@einalex As a female myself, I notice a lot of a certain *type* of guy get really surprised when they find out I have prior experience with non-"girl" games (mobile games, passive sims, etc. are "girl" games) It seems like they'd rather be a mentor of sorts for you, take you under their wing like "don't worry babe, I'll protect you in this dangerous shooting game"

Meanwhile I've also had great Pokémon battles with guys who are just happy to be battling me, regardless of my sex. I think part of it depends on the guy, *and* the game regardless of skill. Like, I was way more likely to be accepted as a Pokémon player than any sort of non turn-based combat game, for example