Sunday, March 24, 2013

Why I look down on (some) Girl gamers

I do not believe that girls should not play videogames. On the contrary, I believe that the right to play games is an inalienable human right, ranking on par with the rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. What I look down on is a certain behavioral trait among certain girl gamers.

Before I expound on this trait let me relate a tale: I used to play King of Fighters (a highly technical fighting game) in arcades. One fine day I saw this fellow who had a shrunken left arm, probably due to polio or something of the sort. He sat down, and since he could not grip the joystick with his left hand, he used his elbow to handle it. The other players fought him with respect, and he defeated countless numbers of them fair and square, till he earned the everlasting worship of all gamers present at that glorious occasion.

Did he ask for quarter because of his handicap? I'll bet the thought never once crossed his valiant soul.

Yet when I play Dota, I keep seeing girls type "hey don't go so hard on me, I'm a girl". To me this is an affront to the spirit of all gamers, an insult to the gods of gaming, for they admire those who revel in fighting against the strongest that others can throw at them.

If the girl said that she was a new player and asked for allowance due to that, I would grant it no matter what gender the player is. But asking on account of gender is simply disgraceful, unless one were to assume that the female gender is possessed of an inferior intellect, which I disagree with. In the physical realm I would cut girls some slack, yes, but not in the arena of the mind - which games belong to.

So if you are a girl gamer, and you do not say the aforementioned sentence, I congratulate you and welcome you to the realm of warriors. If you do, be inspired by the example of the handicapped guy I raised above, and swear off such cowardly statements for all time.

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