I think something like that is just treat ALL people with respect. I find its not so much a issue in the older groups (30+), but its completely different in the earlier 20s. Truth is there is always jerks in any competitive community and there is always someone trying to get laid or white knight. You can make a small defference by not being “that guy”, but I don’t think a girl/women will feel more comforable unless there is better ratio of women to men.
Actually, peers are currently thought to be the primary influence on child development. Parents make a difference by monitoring their children–understanding who their peers are and trying to direct them to peers who can influence them positively.
There are a lot of studies that have investigated this, but here’s one: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hyman_Hops/publication/222172229_Adolescent_problem_behavior_the_influence_of_parents_and_peers/links/02e7e5149de8b5bdff000000.pdf
Although I suppose this assumes that the child is allowed to spend time with their peers while growing up.
This complements another theory on fandom in sports. It says that many of a sporting event’s audience are “social fans.” That is, they attend and watch for the social experience it enables for their friends. Without that social experience, they wouldn’t care at all about the sport they’re watching. If people who aren’t into fighting games (many women, for example), made friends with a group from the FGC, I’ll bet they would participate after a time. In other words, it increases the non-fan’s “situational involvement” with the FGC.
I hate to be that guy, but I have to chime in. The theory that women are less attracted to competitive environments is not completely unsupported. Here is some support: Do Women Shy Away From Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?* | The Quarterly Journal of Economics | Oxford Academic
Tendency to perform in competitions may actually have a basis in gender. In that study, for example, the researchers examined men and women of equal skill, and found that the men still preferred organized competition over their women counterparts of equal skill.
That said, support from studies hardly turns a theory into a fact. Nonetheless, that support does make the idea worth considering, and it can help us explain what we see in the real world. If someone in this forum’s frame tells them that women are less inclined to compete than are men, then we shouldn’t just write them off. They could be onto something, or they could not be.
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First of all, I will never be upset by the introduction of a scientific study to the conversation. I think there’s a difference between “competetive” and “selecting a competetive environment” but I’m willing to admit that’s splitting hairs, especially in the context of the FGC - although based on these results you might expect there to be lots of women playing single player KI but not bothering to attend tournaments. (As an aside it will be interesting to see if Shadow Lords has an impact on women playing the game).
Anyway, the good news is that the study showed 75% of men chose the tournament structure and 35% of women did and that these results were independent of skill. I think people would be thrilled to see KI or the FGC have anything resembling that proportionate representation. If aversion to a competetive environment were the driver for lack of female representation in the FGC, based on this study you would expect to see about 1:3 ratio of females to males in the community. Instead we see 1:99. So clearly there’s something else involved.
@oTigerSpirit - in re reading my post I realize that it looks like I put you on blast. That wasn’t my intention - sometimes I get carried away with my own fun rhetoric. The point I’m hoping to make is that blanket statements about women just not being “naturally inclined” to fighting games have a lot of historical precedent that we would all hate to be associated with. I took the statement that you had indicated clear support for and put it in a different context and you were horrified to be associated with the idea. I don’t think you’re a caveman or a misogynist or a supporter of the patriarchy or whatever other epithets Anita Sarkeesian would hurl at you.
But I stand by the idea that it’s not really a useful contribution to the discussion and it’s a dubious supposition at best. By pointing to biology as the answer and dismissing the relevance of any effort to change the status quo you and @Rhscf are basically saying “there’s no problem here, that’s just the way it is.”
I try to be a practical person, and I’m certainly not a radical feminist. I don’t expect we will have equal ratios of men to women in fighting games anytime soon. But I think it is a legitimate question to look at the very biased ratios in the community and try to figure out how we might reduce specific barriers that are contributing to that.
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Careful, they suspended me for hurting peoples’ feelings here using this argument. Even with your linked sources, you may not be in the clear.
To the contrary, his linked sources express an opinion that doesn’t come off as jaded. He’ll be fine.
Time will tell…
Because when there’s a chance of losing by competing they rather not compete. The idea of losing weights more than losing itself. I don’t know how to explain this. But it’s something we discussed in the game design workshop. It’s like women and men play in a different way and they may compete in a different way.
I really can’t tell, I don’t like losing but I enjoy a good match. However I try to win, being as honest as possible , however I’ve faced another girl that would play really agressively to win (and insulting me while she was playing and couldn’t hit me) I dind’t enjoy that at all and seeing her going crazy cost me the game ( her characters were counterpicks too, plus the psycological game she played I didn’t care if I won anymore, she was upseting me too much). Curious, she played the same as her boyfriend, insulting the rival and hitting her pad, rant over rant.
It was KoF then but if I ever happen in KI I’ll make sure to beat her for playing like that, it won’t happen again because I don’t care if she screams at me anymore, I’m over it now.
It’s not my fault she can’t deal with a loss, and I’m pretty sure if she recongnizes I play better than her she won’t play me, even a friendly match. She prefers losing to a man than losing to a woman, as simple as that. And if you ask me, I kind of feel that too. But as a player I must recognise the other player (woman or man) outplayed me and try to do better next time.
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Super impressed with this thread. Big ups to those who have contributed to such a great and respective conversation involving what can be seen as a controversial topic. Really proud of the KI community on this one.
To offer up some random thoughts from a female gamer/neuroscience nerd there are many, many, many components that may influence the lower numbers of female FGC members. There is no one answer in the same way there is no one type of female. Here are only some of the possible sources of influence: Support by peers, representation of female types in games, Positive feedback during competition from adults/parents, stereotype threat, less access to technology, underlying neuropharmacological ( aka hormones + neurotransmitters) reasons and many many more.
If we focus just on video games there are myriads of studies with different findings and conclusions. That’s the silly thing about science. To really get a sense of the truth you have to sample from a bunch of different journals and articles.
Here is just another one that discusses the added stress female gamers put on themselves when they think they are competing against a man ( aka related to stereotype threat) http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2013.0331
Imagine if everytime you were competing you were also stressed about how you represent yourself AND your gender. That’s not to say ALL females experience that, but it has been shown to occur.
Anyways, keep up the great conversations and do what you can to actively encourage female gamers to join the KI community (you laugh, but I think the sign idea would be amazeballs)
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I think worth a read given the topic being discussed
Also, I wouldn’t mind a model viewer so I can have a better look at …RAAM.
That post…what? I don’t know where to start…
Uhh…
This is bad.
That’s just down right creepy. 
Unfortunately, it has become reality. So, this is a good example of what not to do in order to be more inviting.
I wouldn’t actually relate the super creepy spaceship-hands-porking simulator to fighting games or the FGC. That’s kinda a general consequence of the Japanese gaming industry.
To put it in perspective
Japan is currently the most sex-starved developed country on earth. You wouldn’t think so given the common perception of Japan as “crazy kinky”, but less than 35% of the population have weekly sex. Less than 20% of the population report being happy with their sex lives. It’s insanely dismal numbers.
Basically, that’s a recipe for all the weirdness of dating sims and other oddities like the DoA VR thing. It’s kinda a harsh reminder to not nurture a culture where men and women are constantly at odds with each other.
Still super freaking weird, but more of a cultural issue than a fighting game/FGC issue. Just like all curltural issue it bleeds over into entertainment mediums.
Actually, and I hope you take this in the context of all my contributions to this thread, but I think the writer of this article is, basically out of her mind.
DoA beach volleyball and its variants are creepy and people shouldn’t buy them. But the women of DoA are not victims of harassment because they aren’t real. Trying to equate the juvenile fantasy fulfillment of dorks in VR headgear bobbing their heads to look at digital booty to real world women is just way off base. This is the kind of thing that convinces men that feminists are just loons and that all this hubbub is just people trying to wreck anything fun.
When I play Rise of the Tomb Raider I flat out murder hundreds of people without trial, without giving them an opportunity to make better choices. And only crazy people worry that Lara Croft is training a generation of murderers. So yeah, DoA extreme anything is creepy. Objectifying women shouldn’t be socially acceptable. But don’t start telling me about the male gaze and your struggles with ownership of your body and then projecting that into the fictional girls of DoA who are not real and claiming that VR makes it somehow worse. It’s not worse, it’s exactly the same. And it’s not harassment.
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Yes it was quite weird, we’ve came to a place where everyone’s over thinking things.
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Don’t worry about my feelings. I saw ppl debating this topic, so I thought that it could be an interesting read for the contributors to this thread.
Personally, I couldn’t care less about both DoA extreme VR or the author (including the opinion expressed) of that article. 
WHAT THE HECK…
They are still milking DOA…
My view is that I don’t and won’t like the game. The females being harassed in the game though? XD That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t agree with the game. However if people enjoy it,I respect it and let them enjoy it. Not harming me in anyway.