The WCG Ultimate Gamer show on the SciFi channel has 12 top gamers from around the United States living together and competing to be the best gamer in the United States. There are actually 5 gamers that are female so almost half, which is not bad at all considering there's always so much talk of this being a male-dominated field. Maybe this relates back to the previous post on passion. There's Chelsea, who "wants to show the world that girls can game too," Amy, the co-founder of an all female gaming group called the PMS Clan, Alyson, who states that "gamers underestimate her because of her looks," Kelly, the only female member of the vVv gaming clan, and Ciji, who covers herself with tattoos of her favorite games.
Check out the website http://us.wcg.com/wcgultimategamer
Alyson's quote brought up a very good point... all of these gamers are very pretty... does that mean they will get underestimated? Why can't a female be pretty and be a video game addict? Would the standard still go the other way for a hot male playing a video game? Probably not. No one would even mention that the guy shouldn't be a gamer because it's too handsome. We also brought up a good point in class when we talked about this show. Whether or not this promotes females as gamers or just draws bad attention to them. I personally think it is promoting females as gamers and these girls could even be considered role models of sorts because they are making statements telling the world that girls can be gamers too. I think that gives an excellent message. It will be interesting to see who wins the show--male or female.
Image taken from http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/04/wcg_ultimate_gamer_contestants_1.php
I also wonder whether any gamers were passed over due to their stereotypically "nerdy" looks. The group looks very typical for any sort of tv program, with the exception of the aforementioned tattooed girl. I imagine the gamers, both male and female, were probably selected to look the least like they lived in their parents' basement. Which, if nothing else, may help improve the image of gaming in the public eye.
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