Popular Misconceptions

 There has always been false judgement on video gamers... from being a nerd, loner, and a loser to being a fat virgin living in their grandma's basement (and I mean at 40 years old, Collector's Edition Darth Vadar helmet and all)... and now the stereotypes today, from live gaming, has now pushed the envelope even further for misconceptions, especially for girl gamers.

  One example is that game developers think that their clientele is made up of sad, horny, teenage men. How else do you explain all the boobs you see in video games these days? I'm not joking, while surfing the internet for video game lists, there came up "Top 25 best boobs in video games". How sad do you have to be to sit there and literally study these images on your gaming console to make up a list?

  Now, if people's ignorant judgements were right, I'd be a 10yo boy who is also a 300lb girl... who just so happens to be lesbian.. which might be nice since I tried to find one on the internet and I couldn't find one, which would make me the first EVER!!! (I hate the multiple explanation marks, but this called for it).

 To actually demonstrate my point on how the guys perception on girl gamers is wrong, I'll be comparing girl gamers vs. guy gamers side by side.. while being completely unbiased (maybe).

The Girl Gamer:     
   Now, gamepro.com says that one student in some big whoopdy-doo university in Belgium did a study with over 900 people and found out that girls find video games "too complicated.. which, if I spent all 20 years of my life playing manegment games and The Sims, I would think that running around a random map and killing people would be slightly complicated too. But ofcourse, me growing up playing games like Zelda, Mario, and Goldeneye 007 has prepared me to play something like CoD and has taught me to atleast explore the map and to know the guns before I just go out there and "wing it".. so, we'll just ignore that study and say that it was completely pointless to hand someone something they know nothing about, and expect them to be able to figure it out and master it in what was most likely 30 minutes of gameplay.

   Here's the awesome news, according to Entertainment Software Association, 25% of console players, and 39% of gamers on the PC are women... and that was in 2004. In today's society, female gamers that are 18+ make up 34% of gamers completely. That's like.... for every 3 guys, there's 1 and a half girl. And sure, some girl gamers are horrible, trust me.. I've played with several other girls and have even been a part of some all-girl clans, and some girls are just flat out horrible but not once have I ran into the stereotypical "fat and ugly" girl gamer.

 Honestly, I know guys just throw insults like "you're fat" because they feel completely emasculated by a female who has more talent at video games than they do.. but if I was fat, I would not be able to move my thumbs that fast in order to kill you over 10 times, let alone the rest of your sad, sad team.

 The Guy Gamer:

   Hey fellas, ever wonder why game developers make the main guy character so scrumdiddlyumptious? Because they feel like you all look like this guy, and you need an aesthetically pleasing model to look up to... after all, the main character in games is daring, smart, sexy, brave, and ambitious... and it's their very special way of telling you "hey you! you suck! Now be amazed by this character that you're being forced to play, and be in awe of the things he can do that you could only wish of! Mwuahahah!". Seriously... that's what they do, they have board meetings for this sort of thing, why? Because NO ONE wants an ugly superhero. Look at Quasimodo from the Huntchback of Notre Dame... did he get Esmerelda? No, no he did not.. even if he loved her.. instead, she fell for the gorgeous Captain Phoebus who she probably knew for 3 seconds.

Now, I'm not dissing this guy on any level, but you know what? I don't know how many times I've had some jerk on the 360 call me fat and ugly, and I counter-insult him and he tells me to look him up on facebook... and what do I do? I look him up on facebook and have a good chuckle to myself at the fact that I was able to call off his bluff, and trust me.. this has happened on more than a few occasions. Now, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the average gamer is 35 years of age, overweight, aggressive, introverted, depressed... and male. Another study shows that games usually are marketed towards men because they fulfill the deep-rooted urge in order to conquer and dominate (click here to read).

   Now, I'm not trying to stir the pot or fuel the fire when it comes to stereotypes... and I know every gender and race has it's stereotypes... but come on people, this isn't the 1500's. Technology isn't what it used to be anymore.. time to update the human species and the way we consider things.

 

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