Did you yourself or others around you ever think it was strange in you playing what was then considered to be "boys stuff" - those blood and gore filled First Person Shooters and their counter-parts that we all love so much?

[HC] I never thought about it until someone mentioned it to me. I played every video game I could get my hands on when I was a kid, from the silly ones to the ones that were thought of as a "boy's game". It wasn't until a friend of mine mentioned that there were very few women playing Quake that I actually had to THINK about that.

[LI] No, quite the opposite. Most everyone I've encountered so far has felt that it was very cool that I was into gaming. I think the majority of guys out there really find it refreshing when they meet a girl who's into the same things that they are, and wish that there were more of us around. As for the gals - they've either thought it was totally cool that I played "boy games," or have been inspired themselves to play along side with me. When I do receive negative feedback, it's always from some immature little punk who would be spouting crap regardless of whether I was a male or female!

When you hop into a server, 90% of the time you tend to find it filled with male gamers. What's you personal opinion on the growing number of female gamers in what is currently still a very male dominated area?
(The "area" being the gaming world in case I'm confusing you :) 

[HC] I think that women gamers are swiftly becoming the norm now, and they're really not unique anymore. In fact, one of the side benefits of running such a prominent website like PQ is to show that there are chicks like me -- and I consider myself pretty average as far as gamers and female gamers go -- pretty much everywhere in the gaming industry. Pretty soon, I hope, we won't feel the need to single out women gamers simply because our gender is different.

[LI] I recently read somewhere that the statistics show that female gamers outnumber male gamers; perhaps that may be true in the overall gaming community, but from my own personal observation it's certainly not true in the FPS community. Although I do know quite a large number of women that play both the Unreal and Quake series of games, I rarely encounter other females on the Half-Life servers (and I server hop a lot!). I do, however, believe the statistics which show that more and more women are entering computer-related fields, and as those numbers increase, we'll definitely be seeing more females enter the gaming community. 

Last but certainly not least. How did your screen names come to be? Did you think about it for days upon end or was it one of those instant things where a light bulb suddenly flashes above your head and goes "ping"? :)

[HC] Actually, I did some real digging and tried to come up with a mythological name that was female, tough, and sounded great. Unfortunately, I didn't like any of them. So in a flash of complete and utter non-inspiration, I came up with Hellchick.

[LI] I've actually had my nickname since I was a teenager...many years before I started hanging out online. I originally got that nickname while working at the San Francisco Zoo where I cared for various birds of prey and reptiles. Since part of my job was feeding those animals, I would have to fresh-kill small rodents and fowl to use as food. While doing this, I would carry on as usual with my co-workers, talking, laughing, and joking around. One co-worker said that he found it a bit unnerving that I could so easily laugh and joke around while murdering poor innocent little furry creatures. He said that I was as just as cold-blooded as some of the animals I cared for, and started calling me Lady Ice. Coincidentally, I worked my way through college caring for our Biology department's live reptile collection, and as I started working on my degree in computer science, LadyICE seemed the natural choice when it came time for me to choose my screen name. I thought it sounded a bit classier than SnakeLady or LizardMama ;)

Big thanks go out to Hellchick and LadyICE for giving up some of their freetime to participate in this interview!

Related Links:

GameGirlz
WomenGamers.com

PlanetHalf-Life
PlanetQuake