This one is gonna go back to my tendency to rage about female gamers. Did you know that I’ve never been called a whore, slut, cunt, bitch, or any derogatory term for women in HoN? Even when players find out I’m a girl due to either using my mic or friends referring to myself as “she/her” I have never been made fun of because I’m a girl. That’s not to say that I haven’t been raged at. I’ve done many things that are rage worthy, some that are not, but none of that is because of being a girl. Also, I’m not saying that I’ve never been given some variation of the kitchen jokes, or the sammich jokes, but they were just that JOKES. I can laugh about them especially if it’s one I haven’t heard before.

Are you surprised? After all, we all hear the cries of girl gamers being treated differently, being made fun of, and being put down by the man. You would think HoN would be twice as bad considering the community.

I’m not surprised. Not one bit. I don’t get those type of comments because of the way I portray myself. I don’t jump into a HoN game and quickly type out “*giggle* Hey guys! I’m a girl! Who wants me on their team? *wink*” I don’t remind people over and over again that I’m a girl. I don’t flirt with players. I’m not there to get attention, I’m there to play the game.

The biggest issue that I’m seeing lately is girls portraying themselves in such a negative light. Not only do they do this but they also complain when they get negative feedback from people.  If you show people that all you want is attention then you can’t complain when you receive bad attention. If all you do in game, on the forums, in public is flirt flirt flirt don’t be surprised when guys call you a slut. When you constantly remind people that you’re one of the cool girls that play video games don’t be shocked when they rip you to shreds on your game play and you in general.

You want to be treated like equals? Play the game. That’s it. Guys don’t play video games to meet girls. They play them to have fun. Isn’t that why you play games? Or are you playing games for a different reason?

I was going to try to transition myself into this part, but fail. The reason girls aren’t on competitive teams you damn drama queen feminists is because none of them have shown the skill and, oh Idk, tried out for a team? There’s a good chance that a girl with the skill of H4nn1, Trixie, Levent, Kebap, or any other top tier player tried out for a team they’d be on it. Competitive teams don’t have a “No girls allowed” sign hanging below their banner. Yet, I see girls trying to make competitive teams with a “No boys allowed” sign whining about how competitive teams don’t have girls. Grow up.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: competitive teams, girl gamers, Heroes of Newerth, hon, kitchen, no girls allowed, Rant

*turns on some music* Allow me to express some nerd rage right now. *I’ve got a potty mouth in this one!* Get off the god damn game if you aren’t having fun. Don’t take it out on me or on anyone else that you play with regularly. If you can’t handle a god damn loss then don’t play any game ever again. Step away from all video games because allow me to explain something to you. You may think you are Mr. Elite Pro Watch Me Shit Gold All Day Long, but you are NOT. Want to know how I know that? Because you are playing a fucking BETA game with everyone else. It’s a new game and as shocking as this is Mr. Elite Pro there are going to be new people. People that didn’t play your precious DoTA game that you evidently filled up with so much gold poo you had to move on to this one. People are going to make mistakes. People are going to die. You WILL lose a game. You just might lose more than one! Gasp Shock WHAT?

*deep breath.. music is calming me down* Now that I got that out of my system. Allow me to explain. People tend to have bad days I understand that. I, for the life of me, don’t understand why people think online games will turn their frown upside down. They don’t. Online games have always brought out the worse in people. Including you at one point or another. So why would you play a game when you are already raging or upset about something else. I’ve been having bad games left and right for 2 days straight. It’s annoying. I don’t take it out on people I play with though. I’ll take it out on the fucking noob pred that refused to take his leap because he didn’t want to die!!!! Ack. *deep breath*

Almost lost it there again. See. I get the nerd rage, but I am at least smart enough to know to step away from the game. I step away because I don’t want to get angrier. I step away from the game because I don’t want to upset friends that I do enjoy playing with. I step away because I know that one game will not win out against the 3 losses it took to get to it. It won’t even equalize it. I’m still going to walk away angry from the lost games. Trust me.

So please. If you’re having a bad day, step away from the game… seriously.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Heroes of Newerth, Rant

I hate having to rant about this. I really do. There are times when that rage just takes over. It was my own fault. I clicked the bad link that meant I would be taken to the bad girl whining and complaining about how gaming females are treated like crap online. She even had the nerve to mention that in World of Warcraft females are called “cunts, sluts, whores, etc.” What World of Warcraft are you playing?! Or let me be blunt, what the hell were you doing to be called that? Did you rob the guild bank or something?

Allow me to bring up some points for some of you females that feel you are disrespected because of your gender.

Everyone gets made fun of online. Period. It has nothing to do with your gender. Do you think guys don’t get called “fags, bitches, (insert some term about small penises here)” ? If you think guys are nice to guys you clearly haven’t played online. People get angry. Thanks to the anonymous identity online games give us mouths tend to run wild.

Quit thinking each insult you hear is a personal attack on you being a female. Get called a noob? Did you do something noobish? Then you’re a noob. If not then the other guy’s a noob for trying to call you out. Wait, wait, wait. They must of called you a noob because they knew you were a girl! That’s it! What a sexist bastard.

Don’t bring it on yourself! Seriously. Talking trash like “You’re gonna get beat by a girl!” “You just got owned by a girl!” “I’m a girl and I just beat you!” will just make it worse. If you lose, they’ll do everything they can in their power to make sure you know you just lost. They’ll throw every insult in the book your way. If you win, you just look like a bitch. Congrats.

Example A:

At the 2:40 mark you’ll see PMS talking trash to the other team. “Don’t be afraid to get beat by girls.” PMS lost. How does that make them look? Not good. Not good for anyone. These guys were mild too. So mild that it makes you think if PMS didn’t talk trash in the first place would the other team have even said anything?

Look, I understand you want equality. I do too. But the more I see whining and complaining the more it becomes clear that it’s not equality that you want, it’s special treatment.

Do you honestly feel that girls are targeted with hate online for no reason other than they are girls? Or do you think there is something else behind it?

Oh! And I solemnly swear I will stop clicking on links that I know will take me to the bad places so I can stop making these rants.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Female Gamers, Rant

I really enjoyed it. Had some giggle moments and some “nod my head” moments. To be honest though I don’t mind half naked women in video games. Just doesn’t bother me. Just as I hope guys aren’t bothered by shirtless muscle bound men in video games.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Female Gamers

Priest Pet Peeves

1. Do NOT call me priest. Yes that is my class it is however not my name. By calling me priest you are literally dropping me down to the same level as a dog or cat. “Priest heal.” “Priest buff now.”
2. Do NOT whisper me out of the blue with “Heal me.” I don’t care if you are standing right next to me it is still considered out of the blue. It is also a pet peeve because you are ordering me to do something. Again I am not your dog or cat. “Can you heal me real quick?” See. You can ask politely. Amazing.
3. Run back to the instance after a wipe like everyone else! No, it is not my job to be the only person to run back and raise you while you stare at your screen. Trust me, I will pretend I don’t see you and you will waste more time.
4. Dear Warlocks: Your life tap gives you an amazing ability to regenerate as much mana as you see fit. It does NOT however give you a free pass on sitting your ass down and eating food like the rest of us. Do NOT jump around me during downtime with less than 500 health while I am eating and drinking. No I will not heal you.. instead I will give you one of those wonderful food items our mage conjured for us a few moments before we started.

General “I Hate You” Pet Peeves

1. Repair. Yes, you know you are about to raid or go into an instance.. repair. Omg please repair. If you are our tank and you state that your shield is broken after the first wipe I will hit your nose with a newspaper until you learn.
2. For the love of god it is “What” not “wat.” I can’t stand it when people shorten words that have no need to be shortened. Typing one or two extra letters will not kill you or waste any time at all. “wat” “wut” “ur” There are more but it’s too traumatic for my brain to remember.
3. People who run in instances to avoid a repair bill. Yes, repair bills suck. I know they suck, but for god sakes be a man and die like the rest of us. By running back out of the instance you waste time because I have to wait in my ghosty form until you leave before I can get back to my body. So thank you for wasting more of our time because you don’t want to add to your repair bill.
4. People who try to make me feel guilty for a drop I’ve won. I know you wanted it too. I know it sucks. I’ve lost rolls myself and did a nice loud /facedesk. It left a mark. You win some you lose some, it’s life. Get used to it now.
5. Pulling people into a boss fight as raid leader only to receive a whisper with “Noooo, I don’t want to be put in for this. I want to be put in for blahblahblah.” … pretty self explanatory.
6. Please don’t take the chest/quest item/quest mob/herb/mine/etc. that I just spent 10 min clearing to. Ok Ok I get it. It’s not technically “mine.” It’s called courtesy.
7. Don’t threaten that you’ll quit after a patch. You’re a liar. You know it. I know it. Blizzard knows it. Your post/trade spam is not filled with valid points that some random blizzard game developer is going to see and think “Zomg! He’s right! We’ve got to fix this! Or we could lose an account…out of our 11 million.”

What are your pet peeves?

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Rant

I enjoy a UI tweak here and there. So I often find myself browsing WoW forums looking at what others have done and what’s new and hot. While browsing a blog that offered a tutorial on Lunarsphere (http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/03/lunarsphere.html) I came across another of her posts about identity theft. This was about a very specific kind of identity theft.

Since the Internet was born there was always the paranoid and well deserved voice in our head that screamed “How do I know this person is really the person they say they are?”

This easily sidetracked me and brought me to the interesting story of a blogger named Ferarro. Get your juicy details here: http://www.wow.com/2009/05/31/the-curious-case-of-ferarro/ . Cliff notes: Someone (male or female) stole a girl’s pictures, videos, blogs, and other general information and passed if off as their own. Apparently this person then began telling more and more lies to cover it up.

Kae (blogger of Dreambound) posted a link to an even more interesting read. Big Bear Butt Blog. In case you didn’t read his article here is a little snip snip of it:

Well, as an example of one kind of comment I’ve had in the past, there is that person that wrote a comment to a post I made about my love of bacon, telling me that he was outraged, that meat was murder, and asking me how I would like it if they ate my son? And then posted a Googlemaps link to my exact house street address… and the park across the street.I think that pretty much says it all. Do you need further examples? I don’t think so. I think having someone track down where I live and threaten to eat my son is enough of an example to prove my point. And this was before my name was on the banner at the head of the website. That was back when the banner just said Big Bear Butt.

Personally if I ever found a link to my place I don’t think I would blog for awhile! I remember hearing in high school that most people don’t realize they are being stalked. I in turn don’t think most people realize they are stalking. Take for example: I was waiting for my boyfriend to return my call for 3 hours. He is normally very quick to respond to texts and missed calls. So while still waiting I decided to check xbox.com and see if he was online. Sure enough he was. He had no idea I was checking up on him. Would you consider this stalking? Would you even consider it creepy? Having typed it out.. ya I think I was a little creepy for doing it.

But let us discuss the Ferraro case. The internet drama that brought non-ret pallys to a site they never would of visited.

Let’s start with TechDarling. I think it was very ignorant to place so much personal data out there for anyone to take, use, and abuse. Was it niave to think that no one would do anything? Whether it be taking and using her information for their own personal gain or to actually go to the point of stalking her and hurting her. Part of me feels bad for her, but the other half makes me just shake my head in disappointment for her own decision to post all that she did.

I’ve gotten to the point of just sighing at Ferraro. He/she/it probably dug themselves into a bigger hole than they planned on. If she is a girl the mere pressure placed on females to show their picture never ends. I remember first logging on to AOL back in the days of dial up. Entering chat rooms and being greeted with “A/S/L/Pic?” If I didn’t have a pic no one would talk to me.

Of course the pressures to still post a pic are upon me. If I don’t then it is automatically assumed I’m fat and ugly. However I view it as a win win. Not only do I not post my pic, but it makes these idiotic pervs move to someone else. The good people, the good guys, the good girls that don’t care about my pic are the ones that I want to associate with, not the others.

There is a girl in one of my old linkshells. To my knowledge, she was given the typical harassment of “OMG You’re a girl?! You should post your pic!” So she did. I viewed the thread and saw why she was confident with posting them. She was very pretty. She posted more and more pictures and as it went on they began to highlight more and more of her curves. Captions began to include “This is when I got drunk in Mexico!” and “No one thinks mine are real!”

The harassment got worse. Now they wanted more. They wanted to know where she lived, phone numbers, if she had a webcam, etc. She stopped posting pictures. You see, you may think it will stop with just one picture, but it will never stop it will only get worse. See Ferraro, they had to continue to give more and it finally caught up with them.

What do you think about internet stalking?

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Female Gamers

Being in MMOs I never really researched a guild or linkshell very well before I joined them. In FFXI I stuck with a group of 5 friends (all males) and I followed them from linkshell to linkshell. In WoW I stuck with a group of 3 RL friends (all males) and followed them from guild to guild. I decided to venture on my own and find a clan for Xbox360 for the first person shooter Call of Duty 4.

I never actively looked for other female gamers. Unfortunately I completely regret doing so. I randomly threw in “female COD4 clan Xbox360″ into google and checked out the first few links. One of them ended up being PMS (A well known female only clan). However after looking around the site and googling for more info on PMS I found that it wasn’t for me. During my research I found another clan. It stated it was co-ed and that it wanted to stay that way after being part of PMS.

I thought perfect. After being in the clan I started to notice a few things. For instance we (females) weren’t allowed to create teams with male members. And the only teams allowed to compete were female only teams. I thought Why on earth would you have a ‘co-ed’ clan but continue to divide them. The reason given as to why teams could not be co-ed was: “We want to be known as a female clan and if we have co-ed teams then everyone will say that the only reason we do well is because of the male players.”

I wanted to be on a team I worked well with. I wanted a team with players I knew I could trust. Who cares if two of the ones I wanted were male? Apparently they did. Apparently winning took a backseat to “Girl Power!” Thank you for setting “us” back even further. Annoyed but not completely turned off I continued my way with the clan.

Having never played Halo I grew curious and began browsing the Halo specific part of the forums. Deciding I could bend my anti-halo ways I checked the rules for practices. I was met with this sticky:

Just a reminder concerning combined practices.

When playing a CUSTOM team game the guys SHOULD NOT be picking up power weapons. If everyone has a power weapon as a secondary weapon or as a primary weapon then the guys, of course, can use them.

When playing team games the girls are chosen first for teams and the guys last. Try to always make sure that there are the same number of guys on each team if possible. Team captains should always be the girls. These are technically the girls practices and the guys are guests.

If you go into matchmaking the guys CAN use the power weapons if they want. We should always work together as teams, backing each other up.

Apparently being born a female I have to have special rules just to survive against a male competitor. I don’t need special rules to beat other gamers. I don’t need you to water down the multiplayer games because I am a female. I can do just fine, thank you.

How do you expect the gaming community to take female gamers seriously when all you do is put them on a pedestal and then whine when they are not treated as equals?

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Female Gamers, Rant