You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Now that the female demographic is large enough, we are starting to see a separation into at least two distinguishable groups.

The first of these groups is the quieter of the two. These are the girls who game because they love it. [..] There was no extra attention for participating or not, just the satisfaction of playing a good game with friends or family.

However, there is a second group of girls emerging that Raychul lovingly refers to as “attention whores.” These are the girls who generally just expect attention for being a girl who plays video games. It’s not to say that these girls don’t genuinely enjoy games as well, however the problem is that they seem to think they deserve extra recognition or special treatment for it. Thus, their motivation moves away from it’s origins of “playing for fun” to “playing to get noticed.”

There are some, as Raychul points out, that may have “forced themselves into” gaming in order to get attention. However, I find that this type of pseudo-gamer tends to fade out. [...] This industry does discriminate against girls–however most guys, once they realize that a girl is a serious gamer, will treat you with the same degree of respect (if not more) that they give their male friends. If they don’t…well then why the hell would you want to be friends with them anyway?

Now the question is, why would girls do something like that? Why would you do something you don’t genuinely enjoy simply for the attention of men? Well, it’s a problem that many people suffer from that is completely unrelated to gaming: low self-esteem. These girls want to be part of what they see as an exclusive boy’s club. It is true that women are currently a minority in the gaming industry, which is why gaming men find girls who play video games more desirable. Girls who feel the need to be loved try to sneak their way into this “boy’s club” using video games as a pretense to say that they’re a “tomboy” or “just one of the guys.” But the reality is that it is not really for the “equality” that they constantly complain is absent, but for the feeling of superiority over other girls coupled with the adoration of the male gaming community.

This is the major difference between “gamer girls” and female gamers: the former wants a feeling of security and control from her social circle, while the latter simply wants friends who share her interest in games. Since these “gamer girls” get their self-esteem from the praise and adoration of men who play video games, they become dependent on video games as something far more than entertainment.

This is where the girl-on-girl hatred starts to come in. “Gamer girls” hate on each other because they feel threatened by each other. Another female in this “boy’s club” diffuses the overall attention that a girl will get. Therefore a “gamer girl” will rip into another female gamer to protect her status as the most important girl in this male-dominated social circle. This is not unique to the video game industry, I’ve seen it happen in other predominantly male territories such as tech schools and the local rock climbing gym I used to frequent.