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Its been a while since we’ve seen news about local PC female gamers(killers) out there, scoring goals (kills), or kicking some butt.

The start of the female gaming era dates back to Counter-Strike (CS) beta, where the first female team in Singapore was formed. And through that, the first sponsored CS female “catfight” clan match happened in Singapore.

After 10 years or more of gaming history in Singapore, the gaming population has matured, especially with the recent winning of 3rd place of DotA 2 in Gamescom. I cannot help but notice less and less female gamers around LAN shops and in our local servers.

It brought me to wonder: How many female gamers do you know out there who plays PC games? No, we’re not talking about Facebook clicking casual games; we’re talking about REAL games like raiding a WoW Cataclysm instance or DotA/LoL/CS. A possible ratio might be only 2 out of 10 gamers locally.

Is it due to their nature of putting time into make-up, retail therapy, or social networking?

Answer: Yes & No.
Yes, because there is so much to do as a female, compared to a male. But with the rise of mobile gaming, female gamers are back dominating a farm(ville) near you.

No, because female gamers care more about how their virtual characters look (and are spec-ed) compared to how they look like IRL.

A typical female gamer is usually open-minded, out-going, loves competition on a keyboard level, and may not look girly to you at all.

AuditionSEA, a game where party rockers meet to make more friends, has a large number of female players who play competitively and casually. 

A phenomenal amount of ladies from all walks of life play MaplestorySEA, an adorable 2D graphic-based game.  
A handful or more female hardcore players in World of Warcraft, and as a game attractive to mature adults, it has even captured the attention of famous local actresses like Jeanette Aw

The gaming industry has a share of blame for this as games are designed for males, totally ignoring inclusion of game elements which appeals to females. Too much gore, levelling grinding and violent content are the main turnoffs for most females.

- A steeper learning curve

Some of the time, more effort is needed to be spent on coaching, and guiding a female gamer to be on par with her male counterparts. This can be especially rewarding when they blossom into a very useful team mate or even to be pro female gamers like the PMS Asterisk* clan and EG.Chocoblanka, who fight on equal footing against the guys.

- Presence of cyber bullies
It’s wiser not to proclaim your gender online if you are a female, plus not many are going to believe you anyway. The common term MMORPG has another definition: Many Men Online Role Playing Girls. Once they have ascertained that you are a REAL girl..

Get ready to hear/see/be PM-ed “N00b, idi0t, insert-vulgarity-here, other-insulting-remarks”.

In some cases, it has gone into an extreme where male chauvinist gamers sprout sexist remarks or even make comments outraging a girl’s modesty.

There are also unbelievably closed minded male gamers who think that girls are nothing but trouble. This has led to some gaming clans totally banning females from joining.

- A shorter anger “fuse”
Your girlfriends may be tender and loving to you, but when it comes to games, their fuse isn’t long enough due to their higher emotional and sensitivity level. Also, because of their nature, girls are used to being the centre of attention and being treated nicely. Due to these, their patience is generally less than an average male gamer.

So it looks like females might seemto be lousy gamers. We beg to differ. There are benefits ofhaving them in the community.

- Better multi-tasking skills

(Guys, you know it. Please, never challenge a girl to that. While she is listening to you blabbering your defense, she is plotting your accidental castration at the same time.)
That might also mean they have a higher APM than average male gamers once they mastered the controls and might be as good as korean Starcraft 2 players like Slayer_’Boxer’. Girls are generally more effective and diplomatic when it comes to community management in the guild too.

- Too good to have
Well, who doesn’t want a sweet female guild mate or party member? You score feel-good points by playing with female gamers, regardless female with female, or male with female. It’s a girls thing. Usually, having a female guild mate can raise morale of the guild as well. However, this is also a double edge sword as conflicts can arise if there are more than 2 guys competing for the romantic interest for a single female guild member. Much drama/ guild conflicts usually starts from these issues.

- A wider, balanced social network
Having a bunch of guys socializing online by themselves is definitely not healthy. It is always better to have a member of the opposite sex to interact with.  You’ll be surprised how many gamers get too shy around girls because a good chunk of their life was spent just talking only to their guys friends.

- Potential relationships formed online led to real life relationships
Face it. You sleep 8 hours a day and spend 3 hours for hygiene and eating. That leaves you with 13 hours for work/school and leisure. At least a quarter of your day is dedicated to gaming. Spending 6 hours daily facing challenges and banter online would bring 2 people closer and lead to real life buddyship, camaraderie, friendship or even love.  There is worldwide proof of how online gaming buddies became best friends, lovers and spouses.

There you have it. Stop banning girls from joining your clans, harassing them or degrading their intelligence. Females are powerful assets to have in the online world. Embrace (not literally, unless she lets you) a female gamer today!

Article contributed by Fujiko, an avid female gamer & Snapsniper.
credits to Chrystal from MFP forums for copywriting