Friday, August 5, 2011

In Which I Recount my Single Awkward Experience as a Female Gamer on Ventrilo

I stumbled across this post, essay, whatever, today, extolling the trials and tribulations of women gamers and that awkward moment where you talk on voice chat and the some boys suddenly realize they're playing with a girl and either react with ooo's and aaa's of flirtation, or react with aggravation in the assumption you're a bad player because of your gender.

The linked article was (thankfully) not a feminist rant (yawn), but rather it was honest and points out all the positive experiences we female gamers have in contrast with the old horror stories of a decade or so ago.

I am decidedly anti-feminist, and I feel embarrassed by strong feminist rants that are a slap in the face to the greater majority of nice chaps out there.

And yes, I wholeheartedly agree with the author: there are many more gentlemanly male gamers out there than there are jerkwads.

Nevertheless, I would like to relate my most awkward moment on voice chat. It was Guild Wars PvP, Hall of Heroes, and I was pugging as a healer on a bonus-fame-points weekend.

Yes, pugging HoH took mustering up every ounce of bravery in my soul. I got into a couple of good groups, but I got in a lot more awful groups. Losing repetitively is not conducive to happy teammates that stick together, but that's just how HoH bonus weekends go - cycling through one group after another - everyone searching for the "perfect" group and never finding nirvana.

The worst reaction: I logged into the given Vent, and upon saying "Hello" I was greeted by sudden silence followed by giggling and then "Wow! You're a girl??! Girls don't PvP!" They sounded like young teenagers. Yes, awkward. But the moment was far more wryly humorous than discriminating.

Fortunately we did ok, and the group stayed together a few rounds. Also fortunately, we split ways after a few rounds. I was relieved. Being the center of awestruck attention was really weird.

I did get on voice chat with a few other teams, and none of them even batted an eye, but then again, they all sounded older. It's a maturity thing, really.

And so giggling boys was the worst reaction I've ever had on voice chat. Not so bad, eh?

Moral of the story: If you're a girl, don't be afraid to log on to voice chat. If you're a guy, thanks for being cool with us gamer girls.

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