MoviePage

Critic Tom Bissell recently got into a lot of hot water over this offhand remark in an article about Skyrim:
The flood of emails and responses from adult female Skyrim fans caused him to later issue a public apology. So, careful about assumptions. It's easy to make a statement like that based on your own personal anecdotal evidence, when the reality is a lot different.

Xander

My wife's pretty open-minded about my video games as long as they don't interfere with my responsibilities around the house and I occasionally spend some quality time with her. She's not much of a gamer herself except for Rock Band and Mario Kart.

orangecrush

That was mildly funny and the adult female gamers who e-mailed him should act more like adults and not see his attempt at humor as a personal attack against them.

RocShemp

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the adult female gamersd that flamed him probably don't play the game anyway.

Not that I blame them. If it's anything like Oblivion, it must be a handy cure for insomnia.

fumanstan

Sorry, but do people really think that the reality is men and women are equally interested in video games? Like slop said, generalizations exist because they're often true, and while there are more and more female gamers these days I imagine the gender breakdown for a game like Skyrim is still significantly skewed toward males.

slop101

Thing is, if someone's reading his article on SkyRim, they'll most likely know what it is, female or not, which in no way discounts his point whatsoever, regardless of it being an attempt at humor.

I would bet money on the fact that more than 99% of all adult women most certainly do NOT know what the fuck an "Elder Scrolls" is.

MoviePage

My experience is that there are a ton of female gamers out there, and the number grows higher every year. As many as there male gamers? I don't know, I never really counted. But I imagine that any disparity will eventually disappear and the number will be about even. That's why generalizations are often silly -- while they may be true today, they may not be true tomorrow, but the generalization will still hang around long past its expiration date.

MoviePage

Well, to be fair, I've played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and I still don't know what the fuck an "Elder Scroll" is, either.

But the thing is, you're talking about all adult women that you know. I know quite a few adult women who are playing Skyrim at the moment. Yes, I know more guys who are doing the same, but the number of women is a lot bigger than 1% and is certainly more than the number who played Oblivion when it was released.

Tracer Bullet

99%? I'll take that bet.

MoviePage

More than 99%, actually. I want in on that money, too.

slop101

Yes, 99% of ALL adult women, all around the world. I would even say 99% of all American women, but that might be closer to 98%. Though I'm not sure how one could figure that out...

xmiyux

If you're currently in a relationship, how does your significant other feel about your interest in video games?

Married for 12 years now and my wife has always said she loves I'm a gamer. She will refer to many of her old high school friends who have husbands who have cheated on them, are drunks, generally worthless, have left them, work extremely late hours, or have really expensive hobbies. She loves the fact that I spend my money on games and then she knows that on weekend nights when she goes to bed that I'm going to be in the basement gaming.

Countless times she has said her friends who all struggle with traditional guy problems would kill for a gamer who can hold down a job.

It is nice, but I also have to marvel at how low the bar has been set for guys.

Do they game with you or do they have zero interest in it?

She will play board games with me because they are more interactive. Cooperative video games that don't require extensive controller skills are also sometimes possible. She has grown to love point-and-click adventure games and any brawler where you can level up and collect loot. Castle Crashers and the console versions of Baldur's gate were both fun games to play together.

Do you only play when they aren't home/you aren't hanging out together?
I make a point to really not game when my wife and daughter are up. I want to spend time with them - not an AI. However sometimes we both agree we need our "me" time and she will read a book on her Kindle and I will game. Often we might be sitting beside one another just doing our own thing.

I am very conscious though to make sure I show through my actions that the real people in the room have a priority to me.

Also, all that being said, she knows release dates and is well aware that when an anticipated game drops that I intend to give both of them a kiss and then they go play while I spend that launch day with my new experience.

Did gaming have any effect on your dating life in the past? Has it changed in the present?

I've always been nerdy so everyone I dated knew I games. They also knew that I love sci-fi, fantasy, cooking, read a good deal. Like any hobby it was finding someone who recognized that even if they weren't a fan it was still something that their partner enjoyed. So from dating in college she knew that on the weekends I would want to play board games or video games and that chances are I would be drawn into some overly analytical conversation about sci-fi minutiae. Heck, one of the first times we spoke with one another she witnessed a lengthy discussion about philosophy and Dune.

If that didn't scare her off - nothing would.

Like others said though, there are issues far larger than gaming that made/broke relationships for me. I'm vegan and wanted to be with someone vegetarian or vegan. I also wanted someone really open-minded. Having those qualities then made the video game thing a non-issue.

orangecrush

World population? You're on.

PopcornTreeCt

So you guys think there are over 3 million American women out there that know what the fuck an "Elder Scroll" is?

slop101

Well, SkyRim did sell almost 3 million copies in America - even if those were all from men, that would mean there are 3 million women being neglected by those men. Oh wait, the fallacy of this argument is that men who buy SkyRim would even have women to neglect - ha!

Tracer Bullet

The idea that 99% of adult women don't know what Skyrim is is so laughable as to be irrelevant as an opinion to be taken seriously.

Although I do appreciate the editing to include the entire world.

slop101

I'd like to know what world you're living in, as your position is far more laughable to me. I actually think you're taking the piss just for a laugh. Seriously dude, how in the fuck can anyone for a second think that more than a million of all adult women know what an ES game is. It's seriously mind-boggling.

Raul3

I think it's an interesting debate.

Based solely in the definition of the debate: There are not 1% of adult women in the USA that have any idea about what an Elder Scrolls game is (Skyrim or any other).

And it's a good debate because I think we are in that point in time, that we are crossing that barrier. I'm sure that more than 1% of adult women in NYC know what an ES game is. Same for LA, SF, etc. Skyrim has been all over the news, anyone that browses a little bit may have read something about it.

But if we count all adult women in the USA, is that number bigger than 1%? I don't know.

PopcornTreeCt

70% of Americans don't know what the Constitution is... so...

I disagree that Skyrim has been on the news. Perhaps tech websites? The only game I ever saw on the news was MW3 because it broke records.

Deftones

My wife has no problem with me playing games. She's got virtually zero interest in playing them with me or by herself. I either play when she's home, but it's late and she's asleep or during the day when I'm done working and nobody is home.

Tracer Bullet

I guess you're not pretending to not be completely sexist anymore.

slop101

Go ahead and explain to me how thinking that 99% of adult women haven't heard of a videogame RPG is even remotely sexist. I would content that well over 90% of adult men don't know what it is as well. One of us doesn't seem to understand women, and I'm going to say it's you.

fumanstan

I'm still with slop101 on this

I don't see any sexism either.

Tracer Bullet

Okay, that's fine, I don't really care. You go ahead and keep thinking that more than 99% of women don't know what Skyrim is.

What a stupid goddamned argument.

slop101

Whoa, touchy. I bet next thing you'll say is that there's just as many women members here on dvdtalk as there are men, which would be equally as preposterous...