Rule #2 must be reminding everyone about Rule #1
North Jersey Media Group reminds us that women aren’t supposed to game and even if we do game, we’re sort of freaks because of it.
Nobody told her. And Phaedra Boinodiris never noticed.
Insulated by a family of controller-wielding women, encouraged by female cousins who were weaned on Atari and ColecoVision, Boinodiris plunged into the world of gaming without learning Rule No. 1: Video games are for little boys, not little girls.
In the recent flurry of news regarding game companies’ overtures to women, it seems that not a one has taken a pass on noting that video games were “for boys.” Frankly, this is bullshit. It’s not that women haven’t played games, it’s that we’ve been ignored. I played videogames as a little girl, my girlfriends growing up had video games, and when I talk to female friends and co-workers, more of them than not have videogames. And I’m not talking bejeweled, here. I’m talking World of Warcraft, Warioware, Neverwinter Nights, and Goldeneye. And while my friends do not a statistical sampling make, the fact that 38% of gamers out there are women didn’t just happen overnight. What did happen overnight was this sudden interest in women gamers out there.
Women are more likely to gravitate to devices like Nintendo’s DS, rather than costly and time-intensive consoles, such as the PlayStation 3. The DS and its counterpart, the PlayStation Portable (or PSP), are handheld portable gaming systems that easily fit in a purse or knapsack.
Why not talk about how girls like to buy handhelds in colors that match their favorite scarf? Or how they want a game that’s “slimming?” Or a game that will make the boys notice them? “Women are more likely to gravitate to devices like Nintendo’s DS” sounds to me like “I’ve heard of these mythical women-beasts who play videogames, but I tremble to enter unto their lairs. Of the glimpses of lady-flesh I have seen in public, they appear to be playing those newfangled DS Lites. This must be the preferred device of the mysterious female gamer.”
To be fair, the article does allow Boinodiris (of Women Gamers) to actually talk about the shifting demographics of the gaming community, but the writer takes a little too much time marveling on the sudden appearance of people who have been there all along.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Ok, this is just priceless:
“As a result, women tend to eschew more complicated MMRPGs (or massively multiplayer role-playing games, in which one assumes an online alter ego) in favor of simpler titles.”
Especially given my experience, knowing at least a few couples that have met in MMORPGs (idiot couldn’t even get that acronym right), this statement and pretty much everything in the article is just laughable.
Oh and… really:
“Beth Llewellyn, senior director of corporate communications for Nintendo, a gaming company often credited with innovative approaches to consoles, said developers have seen the writing on the wall — and it’s scrawled in lipstick.”
I’m sure if I wore lipstick, and smeared it all over the wall like a damn psychopath, I’d be thrilled with her view of female gamers.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:26 pm
If you get the right lipstick, it looks just like fresh blood. And it lasts much longer than actual fresh blood.
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
I wonder if the author has ever tried to write something on a wall with lipstick. It’s not easy cause the damn lipstick breaks and then if you want to finish what you started you’re gonna have to get lipstick all over your hands by using the broken piece or go out and buy more… and heaven forbid if it was a discontinued color! Plus, it never looks as good as in the movies… sigh.
Now eyeliner on the other hand, that’s a different story!
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
It really was a breathtaking bit of old guard “damn women drivers” journalism. I’m surprised they didn’t talk about how difficult it is to level your harper scout when you’ve got laundry to fold.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:31 am
But it is hard to level your
harper scoutNight Elf Druid when you have laundry to fold. Fishing, however, is easy.April 3rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Pfft. Screw the laundry… it ain’t goin’ nowhere. I got to level my Draenei Paladin! *Ooooh look! Copper mine…. -wanders off
April 8th, 2007 at 2:51 am
[...] continue to impress me with the power of their awesome. Mighty Ponygirl’s Monday post, “Rule #2 must be reminding everyone about Rule #1,” resonated particularly with me (you all have seen my “Girls Don’t” t-shirt design, yes? [...]
April 11th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
[...] Rule #2 must be reminding everyone about Rule #1 [...]
April 17th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Here via Shrub/tekjani. On this article: GAG. All my female friends- in elementary school!- played Mario along with everyone else. And purses???? Sigh. So many sighs.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Truly love it. Rock on.