Oswald Rant: Female Gamers: Vampyress

Given Name: Sandra/Sannie K.
Alias: Vampyress
Age: 21
Location: Netherlands
System: Pentium3 733Mhz, on an Asus Mboard, 512 MB ram, Geforce 2 Ultra vidcard, Soundblaster live 64, iiyama 17″ monitor
Oswald: How do you balance your real world social life with that of your Internet life?

Vampyress: My Internet life has been linked with my online life ever since I was 14, my mother introduced me to a chat-program called Mirc after she has used it for a while. The first day I chatted for 4 hours, even though I claimed I hated it, that day proved me wrong! Since that day I’ve been online, having had many nicks. Balancing it isn’t a big problem, I met my boyfriend online (hears all people sighing and moaning) and we both still use Inet and IRC. We see Inet as an addition to our everyday life, and are online many hours a day, we never turn our PC’s off, so those are online constantly. We even have a room called our PC-room, and we’re often in there with our young cat, sitting close to each other.

Oswald: When did you start playing games and how were you introduced to it?

Vampyress: I started playing games quite early, we used to have an MSX at my moms house, and at my dad we had an Amiga or something, later on my grandmother gave me a SNES gaming console, and I played on that quite a lot with my friends, I think I was 10/11 years old at that time. Later when I met my boyfriend he introduced me to online PC-gaming, Action Quake 2. After watching him play it, pushing his ‘enemy down’ buttons I took over his PC and played a while. Since then I’ve gotten my own PC, mainly cause my bf was annoyed by me taking his constantly.

Oswald: What drew you to Internet gaming?

Vampyress: I started playing in AQ2, and you had female voice in that game, I loved that, also female skins when you played something called Deathmatch. I really liked messing with guys heads once they found out I was a female. One of my binds in those days was ‘I am your worst wet dream, a bitch with a gun’. Violent game or not that doesn’t really matter to me, I simply like it, I also like playing cute games, like ZooTycoon 🙂

Oswald: What sort of reactions do you receive from your friends when they find out you enjoy computer games?

Vampyress: Actually most of my friends also play online games, some I even found through games, and then met afterwards. However my other friends sometimes responded strangely to it, but never negative, nor do they see me as someone that is ‘weird’ because I game.

Oswald: Do you feel a difference in how you are perceived because you are a female gamer?

Vampyress: Sometimes yes, most guys out there treat me just fine, and like their equal, as it should be. Others are extra nice to you once they find out you’re a female and then you have the third group, the ‘bad guys’ who give the other two groups a bad name. People tend to remember the bad things and forget the good, so I can understand that some female gamers might have a bad view of gaming-men. Honestly though I try to ignore the guys who seem to feel superior to female gamers, and who feel you are ugly/fat/boy-girl/idiotic, because you do the exact same thing they do. Also, like there are gorgeous/normal/less attractive, people out in the world, so does it work online and in gaming. It is simply a reflection of the ‘real world’, just less women.

Oswald: While it might be a misconception, some males are more serious when it comes to online gaming. How serious are you when you sit down in front of you monitor?

Vampyress: I’m serious enough to sometimes win a game, yet have enough fun to keep playing. I don’t see winning as the first priority, and I am sure most people don’t. Fun over anything is the UTZ motto, and also mine. I play almost every Clanwar for Urban TerroristZ, TS or CTF, because I play to team, not just for myself.

Oswald: In many of the school related shootings, one contributing factor that seems to rear is head is computer gaming. We hear, “He played Doom, that is what drove him to commit this act of violence.” What are you thoughts on violent video games and how they effect kids today?

Vampyress: I feel it’s just another cop-out, just like TV-shows, if children or teenagers are susceptible to these things I believe it has more to do with the fact that they are brought up in a far too protected environment. I don’t feel violent games can tell children/teenagers that shooting others is normal. After all we let children watch for instance the roadrunner comic, and the roadrunner dies, over and over again, yet do children/teenagers leap off cliffs because they saw that television?

Oswald: Are you known in the gaming community because you are a skilled gamer or because you are female?

Vampyress: I hope for neither, I hope I am known for my personality and because I play fair, not because I win a round or two when I play, or because I have breasts. I would hope people know me because I make art, or try to, and organize Female vs Male FUN Scrimmages, because I ‘work’ for terroristz.net or because I try to have a positive influence on people in the community. Not because of anything else. But if I really have to pick, I think more people know me because I am a female, because many people I meet have never played with me.

Oswald: How does your online persona differ from who you are when you are away from the computer?

Vampyress: I don’t think it differs a lot, I like to play the part of being a bitch online, but when people get to know me they know I am a nice person, or so I hope. I like playing the game of being weird, cause I like some things girls don’t often like, like car-racing, online gaming, computers in general, coding and jet fighter planes. But I certainly don’t pretend to be anything I’m not, I might let myself go a bit more, but I think that’s all.

Oswald: Any thoughts, comments or shout outs you have for the community?

Vampyress: I’d like to tell the guys that think online gaming women are ugly, look at yourself in the mirror babe, perhaps yer just frustrated cause of what looks back at -you- in the morning when you brush yer teeth. And to everyone who treats me like I am just another person, thank you, this is what we all should act like after all, I am just another human, as are you, even though I like saying I’m a vampire 🙂 And to all the women out there playing other games online, come try this out, I promise it’s a lot of fun 🙂 To those of you who haven’t heard of the Female vs Male FUN Scrimmages, aka FMFS, come check us out! www.servisions.net/fmfs.php Thanx Ozzy, for taking the time to let the females in this community say their piece.