Creative Gamer Girl

Girl Gamers - Part II

Saturday, January 07, 2017

Continuation of an article I wrote back in 2012. View the first part here.

Women in video games are incredibly sexualised. I loved Lara Croft when I was young, and she has grown with me throughout my life. When I was a child I did not notice her DD breasts and preposterous proportions— I saw a strong, independent bad- ass who I could look up to, a woman who wasn’t a ‘damsel in distress’.

Lara Croft may have broken the mould concerning women in video games, but she still conformed to the idea of a perfect woman. Men wanted to be in control of Lara and some claimed they wanted to take care of her. Women wanted to be her because of how strong she was and she had the ‘perfect body’. The majority of female characters in video games have big breasts, impossible waist sizes and outfits that are highly impractical when climbing up a mountain or getting into fights. Dead or Alive is the perfect example- busty, scantily clad females wearing bikinis and fighting each other... as you do...

Of course men do not get off lightly with how they are portrayed in video games either. Most of them are dashingly handsome with huge toned muscles. Nothing about them is realistic. Both genders are painted to how society thinks the perfect specimen should be.

I do not blame the gaming market for this; the media in general are notorious when it comes to projecting a perfect person. People are under pressure from all sides on how they should look, dress, feel and live. Airbrushed billboards, magazines, television adverts stare out from every corner, men women and children are being told how they should be. But who is to say what is ‘right’? How we should dress? Who dares to have that authority?

However, I do think games are moving in the right direction. For instance, comparing Lara Croft now to how she used be shows the first sign of change. Lara no longer has the 36DD’s, the tiny waist and big hips. Her boobs have been scaled down to a 34D and the rest of her is far more in proportion. This is something that proves to me that times are actually changing— hopefully more will happen in the future.

One way I think they could make a step in the right direction is to erase or adapt booth babes. If you don’t know what booth babes are, you have never been to a gaming convention. They are models that stand around in very short skirts, tight t-shirts and smile at passing gamers. I doubt many of them actually play games, they are there to make men drool and possibly get a few of said men to play a demo of the game the babes are trying to promote. Why are there no booth men? Handsome guys with six packs greeting the swelling number of female gamers. That would be fair, and then both sexes would be guilty of objectifying each other.

There is one thing I’m not quite sure where I stand; back in May, Maxim held a girl gamer competition. Girls posted sexy pictures of themselves on a website to receive votes from fellow gamers - male and female. On one hand, I’m happy because female gamers in general are getting more accepted. But on the other hand, many of the pictures are semi-naked with much cleavage and pouting. The comments are from mostly men leering over them and a few wishing them luck. Surely, this is not a step in the right direction?

Of course, it is good that girls can say “I play games” and feel sexy about it rather than socially inadequate; but also why must they get votes by posing half naked and showing their cleavage? We should all be proud of what we have, but is this the right way to go about getting respect from fellow gamers? The girls that don’t appear half naked haven’t got as many votes as the soft porn pictures and I find that pretty depressing. I voted for a lady who had her clothes on in every photo, apart from pulling down her jeans slightly to show a geeky tattoo in one.

I know most of this article is unanswered questions, but that’s the point, we just need to be aware and think about these issues. Maybe then we can change them.

Game Article

Girl Gamers - Part I

Saturday, July 16, 2016

This week I unearthed another old article I wrote back in May 2012. I was googling myself - as you do - and unexpectedly found it in the archives of a website I used to write for. I'd completely forgotten about it. As the blog title suggests, it's looking at the term 'Girl Gamers' and seems just as topical now as it did back in 2012.

A friend asked me a question a week or so ago, “Why does the phrase ‘girl gamers’ exist?” A very short and seemingly simple question, but it got me thinking. This friend, called Naomi, is currently filming a documentary about girl gamers for her dissertation and that question was one of many she interviewed me attempting to answer. But that one question sparked off thousands in my head and empowered me to write an article on the subject.

Firstly, have you ever heard someone use the term ‘boy gamer’? I haven’t. Why is this? Yes, the majority of gamers in the past have been male and so you can understand why it didn’t seem necessary to make their gender known. But today the gaming market is exploding and different people more than ever are picking up controllers. If we’re going to use the term ‘girl gamers’ we should start saying ‘boy gamer’, ‘silver-haired gamer’, ‘toddler gamer’ etc.

It does sound ridiculous, having to categorise that way; gamers should just be gamers no matter what their gender, age or favourite food. And if there must be a term we coin for women that happen to play games, why do we choose to use the word girl rather than female, lady or woman? Why must it be a word we associate being the innocent and young version of the female gender?

I have been playing games from a very young age starting off on the original Gameboy playing Tetris. It never occurred to me that I was doing something that appears to be out of the ordinary for girls to do or enjoy. A neighbour and I used to spend days with our Gameboys trading Pokemon and trying to do the fastest speed run. We were both girls.

One of the issues that I find is, whenever I mention that I enjoy playing games, guys immediately see me as hotter than I was before I mentioned I like to shoot people in the head. Why is this? When a guy tells me he plays video games, I don’t suddenly change the way I see him, thinking video games magically change his persona completely. Sometimes I do find it flattering that I have a past time that some guys find attractive, but most of the time I want to punch them in the mouth when they pull that surprised face.

Why do I feel like I must prove myself when playing with a male opponent? It seems the pressure is double: one, to win and another, to prove that girls can play games. Immature little boys shouting sexist and vulgar comments down the microphone at you as soon as they discover your gender can make winning harder; but also even more satisfying. This is one of the main reasons I decide not to have my microphone on much of the time. I honestly think the player’s attitude to my character and the fact I’m killing them will change dramatically when they hear the voice behind the knife-wielding man is actually a female. I play games for fun, so to have someone shouting ‘t*ts or GTFO’ at you is not something I want to battle with when trying to relax.

Luckily, I have been blessed with many male friends who do not see me as any different from them when gaming. Many times have we had geek days where we’ve each brought a controller, ordered food and sat for hours playing Co-op. Of course, the majority of male gamers are wonderful, respectful people but like anything, it’s the small number ruining it for the rest.

Everyone needs to realise now that we live in a very technological orientated age. Even little children are being given iPads as birthday presents (which is something I find ridiculous!) With the Kinect and Wii, the gaming market is opening up to families and to a much wider audience. This means women are of course going to be gaming more often; something the sexist part of the population are going to have to accept.

Continued in Part Two:
Booth Babes
Lara Croft Dead or Alive

article

Something a little different

Sunday, May 01, 2016

This is an article I wrote as part of an assessment a few weeks ago. Rather than go to waste, I thought I'd share it here.

How to: Use Twitter for promotion

Valuable Followers
First things first, follow like-minded individuals. Connect with fellow artists, designers, small businesses and entrepreneurs, and get to know other competitors in your field.
It goes without saying, the more people you follow, the more followers you'll get and the wider your tweets will reach.

Sometimes, new followers will give you a week to follow them in return and if you don't, they unfollow. This can be a fast way to grow your network. However, the followers you get out of it may not be worthwhile or care very much about what you do.

The most important thing is to tweet valuable content so your followers share it and help your marketing. But don't over tweet! People who clog twitter feeds are more likely to get muted and that will do you no good.

Hashtags
Think before you tweet. Use and pick hashtags to your advantage to drive a lot of people to your profile. Tweeting out a picture of a new t-shirt design with these hashtags: #artists #graphicdesign #design, can boost views of your tweets tenfold. The more your tweets are liked and re-tweeted, the more potential customers you are reaching. Fellow artists and businesses will normally re-tweet your tweets if you ask, but be sure to do the same for them in return otherwise they'll stop.

There are always trending hashtags. Now and then, using a trending hashtag can bring new viewers to your page. If they like what they see, they'll follow.
But there are so many tweets out there, how do you stand out?

Promoted Tweets
You can pay to promote your tweets, like paying for a Post Boost on Facebook.
You start by selecting your country and what outcome you want from your campaign. For the purpose of this article, we picked the 'Tweet engagements' option to get more interactions on our tweets.

Then you can make it a continuous campaign or specify a start and end date - maybe to coincide with a giveaway. Next, give a name to your campaign, pick your audience location and gender, as well as any additional keywords to really pinpoint the correct audience and make the most impact. Finally comes your budget - you select both a daily amount and an overall maximum so you don't go overboard without realising.

The tweets are then embedded in relevant people's feeds and hopefully they feel the urge to click.

Twitter Analytics
You can pay for other programs to get an in-depth insight on your tweets impact, but if you're on a tight budget, it's best to use Twitter's own.

Twitter Analytics shows your statistics in twenty-eight day spans, including your most interacted with tweets, your follower growth and profile views. It's a quick rundown on what's working and what you could focus on in the future.

3rd Party Programs
Other programs also give you great insights into your most influential tweeters, the followers that interact most with you and any mean unfollowers. Most of them are free up to a point, but if you want extensive analysis you'll have to pay.

Applications can also schedule tweets for when you can't get online and keep your profile recent. They can thank your top followers, recent re-tweeters and welcome new followers at a time you specify. This is a great way to interact with your fans on Twitter, build a loyal base and help to grow your audience

Twitter Cards
Twitter has said themselves that Tweets with pictures attract much more attention than those without.

Twitter cards are basically adding extra stuff to your tweets. There are a few different types of cards to choose from; you can pick a large image or a thumbnail, add a link for a direct download, or just use audio or video. Twitter cards have their very own analytics, like number of link clicks, so you can really keep track of how well it works.

Conclusion
Twitter is a great social media tool but cannot solely be used.

Don't spend too much of your marketing budget on Twitter. Even though it's not that expensive, it might not give you much in return. Do a trail period of a set number of weeks to see if it works for you, and if you get good results, by all means invest a little more.

Spread your budget and spread your reach.