Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Video Games and Women

So ladies who are gamers, do you feel the gaming industry is getting better or worse for us?  Do we need to label ourselves as "gamer girls" or should we all just be "gamers?"

On a day to day basis, I don't really think about how women fit into video games. I have games and I play them. But I do think about what it means to be a women who likes to play games  every so often. Like in the Discovery Channel's Rise of Video Game series. It describes gamers as going from "boys" to "young men." Really? I've been playing video games since Nintendo was released in the U.S., so I feel girls who grew up on games should be mentioned.

And of course there's the "fanboy."  Magazines will proclaim the "fanboys" are going to love this game or that game. Why can't we just be fans?

Women just don't play Cooking Mama or facebook games. In fact, I don't play either. I prefer shooters, RPGs and action/adventure. I don't care if my character is female or male. I just want to kill zombies, shoot the Locust, set the Big Sister on fire with a plasmid etc.

Do we need all the labels? Is it a good thing or bad thing? I'm not sure. But at the end of the day  I just want to play.

For more on Women and Video Games:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2404910/women_and_video_games_a_womans_perspective.html?cat=19

4 comments:

  1. lol ladies are good at these things as well, rock on :)

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  2. Nice post, Jenn! I don't understand the need for labelling - a gaming fan is a gaming fan, regardless of gender!

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  3. Great article and blog subject! Labels are rarely productive when applied to people.

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  4. GREAT blog and article! They should absolutely not use labels! The word "fan" is the way to go!

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