Today we are going to discuss an exclusive topic. Most of the people who play on Bootleggers are male. When you go into the forums it is very male orientated. But what affect does this have on women who play the game? Do they struggle to join in fully? Or do they thrive? We all know there are women out there. So the Buzz set out to find one to talk to about how they find the game and to comment on the interactions they have with everyone! Who was our lucky victim? None other then the lucky Vixen who agreed to be interviewed before she knew what the interview was about! But being a good sport she went along with us anyway!
For everyone who doesn't know Vixen this isn't her first account. It's just the first account which she has used a slightly feminine name after she was last killed! Until that happened most people thought she was a guy! That meant she was the perfect person to explain the difficulties she has faced since revealing herself! Our first question was to discover how the attitudes of her 'friends' changed after her name changed: “Well, to be honest, one of the first things I was asked was if I was female. I chose a more female name for myself on this account, giving away my gender more easily. So people were at first a bit suspicious, telling me things like "on the internet, men are men, women are men and your threats don't matter!". So basically, I was disbelieved by most people. So far, I haven't interacted with a single player who I have felt has truly believed I am female without a picture as proof. So yes, people interacted differently. Most people have been suspicious, thinking I am vicious in some way. But those I have gained the trust from, have also become better friends than the relationships I made "as a man".
Interesting. So it hasn't been an easy road for her! We asked for more information into the 'request for pictures “Yes, it's very common as female to be asked to provide a picture. As a male, I was never asked for my picture, for obvious reasons. I believe the reason for this is that there are so few girls on here, even though I have actually met a few. I never ask for a picture from them, I take their word for it. I can also tell on most of them they are female just by their way of speaking. But I have been surprised a few times myself. I should add that I am very careful about who I send my picture to, and I have only distributed one clear picture of my head. If people don't believe me then, I don't see the point of proving myself any further. This is because I already feel that being in need of "proving you're female" is so wrong.”
We then turned to the nature of trust within the site, “I believe there's a trust issue, but I reckon it's due to the fact that the majority in a sense is male here. If male players bond more easily with a female than a male is hard to tell. I believe it depends on the personality of who I am meeting. Those people I have bonded with are very social people and usually go well with each other too. The nature of the friendships, though, are often of a way different character than the ones I had as "male". The ones I make now are more "flirty", most of them, at least the ones made outside my crew. In the crew it's different. There I feel more like a part of the crowd, "one of the boys", if I can put it that way. But some of my relationships here are sort of "imaginary boyfriends". I don't mind that, some of the boys I have met are really nice guys.”
We asked her if she could estimate how many females played on the site, to which she replied “Well I have met three other female players since I started this account. I should say a fair estimate of the percent females playing Bootleggers would be less than 5% of the total amount of players.” We at the Buzz can think of at least fifteen females out there so maybe 5% is a bit generous! Quite a worrying statistic if you study it. But why?!
We turned back to the attitude of guys asking her for pictures, asking if she was disappointed or surprised by the reactions of everyone: “At first, I was disappointed. I was very shocked I had to prove my gender with a picture. I was almost surprised I wasn't put on search and killed for "imposing a female". It was a very big change, and at first I regret it. There's no benefit from being female, as far as I can tell, but there are negatives. There are the questions, the disbelief, the "hah, liar, pic or I don't believe you" and the feeling of being patronized. I have felt that more than once, that feeling of being "the poor girl". This all changed after a while, though. Now that people see I can handle myself, it's changed for the better. Little girl has become strong woman.”
The next question was to discover if she wished she hadn't 'come clean' with her gender, “It still happens that I wish I was under the radar. But all summed up, I am happy I chose to tell. At first, people thought I did it for special treatment. But the thing is, it's quite exhausting to act male while actually being female! And I believe it to be as difficult the other way around. I just wanted to be able to be myself.”
Who wouldn't? Why should anyone have to hide who they really are? We asked her why anyone would do the reverse, pretend to be female and we were interested to find out if she has received gifts for who she is: “I have never got money for doing stuff. But I believe that some of the guys are more easily giving gifts, yes. I have had more gifts on this account than I had before. And that's probably from being female. But I don't see that as a benefit, I see it more as a burden. Getting those gifts, apart from certain dear friends of mine who know very well who they are, all gifts have been given with a motive, or at least giving me a feeling the giver has had a motive. But if you're male and acting female, then I suppose you wouldn't feel those motives the way I do. I believe those who pretend to be female would receive the gift and then never think though what the giver intended when deciding to give a gift. So yes, there would be benefits from pretending, but I don't feel those benefits are as beneficial when you're indeed a female.”
Since she clearly has experience on the subject we asked if she had any tips for any of you other females hiding out there, to which she told us “My first advice would be not to give away explicit content of yourself. I would never do that, and thankfully I have never been asked to. But seeing this is the internet, it clearly could happen. And if you're not comfortable with sending pictures around, then leave it. If they can't take your word for it, then they're not worth your time. But I feel it's important they try to be themselves. As I said earlier, pretending is really exhausting. I tried it, and it worked to a certain point, but then I had to start over. I requested my own kill on the previous account.”
So now it was time to look towards her future. We wanted to find out if she was killed again, what would she do now? Remain true to herself or go back into hiding? She told us “I haven't given that a thought yet. But I suppose I would stay true to my name and my connections.” We also looked to her past trying to find out how she first signed up: “I played the game during the first reset. When I was 13 years old, 9 years ago. And I remembered it and wanted to come back! Sort of everyone was doing it at my school back then.”
Before we finished up the interview we asked her if she had anyone she wanted to commend for being the nicest to her with no ulterior motives, or who had been the worst to her during her time here. But she had only two players who she wanted to say thank you to: “I have two boys on here of whom I have developed a very close bond with. The first I really connected with, and who believed me being female without picture proof (although it was later provided for different reasons), is Andy_Lenny_v2. He's probably my best friend on here per today. I won't expand on this, but he knows he deserves his mention on this question. The second I want to thank for being a great guy is OllieV2. He is currently ill, which is why he's not here any more. But we have developed a bond as well, even talking outside Bootleggers. I never thought I would agree to do that, but he really stole my heart. As for who I dislike, I actually don't have any specific names. I have ignored most of the people who have disbelieved me or spoken ill to me. So instead of making enemies, I have just ignored. I guess that's the female way of handling those issues. Where boys make an argument, a fight and a war, females ignore and play it psychologically!”
The final thoughts she wanted to share were “I don't feel I have anything more to add. I've actually felt a bit of a relief just by getting this all off my shoulders! Putting words on it has given me a lot.” So there you have it! An interesting woman who has coped very well on this site. For all you guys who are now rushing to BM her and ask her for pictures as proof, why do you need it? It's clearly hard for her to be true to herself, as it is for all girls. If it is because you don't believe them when they say they are female, so what? As long as they aren't asking you for anything special (which no self-respecting female would do) what does it matter? We think it is high time for everyone to just leave the females alone to play in peace. And who knows, maybe if we do a few more articles, more females will appear on Bootleggers!
