Twerk17 had a great episode about Female Gamers

[GRIZZ]

I too felt female characters were not a high priority for the roadmap, and @VoA has consistently disagreed with me. 

@Twerk17 has a weekly show called "Answer the Call" which shouldn't be missed because every show has an excellent mix of guests. 

A point hit in this show is one I did not consider, maybe guys are part of the reason we have fewer girl gamers because when girls play they get treated differently than everyone else, they get put on a pedestal or they get harassed and both actions prevent the girl from enjoying the game the way its meant to be played.

[J. Coren]

2 hours ago, GRIZZ said:

 A point hit in this show is one I did not consider, maybe guys are part of the reason we have fewer girl gamers because when girls play they get treated differently than everyone else, they get put on a pedestal or they get harassed and both actions prevent the girl from enjoying the game the way its meant to be played.

This^

This is a pervasive problem within the gaming community at large. Men who game as their primary hobby tend to feel a sense of ownership over it and will begin to gate keep like they're a bouncer at the Salty Spittoon. Any woman looking to get into more niche communities outside of the casual games designed for mass appeal find themselves the subject of harassment going in two directions. One is a form of gate keeping to see if they're "hardcore enough", and the other one which seeks to strip her of any sense of individuality or expression of femininity. Only once she has been brought to heel and rigidly conform with a community can she then begin getting harassed and swooned over by the ronery looking for female attention.

If you want a great example of how bad this problem is, look no further than...

Spoiler

Vivian James

4/8Chan's avatar for the ideal "gamer girl" who only plays "hardcore" games and refuses to express any sense of feminine identity or individualism. An icon of controlled opposition used to bludgeon the heads of those the hardcore gaming community perceives as a "threat" to their club.

This character was a product of what would also later become the Incel community, and as such has blatant misogynist overtones (and some pedophilic undertones).

If you have posted any macro of this character against someone online: Congratulations!

You are part of the problem.

 

This isn't going to go away because more games include female avatars (though that does go a long way to help normalize women and LGBTQ as gamers). The "hardcore" gaming community in its many niches have to stop with the purity testing and be more open and inclusive to individual expression and identity if they want their communities to grow.

This is also a very pervasive problem in Airsoft as well. The community's lack of effort to confront it has led many young girls and women looking to get into a weapon-based action sport to quit because of the harassment they had to deal with.

There is an entire second half of the population that wants to join the club. We just have to keep the door open.

[Boildown]

Asking 14-22 year old boys not to freak out around girls is probably not going to go well.  Its basically antithetical to their existence.  I think most of us here are old enough to behave ourselves, but some are not and will need parenting.  Its a fact of life.

Its a shame that women need a thicker skin and can't just be themselves on the internet.  My advice has always been, "claim you're half-Korean and by blood you're probably a better gamer than they are".  Childmen are usually surprisingly willing to accept that argument and move on from "are you good enough to game with me" to "are you hot?".  Which is still not good, but at least it goes to a place they have more practical everyday life experience with.

[FoxChard]

They're doing the right thing in taking their time and getting it right. Its important to get this right. They spent their time going through several different test models and skeletons for the male avatar including several animation refactors and redesigns. One of SC's core ideas is that you are your character. The player camera is in the avatar's head. You physically see down the sights like you would in real life. Few games actually go through this effort and instead just cheat everything. Taking their time allowed CIG to figure out how to make this work correctly (remember the days of head bobbing and people complaining that the game made them feel ill?). With only one character skeleton to worry about, they didn't have to do double work every time they tweaked or messed with the design. Of course, they also created the mother of all animation backlogs...but, they knew what they were getting into.