(1) Ladies' Night [2/13]

falcom4ever said:
I think that some players may underestimate girls when playing against for one reason:
90% of the female are pokémoms or a player's girlfriend. They usually don't care about the game and are not competitive.

Well that's stereotypically offensive.
 
A very meaningful article that I never thought I would see on a Pokemon website. Round of applause for Pokebeach!
 
Another thing I'd like to point out is that, a lot of girls are turned away because whether a lot of you like to admit it or not. The male playerbase for Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. CAN BE TERRIFYINGLY CREEPY. Even to a stalker level I might add. I tend to see a common mentality with the forever alone players where they basically seem to think,and trying not to break PG-13 here: Unless she's bending over on a table for you, she doesn't belong.

No I will not hear arguments against this becaue it is freaking true for the most part. I'm sure there are plenty of great female players out there, and I have quite a few friends that don't go to big events because the number of creepy guys outweighs the number of nice guys. From playing in events, I've had a few female friends go to TCG events with me, they usually don't stay as long but when they do leave, all I ever hear is guys talking about them and how they would "Tap that" no pun intended.

So what has to change is:

1. Be more acceptable of girls, and do NOT creep them the hell out.
2. Let it sink in that women are people and not sex objects.
3. Smarten up.
 
First of all, as a woman, I want to thank the article writer for this. I am not a TCG player but I have played at numerous VGC events since '10. I have always placed reasonably well except for Fall 2012 regionals, although never quite enough for Nats or Worlds. I did not attend winter regionals, the first using the BW2 ruleset. I have always felt awkward and not as respected by other players. There was even one incident in Spring 2012 where before my first match, the guy I was facing said "this match will be a piece of cake" and I promptly 4-0'd him. He was utterly shocked. Maybe because I'm slightly introverted, but at every event, it seemed that most of my opponents were less likely to have a pre-battle conversation with me than others.

falcom4ever said:
I think that some players may underestimate girls when playing against for one reason:
90% of the female are pokémoms or a player's girlfriend. They usually don't care about the game and are not competitive.

Now why there are more boys playing the game?

I think it is a difference of mentality. Boys don't mind playing video game, cards, even they are now grown up adults : 0). Girls have other priorities usually I guess and prefer shopping, clubing and fighting with pillows.

I made an account primarily to respond to this post.

This post is the sum of all of the problems women are facing in "geek" culture: making assumptions without getting to know the person. 90% are "stragglers", really? Most people, when they are not interested in something, wouldn't show up. I don't know if TCG events are like this, but the registration process for VGC is long and grueling. For the past few events I attended, we would arrive around 8am and usually not play before 1pm. The competition is one day, and we usually play 5-7 rounds in 4 hours. It requires dedication to go to these events, something that most stragglers do not have. Don't get me wrong, I've experienced the whole "pokemom/girlfriend" stereotype, but they are not the majority and those types tend not to actually compete at all.

I don't like shopping, clubbing, or fighting with pillows. I don't wear makeup or dress feminine. I'm a gamer, and I take pretty much anything I play seriously. I may not play every single game I touch super competitively, but I always look at what the pros are doing. I don't deny that more men play card and video games more than women, and there are many complex reasons for that, but there is no reason to treat the ones that do differently. I have seen many casual male players as well as female players, so accounting for proportions as well as there being quite a few good female players out there, the proportions of good players to bad is about the same among the genders. I consider myself above average, and there are better out there.

I implore everyone; please stop making assumptions about a person based on their gender, much like it is wrong to make assumptions about someone based on any other factor they cannot control, such as race. We are there to play too. I love Pokemon, I have been playing since the days of Red/Blue, and competitively since D/P. I am there to play Pokemon, not show off.
 
I was actually surprised that this "issue" deserved its own news article--because I was entirely unaware that there was any sort of discrimination happening towards female TCG players, or that they were a minority in the Pokémon community. Maybe men are more active in the competitions, but women are definitely more active in all the creative aspects (cosplay, crafts, art, fiction, etc.) of fandom, along with being casual gamers and/or collectors.
 
Kinda weird point the article seems to have, why would anyone think that gender makes a good/bad player in the first place. Beats me.
 
Teal said:
Kinda weird point the article seems to have, why would anyone think that gender makes a good/bad player in the first place. Beats me.

Clearly you did not read the story of the VGC player 3 posts above you! Also, you can even see in AMT's interview she mentions not hearing any sort of discrimination! Fact of the matter is, in the Master's division we have not had a premier event Champion and the focus here is to get more female players involved.
 
dee said:
I was actually surprised that this "issue" deserved its own news article--because I was entirely unaware that there was any sort of discrimination happening towards female TCG players, or that they were a minority in the Pokémon community. Maybe men are more active in the competitions, but women are definitely more active in all the creative aspects (cosplay, crafts, art, fiction, etc.) of fandom, along with being casual gamers and/or collectors.

At places such as Pokemon tournaments, the proportion of women to total players is relatively low. Granted, in many of the other aspects the women outnumber the men, but with things as they are now, most tourney players are men.

Ryuuji said:
No I will not hear arguments against this becaue it is freaking true for the most part. I'm sure there are plenty of great female players out there, and I have quite a few friends that don't go to big events because the number of creepy guys outweighs the number of nice guys.
I can actually attest to the truth of this fact. One woman who regularly goes to tournaments in our area got paired up against someone in the last round, and she asked to drop because the other guy wasn't very nice to her. (I am not going to name any names. I'm simply stating it's true and it happens.)
 
This wasn't a problem for me because I left the TCG at Crystal Guardians and cam back with Boundaries Crossed, and even before I was seeing all these kids and men have binders full of shiny, expensive cards and EX decks to spare, I was getting mine handed to me by moms and girlfriends, its a matter of experience and practice, not gender.
 
When I went to Regionals for the first time in St. Luis, MO there was quite a few female players ( TCG and VCG ) there and I believe one or two female players got into top cut and there were a quite a few of females in VGC. Out of all the girls that I battled I've lost to two of them and I gotta say I've learned a lot from them and they even help me out on what did wrong during the match too. I thought it was really cool seeing that girls were into Pokemon just as much as guys and maybe even more.
 
I respect women in the tcg, because there's a lot of girls that go to my league and they are amazing players. I dont think just because someone is a girl doesnt mean they cant be as good as a guy in the tcg.
 
Mudkip711 said:
I like the Lana Del Rey reference.

*still reading*



OMG YOU JUST WON THIS THREAD FOR CATCHING THAT!


My writing has subliminal messages. You can't take anything I say for face value. ;)
 
Marty McFly said:
OMG YOU JUST WON THIS THREAD FOR CATCHING THAT!


My writing has subliminal messages. You can't take anything I say for face value. ;)

Haha, I don't really listen to her but that's one of the songs I know some of.

I'm also mentioned in the article ^_^. Ann told me a couple weeks ago that she mentioned me in it but didn't know what it was for at first.
 
I got slapped by Ann the first time I met her. :( But yeah she's a good player.

It would be cool if there was some kind of action taken (Most likely player-led) to make the Pokemon environment more comfortable and inviting for women.
 
^^^ That's the typical response I hear amongst male players. I totally agree, but we have to remember than in order to grow the female fan base, we need to be just as welcoming/supportive of all players.

But yeah that would be nice... really nice... I would expect tournament attendance, in addition to other things, to increase exponentially.
 
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