Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hmmm . . . much as I hate being accused of hanging onto my brother's shirt tails stare - who by the way, doesn't have a PS3, doesn't want one, and only likes Grand Theft Auto: Vice City when hsi friends are over - I can see what you're getting at.

Instead of complaining, why don't you do something to make it better? Why don't you start up a review thread or something? Why b***h and moan about the problem when you can take steps to solve it?

I hat epeople like you.You steriotype people like crazy!

Sure, I'vew played Kingdom Hearts and stuff, but I've also played games that would suprise people: Fable, Drakengard, Jak X, and God of War.

Just because of a ban, you think that's a good exuse to rant and steriotype. Well,you know what? Screw you. Screw you. I hope you burn in Hell. talk2hand

So then, what makes a hardcore gamer...?

Because a young girl picks up a controller once, plays her brothers Kingdom Hearts, or Halo, -likes it-, finds this guild, and really has nothing else to talk about but her favorite character at the moment- shes not welcome? Shes not.. hardcore enough?

Lets take note: this guild was not formed specificaly for the hardcore gamer chick population.

And on that note lets talk about why this guild was formed. Lets talk about why -I- made this guild. It used to be but a mere 20 or so page thread in the guilds forum when Gaia was but a baby. At the time I was a graduating game art and design student at the art institute of phoenix. I was the only girl in my major, and I was having one hell of a time proving my worth. It is a boys club out there ladies, not just the gaming world, but also the gaming industry. I had very few people to talk to about my love of games- and yes, they were the final fantasies on snes- when I was in middle school. And in highschool when I won most artistic in my senior class and announced what I was to major in I got this response "You play games? Youre a girl! You dont play games." Working at the namco arcade my first years of college was a joke. I could out DDR any guy who came in and my regulars feared me when it came to MVC2, but did I get any respect? No. If I won it was luck, it wasnt skill. I was still harassed for being a girl. And hoboy if I lost, it was the greatest day of their life to be able to put me in my place. Unreal editor came along and we began building levels in class. After class we would all deathmatch till the labs closed. There was a player named SuckYoMamma who eeeeeeevery one admired because -he- was a hard kill and was always top three at the end of the game, if not first. Imagine their surprise when Suckyomamma was ME. But can you imagine how much respect they lost? "Oh its just Sarah, easy kill." even though when I was previously male I was the cause of much frustration and praise. Lets not even get started with creative and design ideas. Try being the only girl in a group of four, having a two year project to complete, and not having any of your ideas taken into consideration because the whole team is afraid you only want to make pink prancing pony games. Try getting pigeon holed like that, and have to fight to get your ideas and designs recognized.

Thats but a brief history of the s**t I had to go through. And the reason I wanted to find more female gamers here on Gaia to form a community, a support network. Cause if it was hard for me, its gunna be hard for others.

Now, about your desire to see more in depth conversations. Be the agent of change who creates these discussions, I promise you we have more then just mindless teeny boppers who only care about bishies to join in.

But I really dont appreciate the steroetypes. Or the fact that you consider one type of girl gamer less then another. We should be here to encourage EVERY SINGLE GIRL who is even remotely interested in games to get in there, to LOVE it, to play it, and to help lessen the gender biased in the gaming community. Unfortunately your animosity only causes more grief between people, when you should just be glad that there are young girls out there who know who Samus is, who know who Sephiroth is, who can play house of the dead in arcades and reload their gun. These are the girls who will grow into hardcore gamers, and you cannot force their way. If they love rpgs, thats excellent. If they love their fps's, thats excellent. Let them love their bishies for now, and expose them to everything else there is in the gaming world, instead of sit back and critisize them for it.

Thanks for your opinion, but if you want to see something change- start it yourself. People will follow. Hell... Gamer Chicks is still around.

I would just like to put in this....

We at GCG encourage any and all of our members for feedback about how the forum looks, is managed, and so on. That's been since the BEGINNING, and trust me....I was basically there. Anywho, if you felt so strongly that this guild was like this, why wait till now to say something?? Why let a guild that YOU requested to join, and then say you've been in here for two years, and now just say something?? And even now with this post, I'm afraid your feelings about the guild are lost in the utter disrepect in your phrases, because all you really did was rant and say smart alleck things.

.....and there's my two cents.

um I sort of agre with you and at the same time I sort of don't....

agree: the which character would you date thread is a little... um how should I put this.. weird... they're pixles people and unless it's based on a real person that's all they'll ever be (like tony hawk)

disagree: however maybe they refer to the personality traits in a character they would like in a significant other? I dunno... but hey alot of people on gaia are around that age where they're just starting to think about relationships and such so cut them a break.

agree: this guild could probably do with only one "What Games do you play" thread.

disagree: alot of times those threads get push aside so people don't see them until they've made one themselves.


being a new member that's all I can really make comments on... but what I see is potential... just need some gamers to point them out.

Okay. I left for a few days, and I come back to see what kind of thoughts I've provoked. I pretty much got what I was expected, although to be honest I was expecting a few more youngsters to fly off the handle and type something with a lot of swearing and exclamation marks. Suffice to say I am a little impressed.

One general idea seems to be: 'Why dont you try to fix it up a little if you dont like it?'

Good point. But, sorry to burst your bubble; I've tried. All I got were 'I didnt like it' responses instead of people honestly challenging what I had written (a possible good review). Just didnt seem like people cared much about why.

Second point. Yep, I was kicked. (Note: Not banned.)
Not because I'm a cold-hearted b***h with strong sense of opinion (true or maybe not), but because I just didnt post. Fair enough. You dont have to be a member to post.

Celes: Informative and insightful, thank you.
I'm sorry you had to go through such bullshit.
Stereotypes they may be, but there are girls in this guild which fit that stereotype to a T, and it is them whom I criticize.
If you like Kingdom Hearts, whatever, but only if you can look past how cool the Heartless are and appreciate it on a technical level.



Perhaps I'm just a little upset because it seems like being a gamer no longer means what it used to. There is no elite community of gamers with obscure knowledge of obscure games anymore, and to belong to such a group made you feel special. Now, it seems like just about anyone can call themselves a gamer just because they picked up a controller once.

DrdScully: That might be why the word 'rant' is in the title. 3nodding
But to actually address your post, I'd have to explain that even having been kicked out for lack of activity and not really liking the guild, I still had a smidgen of hope for this guild. Having come back and finding it no better than how I left it, I guess I'd decided enough was enough. If no one else was going to address it, I was.


I understand that there are girls out there who are surrounded by assholes who think that because you've got boobs you dont know wtf you're talking about, at all, ever, unless it involves cooking or makeup. To these girls, I'm sorry about your situation, and I understand (very well) that it can be tough to deal with.
All of my guy friends are gamers. Every single one. I'm the only girl I know who plays games as seriously as they do.
Its taken a few years to smack them into shape and drive them from their sexist ways. They no longer see me as some ditz who should get a cookie because she's holding her controller the right way up.
If a guy thinks you dont know what you're talking about when you start talking about framerates or maphacks, tell them to shut the ******** up and keep talking. If you dont show them you know what you're doing, they still have a stereotype to play off of.

Point is, I used to be in the same boat. I used to be very frustrated about the fact that every guy seemed to ignore me when I talked about games.
All except one guy no longer abides by that stereotype in my little circle of friends, and hes an idiot anyway.
That said, I still find myself the only girl in Vancouver (or so it seems) who enjoys geekdom as much as I do, and that in itself is frustrating, nevermind the gaming aspect of it.

The reason why you see constant threads about Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts is because they are extremely popular, but when a girl buys them they also become a portal to try new games.

The reason why you see threads about hot gaming characters is because we ARE girls, and although they are pixilized, dreams are free and have no limits.

I will admit, the first game controller I picked up was my brother's SNES controller to play Mario with him, but then I moved on and started gaming by myself looking into my own games and doing my own stuff.

We can't control what people think or say about themselves, and hardcore can have a million different meanings. People think I'm a hardcore gamer because when I get a new RPG I skip school and barely sleep from my obsession with beating it. Other people call me hardcore because when I go play Instagib Capture the Flag on Unreal Tournament 2004 I use stratgey and usually end up in the top 5 in the score boards. People can see it a lot of different ways.

While I admit that some posts on here are repetitive, they are still everyday discussions that we obviously enjoy talking about. The thing about parents taking away video games from kids, which by the way that thread was started by me, I had a reason to do it because my mom was being stupid more than anything by saying I should grow out of it because I'm a girl. Also, it's an everday thing that can happen to anyone, and this guild is just for us to talk and hang out.

Not everyone is like you, not everyone is going to sit down and analyze the point of a game or a system. Some people think it's just fun to play games and don't look at it that way. Not everyone is going to sit and say "O, the most recent Far Cry has some really beautiful art but I personally think the game play was lacking some stuff" because some people just play the game.

Me and my guy friends love to criticize art, battle systems, game style and game play, but not everyone does. Just because they don't though I'm not going to sit there and b***h and moan about lacking conversation.

Like Celes said, the major point of this guild is supposed to be a support network, and an attempt at bringing girl gamers into recognition. It took me 4 months to get anyone to acknowledge me as a girl gamer on UT04. I've been playing Counter Strike for well over 2 years and there are still assholes who refuse to acknowledge that I'm a girl and call me a f** boy. There are bastards on Halo who say I somehow managed to hack the X-box and cheat on Halo 2. We need a place like this guild to vent, to talk, for help, and just to share experiences. What does it really matter what we talk about? We are all still in the guild, we are all still posting, and if we didn't like we would have just quit. If you want something different, be the spark that ignites the flame. If you start a thread that really goes in depth into a game, throught the story or the artwork or the game play, I can guarantee I will definitely be there, because personally that's something I like to talk about.