Now, I don’t want to pretend that I’m NOT constantly bickering with TV commercials, like an irate budgie having words with the mirror in his cage, but if there’s an ad that’s really seizing my contraband at the moment, it’s the one for Xbox Kinect’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.
Oh, you know the one. Smug girl makes eyes at herself in the mirror*, asks boyfriend-type “Can you tell I’ve been playing on The X Box? Maybe you should play some X Box?”, pronouncing Xbox like it’s part of an elocution exam where mispronunciation of brand names results in waterboarding. This buffoonery-in-diction is entirely deliberate. The Xbox-owner in the ad is barely comfortable with how to pronounce its name, and yet she’s reaping the benefits of her investment! It’s an invitation for non-gamers to spend a zillion euro on kitting out their sitting rooms, a warm hug for clueless types easily convinced that motion-capture technology is the new 100 metre sprint. I get that. I really do. But as a female gamer, I’m very easily offended by the stereotype that women are but airhead nunkies bent on commandeering their boyfriends’ consoles for narcissistic and fluffy purposes. Pah! A pox on your vain stereotypes, Kinect ad execs! I’ll take ye on! I’ll take ye all on!
Look! Tai Chi! Exercise for girls!
The sad truth is that being a gamer who owns rather than covets boobs has turned me into something rather too easily offended. There is no reasonable reason for this. Why should the banal typecasting of fluffy airheads offend me? I don’t get offended on behalf of elderly gamers when cuddly representatives of their generation appear, leppin’ about the place in ads for Nintendo’s Wii. I don’t get offended on behalf of six-year-old Mario Kart veterans when other smallies star in ads for V-Tech toy laptops. But gosh, the depiction of female gamers as fashion-obsessed mouthbreathers really gets on my nerves. “I’d bate their arses in Goldeneye!” I huff, loudly, to anyone in hearing distance, which is a very telling action indeed. If I was truly comfortable with my gaming, I wouldn’t need applause for my gaming, now would I? There’s a bit of the “See how well I’m doing here! Did you know I’m a GIRL?” to the whole thing. It’s a tragic tale of gormless self-mockery, really.
Not so long ago, I went game shopping for a couple of titles I was after. One was for my PS2, the other for my 360. The shop assistant looked concerned and said, “You do realise these are for two different platforms, don’t you?” whereupon I became sorely offended. I don’t remember the exact response I gave, but it was probably something sneery and along the lines of Naaaaaaaaw, I’m that stupid, where’s my GH-fucking-D so I can heat my likkle brain up? Although I knew full well that the clerk was probably pointing out the same thing to many customers buying multiple titles, out of the goodness of his heart, out of nothing but benevolence directed towards confused Irish Mammies buying Grand Theft Auto for their eight-year-old sons. Oh, how I sniped at the poor man! I feel very bad about it – he was but a Good Samaritan after all – but that doesn’t stop me regurgitating the anecdote when I’m banging on about being a gamer and being a girl. “Condescending asshole!” I harrumph, though I’m secretly talking about myself.
It could be that I’m seeking kudos for being a girl gamer because I’m fully aware that there just aren’t as many of us. Out of my own social circle, the majority of the fellas are gamers, either on PC or console. The majority of the girleens don’t play video games at all, and those that do are more likely to have a Nintendo DS to train their brains on than a PS3. When it comes down to it, I don’t actually like the majority of games out there. I can’t stand First-Person Shooters. I can’t stand playing online. No matter how selective it is, I demand congratulations for my habit, all the same. It’s as if I’m standing up for the Little Gal, even though evidence suggests she exists in no great numbers at all.
It’s good to have a hobby.
*Oh no! I mentioned mirrors twice in three sentences! Please don’t tell the Literature Police.
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It’s probably telling that the first thing I want to do is to get all prickly and point out that there are lots of perfectly good DS games out there, and that it’s not all Cooking Mama and games about dogs, you know. And just ’cause a person might happen to do most of her playing of games on a DS doesn’t make her one of those, and anyway it’s only a temporary thing while I’ve no TV and and and..
Of course, I did actually want to say that I agree with you. And also that girl gamers may be in a minority, but from what I gather it’s not as small a minority as one might think.
I actually thought that myself – there are plenty of female gamers out there, whole clans of ‘em, etc etc. But then, I don’t know any of them. Really, my female friends/family/co-workers think games are funny blippity things that small boys play. It’s most isolating.
I have a DS myself at home, but I play Mario on it instead of those strange lifestyle sims that Nintendo seems intent on marketing to Teh Girlz. “Dress Nigella”, or “How Clean Is Your Location”, or whatever.
Even so, I can’t help but think of the DS as a pseudo-console for part-timers. Oh, the prejudices!
I’m tempted to tell you that you just have to come hang out with my friends some time. While I’ve never counted, I’d say that a small majority of my gamer friends are of the boob-enabled variety.
Also, if Mario’s as far as you’ve gotten when it comes to Real Games For The DS, you’re missing out. As a person who spends double-digits of hours every week on trains ‘n’ buses and needs to keep entertained somehow, I can guarantee you that there is way, way, waaaaay more to the DS than stereotypes would tell you.
It’s interesting though, how we classify these things, and how games are generally either marketed as Real Games or Games For Girls, and how this even extends to the consoles we play them on.
Would you not consider yourself lucky to know so many other female gamers? While we’re not exactly hen’s teeth, I do declare that we’re a minority group … which would explain how bloody noisy we are. “I’m a gamer too! DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT? Rarr! Pwnd! What do we want?! MOAR LOLCATS! When do we want them?! LOLZ!”
Hit me with a few quality DS titles, so. Although I’m sorely offended that you think Mario is “as far as I’ve gotten.” 25 years on, can we not accept that Mario is a gaming pinnacle? Sorely, I tells ya.
On the marketing thing, what interests me about Nintendo is how it expanded the net to actively target non-gamers, presenting the DS as a lifestyle product not unlike a smartphone or Kindle. Wii, then, was aimed at family fun rather than the hardcore market, who Nintendo wisely copped weren’t about to trade in their 360s any time soon. It’s been a spectacularly successful ploy, and Nintendo have sidestepped the console war thing – I still get into arguments over 360 vs PS3 in the same way I used to with PS1 vs N64 and Megadrive vs SNES, but hey, EVERYONE loves the Wii!
Oh, I’m absolutely incredibly lucky to know tons of awesome girl gamers! For one thing, I feel less bad about getting my ass kicked on a regular basis.. And yes, we are most definitely a minority group.
Also, I’ll give you credit that Mario is kinda awesome. I even bought it for my dad for his Wii for Christmas. You know. For my dad. The beardy guy over there. Definitely not his daughter who lives at home a couple of days a week these days.
As for awesome DS games? Of the top of my head, I tend to be a fan of the Zeldas, although having to blow into the mic when to play your magic flute when you’re on a crowded train? Not the most dignified moment of a person’s life. And you can’t go wrong with a bit of Chrono Trigger. The Final Fantasy remakes are adorable, as well, if you like RPGs. I confess to loving me some Elite Beat Agents and associated rhythm-action games, as well, but the less said about that the better. Oh, and when you’re a person on a moving train who can’t go hitting things precisely, you can’t go wrong with Phoenix Wright or Professor Layton for puzzley fun.
But, y’know, that’s just me.
A great article which will, I know, further champion gamer gurrlls everywhere. Hey I even have a few on my friends list!!!
My fiancee is an avid gamer. I lost her to Assassin’s Creed and Gears of War many moons ago. Bad times.
In defense of both female and oldie I thought you might like this.
My Husband and his Best Mate like to think they are total gamers.
We were at his brothers wedding and was discussing games with his Mother in Law and they got on the subject of Call of Duty. She mentioned she enjoys playing it etc.
Cue question (in semi-sarcastic tone) What level are you at (fully expecting level 1 or something).
For the life of me I can’t remember exactly what she was at but both of their jaws nearly hit the deck and I later found out she was way way above them and in the pro class.
As she’s in her 60′s I though that was an acheivement.
Shona, that’s a brilliant story! Love it!
Not a COD fan myself, though that’s a story for another day (and possibly another blog).
Adam, I bought Th’other Half Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for Christmas (along with a couple of other titles, while he bought me Fable III and Fallout: New Vegas). I fully intend to nick/appropriate said game as soon as I wrap up pwnrship of the post-apocalyptic wastes of New Vegas. I’m dastardly like that.
I’m a girl gamer and that ad annoys me so much. The main message I picked up from it is about how the only socially sanctioned way for women to be gamers is by doing something to make themselves thinner.
My favourite games have to be massive RPGs. I just finished Mass Effect 2, playing my ‘shades of grey’ Commander Shepherd who thinks nothing of putting a mercenary through a window but stops her team member from assassinating a traitor. The third installment is out in November or December and I cannot wait.
How is New Vegas? My boyfriend surprised me with a copy of it yesterday so I’m going to start that once I’m finished with The Witcher.
Mass Effect 2 has been sitting on my shelf for about six months now, gathering dust. I’m snubbing it because its older brother annoyed me so much; completely unfair of me, I know. Perhaps when I finish New Vegas I’ll go back to it.
New Vegas is, unsurprisingly, HUGE. It’s also really involving. The problem is that it’s sub-par on a technical sense; glitchy, etc, much more so than Fallout 3 ever was. I don’t know if Bethesda made the right decision to farm it out to Obsidian, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still fantastic fun and well worth playing … it’s just distressingly buggy in parts.