and more to the point how many TG sisters and brothers game?
Definition:
Gamer: One who games, especially computer and/or Role Playing Games.
I justs gots to knowww!
hugs!
grover
Comments
Does Everquest and WoW count?
Does Everquest and WoW count? Still play both when I can get a chance. Alas poor Ryzom, I barely knew ye'. Oh! Almost forgot Guild Wars, but haven't played in a while...
Hugs,
Diana
No, not a gamer.
Heck, I don't even like to play cards!
Mr. Ram
Let's see...
Samirah M. Johnstone
Yep!
According the definition I found of gamers: One who plays games, especially COMPUTER or Role-playing Games. So if you play Computer games like WOW and others, yep you're a gamer! Congratulations!
hugs!
grover
Yes
I still play Guild Wars in a LGBT guild on occasion. I remember having this discussion in a gender support forum once. I think we worked out that more TGs by population played games. It's also a generational thing as younger TGs were much more likely to be gamers. There were also a large number of respondents who said that MMOs were actually their first experiences with presenting as female in any way, via avatars. In the end, games are escapist entertainment, young confused TGs or LGBTs are going to be drawn to them for the same reasons they have historically been drawn to books.
JL
I have the numbers to back that up, Grover
I'll find them, but as of the middle of this decade, Girl Gamers outnumbered the Boy Gamers -- I am one of the original Ladies of Hack (www.ladiesofhack.com).
I've been a gamer since I was 3 years old. Over 29 years of gaming.
I indulge in EVERY type and style of gaming.
"You got a problem with that? Roll for initiative, Monkeyboy!"
Numbers
A 2004 Nationwide (U.S.) Sociology study had these approximate numbers for the amounts of Girl Gamers:
That was four years ago. For source verification, PM me privately and I'll give you the personal email of the doctor of sociology who conducted the study. Women are not only a great part of roleplayers, but Gamers in general. We're the majority, at least in the United States. Why are we still considered a rarity? I guess in the recent years, the gamer market has finally started to skew towards us as they realized the amount of buying power we have.
Reliable
I have to say that I'd have to see several more studies with definitions of terms before I would completely credit those numbers. I've been a gamer for 45 years and I've always been a rarity. :) LARPS do skew to female since girls and women are more willing to be silly in public than men and boys. :) But I suspect the real numbers above are 10 to 20% lower.
One thing that would skew numbers would be Second Life where females do likely outnumber males, but is that a game or just a chatroom with animated accessories? (Whatever, it's fun.) But competitive, violence-themed games are more common and definitely skew male.
WOW and COH, both of which I play, have large numbers of female players, but still the male players are more numerous and play more often in my experience. On thing common in both of those is transgender playing, males often play female characters and vice versa. In COH, tg is almost the norm. :)
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Well...
I can PM you the personal email address for the guy who rand the study, from 1999 to 2003 he was gathering data, and produced the records for January of 2004 (by the way, 2L wasn't around then, and WoW wasn't around until that fall... CoH, EQ, UO, etc. are the MMORPGs). Oh, and when I had an active CoH account in 2004/2005, I had "Transgender Boi" as one of my 'toons. Made the cutest, most femme girl I could for the model. Heh.
Not doubting
That he did the study or got the results you posted. I just need more info before I believe in the numbers. :) It's so counter to what I've seen, it's as if someone posted a study saying that women drink more beer than men. LOL.
I've got a male toon in COH called "Valentine in Chains" who is such an obvious gay sub it's a hoot. :) But he's a healer so he gets the teams. :D
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
LGBT gamers
Thanks JL and Edeyn for all the information. Things are just changing so fast! I still play Guild Wars too, but am still a traditionalist. I love the old ways of the pen and paper Role-playing games. Roll them bones! It's wonderful to get together with the gang wasting time and seeing who can come up with the most memorable quotes. Of course the old way needs a Game Master (Game Mistress?) (GM's) and everyone has to make time to meet. The advantage is most GM's as told to me by a good friend is nothing more than frustrated authors themselves. The best are a combination of story teller and movie director. Nothing is better than a great tale personalized just for you and your friends, and guess what? You get to help in the telling.
Of course the computer makes it a lot easier when you don't have to schedule around others. Just turn that baby on, and away you go straight on till morning! Oh yeah, and the graphics are pretty too! Not to say some of those stories aren't good, but it is mass market after all.
It does seem to me that we have quiet the number of gamers here at BC from the relies I've gotten.
Thanks everyone!
hugs!
grover
gaming in the N.W
I have several friends who belong to several different groups who game. Mostly we game the old fashion way..... D&D 3.5 table top with dice, paper, war maps, funny voices and junk food.
We have been known to start a game Friday night and play until we drop about 4 a.m. then get up, eat breakfast and begin gaming about 11 and game until the wee hours of Sunday morning.
I used to be in a group that met every Mon. night for 4 hours for over a year, before our DM decided to move a state away.
We had one friend who would call us up 3 hours before the start of a game....... when we arrived, he would thrust unknown, untried,character sheets into our hands, speak to us individually for 2 minutes about our characters and then put us through a short senario...... at the end of the night, we would all vote on who was the best at bringing their character to life, and who did the best with what they were given. the winners went home with a prize.
My favorite way of gaming is sitting around in a room only lit by candles and fireplace.
Playing D&D was the first time I allowed myself to relax my restraints of my feminine brain and play girl characters....... this was before my wife found out that I am TG.... She didn't mind my playing girl characters, because I played them correctly, i.e. not brainless twits, nor hard nosed bitches. :)
I however, don't play games on line...... I get too addicted to themm and NOTHING else matters..... I loose my grasp on real life, so I don't play computer games. besides, I have more important things to do, such as writing Camp Kumoni, and Healing a Princess. :)
A.A.
speaking of which,
Now where did I put that whip? Need to start cracking it a little more often...
j/k hun, whenever is fine :P
Hugs
Diana
Gamer girls rule! ^^
I was born and raised a gamer, so a gamer girl I shall be ^^
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
Craft and Write
I currently play EQ2 and have played a number of other MMOs over the last 8/9 years. However, I basically am a crafter at heart, think I have grouped 3 times in 20 months. My hermit mode has been good for my writing as ever story on this site, I have posted, has been written while playing EQ2.
Write or game?
I find I'm that way too. If I'm gaming regularly my writing tends to suffer. I know I use RPGs as a large part of need to be fem. Maybe thats why I've been reluctant to adopt a feminine name. I've played a lot of different feminine characters during the last 28 years but this time it's me. When I figure it out I'll let you know! :)
When I don't game, writing takes its place.
hugs!
grover
Both for Me
I find I am the most productive at writing when I am signed onto a character. Rarely does what I write pour forth; therefore, I need something else to keep me entertained, so I stay at the computer, while trying to determine what the next sentence should say.
Hmm, let's see, I know it's
Hmm, let's see, I know it's an old topic, but hey, it's never too old. :-)
I have been playing non computer games for as long as I can remember.
My first computer game I played in 1978, a couple of months after that I got my first computer (ZX-81) and started writing them myself.
Now I don't write games anymore, however I never stopped playing.
Online SecondLife and OSGrid.
Offline, mostly WII/NDS games and board games with the children.
Regretably, no
I’ve noticed that role-playing games tend to develop creative storytelling abilities. Had I known about and become involved in RPGs earlier in my life when they first came out, I might have a broader horizon than just expository writing. I might’ve even been able to make meditation and active imagination work for me.