Creative Gamer Girl: Game Article

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

Game Article

Cross Platform Gaming

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Game Article

Cold Turkey

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Can you always call yourself a 'Gamer'?

Due to personal circumstances, I have got to give up video games for the foreseeable future. Not absolutely all games I might add, just my main source - which is my Xbox. I haven't played my Xbox in just over 5 months. It's been a bit of a change going from playing once a week at least - my Sunday evening ritual - to nothing.

I know some people will look at me with raised eyebrows when I say I do miss it. Playing video games was a huge hobby of mine, like a lot of other people. It helped me relax and escape from the everyday world. Some people play a round of golf, I choose to climb pixel mountains.

To get my regular video game fix, I have spent some time watching YouTube videos. I used to watch gaming videos a lot before I moved away from my Xbox; but now I'm getting a lot more out of it than I did. It's somewhat replicating the pleasure received from playing games myself. I like watching a few different Youtubers: Markiplier, Jesse Cox and Yogscast being a few. Some don't understand why you watch someone else play a game. I've heard things like: 'Why not play it yourself?' It's a fair enough point, but you watch Let's Plays mostly for the person's reaction, not always the gameplay.

Jimmy Kimmel actually did a bit on his show about watching Youtubers play games - (with the lovely Markiplier as a guest)

Lately, I've been wondering if you can still call yourself a gamer if you've been out of the loop for a few years? Maybe even just a couple of months.

While I am away, I can play on my old MacBook; which includes GameBoy Advance emulators, The Sims and Tomb Raider II. I also dug out my struggling GameBoy Color as I knew I would be away for a while. Meanwhile, my Xbox is safety tucked away in a cardboard box. I won't be able to buy brand new games, but watch on longingly as they are announced and reviewed. Probably playing vicariously through Youtube.

But, I think I can always call myself a gamer; no matter where I am or what I happen to be playing at the time. It shouldn't matter if you play on a Playstation 4, a PC or N64, we can all call ourselves gamers at heart.

Lauren

Game Article

Do Video Games Cause Violence? - BBC 2 Horizon Reaction

Monday, September 21, 2015

Horizon on BBC 2 had a programme exploring whether video games can cause violent behaviour in players; aptly named Are Video Games Really That Bad? This is a question a lot of people have asked and for some reason, can't stop asking. This episode was aired Wednesday 16th September. Various psychologists studied both behaviour and the brain after playing violent games.

One of the first experiments, taking place at Ohio State University, was measuring the aggression of people after playing a violent fighting game. The players were told afterwards they were now playing against another person. If the other person lost they could give the 'loser' a punishment. There was actually no other person; the test was to see how much/or if the player - after playing the violent game - would increase the punishment.

Another test had two groups - one playing the violent game, the other not. Both groups were then shown violent images on a TV screen and the players who had played the violent games had less of a reaction than the others.

During the first half an hour of Horizon I was a bit concerned that we were going to witness another biased 'anti video game propaganda show'. But I was pleasantly surprised. After looking at some evidence of gamers being desensitised to violence, they explored the other side of the coin.

They looked at the state of the brain and the parts that were actually being used while playing a gory video game. Despite the emotional part of the brain being activated during playing, the reasoning part of the brain was also active. This illustrated that the gamers tested knew they were playing a game (duh), and it also proved that video games have an actual effect on our brains, but not quiet as extreme as some opposes think.

Horizon actually explored the benefits of playing games. The constant practise of certain games helps grow parts of your brain. It used the older generation regaining their multitasking ability after weeks of playing as an example. I was surprised to see that a Dr had made a game with custom controls to help train keyhole surgeons. He got the idea after hearing that younger surgeons who had played video games whilst growing up appeared to have better surgery skills.

There are, however as we all know, some cases were a gamer has decided to turn violent. But I think, as a society, we need to look at the deeper problems. Why does that gamer find it difficult to determine what is real and what is behind a TV screen? There is obviously some other psychological problems there. You can't just jump to conclusions that it's the sole responsibility of the game industry. If that's the case, then should we not vilify movies in the same way? Why does it seem to be that video games are viewed in such disdain? There is still a lot of stigma around video games, mostly perpetrated by people who don't understand, or have never played, a video game.

I think gradually the feeling about video games is changing. With the sheer amount of people playing nowadays it seems a lot more accepted than it was. Young children are playing on their 3DS. Commuters are playing games on their phones and ipads. It's not just the job of teenagers in darkened rooms anymore. With the inclusion of so many different ages, maybe video games will gradually come out of the crosshairs of people who don't understand them.

Lauren