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Women Gamers and The Power of the Feminine
Keridwan
Member Posts: 118
Femmes Fatales
There has been much discussion in these forums about gender and women and girl gamers. Inevitably there have been some very considered and constructive views, and there have naturally been immature, narrow and silly comments. There is, however, an alternative view that has been expressed in the activities of a "feminine only" group called Femmes Fatales who played Dark Age of Camelot for some five years, and later moved to World of Warcraft, GuildWars and Lineage 2. Femmes Fatales adopted a radically different perspective on gaming values. We wanted to emphasize the "power of the feminine" in MMOs and made no apologies for being separatist and exclusive in this respect. We felt that men as well as women are able to express and appreciate these qualities and in turn adopted an "anti feminist" stance.
Please see the following Blog entry for a brief discussion
http://keridwanthompson.spaces.live.com/
Femmes Fatales will be relocating to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and eventually Age of Conan and Warhammer in 2007. Our web site is currently under going an overhaul, details to be published later.
Please note that our policy is "feminine" or if you prefer "female only" characters.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
just wondering
at least we don't have to assume a guy on the other end for these gals
or do we
jk
any way good luck with your guild.
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Achiever 20.00%, Explorer 86.67%, Killer 60.00%, Socializer 33.33%
EKSA
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Which could be a pity, the way some people ask I've been tempted to lie and claim I'm a guy in real life
-In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08-
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RISING DRAGOON ~AION US ONLINE LEGION for Elyos
If I may offer a small corrective Rikimaru, this is not really a discussion about "females playing video games" it is more about distinctions between feminine and masculine MMO players and how this maps out in guilds, character development and design and how gamers develop an on-line identity or role.
Well, hopefully you don't act like the fragdolls and scream out "U GOT KILLD BY A GUUUUUUUUUUURL!!11" everytime you kill a male avatar...
Well just speaking as a grrl gamer and not as a member of the femme fatales (never been a member) but women only guilds for me wouldn't be about barriers. They're about creating a comfortible atmosphere and getting away from the attitude that some guys have towards women and after all it doesn't stop the members of the guild interacting with men outside of the guild.
I fully hope they don't go "U GOT KILLD BY A GUUUUUUURL!!11" too though
This includes race, gender, or religion. These are things best kept out-of-game in my honest opinion, and I for one believe the anonymity associated with virtual reality one of MMORPG's biggest blessings. After all, MMORPG's are one of the few places where intelligence, looks, financial status, and personal background are completely ignored, and I support this! Players should be judged for their in-game abilities and behavior, not external factors. All of this is merely my opinion of course.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
This is a real;ly really interesting post, im really curious about this, unfortunately i could not open the msn space link you have provided, but i would very like to be in contact with you and debate this issue further.
That aside, i have recently written a brief comment on how Asian MMOs are making online gaming more accessible to female gamers and maybe not enpowering them, but certainly bringing them to an equal level.
I have studied femmme fatale theories in film studies and this cerrtainly resonate with some feminist theories i have researched. I'ts no real secret that Western gaming have a 'masculine gaze' There is a clear sex bias involved, (buff heroe and sexy females) and in a way it confronts female gamers with a catch-21. If they play male characters, isn't that subscribing to the male gaze by 'wanting to roleplay a male character' while playing female character on hand also does not escape the male gaze by accomendating to the svelte sexy young female stereotype.
(Maybe should just ignored all that theory rant, maybe you guys just want some 'gemme fatale' PK action)
For a more liberating, non sexist game try Second Life
Hello Buddhabeads, thanks for the reply. This is certainly the kind of response I was hoping for and will contact you to discuss further.
You can now access the msn space, sorry but I forgot the syndicalise it for open access. It should be straightforwards now.
The Will to Power is a frugal resource, you don't need to think about it when your walking ....
"First and foremost we wanted to convey a strong relationship between beauty and the virtual body in on-line gaming, We were not interested in ugliness. The avatars we designed and developed in Femmes Fatales mirrored this interest. In fact it is probably true to say that the most ardent feminist is very likely to be an ugly woman. These women resent beautiful women. So how does the beauty of a body detach that body from the contentment of our practical, expressive, and sexual relations and make of that body an object of excessive passions? How does this manifest itself in the world of MMOs? Why and how does beauty organize the body, linking up forms, colors, and movements into a snare for our lusts? Bataille focuses exclusively on the feminine body, inasmuch as it is the supremely erotic object:"
Yes, lets totally concentrate on the "strong relationship" between, ahum, Beauty and pixels, because if there is anything that is important in an mmorpg world, then its that!
and lets not leave out the so called conclussion.
"So Femmes Fatales as an expression of the sublime feminine as "will to power", shall continue to mesmerize, seduce, tease and provoke. And more than anything else we shall continue to use our power to be wicked, desirable and feminine. MMOs provide us a perfect context to deploy and sustain our ambitions.".
Forgive me for my language, but you DO realize it is a GAME right? Seduce? Tease? Tell you what, get away from your computer and go do that in real life. Its people like you that makes me tell parents in real life to wait untill their children are at a higher age before starting the mmorpg genre. Don't you have anything better to do then to virtually "seduce" people? If your "ambition" is to virtually whore yourself out, then I think you should get your priorities straigth.
But look on the brightside, for every guild like this, where women seek to exploit guys in video games, there's at least 3 other guys already acting like women.
I can't think of a guild I've been in where at least 1 male player didn't pretend he was a female, solely to get items.
Congrats, femmes fatales, but you guys are a few years behind the rest of the MMO world.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
If I was twenty years younger, I could empathise with what's being said in this thread - sentiments and the like. But I can't. I've out-grown such antics.
Time for some of you to out-grow them too.
a totally over rated issue
Women gamers are no different than men and should not be treated as such. The thing is so many guys are hardup for action in real life they think seeing a female gamer is ooh ahhh and a chance for cyber
Who cares its all gamers and this like many other issues is an over bloated floating pig.
Indeed, I totaly agree with you there. It totaly does not matter I find if you are a boy or girl gamer. I am female and realy do not give a toss if peeps I am playing with are male or female so long they are friendly and respectufull and one can have loads of fun doing pvm or what not together.
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Do I ever sleep?
i'l be playing WAR end vangaurd perhaps ,maybe i'l join u again if i may ^^ had a realy good time with u girls ,u had a pretty good guild ,but i doubd they same people i played with in daoc are still in the guild
i was kirami a little necromancer ^^
I think anyone that knows me on this site knows that I'm just about the biggest advocate for equality in gaming.
I've fought for it, I've screamed for it, I've gotten in more then a few arguments here on the boards for it and as a female gamer since as young as I can remember, I've truly wanted for it.
IMVHO, groups like this do nothing but reinfroce a stagnent and old need to seperate the sexes in some shape, way or form and use that seperation to an advantage on either end of the spectrum.
I guess my main purpose to this reply is so people know that a large percentage of female gamers have no need, want or desire for such exclusive groups and genuinely dissagree with their fundamental porpose. Many of us just want to be gamers, to play and have fun with everyone else, to attend a LAN or a TS session without being thought of as different, no more and no less.
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Mmmmm a virtual fashion show, what a delicious idea ... actually it's probably been done in Guild Wars, but thanks for the suggestion. Shall I send you a VIP ticket? As for "arguements" what arguments, I didn't notice any? <sweet smile> .... Have a lovely day, and don't forget to put your gaming slippers away nice and tidy for the next round of hard-core just gaming ..... by the way great title for a reality tv show.
As I said in my earlier posts, boundaries regarding gender, race, religion, financial status, etc etc should be kept OUT of the gaming world, not brought into it.
It just seems utterly pointless to divide the gaming community on something so trivial.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Mmmmm a virtual fashion show, what a delicious idea ... actually it's probably been done in Guild Wars, but thanks for the suggestion. Shall I send you a VIP ticket? As for "arguements" what arguments, I didn't notice any? <sweet smile> .... Have a lovely day, and don't forget to put your gaming slippers away nice and tidy for the next round of hard-core just gaming ..... by the way great title for a reality tv show.
Creatures of the sea aside, I agree with what Shae said, just without the being female.
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No Userbar here, sorry to disappoint.
I don't see an exlusively woman guild as seperating the sexs inheinrently but along the same sort of lines as a GLBT guild. Being formed to act more as a place in the game where you know you could getaway from some of the attitudes that can be directed at you. That doesn't inherintly in itself say you want to be segregated from the rest of the community completely.
Edit: a guild formed with the purpose of using 'seduction' to gain an advantage is something completely different