I am not a power gamer, but I do play some online games,
such as Scrabble and Chess. I do
identify with the non-gamers and moderate gamers from the article Women and Games, such as the criticism of
gaming interfering with my own control of time.
When I play Scrabble online, it is hard to pull myself away to handle
other priorities.
All games provide a certain escape from reality, and power gamers
that dedicate exorbitant amounts of time to online games are more easily able
to embrace the avatars or identities that they create for themselves. I think that this escape from everyday life
provides girls and/or women with ways to define their selves in a more
appealing manner, and provides a distraction from other issues. The types of games that a female has an
affinity for demonstrates areas in her identity that she would like to change
or embellish. For example, the article mentions
women who play strategy games in order to control an environment, or women play
games as coping mechanisms (688).
The gaming industry sells girlhood by trying to creating gender
biased games, such as games aimed at fashion or gender biased activities, Barbie Fashion Dress Up or Dance, Dance Revolution. The gaming marketers’ assault on girls is not
age specific either. Children are barraged
with images of gender role stereotypes from bedtime stories. Being honest with girls in effort to protect young
girls from the illusion that the ideal women are Barbies, princesses, and damsels
in distress who live in pink castles is a constant battle of futility.
Yes, I think I would treat gaming like I do a book and not want to put it down until it's done. And I understand that games are unending, so I would be in trouble!
ReplyDeleteI don't like the boy gender roles as aggressive and in control any more than the princess stereotypes.
I agree that it is difficult to find games that are gender neutral. These extreme stereotypical manifestations in games is very problematic.
ReplyDeleteWhere do games like Rock Band fit into the discussion? Do you all think that they are gender neutral? I have never played Rock Band but, it seems to me girls would enjoy it just as much as boys. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteYolanda,
ReplyDeleteYou stated that "Being honest with girls in effort to protect young girls from the illusion that the ideal women are Barbies, princesses, and damsels in distress who live in pink castles is a constant battle of futility," and maybe this is the reason why gaming does not appeal much to women. Women roles in many of these video games are plane boring. More often than not even the ladies that are part of the game's "soldier battalion," end up being shot at or "carried" by their leading men.
Nora
Upon reading your posting I remembered Sorority Life, a game on Facebook. The females within this game worked, fundraised, and gained money to buy high dollar clothing, accessories and vehicles. Even within this online sorority world there was a caste system, where those with the most points and money were paraded in lists for all others who hadn't earned, raised, or been given as much money could envy. It was a sad replica of the stereotypical sorority sister.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about what kinds of games we feel we need to play to consider ourselves gamers. I'm glad you "count" chess and scrabble and other games we sometimes ignore. I often think those games don't count for gamer cred precisely because it is mostly women playing them.
ReplyDelete