Don't you dare let me win
Being a girl gamer means being friends with a lot of boys. Many of these boys, perhaps in a misguided attempt to be chivalrous, will let girls win any time they compete. Maybe they think that by letting me win, they are gaining some sort of advantage in 'winning me over'. Perhaps they think if they win, I won't want to play against them any more. Oh boy, are they wrong.
It seems that there is a lesson you boys can learn from the xbox live experience. You know that feeling you get when you unlock a new achievement that you spent an hour or two going for? That's how it feels when I manage to beat you. I like that feeling, it makes me feel good about myself, and if you were my benefactor, well, that's definitely worth some brownie points right there.
But imagine you didn't *really* earn the achievement. Some glitch in the game just let you have it. Kinda makes the little icon and your gamer ranking feel a little hollow doesn't it? I'm the same way. I want to know that I did it, a victory handed to me might as well be an atrocious defeat.
Nothing ruins my finally beat'em buzz like finding out that I didn't really win. The guys that let me win because they think it'll make me like them are actually insulting me. They are making an assumption that I am so immature as to hold losing to them against them, and that I don't have the skill to get a win on my own. Please. A double dose of the X chromosome does not hinder me when I have a paddle in my hand. Bras don't have -3 game skill enchantments.
Maybe it's just me, and the way I was raised. I grew up playing against my uncles on their PSone. Every once in a while they let me win because I was little. Too young to be able to handle losing all the time. Maybe, at the time I needed that, that win. Back then might have been enough of a teaser to keep me coming back. But once they stopped having to let me win, once I could do it on my own, I was proud. I got my own confidence in what I could achieve. And from then on, the thing that kept me going was the quality of the game I played, and that rush of achievement.
This does, however, leave me wondering, am I the only girl that feels this way? And boys, how many of you 'let' the girl win, and how many of you can proudly say that your girlfriend isn't just hot, she's skilled?
It seems that there is a lesson you boys can learn from the xbox live experience. You know that feeling you get when you unlock a new achievement that you spent an hour or two going for? That's how it feels when I manage to beat you. I like that feeling, it makes me feel good about myself, and if you were my benefactor, well, that's definitely worth some brownie points right there.
But imagine you didn't *really* earn the achievement. Some glitch in the game just let you have it. Kinda makes the little icon and your gamer ranking feel a little hollow doesn't it? I'm the same way. I want to know that I did it, a victory handed to me might as well be an atrocious defeat.
Nothing ruins my finally beat'em buzz like finding out that I didn't really win. The guys that let me win because they think it'll make me like them are actually insulting me. They are making an assumption that I am so immature as to hold losing to them against them, and that I don't have the skill to get a win on my own. Please. A double dose of the X chromosome does not hinder me when I have a paddle in my hand. Bras don't have -3 game skill enchantments.
Maybe it's just me, and the way I was raised. I grew up playing against my uncles on their PSone. Every once in a while they let me win because I was little. Too young to be able to handle losing all the time. Maybe, at the time I needed that, that win. Back then might have been enough of a teaser to keep me coming back. But once they stopped having to let me win, once I could do it on my own, I was proud. I got my own confidence in what I could achieve. And from then on, the thing that kept me going was the quality of the game I played, and that rush of achievement.
This does, however, leave me wondering, am I the only girl that feels this way? And boys, how many of you 'let' the girl win, and how many of you can proudly say that your girlfriend isn't just hot, she's skilled?
Labels: chivalry, dating, gamer culture, girl gamer, victory
posted by GamerDarling at
7:32 PM
4 Comments:
Hey there! Very nice post and I somewhat feel the same way sometimes. However, from years of gaming, my first online experience in the PS2 when Sony first introduced it's online capability for the PS2... The first game I that Sony made popular online was SOCOM. I would say it was totally different back then because female gamers online were just a handfull and I guess I would say I was one of the very few. I sucks when you're the only girl and these guys are like clamering for your attention so they either let you win of they kill themselves so you get the point. It's like...comon! Just cuz I'm a girl doesn't mean I need some knight in shining armor online to protect and save me.
I can hold my own in a game, I wouldn't say I'm the best female gamer out there, I've seen some female gamers who really kick azz and still maintaing their composure... and they're really inspiring.
Hopefully we run into each other in Xbox live! :) Thanks for stopping by my blog too! You have some really good articles here, so you'll see me here often leaving you a novel of a comment hehe.
What she really means is, "let me win but don't let me find out you let me win!" =p
Not at all. If that was what I meant I would have said so. I'm not in the game for the win, but for the competition.
Handing out a win really is a sin!
perhaps it's just my natural proclivity for beating women, But it seems counter-intuitive to let a girl win to "win them over". Our genetics demand that we show off, that we perform at the peak of our skill... to let someone win is, at best disingenuous, and at worst bat-shit-stupid. Also, when you get right down to it, anybody that considers your raid-sustained dps, or gamer score as a make-or-break is probably not really worth your time.
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