How to Be Accepted as a Girl Gamer

Being a girl gamer can bring a lot of negativity to your gaming experience. As such, learning how to deal with the negativity will help you be accepted amongst the gaming community. How you deal with the negativity can greatly impact how others see you.

If a guy (or a girl for that matter) start trashing you or putting you down, you can do one of two things. You can either accept it and ignore it or throw it right back. When it comes to me, I can't throw insults back so I mainly ignore it.

Whatever you decide to do, don't ever whine about it or threaten to report. That isn't looked upon very well in the gaming community. If you are going to report someone, then do it. Don't make a production out of it. If all else fails, you can physically ignore them in game through an options menu.

The best way to be accepted as a girl gamer is to show off your skills to the community. Get your head in the game and kick some booty.

If you are bad at the game you are playing, practice. Put in the extra time to practice or get higher levels. Even male gamers who are horrible at the game get flack if they are bad.

Get involved in the gaming community. Introduce yourself in the forums and join discussions. The more you talk in the forums, the more the community can get to know you. If the community knows you, they are less likely to give you crap and instead welcome you.

A big thing to stress is not to worry too much about being accepted. I can almost guarentee the first time you enter the "man's world" you will get tons of negativity. If you worry about being accepted right away, you'll just stress yourself out. When it happens, it happens.

Instead of concentrating on getting accepted by the group or community, just have fun. When you start forgetting about being accepted and just worry about the game, you will more likely get accepted.

You shouldn't be gaming to get accepted, you should be accepted because you are gaming. If that's what you went there to do, don't worry about what others think.

Don't go into a gaming community thinking all guys are sexist people and don't accept girl gamers. In reality, girl gamers are becoming more and more frequent. While some male gamers are put off by females "invading their territory", most gamers are quite accepting of female gamers.

So, when you go into a community, be nice to everyone. Don't assume they are all the same or else they may treat you that way in response to the way you treat them. Innocent until proven guilty, right?

• Don't whine. No one likes it.
• Don't flaunt around the fact that you're a girl.
• Be a good sport. Don't rub in the fact that "you just got beat by a girl." Be the bigger man.
• Be yourself. Don't try to be someone you're not.
• Don't expect special treatment just because you're a girl.
• Don't let other gamers push you around because of your gender.
• Have fun!