I think they're highly offensive. Whose place is it to determine who is and isn't a "real" gamer. Anyone who enjoys playing games is a gamer. People (whiny little ***** boys playing "real" games in their mother's basement wearing last week's underwear) need to get down off of their high horses and get some actual self-esteem.
It's all fueled by misogyny. If one recognized gender is dominant over another, it makes the oppressor feel bigger. Ugh, we just read "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf in my Brit Lit class, and while she was right on every count, clever and snide in all the right ways, it got me very, very angry about how women have been treated and are STILL being treated by men. Especially in the video games, comic book, sci-fi/fantasy con areas which have typically been male-dominated. Even though technically we make up almost half or more than half of the gamer market, they still like to pretend they're a distinct majority. Not the case.
Actually everything about how women are treated in the world of video games, either as characters, players, developers, writers, representatives and artists at convention booths, customers in game stores, cosplayers at conventions, makes me very angry. When the source of the problem refuses to admit there even is a problem, we've still got a long way to go to improve the treatment of gamer girls in the gaming community.
Sorry. That was kind of a long post. But it needs to be said. And it needs to be addressed, confronted, and torn down. I'm so sick of assholes looking down on me or thinking they have the right to start talking dirty to me or being creepy at me when they find out a girl, so on most forums, game sites, etc, I hide my gender. I shouldn't have to do that. I know not all gamer guys are like that. I'm dating one of the nice gamer guys that knows how to treat humans with respect. But the rest? Few and far between. Makes me sick to my stomach, to be honest. It ain't like we aren't people too.
