I was originally going to use a photo of myself from when I was 15-years old and playing videogames at my friend's house. It then occurred to me that I looked like an emaciated sweatshop child who'd been dropped as a baby. So here's a picture of a cute blonde girl trying to clap her hands during some maths game.
I remember the best way to pique my interest as a child was to show me people having fun while they were doing something.
I started writing in primary school because I saw that my friends were having so much fun writing their own little novellas; I took up the violin because the virtuosos I saw on television always looked like they were having a lot of fun while playing, and it’s the same reason why I started playing videogames. One day I saw my older brother playing with our Famicom, he looked like he was having fun, so I wanted to have a go, too. And as I kept playing, the more he kept handing down games to me that he’d exhausted, and the more my friends would start lending me the games that they had enormous amounts of fun playing. So I got to play the games that they loved – the games that were special to them.
Years on from when I played my first game, wrote my first story, and played my first hideously squeaky note on the violin, my interest in anything can still be piqued in the same way. Show me that something is fun and enjoyable and I might just give it a go. And so it came as a surprise to me when IGN AU published this article a few days ago, detailing ways in which a gamer can get his lady friend interested in videogames.
No, scrap that. I wasn’t surprised. I was appalled. I felt like I was reading a guide from the 1940s on how to welcome women into the workforce, and by the end of it I was expecting a dot point suggesting: “Girls like to maintain their appearance, so make sure you encourage your lady to have breaks while she’s gaming so that she can moisturise her hands – she wouldn’t appreciate having her thumbs callused by the D-Pad!” Thankfully, such a dot point did not exist, but the ones that did exist were pretty darn patronising.
I like to think that girls have taste and a brain. I like to think that they can be moved by a story that is told well, engaged by gameplay that is mesmerising, laugh at humour within a game that is well constructed and executed, and become attached to vast virtual worlds that intrigue and offer the possibilities of adventure and exploration. And I like to think that any girl – or any person for that matter – can become interested in videogames if they are introduced to a good one.
So maybe if we want to get girls involved, we should show them something fun. Maybe we should start off by sharing the games that we love; the kind of games that stimulate our minds and take our imagination to places we’d normally struggle to dream up. Maybe, instead of coming up with a list of ten ways to patronise women and make them feel as though they’re incapable of understanding the kind of gaming that doesn’t require waggling, we should just show them how much fun we have playing great games, and then give them a go. They might appreciate it. I know I did.
I despair for my daughter; she’s only just over a year-and-a-half old, but with crap like this being published, I can’t even begin to appreciate the difficulty she’s going to have to go through. I don’t know whether the media’s to blame, whether we just don’t know how to parent our kids, or whether it’s something else entirely, but too many guys of all ages just don’t seem to understand that women are just people too.
I wear it as a matter of pride that my daughter’s equally interested in her train set, her diggers, her baby doll, and her miniature houses. Walking through the girl’s section of most toy stores is like drowning in an eye-rendering sea of pink, the majority of which is focused on makeup, dressup, and other passive activities. Walk through the boy’s section and it’s all about adventure, exploration, creativity, and interactivity.
Something’s seriously wrong with this picture.
As someone who was coccooned as a child and shown pictures of farm life while my parents said ‘Here is the farmer, and here is the farmer’s husband’, I have now emerged from my chrysalis as a magnificent feminist butterfly. The fact that an article such as this can be published in such mainstream media as IGN only adds fire to the furious glory of my female-empowering wings.
The sentence ‘Contrary to what us girls love to argue, we’re all a little bit superficial’ made me want to scream at my screen WHAT RIGHT HAVE YOU TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF WOMEN YOU FOUL JUDAS? HOW DARE YOU PATRONISE THE PEOPLE WHO FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL, SACRIFICED LIFE AND LIMB FOR YOU TO EVEN BE PUBLISHED IN THE MEDIA? YOU WILL BURN IN THE DEEPEST CIRCLE OF HELL TRAITOR
Thank you for bringing such insidious treachery to light. seeds. zero light seeds.
Yeah I read that IGN piece because I just happened to check out the EEGRA front page and saw they linked to it. I thought it was a joke at first, then I realised it was serious. Uhm…
IGN should stick to basically what people want.
In terms of Gamers, this probably should be just about reviews, and gaming related news.
The thing that really intrigues me is the fact that this article was written by a woman. I mean, this article is so patronising, condescending and just plain stupid that for almost the entire time I was reading the article I was expecting to come up to the punchline or something. The whole thing just leaves me shaking my head.
Anyway, I really like how you described how you got into games. I actually started playing games in pretty much the same way.
@PsychoCat
I think if an entertainment medium is strong enough, then no one needs to be ‘eased’ into it – it’s not like we’re trying to introduce children to vegetables.
Games as a medium ARE strong enough – we should just let them do the talking. It just seems like the most natural way to get someone into games.
Imagine my surprise when I recognise the name of the writer! Turns out I actually know her! I don’t mean to completely defend her, because I found the article distasteful, but I’d say that’s just her style of “humour”. I don’t think she meant any particular harm – she was just writing out of her own opinion (as appalling as it may be).
Tracey: I totally agree with you!
I have to admit, that article shocked me. I have a lot of respect for the guys at IGNAU and I would have thought an idea like that would have been veto’d at the suggestion stage. Hmmm.
Wow. I saw this article a while back and thought it was a joke written by a man, but I just noticed something:
“Give her a great story and it will reel her in for you. Try any of the Silent Hill series, Metal Gear Solid, ICO or Shadow of the Colossus; they all won me over. You might be surprised at what tickles her fancy.”
I didn’t even realise the writer WAS a woman until she talks about those games that won her over. Unless Clara is a man’s name nowadays, and honestly it wouldn’t surprise me…
Also:
“Finally, be careful not to sell her short. Nothing annoys girls more than assuming they’re awful at something just because they’re female. Despite what you might think your girlfriend will or won’t play, great storytelling transcends any form of entertainment – and games are no exception.”
Doesn’t this contradict the whole article? This excerpt is actually agreeing with Tracey’s blog, even though it’s from the same article that the blog is criticising!
I think you have misunderstood the aim of the IGN article, which is to explain to clueless hardcore gamers how to enjoy games with people who are not hardcore gamers. The “girl” and “boy” may as well just be “a” and “b”.
@Sean And I think the points raised in the article are a really patronising way to meet those aims. As I said, there’s no reason why we can’t introduce noobs to gaming in the same way that we were introduced to gaming.
That’s true. I mean, we all started out as noobs, right?
You took the words right out of my mouth. That article was GROSS. I felt this exact same way when watching some of Nintendo’s keynote presentation at E3 this past year. Nothing worse than seeing a successful women talk about how the upcoming games will appeal to girls because it’s all about fashion and makeup. Since, you know, we all like to prepare for motherhood and look nice for the opposite sex in our gaming time. *insert eyeroll here*
Thanks a bunch for the great piece!
Here from WFA -
Thanks for the insightful piece. I still can’t get over tip #9 in that IGN article, though. Don’t play “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band” with your girlfriend; play “SingStar Disney” instead! Right, because there’s nothing women like better than being treated like a toddler.
The article you linked was really frustrating to read. On one hand, some of the points they brought up are things that guys need to keep in mind when introducing non-gamers (and especially women) to games, but as the article progresses the tone gets more and more sexist and weird. At some point I really feel like the author is talking down to the theoretical “girl” like she’s weak and helpless rather than just someone who may be frustrated or confused by a new situation.
Despite the tone I suspect the article will help some people to curb bad trends (I mean seriously, you probably don’t want to sit down to game with your BF and discover he wants to play fighting games with giant breasted women… fighting games you’ve never played against trained opponents aren’t generally that fun and at least for me the scenery won’t be adding much), but it totally ignores the fact that women are huge gamers on their own. I don’t just mean in the casual “oh hey! I played tetris once!” way that they’re implying. Women make up a huge proportion of the “casual” game market. Most of us are not unfamiliar with the idea of how you play a game. Suggesting that we live in some sort of magical game free sphere just because fewer of us are console gamers is both rude and stupid.