Video Games: Not Just for Boys

At this point it's pretty much a given that people of every age, sex, etc. play video games. Some companies have yet to realise (or at least, give a damn about) that fact, but I doubt any gamer who's NOT an immature 14-year-old guy is going to be surprised at discovering that "ZOMG GIRLS PLAY GAMES TOO!!"

Yeah, you wouldn't know it since the only selling point of a lot of games is "look, we have big-boobed chicks in tight leather bikinis!!" It makes games like, say, World of Warcraft kind of frustrating sometimes. Like when your female character's armour turns into a fucking thong when you put it on. Or when you get the feeling that the programmers spent more time on the night elves' jiggly-boob animation than they did on all those fugly male spirites combined. (It's pretty bad when the male UNDEAD are hotter than all the human and night elf males put together.)

Despite so many game developers' best attempts not to give a damn about anyone but their teenage guy demographic, I rarely feel like a minority. I know perfectly well that plenty of others chicks play games too, even if the game developers have yet to catch up to that fact and acommodate it. And not in the "oh, let's make some games for girls!" way. Guys? We don't need "games for girls." We don't need dumbed-down cutesy crap. We just need to be given some consideration in the games that are already being made. It's really not that hard. Just avoid being exceptionally demeaning to women and, if you're going for fanservice, at least give the chicks something as well. If your game includes female sprites with ridiculously huge boobs and chainmail bikinis, the LEAST you can do is add a few male sprites that are pleasing to the eye.

</rant>

Oh, and for the record, I've been playing video games ever since we got our first computer in my house. I was probably six or seven at the time, and I learned enough DOS commands to install and play games like Quest For Glory, Alleycat, Hoyle card games, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Monkey Island... All kinds of things. These days I'm into Silent Hill, Thief, Morrowind, various RPGs... A nice mix of all kinds of games.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Megalith

Girls who play games are about as normal as girls who read comic books.

So in other words, we're fairly "normal" (whatever that means) and would only be considered otherwise by immature 10-year-old boys and pathetic guys who have lived sad, sheltered lives.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by BigHairyFeet

I would have to disagree on a certain level, Overkill. Most guys play videogames cause violence is cool. I don't see many girls playing videogames, because as as far as I know, many girls arn't as testosterone laden as guys (thank god). In my experience, even the few girls I know who play videogames don't even like to talk about the more squeamish aspects of the games. It seems that girls want to indulge in the same fantasies guys do (ie. killing stuff, winning the championship, etc), but they don't want everyone else to know, while guys don't care who knows.

Very much an over-generalisation, there. In a couple of ways.

For one thing, I don't know where you're getting this idea that video games are an inherantly violent medium. Despite what the news media and people like Jack Thompson want you to believe, they're not. Saying that girls don't play games because they're not big on violence is just silly, for the simple fact that the vast majority of games aren't any more or less violent than any given movie, book, comic, etc. G.T.A. is no more representative of the "average video game" than Sin City is representative of the "average movie".

As for girls not wanting to talk about violence... Well, all I can say is that you must not know very many gaming girls. Maybe some of them are shy about talking about violence. But most of the female games I know like a mix of everything, and are perfectly happy to chat about violent aspects of games in addition to everything else. Most of them can squee over a cute RPG bishounen in one breath and discuss bloody, gory Silent Hill deaths in the next. Heck, my fifteen-year-old cousin is just as comfortable chatting about Harvest Moon as she is talking about her latest playthrough of Resident Evil 4.

Maybe female gamers are just more well-rounded in their tastes than all those testosterone-enslaved male gamers you mentioned. As long as we're over-generalising and stereotyping, it might as well go both ways.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.