Interview: Girl Gamer
by: philleh
ClanBase caught up with the founder of Girl Gamer to find out what has made their community so successful.



Girl Gamer was founded nearly a year ago. It was setup with female gamers in mind, to give them a place to express themselves without male influences. It has an ever growing community of over 240 members which is rising monthly and has received sponsorship and accolades in its time in the gaming scene.

ClanBase were fortunate enough to catch up with the founder of Girl Gamer, "Whatsername" now known as "Tiger".

When and why was Girl Gamer founded?
Girl Gamer was founded February 14th 2007 (how romantic) after the clan I was in folded, I missed the banter between forum users. In the clan I was in we were playing MOH Spearhead and occasionally we would organise a battle of the sexes which was fun so that gave me the idea to create a forum to possibly arrange matches, this was happening for a while until Spearhead became old.
The website is for female gamers to have somewhere to fall back on when male dominated forums get on their nerves, men do tend to go off on a tangent about sport or pc parts which leave us bored to tears. It’s nice to have somewhere to call home, that doesn’t mean men aren’t welcome, in fact it wouldn’t be what it is today without their input.

Girl Gamer has been running for (nearly 1 year), and has over 240 members. What do you think is behind the success of Girl Gamer?
Good friends, it really wasn’t difficult for me, I had a fair few contacts in the gaming community, it was those people taking the time to register and just say hello that made the difference. The forums are based on gaming but it isn’t strictly restricted to that subject, just about anything goes within reason.
Most of the male members that registered were probably more curious to see who the female gamers were and what happens in a female community, when they realize we do exactly the same as them ‘Game’ and sometime do it better they tend to carry on quietly with their tails betweens their legs.

In October of last year Girl Gamer and yourself won a Bashie Award for the website and the project as a whole. What was it like to receive such recognition for your work?
Tremendous, what a surprise that was!
I won’t take credit for the website design; I asked for certain features, colour, pattern and Paul at Clanwebs came up with the goods. Uzi, one of the female gamers passed on the website URL to Bash and Slash.com without us knowing and the next thing we know we won the accolade of website of the month. The credit really goes to everyone who registered there and added content, they’re the real winners.

For female gamers wanting to join Girl Gamer but aren't sure, what would you have to say to them?
Only takes a minute or two to register so what have you to lose? We really are a friendly community and there is always a warm welcome.

What do you see for the future of Girl Gamer and its ever growing community?
That’s a really difficult question, while there are girls/women gaming there will hopefully be a base for them at Girl Gamer, its future depends upon them and what they want, I am open to any suggestions. It would be nice to have an all female squad as has happened in the US. It would be nice to think that Girl Gamer spawned the first European team.

Thanks for your time Tiger / Whatsername, any shout outs?
Credit to everyone registered at Girl Gamer. Special thanks to: Lisa MC, CF Amie, Devilgirl, Poch, U-z-I Kidding, Equaliser, Paul at Clanwebs for support and Teamspeak server and gameservers.net for the COD4 server.