Women in World of Warcraft

[Atari]

Even though 30% of WoW players are women, they are still considered a novelty, a segment of the population to be treated as different, perhaps not as good, dedicated, or knowledgeable as their male counterparts. Games Radar has the story. (Thanks booger)

"I only got into my last guild because the guild leader thought I was hot," one player told us. "You tell a guy you are a chick and conversation goes from 'normal' to 'So, can I see your boobs.' or 'You're so hot' and they spend every moment hitting on you."

[Riggers]

"I only got into my last guild because the guild leader thought I was hot," one player told us. You tell a guy you are a chick and conversation goes from 'normal' to 'So, can I see your boobs.' or 'You're so hot' and they spend every moment hitting on you."

As mentioned in the previous thread, I've never experienced this - I don't go broadcasting my gender, but when people do find out, no-one makes a big deal of it. Conversation continues as normal.

That quote makes me wonder...how did the guild leader find out what she looked like in the first place? Why did she join a guild where the sole criteria for her acceptance was her looks? Why not find a guild that isn't led by a moron? If you want people to treat you with some respect, you don't accept that kind of behaviour and join their guild, you slap 'em in your ignore list, I would have thought...

[Atari]

I don't run into this much, but I'm betting that's because every time I look at joining groups or guilds, I'm looking at them with my husband. And at the mention of kids, well that's the end of that.

However, in pickup groups via VOIP, I've run into some obnoxious characters. Generally not in my guilds though-- I tend to pick guilds with less kids and more couples in them as they tend to be a little more mature in nature.

[Tantarra]

I have yet to be treated differently in any MMO I played, because I was female - and it's something I never try to hide or exploit.

Are there women in WoW who use their femininity to find groups, acquire items of value and use men as a sort of 24/7 banking system? Sure. Is it easier to get these things as a woman? Yes, especially if the woman is inclined to use her feminine wiles that way.

I have yet to run into any woman who actually is guilty of that. I suppose they exist, but I seriously question whether they're more than a teeny minority (if so, you'd think in my years of gaming I would have come across at least one).

I raided for 10 months in WoW, 4 nights a week. One quarter of the raid group was female and no one ever treated any of us better or worse than they treated the men.

The only place I did find people incredulous that I was a rl female was in SWG. I was the second on my server to open my Jedi slot, and the first to make Jedi Knight. When I finally left the game, I know there were still people who were in disbelief that a woman was behind the character that put fear in the hearts of those who dreaded the xp penalty Solinari Stormwalker could deal.

I should have told them my age. They'd really have been in disbelief.

[Atari]

I've seen far more men playing female characters using their "feminine wiles" then women. I know guys who dance their naked female elves at the mailbox in WoW to earn money (and sadly they do).

[Pocket]

I have yet to be treated differently in any MMO I played, because I was female - and it's something I never try to hide or exploit.

Are there women in WoW who use their femininity to find groups, acquire items of value and use men as a sort of 24/7 banking system? Sure. Is it easier to get these things as a woman? Yes, especially if the woman is inclined to use her feminine wiles that way.

I have yet to run into any woman who actually is guilty of that. I suppose they exist, but I seriously question whether they're more than a teeny minority (if so, you'd think in my years of gaming I would have come across at least one).

I raided for 10 months in WoW, 4 nights a week. One quarter of the raid group was female and no one ever treated any of us better or worse than they treated the men.

The only place I did find people incredulous that I was a rl female was in SWG. I was the second on my server to open my Jedi slot, and the first to make Jedi Knight. When I finally left the game, I know there were still people who were in disbelief that a woman was behind the character that put fear in the hearts of those who dreaded the xp penalty Solinari Stormwalker could deal.

I should have told them my age. They'd really have been in disbelief.

I wish I had your luck! My favorite game for the longest time was Final Fantasy XI, I played it way too much for like three years, and only just recently quit for good. Through much of my time there, I was active in the "end-game" play, a lot like WoW's raids, I think. The last guild that I was a member of changed completely over the course of a few months, after a female player in the guild started a relationship with the leader. It went from being a fun and equitable community, to an exclusive, cliquey group, that basically just served as a means for the leader to shower his new girlfriend with gifts. It totally ruined the experience for me, and I just wasn't able to get any enjoyment out of "end-game" after that.

I did go on and find a much more gender-balanced guild later, that was just about chatting and having fun, instead of electronic items. It was a much more satisfying experience on the whole, and kinda renewed my faith in the community. So yeah, it can get ugly, but I hope I have your luck in the future!

[Apollo]

1. I for one prefer to be with female players as I can often get along better with them, and they are often more mature.
2. I think it's funny (this happened to me in a game of AOE:III online) when a girl thinks it's going to concern me that I was "beaten by a girl", seriously, that assumption is annoying.
3. ...The dancing mailbox elves, I am THIS (holds out fingers to indicate a very small amount) close, to starting a guild call the "Crusaders against the dancing mailbox elves." for the express purpose if killing those # $%#ers ON SIGHT, THIS CLOSE!...GAH! Sorry for the rant, they just make me want to strangle them.

[Belisama]

I'm curious, is this dancing by mailboxes thing kind of recent? I haven't seen a lot of it, but I haven't played the game in quite some time. I only remember something similar once, about a year and a half ago in Menethil. Some dancing NE chick whispered me if I gave her money, she'd dance for me. "Come on, you know you want it." I whispered back, "Sorry, I prefer the company of men."

I generally just don't mention it to strangers I pick up in the game. I've helped several people and at the end they always say something like "Thanks, man" or whatever. I don't correct them for that either. In fact, with strangers, the only time it came up was a guy that was going to go into the army the next week and had the intention of being a paratrooper. I told him I couldn't do that, but it sounded interesting and he asked why.

I think I got spoiled by the people I started playing WoW with. Thank you, Meera!

em

[Atari]

The mailbox thing isn't recent. My friend was doing it close to the very beginning of the game. Of course he's not the nicest player in the game, so if you want to kill him go for it. He would have zero qualms about killing you.

He's the kind of guy that would purposely pay someone to pull a Leroy after 6 hours of dungeon crawling-- just to upset the group. Not a nice guy at all, but a very talented gamer. He can smell out the best builds, best mobs, and best route at leveling than anyone else I know. His evilness stems from the fact that he gets high level and powerful so fast that he gets bored with the game and turns to chaos for entertainment.

[Mirlyn]

Hey all... I don't normally have an issue with being a woman while gaming. I've been playing WoW for over a year and love it. Only once in a while do I come across an idiot... actually just the other day I had a dwarf following me around. I asked him why and he said cuz I was hot. I asked him if he realized that not all female toons were actual girls and he said yes, but he liked my toon's boobs cuz they were big. I basically messed with him until he finally left me alone. But that's a rare occurance. My biggest issue is getting ganked by some lvl 70 nerd who thinks it's fun to kill a lvl 15 and then dance on my corpse.

And one time I was chatting with someone and they said that I sound like Snoop Dog... That was one I'd never heard before.

As far as the NE dance goes... I don't care if they dance around half naked... I just wish they made the male toon's dances less corny. LOL

And as for the "women" who supposedly use their feminine ways to get stuff in game... personally I think those are mostly guys who are using the persona of a girl to get stuff... giving us a bad name.

I don't normally go around proclaiming my being a woman, but once in a while it is fun to duel some kid who's been playing forever and to beat him only to let him know that I'm a 37 year old woman who just started playing a little while ago

[Tenshi]

- A lot of time there's really no one to blame but themselves because they feel they have to get the pandering for being female. "I'm a woman." "Prove it. Show us pics (or get on Teamspeak or whatever)." *(do as told)* I don't correct people when they address me, just as I don't care about the gender of the other player. A "nice" player is a "nice" player and a jerk is a jerk, regardless of whether or not it's a male or female player. I help nice players and I ignore jerks. In WoW terms, I'm immune to Charm effects.

- And yeah, though I've not played WoW for a full year yet, I'm inclined to believe the dancing Night Elves on Mailboxes thing is pretty established because one of the Night Elf jokes mentions a mailbox. I don't purposely kill players under ... some arbitrary level... let's call it 55 (because after that they stop being a threat in any way)... but I think I will make an exception for any bikin-"armor"i-clad ones I find.

[Riggers]

I've never seen a Night Elf dancing at a mailbox, guess it must be a bonus of being Horde...

[rum_munky]

Hmm... I've heard of that happening with other women on WoW, but I don't disclose personal information. I like to escape into the "environment" when I play games, and don't feel the need to bring in everyday stuff. Know what I mean? If I wanted to "hook up", I sure as hell wouldn't be looking online, much less on World of Warcraft. I could care less what gender the other players are, as long as they're friendly and know what they're doing.

I know that although men are fully aware of the growing presence of women gamers, they still tend to act "shocked" when you know what they're talking about in discussion... say, about Halo. Why is it so surprising? Did we all not play "toys" when we were children? How many women out there actually played with Transformers? Watched the Ninja Turtles? I did. Personally, my boyfriend thinks it's awesome that we can relate.

Any man who favors me in a game, based on my gender... obviously has a lot of growing up to do. I think that silliness is basically a 14 year old boy looking for a girlfriend. I just ignore people like that, because I'm there to enjoy myself... not to be hit on by an orc.

[mAlice in Wonderland]

I've never seen a Night Elf dancing at a mailbox, guess it must be a bonus of being Horde...

How about this?