Where are all the women at?

[Red Reaper]

I think it's a kultural issue.. Kulturally, women don't promote a kompetitive environment like men do. If a girl is "at the top", other women look down on that even if guys welcome it.

Women are less kompetitive overall, but there is more that affects kompetitive fighting games specifically.

 

[RoboCop]

What ever happened to @Goldy?

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

In tournament??

Mostly online, I doubt they's do that in a tournament.

 

[STK]

A lot a women don't put time into fighters, this is true. That said, some of the best I've played have been women. I also consider myself a pretty competent player.

It just varies, but the majority aren't as invested or "skilled" because they don't practice or learn match ups.

I know some girls feel uncomfortable in a male dominated field as well, for different reasons. I think that plays perhaps a bit of a role as well.

I play multiple fighting games myself and i find that the female community is present with MK, SF and 3d.

I play Tekken mostly then MK and Sf after that and i think the females playing MK are solid compared to SF or Tekken in the US. Where Tekken has like only one solid player and SF has a handful known players also but to me the women that play MK on and offline seem to be the largest and very solid on and offline. Especially when the game first came out.

I always joke with my friends if you want to meet a gamer girl start playing MK or PC games I haven't played online lately but the last time i played a girl online she took me to the wire. She played kenshi. Spacing and reactions were good. she knew what she was doing.

 

[RM slacked]

MKF30 slayed em all

 

[Error]

Mostly online, I doubt they's do that in a tournament.

Goldfish vs Justin Wong though

 

[ZeroSymbolic]

Watch the things people say in the online lobby. Then ask yourself "If I were a woman, would I associate with these people?" There's your answer.

That being said my fiance is learning the game with me.

 

[ZeroEffect]

Yeah, seems as though the majority of women who looooove playing video games, do so to "bond" rather than "compete". Co-Op games are where it's at for them, since they'd rather play WITH you and not AGAINST you. The few who are really into the FGC scene usually grew up with brothers or fathers who play them a lot. Some are brought in through boyfriends, but they usually aren't as hardcore about mastering the game.

I'm sure there are girls who are the exception and just love fighting games. But yeah, biologically, men are driven more by the competition than women.

 

[RVB]

I'm sure there are girls who are the exception and just love fighting games. But yeah, biologically, men are driven more by the competition than women.

Ya'll need to stop spouting generalized stuff like this, the Olympic Games are going on right now and I don't see a shortage of female athletes over there cuz women are "less competitive".
Women can be very competitive, it depends what their motivation is just like with men.

And no my heart ain't bleeding for the poor wominz and nor am I some SJW trying to white knight and shit... just the opposite... a somewhat obnoxious occasionally sexist asshat.

Now which of you pretty ladies is gonna be competitive enough to race to the kitchen and make me a sandwich?

 

[ZeroEffect]

Ya'll need to stop spouting generalized stuff like this, the Olympic Games are going on right now and I don't see a shortage of female athletes over there cuz women are "less competitive".
Women can be very competitive, it depends what their motivation is just like with men.

And no my heart ain't bleeding for the poor wominz and nor am I some SJW trying to white knight and shit... just the opposite... a somewhat obnoxious occasionally sexist asshat.

Now which of you pretty ladies is gonna be competitive enough to race to the kitchen and make me a sandwich?

Wasn't this thread's question in the context of fighting games? To be fair, I didn't read the last 5 pages through, so maybe it got derailed into every competitive field ever made, ever.

 

[RVB]

Wasn't this thread's question in the context of fighting games? To be fair, I didn't read the last 5 pages through, so maybe it got derailed into every competitive field ever made, ever.

derailing is inevitable imo it's just I don't want ppl coming in here and taking some posts out of context start writing some damn expose on how the FGC is so sexist or SJW's taking offence over nothing.
That's why I'd wanna avoid general statements that can be misinterpreted.

 

[RuthlessSkies]

There will also be rude, annoying and childish people within ever FG community, especially when the encountering or talking to female gamers. It's kinda wacky you'll let a female based off her gender know the possibility of meeting her offline is slim. If a female is playing me in a set, then she better know have matchup knowledge, fundamentals and the character she picked because I'm not holding back at all.

 

[Eddy Wang]

Not going to say who because MK girls like privacy, but we have female mk players in this very the forum, who are very well educated in terms of fighting, and are very level headed as well, many times you guys fought them online you probably though you were fighting a man.
Besides their identity is a mistery because they choose so, only a select few know who they are.

 

[ZeroEffect]

derailing is inevitable imo it's just I don't want ppl coming in here and taking some posts out of context start writing some damn expose on how the FGC is so sexist or SJW's taking offence over nothing.
That's why I'd wanna avoid general statements that can be misinterpreted.

Lol. Welp, if someone ended up writing up an "FGC is sexist" expose, they were probably already thinking it anyway. Besides, the Sexist view would be saying women weren't capable of competing. I even went out of my way to write that there were exceptions. What's a guy to do? Lol.

On another note, I don't really see the whole "thirsty guy/potential sexual harassment" argument. Mostly because, "thirst" is displayed at damn near every social gathering, lol. I guess it's just easier to make examples of the nerdy ones.

 

[ZeroSymbolic]

There is a guy on the PSN that says "Pull your panties up, I'm done fucking you." After every series he plays.

 

[SHAOLIN]

I think it's a kultural issue.. Kulturally, women don't promote a kompetitive environment like men do. If a girl is "at the top", other women look down on that even if guys welcome it.

Women are less kompetitive overall, but there is more that affects kompetitive fighting games specifically.

One of these days your gonna slip up & spell something with a C.

 

[Red Reaper]

One of these days your gonna slip up & spell something with a C.

I'm not a barbarian.. I spell plenty of things with a "C"; for example, things that start with "Ch" ( like "Character"), and words that make the "S" sound but start with a "C" (like "Certainly")... I also spell certain names with a "C", "Soul Calibur" is the first that komes to mind..

But you're right.. Someday the world will kome to an end and I will spell something wrong.

 

[RVB]

There is a guy on the PSN that says "Pull your panties up, I'm done fucking you." After every series he plays.

Like on the mic or does he send out messages? Man I miss XBL and the amount of idiots that used to send hate mail my way. If I could I would take all that hate, put it through a refining process, bottle it and sell it as an alternative to baby oil. I'D MAKE BILLIONS

 

[SentientProgram]

There were some girls (pretty hot at the very least) at an off-line tournament Ive been to. I watched their gameplay, they are okay, but they didnt make it out of pools....neither did I

 

[RVB]

There were some girls (pretty hot at the very least) at an off-line tournament Ive been to. I watched their gameplay, they are okay, but they didnt make it out of pools....neither did I

Yeah Unbreakable does that to you

 

[Xerclipse]

Sometimes the "This game is too violent" answers remind me that this demographic is for bloodthirsty and sick males like us. I forgot this game had fatalities because I've been playing competitively for a long time. I forgot this game is even rated M because I have neutral game and combos in my mind rather than "Oh boy let me dismember this opponent slowly". Closest thing to gore I can get to are brutalities which are much more fun to watch because they are disrespectful or optimal like Ultras.

And then when people talk about females not wanting to play this game because its too violent... I'm like... oh this game is violent? Please my opponent's neutral game is much more violent.

 

[Karma]

A youtuber called "Laracroft..." its a great competitive female MK player.

 

[Kaymai]

Honestly I've been trying to teach girls how to play street fighter for years now and the most I've gotten from their participation was that they weren't going to invest the time into these things in order to get good. I've sat down with a few and tried doing the gootecks curriculum and go through the basics and break things down in a way that's not intimidating or complicated and even then I still wasn't getting anywhere with the. The best prospects I had were these two girls that played smash brothers but that was it. They were really good smash players who went to tournaments in the Austin area of Texas but that was about it. They were the only ones who had any higher understanding of fighting games but it was with a simpler game like smash. Trying to get them to practice movement and how to execute specials were a bit difficult.


I'm gonna be ms. Unpopular opinion here in my theory about fighting games and the competitive gaming in general.

Fighting games are really hard. I think we take for granted how difficult these games actually are to not only play but to get good at. You pretty much are learning a virtual martial art that you have to sit and train in on a constant basis by playing against lots of opponents. Granted that's all competitive activities but the barrier for entry for this genre is pretty high.

Secondly, the whole idea of competitive gaming seemingly arose out of a community of men that were considered to be nerdy outcasts. A group of people with the time and dedication to get good at and beat each other in...video games. At the end of the day you can hype up all of this esports stuff and all these sponsors and huge cash pots for events, we're still playing video games and to pretty much everyone outside of our community that's all we're doing. the hundreds of thousands of people watching any particular esports stream, are still watching people play video games. We're doing an activity that is otherwise meant to be time killing entertainment. There is no competitive movie watching, music listening, rollercoaster riding, book reading, etc. that's how it's pretty much going to be observed as by everyone that isn't us.


also, have you been in the twitch chat during any fighting game event? How the moment a woman appears on screen or when somebody like ricki Ortiz and gllty are playing street fighter v? I can't even look at the chat because generally it's full of savages. this goes into the greater issue of generally sexist and misogynistic attitudes amongst boys in these communities. I say boys because they aren't men. Real men have attained emotional maturity and respect for other human beings. More often that not it's the boys that actively try to keep us out of this community. So ultimately the only people you can blame are yourselves.


I could go on and on and on about this issue but typing on an iPad is annoying and this kind of discussion could easily be a podcast that takes hours to listen to. I am gonna leave you with this. If you want women to play these games then you as a community have to be open and welcoming. You have to make it so that more of us want to be part of this. I've been part of this for several years now and honestly I often times feel like I shouldn't be.

But 8 year old me just wanted to go to the arcade at the bowling alley to play ultimate mortal kombat 3 and see if I could beat the older kids there. I played kabal and human smoke. They never stood a chance. That stuck with me.

 

[UGL Preon]

Fighting Game Demographic in terms of players online that i play. 90% of the participants in my random encounters/discord servers for fighting games/people in lobboes with mics have been dudes.

The competitive scene is mostly guys cause that's how its always been. The FGC had its roots in the 90s in which complex mechanics met reading a LIVE opponent. And back then NERDY dudes were the end all be all TARGET MARKET for video games. A time where a lot of people used "Nerd" or "Geek" as an insult.

A lot of games currently that have good female players as commonplace got their start recently. League and Moba games didnt get BIG until 2010.

When nerd culture was more acceptable. And remember from lije 2002-2008 there was no TRIPLE A fighting game title. People out of the FGC saw them as budfrt games outside of MK. That and the fact that oyr games thrived in the arcade setting while online was pretty bad. For the first decade of XBL and PSN. So the average person from the outside could never get in.

Complexity for those who never got in is through the roof. A casual in a shooter knows point and click till the opponent is dead.

Team based games know. Alright id we lose ir isnt all my fault and i could get carried to fraudulent wins with good teams. Basically you just need to learn your skills and youll get somewhat decent rarher fast.

For fighting games. Yes you can learn attacks and buttons. But do you know when that "cool" move leaves you super negative? Do you know whats plus? Ira 2016 and Guilty Gear XRD Revelator is the best in depth mechanics tutoriak on the planet. And it still doesnt teach every necessary detail to be good in a fighter. And no casual is going to play a game for fun if they have to hear "Oh you gotta gwt your ass kicked for 100-200 or more games before you get good'

Thats why after a year of a fighters release, when you go to lobbies or ranked youll commonly see the same people. Our games dont last long for casual interest. Hell even Revekators online ranked match search pulks ZERO results. And the most crowded lobbies have 30-40 people state wise. Jam packed over seas tho

 

[Sage Leviathan]

Why was this thread necro'd.
What are you doing.

Let this thing die in the mud. Please.