Gamegal has posted an article which covers the experiences of a female gamer who likes to game with Xbox Live!
Unfortunately, she didn't find it all that thrilling, with male gamers generally being chauvanistic or the complete
opposite, gentlemanly (not exactly want you want in a game of Halo 2 rockets). Either way, the article conveys the
feeling that women Xbox Live! gamers are "guests" and "outsiders" to the male dominated online arena.
From my own experiences as a male gamer that uses Xbox Live, a lot of the people I've encountered in general have been
complete and utter asshats. You've got sore losers, idiotic winners, cheats, hackers, dunces singing at the top of
their voices, homophobes and rascists. The list goes on. Whenever I've played with female gamers I personally don't bat
an eyelid, but I have encountered others giving asking idiotic, rude and downright immature comments (OMG it's a girl,
teehee) to female gamers. Frankly, women gamers are the only group it's possible to recognise because of the voice
communication, and therefore they get a lot of the flak from the Xbox Live! lowlife mentioned earlier.
Xbox Live! has levelled the playing field for anyone to get online and game from their living room. But the problem of
discrimination against female gamers needs to be addressed. What would you suggest Microsoft do to address this
inequality? Opinions from guys and gals welcome!
