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Overwatch is the only First-Person Shooter I have ever played where I have heard women speak in voice chat and other players continued to focus on the game itse

Overwatch is the only First-Person Shooter I have ever played where I have heard women speak in voice chat and other players continued to focus on the game itself. In other games I've played, a woman in voice chat would always become the center of attention, whether she wanted to be or not. The attention wasn't always negative, but it was unavoidable (and thus probably pretty frustrating). That happened in Overwatch sometimes too, but I was surprised it wasn't more often. My suspicion is that it's the a result of the competitive mode putting focus on the gameplay and a larger than average female player base for an FPS.

danso 8y ago
Came here just to say this. Before OW, my other multiplayer games were Valve's (CS, TF2, L4D), and I didn't know any girls/women in real-life who played them. Given the hours/years of time I played, I would have to guess that I played in a game with a female player at least a few times, but I could not for the life of me ever recall a single time. It would be such a rare occurrence that if it did happen, I think I would remember it generally. With OW, I'll hear a female voice at least a third or fourth of my random games, as well as see female-gendered screennames who may not actively participate in chat. I haven't played many games between old-school CS and TF2, so I don't know if the overall demographic has changed. But I wouldn't be surprised if OW's diverse and welcoming cast and lore was a major factor in attracting female gamers. As much as I liked the older games, OW was the first game that made me realize how much diversity could itself be a feature -- not just in attracting a playerbase, but just more creative designs (though I understand it may be too cartoony for some, of course). If only Blizzard's writing could be as clever and less clichéd-ridden than Valve's...
- Gaelan 8y ago
  It's not that you've never played with a woman—you've just never known you've played with a woman.
  - danso 8y ago
    That's what I mean. If I had played with any, they may have not been active in voice chat. In OW, it's not uncommon for me to hear women players.
twic 8y ago
I've experienced that plenty of times in Team Fortress 2. There are not many women playing it and using voice chat, but when they are, in my experience, it is vanishingly rare for it to be a big deal. FWIW, i'm in the UK, and so mostly playing on European servers. I suspect that relative to other FPSs, non-competitive TF2 players skew older and less tryhard, which may explain it.
- slavik81 8y ago
  That was not my experience with TF2, and I played quite a bit. However, I was on North American servers between 2007 and 2011. I haven't played since, so perhaps things have changed or the culture is different across regions.

danso 8y ago

Came here just to say this. Before OW, my other multiplayer games were Valve's (CS, TF2, L4D), and I didn't know any girls/women in real-life who played them. Given the hours/years of time I played, I would have to guess that I played in a game with a female player at least a few times, but I could not for the life of me ever recall a single time. It would be such a rare occurrence that if it did happen, I think I would remember it generally. With OW, I'll hear a female voice at least a third or fourth of my random games, as well as see female-gendered screennames who may not actively participate in chat. I haven't played many games between old-school CS and TF2, so I don't know if the overall demographic has changed. But I wouldn't be surprised if OW's diverse and welcoming cast and lore was a major factor in attracting female gamers. As much as I liked the older games, OW was the first game that made me realize how much diversity could itself be a feature -- not just in attracting a playerbase, but just more creative designs (though I understand it may be too cartoony for some, of course). If only Blizzard's writing could be as clever and less clichéd-ridden than Valve's...

Gaelan 8y ago
It's not that you've never played with a woman—you've just never known you've played with a woman.
- danso 8y ago
  That's what I mean. If I had played with any, they may have not been active in voice chat. In OW, it's not uncommon for me to hear women players.

twic 8y ago

I've experienced that plenty of times in Team Fortress 2. There are not many women playing it and using voice chat, but when they are, in my experience, it is vanishingly rare for it to be a big deal. FWIW, i'm in the UK, and so mostly playing on European servers. I suspect that relative to other FPSs, non-competitive TF2 players skew older and less tryhard, which may explain it.

slavik81 8y ago
That was not my experience with TF2, and I played quite a bit. However, I was on North American servers between 2007 and 2011. I haven't played since, so perhaps things have changed or the culture is different across regions.