Tale Forty Eight: The Women Issue in WoW

I’ve been lurking around some blogs/posts/Trade chat the last week looking for a topic to write about – other than Icecrown and Patch 3.3.

And I stumbled on this gem:

Some people believe that girls can’t play WoW as well as boys.

What is this, kindergarten again?

Let me clear a few things up:

No, we don’t have cooties.

No, we don’t always have pillow fights topless at sleep overs.

And last but not least, yes, we play WoW.

And some of us play it pretty darn good!

The base of argument here (well in Trade Chat – Ah, Cenarius, how filled with drama you are!) was the same old thing. “Guys can physically do more than girls.”

Alright, but this is WoW. This is not Real Life where a guy can lift up 100 pounds and I’m dying as I lift up 10 pounds (Yes, I’m weak. Leave me alone!)

In a game, we’re equals. Oh yes. A girl can kick your ass in PvP. She can beat you on the damage meters. She can be an amazing tank. The one that I will not buy is that we make better healers because we’re naturally nurturers.

Just go ask my friends how nurturing I am. I won’t go pick up after you, I will not kiss your boo-boo and I plain don’t care about your latest drama.

I mean, last time my two best friends had a major fight I immediately told them, “I am Switzerland. Leave me out of this”.

Pretty non-nurturing if you ask me.

Apperantly, a girl gamer is still a weird concept. I got invited to do Ony 10 the other day and when I called out the Deep Breath in vent, three guys –whose voices had not even cracked yet- said ‘Woah! A chick! And she’s totally kicking your ass on the healing meter, Pally”.

I /sighed in real life. Then the paladin healing with me made up a bunch of lame excuses such as ‘Druids are OP’ or ‘she’s better geared than me’. Yeah right.

I just don’t get it. Why is a girl gamer such a taboo?

In my guild, 3/12 of us are girls. Two of us are healers, the other dps. In my guild, we don’t get any of this crap. We’re all raiders. Then again, it’s a real family-style guild so that’s probably why.

In my Horde guild, with over 300 toons (alts included), we have a healthy dose of boys and gals. The only time I’ve really thought ‘woah, she’s a chick’ was in an Ulduar 10 run and our tank’s wife spoke and sounded more like a seven year old than 20 something. Mr Littlebark and I just stared at each other and burst out laughing. Grimm, in his ultimate glory of geniuses, changed her guild note to ‘tanks wife ‘honey, I’m seven!’ Whenever I think of her, all I see is her famous ‘Shut upppppppppppp!’ in g chat. Slightly annoying? Yes. But that’s her thing, and we love her for it.

So, I guess I myself don’t think of myself as a chick in WoW. I think myself as Littlebark. What really made my teeth grind was when someone suggested that girls play boy toons so they don’t have to go through the whole ordeal.

Why should I have to look like an ugly Night Elf Male just because you’re too immature to accept that I am a girl and I play?

I heard from another friend that there was a guy who kept harassing her after a run (Vent had been used) and he kept telling her to send him her picture, because her voice had given him a – well, gentlemen, you know the terminology.

Even /ignore did not stop this guy, and in the end she got a name change and reported him to a GM.

Alright, so guys can be pretty immature. But it does not help when girls in WoW cause unnecessary drama. A girl who snarls “If your name isn’t fucking ---- don’t fucking start the event” will leave impression of ‘man, what a bitch!’ in a persons’ mind.

If you talk and talk and talk, not allowing the raid leader to say anything, you leave the expression of ‘Jebus Christ on a Crutch. Shut her up. Girls talk too much.”

So, I can see how guys immediately think girls = trouble. But honestly, we’re not. Most of us are amazing players who love the game.