Shoryuken announced the line-up for Evo 2010 yesterday and surprise surprise, all the games you expected are on the list. I Play Winner has a post with the list. But that’s not why I’m posting this because you probably already heard about the games.
They are adding an all-female tournament to the roster and so the controversy begins. You may remember that over the summer, Arcade Infinity hosted the first Ladies of SF tournament and that was all fun and good but ultimately, nothing really came of it after it was over.
Gaming industry expert Jared Rea has a really interesting blog post about the whole thing that pretty much sums up the way I see it. From the article:
While I can sort of understand the idea of nobility behind wanting to open the door to female Street Fighter players by giving them an accessible taste of what competitive play is all about, at the same time you’re essentially regulating them to a sideshow in the worse sense of the word. You’re saying that because they were born with a vagina, they’re clearly inferior and not competent enough to compete with the boys and this type of thinking — whether its intended or not — is bullshit and a slap to the face to all the women currently playing the game to even suggest this.
Head over to his site to read the full article:
Foxy Boxing: A Terrible Idea Then…
Also, Shoryuken and Evo co-founder inkblot has posted a thread on SRK about it.
UPDATE: After thinking about it, I have a suggestion and haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else. It’s so obivous now in retrospect, I don’t know why I didn’t think about it sooner. But in my opinion, if you really want girls to enter, you have to treat them like any other target market you’re trying to cater to: you give them a discount to try your product. Maybe the solution is to have some sort of “ladies get in for half price” type of promotion like you would see at a nightclub. That way, they’re getting the same product and experience and they aren’t being put in the spotlight or objectified and they are competing with the same level of players as everyone else which solves the equality problem.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
thats a good idea.
girls will buy anything if it is half price!
Interesting idea, but the main obstacle here isn’t price. I do think a “girls enter free” policy would go a long way though.
I’m not saying the price is the issue, I’m just saying that they’re not being marketed to effectively. Logistically the problem with girls entering free is that you have last minute sign-ups, but if there were an online registration and the “girls” ended up to be guys, then obviously they would just have to pay the regular fee.
i would enjoy seeing arranged, exhibition matches between top female talent, or even a 5v5, girls vs boys match would be pretty entertaining
but an all-female tournament just seems wrong to me
I agree with what i read about so far.The ladies should compete in the same tournament with the guys in my opinion but really I just think its a waste of a tourny when another game could be played at Evo.So yet again Evolution gets shitty every year.
Street Fighter isn’t a contest of strength there’s no reason why girls should get their own tournament. Oh and that “expert” should look to see all the girls who won a match at evo my guess is you could count them on one hand.
I support the females tourney….btw would Lady Gaga count as a girl if he/she were to enter?
I think you guys are over-reacting… I think this kind of tournament is a good thing, and it is a proper marketing strategy.
While providing a “half-off” entrance fee, you DO attract more female entrees, but more often than not, they will possibly be overshadowed by the already existing dominant forces, and not because they were “born with a vagina,” because this already happens to most of the males that sign up as well.
Having a female tournament will hopefully inspire some more females to take interest in the sport. Which, in my opinion isn’t insulting the skill level of an average female, rather the INTEREST level of the average female. This can be seen rather easily through male-to-female ratios of people who purchase and/or play the game.
Sure, the already-existing females of the sport will get a free ride to the top brackets, but that is how it used to be for the males, but who wasn’t inspired to try to take the gold from Daigo (Arturo Sanchez)?
So, while the results wont be immediate, I think the tournament is a step in the right direction. Because as of right now, we aren’t exactly being fair to the existing females of the sport, not on purpose, of course, but because not many of them get the gold (just an observation).
Sure, the tournament is based upon the assumption that a girl wouldn’t win the main tournament, but that is only because that statement has been true in the past. Females in the gaming community is a fairly new concept, especially for fighting games (except DOA for whatever reason), and the more exposure given to them, the more popular the idea will become. Thus simultaneously giving female gamers a place to be consistently in the spotlight, more than any amateur tournament could (this is EVO), and further pushing the image of a female National Grand Champion to a reality.
Of course, hopefully you wont be forced to participate in this tournament, as in, “you’re a female, heres your corner, stay there.” Then, I’d be cool with it.
TLDR; These tournaments will open the now-unlikely possibility of becoming a female gaming superstar, theoretically sparking interest in non-professional female gamers to go pro.
There is no reason why we shouln’t have a female tourny. If you’re hating, then you a H.O.M.O. really. I is sick and tired of seeing a sausage fest at tourneys alllll the time. Lets get some ladies in the picture and spice up the event.
Insta-Gator
np w/the ladies playing my wife has a mean zangief
I just think the segregation part kinda wack let them play w/the “big boys”
Guys are fraid of getting beat TFB
The only reason why there are no women at tourneys like Evo is because of the smell. I go with Dogface’s idea of having Right Guard or Old Spice sponsor this tournament and give away free mini deodorant sticks.
Not saying that Old Spice attracts girls, but what would be more appealing to a women: Deodorant or stank?
1- There shouldn’t be a female-only tournament.
2- They shouldn’t get half the price or free registration.
3- If they care about the game, they’ll dedicate themselves like males do. If not, they won’t.
4- They’re not handicapped, they don’t need special treatment.
5- This is not Tennis, nor Basketball. It’s using your fingers on a stick/pad. We don’t have an advantage.
6- There’s no reason for attracting women to tournaments other than to “make men happy”. Again, you’re objectifying them.
7- I insist on 3. They’re human beings. You want to play? You want to care? You want to take it to the tournament level? Then you don’t need a penis. Nor do you need special prices or tournaments.
8- Women insist on equality all the time.
9- The reason why you don’t have women in tournaments is because they couldn’t care less about fighting games. The majority of women have an issue with videogames the same way they have an issue with using machinery in the gym. Videogames affect their status, pumping up their muscles makes them feel masculine (a silly rumor…).
10- I’ve had a woman kick my ass in both Judo and Ju Jutsu. I highly doubt they’d have an issue doing a FADC-to-Ultra in SF4.
First major I ever went to (B4), I entered Marvel just to kill time until 3s started. Got placed on the big screen against Taco-chan, I think she was ShadyK’s girlfriend or something. Regardless of how she got there, she legitimately broke her foot off in my ass 2-0. I don’t play Marvel, but still, I’ve never lost that bad in a tournament to this day.
She wasn’t “good for a girl”, she was just plain good. If there had been an all-girl tourney that day, I wouldn’t blame her for taking the free money, but it would still seem a bit insulting from my perspective. Any given male player from the top 30 regular tourney could take a top spot in a female-restricted event at this point without half trying unless they ran into someone like her, who would be skilled enough to compete legitimately in the Real Tournament. Having female-only events just reaffirms that girls are generally shitty at competing and are only useful for a sideshow so we can laugh at how shitty they are.
It’s essentially like turtle races in bars.
N
PS: If there’s a decent pot on the line, I will totally fly out Choco to collect the free money from this farce. Not kidding at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYlU3B4BrAc
I dont know why people get so up in arms over this stuff. Its obvious that there is very few (if any) females who put in the kind of time that a lot of the males do. If there were then we would have already seen them placing high in tournaments. No one said they were inferior. They just dont have the same level of interest. BTW im pretty sure you helped promote LoSF. Whats the difference?
I did post-tourney interviews and commentary to support shoo. I didn’t really know how it was going to go but now I see that girls entering free is a better solution IMO.
Why am I not surprised this turned out to be a feminist discussion? Seriously, grow up.
Part of the reason why we don’t see many girls entering these tourny’s is because the ones that do sign up end up getting pieced out in the first or second round. SF4 (or any fighting game in general) just don’t have the same appeal to female gamers as other types of games like Halo or Call of Duty. Having a female-only tourny would give them a more level playing field which would give them an opportunity to build that hype up and make that decision to dedicate themselves to playing at a higher level.
I don’t think the price is an issue, so changing the entrance fee wouldn’t really change much. Tourny organizers just have to find ways to attract females to fighting games, and allowing them to compete against other players in the same level would help build their interest in the game. I seriously doubt they intended this to be sexist at all. If they did, they would have never allowed girls to enter at EVO and THEN added this girls-only mode.
The ladies-only SF4 tournament will get more ladies to enter Evo. I’ll bet $$$ on it. This is a good thing, any way you look at it.
“at the same time you’re essentially regulating them to a sideshow in the worse sense of the word. You’re saying that because they were born with a vagina, they’re clearly inferior and not competent enough to compete with the boys”
I disagree completely. All it’s saying is “Hey, we acknowledge that out scene is not female-friendly, and we’re trying to do something about it.”
“Hey, we acknowledge that out scene is not female-friendly, and we’re trying to do something about it.”
Which you don’t have to do, because they’re not handicapped. They’re not old people, and playing videogames is not something they should “have to do, and so we’re going to give them a hand”.
The only reason guys create these events, is to have women close-by. Guys want girls to like the shit they like.
It’s so basic it’s scary how people overlook it. “Oh no, it’s totally this grandeur thing, where we’re being gentlemen and shit”. No, it’s not. It’s just a basic need that men have. The need to have women around.
If they want to play, they’ll do it. They’ll pay to enter events if they’re into it. If they don’t want to play, they won’t. That’s about it.
And yes, EVO will get girls on that tourney. It will, because the girls joining don’t give a shit. They only care about girl on girl fights (I did go there). They couldn’t care less about playing vs men. All in all, they don’t care about the game enough. So, well, maybe it’s a good thing. Evo is allowing girls to have a little tournament for their casual style of play.
Silly, but fair enough.
wtf is wrong with girls having their own tournament? jesus christ stfu u politically correct hippies, girl fights was fun, so will this..
stfu already hippy retards. its always fun to see how the girls do. adn who the top girl is
to the retard who said he dont mind seeing a 5v5 girls but a tourny is wrong? how the fuck is that,
theres a girl league for everything
@1CC
So you’re saying that how it is now is fine, with almost no females? If females wanted to play, they would?
I don’t think it’s fine. I think the community should do what it can to get more ladies into street fighter. Not to have them close-by, but to increase diversity and popularity of the game. We all want SF to be mainstream right? I guess that is another topic…
Actually, I posted that very idea right about the same time:
http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=223786&p=8290591&highlight=#post8290591
1CC pretty much nailed it