Guild Wars 2

I’m curious as to what it is. The last time I heard, it was about 1/3rd of the player base was female. But that’d mean for every 2 male players there would be one female player. Playing among the community, I don’t get that strong of an impression. (although I have run into several other fellow lady gamers)

I can guess it’d be impossible for an accurate number, but I’m still curious for a guesstimate.

I think it would be interesting to see the data on male vs female character ratios.

And comparisions to their real life counterparts.

I am male and my main is female. However, my 7 other characters are male.

There seem to be far more females playing GW2 than other games I’ve played, and more married couples playing together, too. I think at least part of the reason is that GW2 isn’t as… “masculine” as other games of the genre and has many “girly” elements to attract female gamers. Both Legendary bows are extremely feminine, for example. As a guy, I find Skritt to be really cool and they make me smile… but Quaggans are just far too cutesy (though still amusing at times) to have been designed by a guy for a male audience.

None of that is a bad thing, by the way.

Sokar Rostau.7316:

There seem to be far more females playing GW2 than other games I’ve played, and more married couples playing together, too. I think at least part of the reason is that GW2 isn’t as… “masculine” as other games of the genre and has many “girly” elements to attract female gamers. Both Legendary bows are extremely feminine, for example. As a guy, I find Skritt to be really cool and they make me smile… but Quaggans are just far too cutesy (though still amusing at times) to have been designed by a guy for a male audience.

None of that is a bad thing, by the way.

55 year old female gamer here who got her husband interested in MMO’s…. I play GW2 for two reasons:

1) dungeons are 5-man
2) game is not gear-centric (e.g. my “gear” does not play for me, the game permits me to use skill.)

One of the first MMO’s (outside of DAoC) in the last 13 years that I have really enjoyed for the “skill” aspect since I stopped playing FPS.

PS: Yes, my daughter and I both agree: Skritt are funny and Quaggans are too cutesy.

You know what they say about the Internet:

“Where the men are men, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents.”

I run into more female players than what you’d normally expect from an MMO in gw2. I guess gw2 has a better appeal to the female base than other games.

In WoW it was 10 to 1 in real life comparison in a poll done a while ago. That is a good rule of thumb.

I believe when this has been analyzed in MMOs in the past it pretty consistently seems to be about 80/20, which means 1/5 are female. That is already higher than a lot of people would assume, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to 1/3 nowadays.

There is no way to accurately find out the ratio between male and female gamers. From my 10 years of intense online gaming I feel that even though way more female gamers play games nowadays than 10 years ago there is still far less of them than male gamers. At least in these kind of games.

You will find that if you take all types of games into account that quite a lot of woman do play games of one kind or another but that they tend to lean towards games like the sims 3, Facebook games and just generally more towards games that have creative/less violent/more thoughtful/more social aspects. So the overall percentage could very well be something in the 1/3-1/5 range when combining all games.

While games that are targeted to a broader audience like MMO’s you will still see a much larger percentage of male gamers. That said from my experience in GW2 there are a lot more woman who play it than I ran into in other MMO’s like WoW, SWtor. I think this is because there are more elements that appeal to woman and I think it also helps that Arenanet has so many female developers.

Then there are the games that are more violent or aimed towards a male audience (Gears of War, Call of Duty etc.). You will find that the percentage of woman gamers will be lower there but definitely present and a lot better now than it once was (I come from the Jedi Knight series of games and am female so I remember when coming across another female gamer on there was fairly rare).

The point is, women play games. The old saying of ‘Women don’t play video games’ no longer applies and is silly at best sure the male percentage might still be higher but we can be as good and as bad as any guy in any game.

I think it’s good to stop distinguishing male and female gamers but rather just say ‘gamers’. At least that’s how I think about it and my observations.

my question is why does it matter .

goldenwing.8473:

Sokar Rostau.7316:

(snip)I think at least part of the reason is that GW2 isn’t as… “masculine” as other games of the genre and has many “girly” elements to attract female gamers.

55 year old female gamer here who got her husband interested in MMO’s…. I play GW2 for two reasons:

1) dungeons are 5-man
2) game is not gear-centric (e.g. my “gear” does not play for me, the game permits me to use skill.)

One of the first MMO’s (outside of DAoC) in the last 13 years that I have really enjoyed for the “skill” aspect since I stopped playing FPS.

PS: Yes, my daughter and I both agree: Skritt are funny and Quaggans are too cutesy.

Skritt > Quaggans 3/3 females agree

I’m a 44 year old woman and I play GW2 for lots of reasons – but they all add up to one big reason, which is they fixed everything I hated about the many other MMOs I’ve played.

It’s not the overtly girly stuff that attracts me to games (it actually drives me away from games almost as fast as Anime style graphics). The idea that rainbows and unicorns attract women is sort of regressive. What attracts women to games has a lot more to do with play style I think. I don’t like to come home from work and get all hyped up and confrontational in my games. I like to compete, but only when it’s mostly my skill against your skill, and it’s more strategy than reflexes. I’m a fan of WvWvW, and not that into sPvP.

Here’s some of the reasons I like GW2 of the top of my head

• fluid combat that requires you to be situationally aware and conserve your resources for the right moment
• it’s not gear centric
• there’s no mob/node/xp stealing <- I think this appeals to a lot of women
• level-scaling so I can wander around where ever I feel like it instead of having to plan out my quest arcs so I don’t out-level them
• transmutation stones and the dye system let me wear the gear that fits my build without looking like I’ve been dumpster diving. (And that’s not a girl thing – my man seriously spends more time making sure his avatars look cool than I do on mine)

I suspect 90% of the women/girls who play this game do so, because their husband/boyfriend play this game.

Playing a female character in the game was fun until I got hit on and realized that some people assume I am a female player. That was too disturbing for me, and I felt like a deceiver. I deleted that female and have had a male main since. Much easier to connect with the character and get about my business.

Sorry, OP, that doesn’t help answer your question though I suspect you weren’t going to get an accurate statistic on the forums anyway.

Sokar Rostau.7316:

As a guy, I find Skritt to be really cool and they make me smile… but Quaggans are just far too cutesy (though still amusing at times) to have been designed by a guy for a male audience.

I just had to jump on this one. Just a little factoid, Quaggans were actually jointly designed by press/fans (both men and women) and GW2 designers at PAX prior to release. I like the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde aspect of the Quaggan design myself. You think they’re cute, but don’t make them angry.

Also, I always find this sort of discussion interesting. A common thread is that a lot of guys assume that all the people they play with are male until proven otherwise. In many cases, women simply don’t out themselves for protection and to maintain anonymity. Otherwise, as history has proven, they are likely to be harassed by idiots. So, an informal count, as it were, would be difficult to ascertain. Other people have said it before, women have always been playing video games of all genres and are playing them more now. It’s safe to assume that the number you are looking for is higher than you think.

GW2, especially with the ongoing debates regarding skimpy armor and human female body design, has been attempting to do what more companies should have been doing all along which is bring more opinions to the table on what content is considered acceptable and not alienating. I think GW2 has tried to be pretty inclusive in terms of demographics. I don’t think we’ll ever see the hard numbers on this subject but I’m certain that you’d find there is a pretty varied demographic playing mmos today. Especially, GW2.

KaTNiSs.2498:

I suspect 90% of the women/girls who play this game do so, because their husband/boyfriend play this game.

I suspect your percentage is a bit off. Though certainly there are such ladies around, but as we have seen there is also the opposite: Those who dragged their male into the game.

I’m neither of the above. I’m a woman in mid-forties with a teenage daughter, who also plays though less than me.

I adore the Skritt, but I don’t dislike the Quaggan either. I am not cute like them, but I am nice and soft, most of the time. Unless I get really enraged. Then I show another side just like the Quaggan. All the ‘lesser’ races have many worthy creatures once you get to know them.

My first 5 characters were female and the youngest three are boys. I wanted some balance in my ‘team’. I play on an unofficial RP server and it may be partially because of that I feel odd thet people treat my characters as a different gender than they are. The assumption that a player is ‘bro’ even when the character is female is very prevalent. Although it also confounds me when a friend of mine keeps calling my big Norn guy ‘Miss’. I

In our 500-man guild I know 3 ladies and heard about one more. So yeah, you can see the trend.

Isslair.4908:

In our 500-man guild I know 3 ladies and heard about one more. So yeah, you can see the trend.

This.

It gave me an idea of the numbers actually. We have many players with Teamspeak and mics in our guild of 500 and we have peaked in the 100s of people on it at a time. Of all the people that have talked with mics, the women hardly even make up a 10th of that number.

Nova.8021:

It gave me an idea of the numbers actually. We have many players with Teamspeak and mics in our guild of 500 and we have peaked in the 100s of people on it at a time. Of all the people that have talked with mics, the women hardly even make up a 10th of that number.

I do wonder if the findings of this http://www.realityisagame.com/archives/1677/study-female-voices-in-online-games-get-less-respect/ have anything to do with your experienced numbers. I know I am timid about voice communication and actually did not even have a microphone until the beginning of this year.

Well, from my experience in MMOs female player tend to attract overreaction from some players. Though I’ve seen only positive, none of that trash talking from the link.
But I can see why some girls might avoid openly stating their gender to stay away from unwanted attention. Some actually like it, oth.

Garambola.2461:

Nova.8021:

It gave me an idea of the numbers actually. We have many players with Teamspeak and mics in our guild of 500 and we have peaked in the 100s of people on it at a time. Of all the people that have talked with mics, the women hardly even make up a 10th of that number.

I do wonder if the findings of this http://www.realityisagame.com/archives/1677/study-female-voices-in-online-games-get-less-respect/ have anything to do with your experienced numbers. I know I am timid about voice communication and actually did not even have a microphone until the beginning of this year.

You do raise a good counter-argument. I tip my hat to you as I was carelessly oversimplifying the matter.

Wanderer.3248:

You know what they say about the Internet:

“Where the men are men, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents.”

hahaha /giggle. You nailed it ^^

In my case, what made me pick GW2 was that I could finally, FINALLY play a female character that wasn’t so overly sexual. In past games I’d play male characters to avoid staring at a skimpy dressed female. Most of the good high leveled armor were like that.

The community in GW2 is also more mature and respectful. There are morons who’ll jump at the chance to verbally attack female gamers just to say something degrading. Nobody wants to put up with that. Send in a report and block it, sure, but it ruins your day.

I’ve only seen such an incident like that once here, and seeing how everyone, (men and women) jumped in to defend, actually made me have a bit of hope for all of humanity.

…Ok, sappy story finished. No one can guess the actual demographics, huh?

Sokar Rostau.7316:

As a guy, I find Skritt to be really cool and they make me smile… but Quaggans are just far too cutesy (though still amusing at times) to have been designed by a guy for a male audience.

Really? Woman number 4 here who prefers Skritt over Quaggans (my boyfriend loves them though).

We signed up as a couple, but I play more than him. Both of us had an MMO background before we met. If you assume that I am only here as my boyfriend’s “+1”, based on my gender, then sorry, I find that a little bit insulting; like I can’t have my own genuine interests. I have always been a gamer, many women are.

To the OP’s question: We play on TC and sometimes I’m under the impression that the majority of players is female. I’ve been thinking about why that is. Maybe because TC is one of the servers that roleplayers claimed early on (I have my own silly gender stereotypes, it seems). Or maybe I am just under the impression that there are more women than men on our server because the women post on the forums more… ? I don’t know.

However, it is really nice to be in an environment where the distribution seems (!) even; it challenges me to not assume every player of a male character is male, etc. etc.
On the same note, I am glad that the age span is quite diverse.
Both factors make for more interesting /map chat, guild / community experiences, and so on..

What I find interesting is that people assume you are male even when you are a woman playing a female character.
No one will ever know the real statistics, many women myself included do not advertise our gender online.

To posters who say that cute elements, sims 3, and Facebook games appeal more to women- that is kind of insulting and a very archaic viewpoint imo.

I know women who excel at very competitive “male” oriented genres.
I think one of the main reasons why women don’t advertise in video games is exactly for this reason- they just don’t get taken seriously.
That goes for TS too, women I know avoid voice chat unless they personally know the people at the other end.

I also couldn’t care less if characters are running around in skimpy armour- I have never been offended by stuff like that.
One of my characters gets hit on quite a bit, and usually by people who then call me bro.
That is a bit weird but I don’t find it offensive

As a woman who has been gaming and online for years now, I just want to add that the notion that women don’t obviously ‘out’ themselves and that online, men assume they’re dealing with other men, has a lot of truth.

The reasons for this have been stated in previous posts, discrimination, abuse, assumptions of incompetence etc. I know not every guy online has behaved like this, but enough have for women like myself to behave ‘gender neutrally’ online.

My first MMO, LOTRO (EU server), surprised me with its mature community. As I got into raiding it was awesome to connect with other strong female gamers, and it was also a great feeling to have my male teammates trust me implicitly in the role of ‘main tank’. Sadly, this trust did not extend to the role of healer, but tbh, after tanking for so long, it was hard hanging at the back just playing my loot. My healing was not on par with my tanking XD.

Having been in GW2 now since headstart, I must say that 99% of the community is every bit as mature and helpful as those of LOTRO. I’ve heard the WoW stories, I’ve experienced blatant sexism myself online in chat and forums, but GW2 has been a great space to game in so far.

All my toons are females of different races, sometimes folks assume I’m a mate, bro or dude. Sometimes they don’t. But most often it doesn’t even come up, and that’s the most important part for me. Actual gender doesn’t matter, but gaming skill, courtesy and a general sense of respect for others does.

KaTNiSs.2498:

I suspect 90% of the women/girls who play this game do so, because their husband/boyfriend play this game.

I think that’s quite an outdated assumption. Most of the woman I meet play it because they want to and started playing it because of their interest in the game. Like myself I came to the game out of interest in it myself. There’s even some who dragged in their husband/boyfriend to play it with them. Certainly there are some women who do play the game because of their boyfriend but I think you’ll find that percentage to be closer to 30%

dislocated.4673:

As a woman who has been gaming and online for years now, I just want to add that the notion that women don’t obviously ‘out’ themselves and that online, men assume they’re dealing with other men, has a lot of truth.

The reasons for this have been stated in previous posts, discrimination, abuse, assumptions of incompetence etc. I know not every guy online has behaved like this, but enough have for women like myself to behave ‘gender neutrally’ online.

A lot of woman do this and I can understand because I face similar unwanted attention however I’ve always persisted from the start to not pretend to be or hide the fact that I’m female mainly because I feel the longer we hide the longer it will take for people to accept that women play and can be good at gaming.

So I stuck with that from the start and persisted through the abuse and because of people like me who didn’t hide it’s become more and more accepted that women play games and women face less abuse overall because it’s becoming more accepted (It’s also more fun to beat up the ones that say women suck at gaming and should go to the kitchen knowing that you are female)

I think it’s something like 70/30 on GW2, though you can never really tell on this game, you’ll have dudes playing girls, girls playing dudes and it seems like practically everyone has a gender neutral name for their character so I’m left completely clueless. It also makes it impossible to make presumptions about people based on their character which I think is a good thing.

It is not 50/50 and is higher than the 1 in 10 thrown out earlier. Don’t think even ANET can if they wanted to give a real value to the ratio. In LOTRO there is voice chat built into the game. Every large pug that can be done at end-game had 1 or 2 female voices and several people (male or female) who never speak. Since GW2 does not have this feature even the bare minimum number can’t really be guessed at. I personally play both male and female toons and when on my female toons have never been hit on. Have had people ask but that is not an issue at least for me since I answer and they stop asking.

I would love to quote all of the ladies in the thread but I settled for up-voting instead. I don’t announce that I’m a woman, because the den-mothers who insist on being the center of attention because they’re a girl annoy me. I’m not reluctant to jump on to voice chat though, and I do correct folks who address me as male (unless I’m playing a male avatar).

In general I don’t feel excluded because I’m a woman. I’m in a guild that’s mostly I Australian and I feel more excluded for being an American than female. Apparently there’s a perception that most homophobic, misogynistic, ignorant, rude players are from the US. Treating folks as part of a group instead of as an individual is bad behavior regardless of which group you’re lumping them into (well in social terms, if you’re doing a statistical study, carry on).

It would be nice if folks could just be polite when they’re in the company of strangers. You shouldn’t act differently than you act when you’re hanging out with your buds at home because there could be a woman around. You should act differently because you’re in public and being respectful of other folks is just civilized.

So the attached image may be too old a reference for some of y’all but I got a kick out of it.

There are quiet a few female players, however they dont run around and yell “im a gurl, gimme attention and free items”.. with the exception of a few. Most usually dont mention their gender and just play the game. So overall id say the ratio would be something like 3:2 (60% male, 40% female).
Also, im a guy.

All these threads do is encourage people to spout a bunch of sexist nonsensical statements and ridiculous generalizations about the opposite sex.

“90 percent of females only play cause their boyfriends do”

“Girls like gw2 because it’s cutesy”

Enough with this.

People play GW2 because it’s a kitten good game, and it suits their gaming needs. That’s all. We’re all people who like gaming and our sex shouldn’t be brought into the equation at all because it’s irrelevant. The sooner we realize this the better.

Snow White.9680:

People play GW2 because it’s a kitten good game, and it suits their gaming needs. That’s all. We’re all people who like gaming and our sex shouldn’t be brought into the equation at all because it’s irrelevant. The sooner we realize this the better.

On one hand I agree that the best way to combat bad perceptions is to just be the person that doesn’t fit the perception.

On the other hand, I think it’s important to talk about this stuff because folks need to know what’s in their head doesn’t sync up with reality. There are some folks out there that believe that most girls game because their boyfriends do. If they never say it out loud and have women come forward to say “I’m an example of someone who doesn’t fit your perception” how will they ever change their thinking?

I do think it’s important though to just dispel the perception without judging the character of the person that holds it. Anyone can have a mistaken view when they don’t have enough information (there’s that fable about the blind men trying to figure out what an elephant is by only feeling different parts of it…)

I apologize for not being able to offer a link but I do remember there was a study on this and the ratio was actually 52% male, 48% female. Study was for all games tho, not just Guild Wars 2.

My wife and I play Guild Wars 2 together. Before this we played Rift together and before that we played Guild Wars 1 together.

Even when I gave up on Rift as hopeless, my wife continued to play…and raid. All by herself. I had no interest in playing the game, but she did.

My wife doesn’t really go for cute and cuddly (clearly because she married me). She prefers dark and dire. She was a big fan of Ultima 4 before I ever met her, and that was a long, long time ago.

Plenty of women love dark fantasy and science fiction and gaming. In fact, it’s gotten to a point at science fiction conventions where there are more women than men.

It’s time to take our heads out of the dark ages.

Sex IS relevant. Garambola brought up an excellent point of why that is exactly.

Gaming has been a male dominion almost from the beginning. It’s only fairly recent that women find their way in games. And not only the facebook type games, but the MMO’s, RPG’s, shooters, strategy games as well. I have been seriously gaming since I was 15 (now 27), starting with diablo2.

My first online experience was GW1. My first 4 or 5 guilds were horrible. They were filled with immature pre-teens who, once they discovered my gender, could only talk about my female parts or having sex. I would haven given up on online gaming completely, if I hadn’t found a mature 18+ guild in time. And even though that was years ago. I still don’t like using voice chat or telling people my gender because of those experiences.

In my opinion, it is very relevant to talk about this, so that this new curious generation of gaming females will not go through what I went through, putting them off gaming forever. I’ve found the community in GW2 to be refreshingly mature. Even if there is a harassing kitten in mapchat, he is called down very quickly by other players. I haven’t yet seen the kind of stuff like I do in some other games. I really hold this community to be the standard the entire gaming community should be.

I do think it has to do with the fact that GW2 really is a cooperative game instead of a competitive one. It attracts a different breed of players. It has nothing to do with quaggans or unicorn bows. The people who think all females are instantly attracted to cuteness and will go to any length to get to the cuteness, need to get to know their girlfriends better It’s the same as saying that all men only play this game for the rampant female nudity. It’s shallow, and untrue.

And… skritt>quaggans anytime

Vayne.8563:

Plenty of women love dark fantasy and science fiction and gaming. In fact, it’s gotten to a point at science fiction conventions where there are more women than men.

I think you’re so right about that… if you want to draw me to a game purely by graphics alone, you would make a Warhammer 40K Inquisition MMO. I loved Space Marine but I couldn’t play it because I kept stopping to watch my avatar stomp the heads off of orcs and ended up getting killed.

Actually I think women have it easier than guys in this regard. We can play Hello Kitty if we’re attracted to it, and we can play Space marine if we’re attracted to it and no-one will seriously question our sexuality. I feel for the guys that are attracted to things that have been labelled feminine. My man still insists that I make him watch Project Runway, even though he’s obviously straighter than a ruler.

My wife like the Quaggons over the Skritt, but as games go the story is similar, in ways, to Vayne’s.
My wife and I have played games together since Diablo II.
She’s followed me here and there, but this last few years it was Rift, Eve, and now GW2 (side note: We originally looked into GW2 for the pay structure, as it makes it easier for us to stop a few months if needed).
Along the way , we both have met several other female gamers. In my experience so far, it would seem to me that women in MMO’s are more common than most realise, but part of the issue is the reluctance to reveal their gender due to problems that arise from doing so.

I wanted to point out with a lot of people using the stereotype of ‘cute and cuddly’ as if it’s a bad thing to like those things. That there is nothing wrong with women liking cute and cuddly stuff. My asura is pink and cute where as my warrior looks like Xena basically.

To say if someone likes cute things it is somehow bad in some way and makes them less of a player is as much of a bad thing to say as ‘girls only play games because of their boyfriend’. I know plenty of men in game who love quaggans, kittens, wear pink and girly outfits, run around with dreamer bow. So what?

You are still allowed to like cute or feminine things as a female who games and still be just a gamer. Just as much as others might like more dark stuff. This is just a matter of preference and should in no way dictate what makes a gamer and what doesn’t. I can still beat you up as my little cute pink asura if you don’t play well enough. I don’t need to be super scary big charr/norn to do that.

When people address me as male I correct them, I sometimes bring it up when I get to know people and I ask them about who they are just the same as I sometimes ask how old people are or where they are from. But at the same time I don’t go around shouting ‘Look I’m female AMG it makes me so special’ I’m special because I’m me and I’m unique in my own ways just like everyone else is special in their own way.

So what that I like cute pink fluffy things, I also like gears of war and beer. People really need to stop putting negative connotation to anything considered feminine as if it’s a bad thing

(Edit: Just to make my point even further, see attached screenshot, that’s my ‘main’ that I’ve played on for about 2200 hours. It’s just a preference it means nothing in regards to my gaming abilities or experience.)

Pandemoniac.4739:

Vayne.8563:

Plenty of women love dark fantasy and science fiction and gaming. In fact, it’s gotten to a point at science fiction conventions where there are more women than men.

I think you’re so right about that… if you want to draw me to a game purely by graphics alone, you would make a Warhammer 40K Inquisition MMO. I loved Space Marine but I couldn’t play it because I kept stopping to watch my avatar stomp the heads off of orcs and ended up getting killed.

Actually I think women have it easier than guys in this regard. We can play Hello Kitty if we’re attracted to it, and we can play Space marine if we’re attracted to it and no-one will seriously question our sexuality. I feel for the guys that are attracted to things that have been labelled feminine. My man still insists that I make him watch Project Runway, even though he’s obviously straighter than a ruler.

I have it real easy. I don’t really care what people think of me. And I like a lot of stuff that “real men” (whatever the hell they are) wouldn’t approve of. In fact, I generally get along better with women than men. I tend to be more sensitive, I tend to be more verbal and I tend to be more communicative, all things generally associated with women.

I can cry while watching a dog food commercial too.

I write poetry. I’ve written romances.

Yeah, I’m a man’s man. lol

Vayne.8563:

Pandemoniac.4739:

Vayne.8563:

Plenty of women love dark fantasy and science fiction and gaming. In fact, it’s gotten to a point at science fiction conventions where there are more women than men.

I think you’re so right about that… if you want to draw me to a game purely by graphics alone, you would make a Warhammer 40K Inquisition MMO. I loved Space Marine but I couldn’t play it because I kept stopping to watch my avatar stomp the heads off of orcs and ended up getting killed.

Actually I think women have it easier than guys in this regard. We can play Hello Kitty if we’re attracted to it, and we can play Space marine if we’re attracted to it and no-one will seriously question our sexuality. I feel for the guys that are attracted to things that have been labelled feminine. My man still insists that I make him watch Project Runway, even though he’s obviously straighter than a ruler.

I have it real easy. I don’t really care what people think of me. And I like a lot of stuff that “real men” (whatever the hell they are) wouldn’t approve of. In fact, I generally get along better with women than men. I tend to be more sensitive, I tend to be more verbal and I tend to be more communicative, all things generally associated with women.

I can cry while watching a dog food commercial too.

I write poetry. I’ve written romances.

Yeah, I’m a man’s man. lol

My guess is that your wife wouldn’t have you change.
Don’t put yourself down like that

Fay.2735:

So what that I like cute pink fluffy things, I also like gears of war and beer. People really need to stop putting negative connotation to anything considered feminine as if it’s a bad thing.

I agree with you. There was at least one post in the Female Clothing thread that got removed for ridiculing the OP for wanting a dress available in the gem store.

I’m not that into cute but I don’t think less of the folks that are… if we all had the same taste, there would only be one skin and one color scheme for everything in the game. Boooring. I thought the princess wand and some of the other items from the Winter event made for some absolutely adorable get-ups that I enjoyed seeing.

We don’t even know if it is 1/5th some you guys may be getting Catfished and don’t even know it

like i said before why does it even matter if its guy or a girl behind the screen? Its like asking the ratio of white to black people who play shooters , nobody knows and nobody cares nor should they .

Isslair.4908:

In our 500-man guild I know 3 ladies and heard about one more. So yeah, you can see the trend.

And this is why we need to be careful about interpreting statistics. A lot of people might read this anecdote and assume 4 of every 500 players are female. But you have to ask:
- Does this person actually know all 500 guild members? He even said one of them was just a player he “heard about,” so he admits to only having firsthand contact with a limited segment of the guild.
- Are female players as likely as males to join a 500-member guild, let alone actively take part in one? Maybe they just don’t get personal with the guild at large.
- As soon as IRL females reveal themselves as such, there is a certain risk that this will attract attention (positive or negative). Some of them don’t want to make it a “thing,” and would rather just play the game than get their chat flooded with questions, flirting, whispers, excessive mail and gifts — even if the motivations behind it are innocent enough.

Also, you have to be careful about “polls.” The only reliable statistics you could possibly get are if ArenaNet actually compiled user data from their own records. Posting surveys online for unrestricted and anonymous participation will invite abuse, false answers, and only gathers data about a very small slice of the population. And it’s not just the sample size, either — if we made a poll in this thread, right now, all we would get is a survey of people who visit the forums, and happened to see this thread, and have a vested interest in promoting awareness of whichever gender they want people to think is represented.

Isslair.4908:

In our 500-man guild I know 3 ladies and heard about one more. So yeah, you can see the trend.

And in my 50-member guild, we have…at least 8 (myself included), and I know 5 female friends who also play.

Interesting thread.

38 year old female gamer here, and I’ve been gaming ever since my Dad brought home a Commodore VIC 20 (how I loved playing GORF!) I have never been hauled into a game because my partner wanted me to play with him – in fact, the exact opposite is true. I lured my boyfriend into GW2, and he loves it as much as I do, now that he’s given it a chance.

As a female gamer, I get a little defensive when people automatically assume I am male based on my skill in game: basically, if I am good at playing, I must be male. I can remember playing LOTRO for years, and people would be stunned that I was a woman when I main-healed on my Minstrel, or range-tanked on my Hunter.

“Wow, you’re a girl? But you’re so good!”

Yeah, that felt really nice to hear =P

I think perceptions are changing these days, but I think it is also safe to assume there are more males playing games than females still. I can see changes in the games I play today, making gaming more appealing to women in general. For example, “Bioshock: Infinite” has Elizabeth as a sidekick who can take care of herself in combat, as well as a deeply moving storyline.

I choose games to play based on whether I like the mechanics, graphics, setting, story, and music. I don’t choose a game because it is thought to be “female-friendly” – I choose what appeals to me. “Borderlands” and “Halo” are just as appealing to me as “Ni no Kuni” and “Little Big Planet.”

I have 2 male characters, 5 female ones, and often confuse others to the point they have to ask what my gender is (I generally don’t TeamSpeak/Ventrillo, which is when most people find out about my gender). I just don’t think it matters, gender is meaningless in here. If you are confused for a female or a male, you are still yourself, and it shouldn’t matter. I like to live through my characters, but also want THEM to come alive, so they are more important than what my real-life gender is.

Pandemoniac.4739:

I would love to quote all of the ladies in the thread but I settled for up-voting instead. I don’t announce that I’m a woman, because the den-mothers who insist on being the center of attention because they’re a girl annoy me. I’m not reluctant to jump on to voice chat though, and I do correct folks who address me as male (unless I’m playing a male avatar).

In general I don’t feel excluded because I’m a woman. I’m in a guild that’s mostly I Australian and I feel more excluded for being an American than female. Apparently there’s a perception that most homophobic, misogynistic, ignorant, rude players are from the US. Treating folks as part of a group instead of as an individual is bad behavior regardless of which group you’re lumping them into (well in social terms, if you’re doing a statistical study, carry on).

It would be nice if folks could just be polite when they’re in the company of strangers. You shouldn’t act differently than you act when you’re hanging out with your buds at home because there could be a woman around. You should act differently because you’re in public and being respectful of other folks is just civilized.

So the attached image may be too old a reference for some of y’all but I got a kick out of it.

This ^. Other than this post, I don’t go around announcing I’m a 22 year old woman because 1) I don’t think it matters that much and 2) I don’t feed on being the center of attention. I like to be “just one of the guys” when I play games. I don’t usually correct people when they say “Thanks bro”, or “dude” because in my head I’m thinking “I’m blending mwuahahaha”. I feel included and accepted. Once it’s been figured out I’m a girl (usually via Team Speak/Skype/Vent/RaidCall) I’m either 1) suddenly treated differently or 2) nothing changes. I prefer #2. When #1 happens, it’s usually either me getting hit on/flirted with, getting slammed with kitchen jokes/that’s what she said, or the chat will turn awkward. I can turn around and dish out kitchen/feminine jokes all day and not be offended, but when that’s all the conversation devolves into every time you want to talk, it gets old.

I think quaggans and skritt are cute and adorable.

As far as other games go, I play Battlefield 3 and get top 3 on the board every round. I love my G53, my SG553, my M240B, my F2000, and of course those adorable shock paddles I zap people with (too fun!). I find the sims to be too slow paced, but I like Age of Mythology and Zoo Tycoon (mostly because I feed my guests to the tigers). I’m a beast in most of the games I play because when I’m not at work/swimming/working out (yes, I am an athlete as well) I am spending 8+ hrs a day on video games. On Saturdays and Sundays when I don’t have to work, or work out, I play video games all day. Of course if my boyfriend wants to get together, the video games can wait.

I like video games because honestly I think it does help with eye-hand coordination/reaction time. Sports and video games are the perfect marriage. Go work out/play a sport then come home and play some games. One of the reasons I really like Guild Wars 2 is the underwater aspect of it. It really reminds me of when I go spearfishing in the Atlantic. Though I wish I could reload my pole spear/spear gun as fast as my game character can.

I think estimates will always be skewed because a lot of people will assume everyone is male unless told/proven otherwise. I play mainly female characters (4/6 including my main) and don’t make any secret of the fact that I’m female in real life too but unless I say so everyone calls me “he”.

Although, in my GW1 guild we had a running joke that if you want to know for sure all you have to do is start a conversation about dying your armor. Women will debate different colour schemes and shades but men will go for black, black and more black. Of course it’s not true, but it made for some fun conversations.

Personally I’ve never experience any negativity because of being female. I’ve been hit on twice but one was very polite and the other was no different to what you’d get from overly optimistic people in real life.

As for why I play I suppose you could say my brother got me into the game, he started playing GW1 before me and watching him is what got me interested. But I’ve been a gamer my entire life (serious I started when I was 2 years old and fascinated by the squishy buttons on the ZX Spectrum) and have always loved RPGs so it was really only a matter of finding out there is such a thing as a subscription free MMO.

Nova.8021:

Isslair.4908:

In our 500-man guild I know 3 ladies and heard about one more. So yeah, you can see the trend.

This.

It gave me an idea of the numbers actually. We have many players with Teamspeak and mics in our guild of 500 and we have peaked in the 100s of people on it at a time. Of all the people that have talked with mics, the women hardly even make up a 10th of that number.

Women also don’t participate in large guild events or highly competitive game-play nearly as much, and make up a higher percentage of the ‘casual’ playerbase.