Talk Nerdy To Me

Disclaimer: Unless you play EVE, this post probably won’t make much sense or be interesting in any way; but it’s about attracting more women to play EVE – the official numbers say only 4-5% of the playerbase are female. Also, I have had to moderate certain phrases, as CK doesn’t allow offensive language

So, I have never actually participated in one of CrazyKinux‘ Blog Banter thingamajiks (I mean, I play the game, but this isn’t an EVE blog per se), but he made a special edition this time concerning the small number of females playing EVE compared to the number of guys, and I kind of think my participation this time could add a bit of perspective, considering it’s basically been mostly guys writing so far. So, the question posed is:

What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?

My first thought was why you would even want to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to play EVE. It might seem a bit anti-feminist, but really, it’s not. Let me first explain a bit about my background.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a tomboy (in the geeky sense) and have a way easier time getting along with guys both irl and in-game, but at the same time, I’m part of an all-girl pirate corp (much love to my fellow Hellcats!). I was interested in – but a bit apprehensive about – joining an all-girl corp, but after reading about Hellcats and Mynxee assuring me that corp chat wasn’t just about diapers and diets (which Women Gamers of EVE tended to be at one time; and I have no interest in either), I went for it – and I haven’t regretted it one second. It’s fun that you can be geeky with other girls; it’s actually something I have found out that I have missed.

Before joining Hellcats, I was the CEO of a mid-sized corp called LFC for something like 5 years. We went through several alliances in our time (founding 3rd Front Alliance, then moving to Lotka Volterra, FATAL, Insurgency, EXE and a few others). I’ve been the “boss-lady” (always hated that word) for girls; some good, some bad. I’ve been in diplomatic talks with girls, and I’ve hung out in the Women Gamers of EVE channel and on their forums. All this has led me to think that there are two kinds of girls playing EVE:

1. The kind that wants to play on the same level as the rest of the populace
2. The kind that uses a sweet voice and boobs to exploit the hopes of horny guys

It’s harsh, but that’s basically my experience. Luckily most of the girls that play EVE and stick with it beyond the initial “oooh, shiny new thing!” phase fall under category 1, but there are more 2s out there than you might think. Sure, in love and war all is fair, but there’s a difference between girls dumbing themselves down and virtually battering their eyelashes to get an advantage/ presents/ whatever and then getting assistance because of your other merits. (I have been known to joke about “I have tits, I win”, but in no way am I serious). And basically, I’m afraid that if you choose to change the game to cater to more women, you’ll get way more of the second kind than the first. The girls that want to play on a level playing field are the ones you want; and then it’s not a question of changing the game, but rather just letting them know that it’s there.

That being said, it’s not always the fault of the girl if they get treated differently. I have experienced a lot of odd things in my time playing EVE due to my gender; let me give you a few examples:

• Someone once quit the game for good, after I podded him, as he couldn’t deal with being killed by a girl.
• During a big fleet op once, while entering a fight, I spoke on TS (I think I was a scout), and instantly 3 people broke comms and asked “Who’s the girl?!” and started acting up. Not what’s needed in a fleet op.
• People randomly giving me presents – which is cool, but not really when I know it’s thanks to my gender.
• People randomly trying to either have long mindless conversations with me (because omg, then they’re talking to a girl!) or even worse trying to cyber me (because of course I have nothing better to do than get horny teenage boys off via chat… errr).
• People thinking I must be a carebear because I’m a girl – girls have just as many different play styles as guys. Or even worse – the amount of times I have been asked at Fanfest and other player meets who I am there with, as I obviously can’t be a player myself…
• People moderating their language because I join a channel*

There are also examples of people looking up to a female pilot in a leadership position, until somehow a picture of said person gets shared, and they instead become a laughing stock (and it’s not just Goons that have done this). If a guy is ugly, but in a leadership position, noone really minds, but if a girl isn’t “traditionally beautiful”, she becomes a laughing stock and/or people lose respect for her? Why?

Some years ago, we were in an alliance blue to another alliance, who had a female as one of their main diplomats. We had a lot of ops together, and said girl spoke quite a lot on Teamspeak, and every time she spoke, you could almost hear the collective sound of trousers rising. Everyone was always speaking about how she “sounded so sexy”, “was probably hot” etc, instead of talking about her skills as a pilot or diplomat (of which she had both). Of course the day came when the alliance of alliances fell apart, and suddenly people spoke of her as “the bitch”, “the whore”, “the tramp” etc. instead. And people wonder why some girls playing the game choose to not make their gender known?

I have nothing against people knowing I’m a girl. I am used to jokes (and find them quite funny) about “a girl being on top” when I was CEO and stuff like that – hell, I’ll even make them myself. But that doesn’t mean I want to be treated any differently than the next guy in any significant way; at least not based on my gender.

I know there’s no real morale to this, but I wanted to chime in, if nothing else than to explain a bit about what it’s like being a girl in EVE. In general I like it a lot, because it’s geeky enough for my preferences; but that also means I would hate it if things were changed just to cater to more average members of “my” gender.

Other blogs in the banter:

- I am Keith Neilson – it was his tweet/ blog post that made me aware of the topic this time
- Ombeve - Who seems to agree with me on a lot of points
- Life In Low Sec – Mynxee, my now former CEO, who gave me a chance to find my inner yarrness!
- Alva Dyson – Hellooo stereotypes!
- Where the Frack is my Ship
- Starfleet

More extensive lists can be found on other blogs…

*I have a funny story (sort of) regarding this. Once, during one of the alliance tournaments where I was on the team, the guys spent an hr discussing whether I was a lesbian or not while we were setting up. It was quite funny to be honest. Anyway, I decided to call my good friend – and team leader – a “c**t” on chat; we were so used to calling each other offensive names that we didn’t really think about it. Instantly, one of the other guys went “You can’t say the c-word! There are girls present!”… I was the only girl there. Anyway, 10 minutes later, one of them said “c**k” to which I of course went “You can’t say the c-word!”. He then told me that that wasn’t the same – to which I could only reply that considering they’d just spent an hr calling me a lesbian, I really couldn’t see the difference. Funnily enough he shut up after that.