"Why are there so many female Mercy mains?"

[zorro]

Why is this? Does anyone really care to know the real reasons?

1: Video games have traditionally been marketed towards boys, resulting in boys acquiring long term, transferable mechanical skills - Growing up in the 90's and early 2000's, most video games (especially shooters) were marketed towards boys, not girls. Think about what your gaming habits have been since you were a child? Lots of shooters? Many boys grow up learning shooter skills. So playing DPS (aiming intensive role) comes naturally. I'm 25 and I have never played a shooter before Overwatch despite having been gaming since I was 10. You'll find this is not uncommon with girl gamers. So what does one play when they want to contribute to the team and play with thier friends? You play something that does not require a skill that you never learned growing up in the first place.

2: Gender schemas taught to boys vs girls from a young age - Boys are encouraged by society to be aggressive and enjoy competitive activities (physical and digital both). It's considered normal for boys to like these things. Girls on the other hand are generally socially conditioned to be caring, considerate, and nurturing, and to be demure rather than assertive. Guess what role in Overwatch allows girls to express these traits? Healers and support. I think this is why you see a higher percentage of women in support and healer roles in games like this, as well as MMOs, etc.

3: Cultural norms surrounding gendered behavior - Women are more likely to make compromises to keep the peace or to encourage teamwork. This is a product of social conditioning (at least in America) as well. Why did I learn support when I used to play League of Legends? No one else wanted to play it and would always argue over it. So I did it to stop the arguing and to feel like I was being very useful. Me, personally? I am a Spike. This means I will play whatever is meta that is most needed and most likely to get the win. I like winning over anything else, so I'll make sure support is filled, since in a Comp match you really just can't win without a healer. At the same time I really enjoy taking care of my team. Most of my regular comp partners jokingly call me "mom".

4: Female friendly character design - The design of the characters in Overwatch is very diverse and female friendly. None of them are blatant sexual objects (except Widow who embodies the femme fatale trope). There are all kinds of body types and ages, mothers and daughters, and even a mecha centaur. This may be the reason why Overwatch enjoys nearly a 20% female population compared to the 7% average that is seen in most FPS games, and the 10%-15% or so that is usually seen in MOBAs. When choosing a character or class to main, a lot of women will choose one that they somehow identify with or that is most easily accessible to play. Who is easiest to play if you didn't grow up playing shooters or never learned to aim? Mercy. Another one I hear people mentioned that they think girls play a lot is D.Va. Guess what? D.Va is a normal looking gamer girl, like many girls who play games. They identify with her on a personal level. Is it really that surprising that she appeals to so many women?

If anyone has other thoughts, please let me know. I'm willing to answer any and all questions. I'm aware I made some generalizations, and I do this because a lot of the stories I tell are common to women I know IRL and online,

[zorro]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Jay:

I dislike Mercy because of that Stigma around her so I play Ana/Moira/Kiriko instead. Even though it's still support, you don't get people asking if you're a girl like you do when playing Mercy lol and if you reply yes they'll want to add you...

yes

[Silverlight]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Tiwill:

But being able to aim helps so you can defend yourself with pistol headshots when someone comes after you. If anything Reinhardt requires less aiming skill and you can be helpful to the team just by sitting on the objective and holding right-click (there's more to it than that but there's also more to Mercy than that if you want to be a good Mercy).

Girl or boy you have to have huge balls to play rein properly.

[InnCognito]

Mainly the reason is how people project their image of themselves to a video game character and how they connect with said character. It is a unique experience for everyone and I am not surprised if they do. Plus I mean Mercy is one of the most like-able characters in the cast that has the most fan art on the web.

[zorro]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από InnCognito:

Mainly the reason is how people project their image of themselves to a video game character and how they connect with said character. It is a unique experience for everyone and I am not surprised if they do. Plus I mean Mercy is one of the most like-able characters in the cast that has the most fan art on the web.

For one of my best friends, is her fantastic mobility. in her opinion it's really fun to pingpong between allies, away from enemies and have access to high ground. Sure it's teammate dependent but that's what allows the cooldown to only be two seconds and it'd be pretty busted without some drawback or limitations.

[zorro]

Bump, more people need to see this

[Tiwill]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bellen:

Girl or boy you have to have huge balls to play rein properly.

Yeah, you do become the center of attention and have to charge into people to get some pin kills without overextending, and time your ults right and be oppressive. It's a lot to manage at once and that's an entire skillset in and of itself.

With Mercy it's kinda the opposite skillset: everyone wants you dead, and you're pretty much helpless. So you gotta figure out how to survive when people jump you all the time. There are times when the best way to survive is to shoot at a head with your pistol while strafing and jumping, if the opponent is a squishy DPS. If the enemy tank or Reaper is jumping you, then you gotta have line of sight with a far away teammate to fly to them or you're dead. Also, you can sometimes use Guardian Angel to quickly reach a squishy enemy and surprise kill them with your pistol, which requires significantly more raw aiming skill than anything Rein can do.

Outside of pistol aiming though, for both characters it's more about aiming quickly rather than aiming very precisely. But that's the case for a lot of characters: for example, even a character like Bastion doesn't need amazing precision aiming skills, because his best use is to quickly burn through large shield/HP pools, and those have massive hitboxes.

You have to play someone like Widow or McCree or Tracer if you want to boast about aim. There's also non-hitscan aiming skill, which is sometimes a mix of precision aiming and trajectory prediction. Genji, Zenyatta, Hanzo all necessitate that skill. Mercy's pistol belongs in that category as well, but you shouldn't be using it nearly as much. Rein's projectile is purely trajectory prediction, because it can't headshot, but you can't use it all the time. Pharah and Junkrat use that skillset, but have to rely entirely on it. Then there's tracking skill, like Zarya's primary; no headshots, but you have to aim at the target constantly rather than flick to their heads or predict where they'll be a sec later.

TL;DR = Everyone requires some type of aiming skill in some capacity. Except a Winston jumping on the enemy supports. We don't talk about that

[Gebbennu]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από zorro:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Gebbennu:

Hi I main Mercy and I'm a girl

<3

Omg hiiii

[Leathium]

Because the hero made for lazy girls who can't aim or contribute much else holding left click or right click and have a blast doing it.

[Cat_Soldier]

What

[zorro]

boop

[THE MIGHT OF THE SHADOW ISLES]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Leathium:

Because the hero made for lazy girls who can't aim or contribute much else holding left click or right click and have a blast doing it.

too based

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Leathium:

Because the hero made for lazy girls who can't aim or contribute much else holding left click or right click and have a blast doing it.

women aren´t videogames

[Styx🐉]

1 vac ban on record

[schmonz]

Because skinner boxes and sex are blizzards main weapons to sell games. Otherwise they had to add real gameplay.

[Penitent Paul]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από zorro:

Why is this? Does anyone really care to know the real reasons?

1: Video games have traditionally been marketed towards boys, resulting in boys acquiring long term, transferable mechanical skills - Growing up in the 90's and early 2000's, most video games (especially shooters) were marketed towards boys, not girls. Think about what your gaming habits have been since you were a child? Lots of shooters? Many boys grow up learning shooter skills. So playing DPS (aiming intensive role) comes naturally. I'm 25 and I have never played a shooter before Overwatch despite having been gaming since I was 10. You'll find this is not uncommon with girl gamers. So what does one play when they want to contribute to the team and play with thier friends? You play something that does not require a skill that you never learned growing up in the first place.

2: Gender schemas taught to boys vs girls from a young age - Boys are encouraged by society to be aggressive and enjoy competitive activities (physical and digital both). It's considered normal for boys to like these things. Girls on the other hand are generally socially conditioned to be caring, considerate, and nurturing, and to be demure rather than assertive. Guess what role in Overwatch allows girls to express these traits? Healers and support. I think this is why you see a higher percentage of women in support and healer roles in games like this, as well as MMOs, etc.

3: Cultural norms surrounding gendered behavior - Women are more likely to make compromises to keep the peace or to encourage teamwork. This is a product of social conditioning (at least in America) as well. Why did I learn support when I used to play League of Legends? No one else wanted to play it and would always argue over it. So I did it to stop the arguing and to feel like I was being very useful. Me, personally? I am a Spike. This means I will play whatever is meta that is most needed and most likely to get the win. I like winning over anything else, so I'll make sure support is filled, since in a Comp match you really just can't win without a healer. At the same time I really enjoy taking care of my team. Most of my regular comp partners jokingly call me "mom".

4: Female friendly character design - The design of the characters in Overwatch is very diverse and female friendly. None of them are blatant sexual objects (except Widow who embodies the femme fatale trope). There are all kinds of body types and ages, mothers and daughters, and even a mecha centaur. This may be the reason why Overwatch enjoys nearly a 20% female population compared to the 7% average that is seen in most FPS games, and the 10%-15% or so that is usually seen in MOBAs. When choosing a character or class to main, a lot of women will choose one that they somehow identify with or that is most easily accessible to play. Who is easiest to play if you didn't grow up playing shooters or never learned to aim? Mercy. Another one I hear people mentioned that they think girls play a lot is D.Va. Guess what? D.Va is a normal looking gamer girl, like many girls who play games. They identify with her on a personal level. Is it really that surprising that she appeals to so many women?

If anyone has other thoughts, please let me know. I'm willing to answer any and all questions. I'm aware I made some generalizations, and I do this because a lot of the stories I tell are common to women I know IRL and online,

It's because Mercy is easy, and one of the characters that can have the most impact with the least amount of effort and calculation required.