[Video Games] Gamer Gals

[trooper6]

I found a brand new website:

http://www.gamegal.com

It is a site by and for gamer gals. Lots of reveiws. I'd be interested in seeing what my gamer gal pals think of it.

I know ichbinkelsey will be all suspicious because the gamegal like Halo, but I'm interested in all of y'all's thoughts on the site.

Comments

[gwynny.livejournal.com]

Hey musicologist, I have a question for you. Do you know how and when accordions became popular in Mexican music? Aren't accordions French or Polish or Austrian in origin? Why does a lot of Mexican music sound like polka? Any help you could give will be much appreciated. :)

[ichbinkelsey.livejournal.com]

IBK approved! Although it's a little hard to say what about the site is girl-centric (other than the fact that the people who are writing the reviews are women and they occasionally drop "Because there's thinking involved, girls will like it" at the end of reviews) I am nevertheless fond of it. Thanks for pointing out the link.

[ichbinkelsey.livejournal.com]

Halo I forgive.

[(Anonymous)]

I think sites like this promote artifical gender stereotypes. However, I'm a guy, so, naturally, the site does not appeal to me.

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

Which artificial stereotypes do you think the site promotes, Anonymous?

Do you think those general gaming websites which tend to be covertly aimed at male gamers promote artificial gender stereotypes?

Here's hoping you are still reading, cuz I'm interested in your answers.

[ichbinkelsey.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about this as well, since really, the site? Not that girly (see my previous post.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, let's start with basic premise that the female human mind is so radically different that it needs its own custom website because most general gaming websites will be so aimed at its target male demographic as to be useless.

Let's suppose I build a game. And let's say that, like some of the newer games, it is open-ended on its objective or perhaps doesn't even have a classic winning condition.

Is it fair for me to say, women will love to play the game this way (usually involving the words: cooperative, building, thoughtful). Or that men will love to play it this way (usually involving the words: competetive, destructive, beer-and-pretzels/mindless).

I guess, to me, that seems an artifical gender stereotype.

I don't know how to answer the last question, since I haven't visited a true sampling of general gaming websites to see if they promote simular values.

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

I don't think the premise of women's directed media is based on the idea that the human female mind is so radically different from the male mind.

I think a lot of the desire for female websites comes from frustration that many female gamers have over websites that objectify women, use sexist language, and generally pretend as if women weren't 30% of the gaming population. After games like Sudeki, Bloodrayne, Red Ninja, et al (and the odious ad campaigns that accompanied them)--it is understandable that some women might want a space where they don't have to worry about crap like that.

Also, stereotypes aside, while there are lots of women who like competetive, destructive, mindless games...marketing shows that there are a lot of young girls who want to play Barbie Wild Horse Rescue. My girlgeek pals may not want to play that game, but they are already in the game buying demographic. Companies are trying bring in a new demographic...women who aren't yet gamers...and especially 12-14 year old girls. When people ask them what they want in video games it is often not the same as what 12-14 year old boys say. Now much of this is probably cultural...but that doesn't change the fact that there are differences...Do these differences apply to all women and all men? No, of course not. But it may not be fair to ignore those women who like The Sims, Myst, and/or Barbie Wild Horse Rescue just because you think that "girls like coorperative, thoughtful" is an atificial stereotype. Market research has shown that there is good percentage of potential female customers for whom that is true.

The way I see it is. If a group of women want to have their own website, then that is their perogative. If I were a woman and only liked Halo and games that objectified women, I wouldn't go to that particular website. I'd go to websites that were more in line with my tastes (and there are plenty of them out there), but I wouldn't begrudge a group of people their community--especially if that group of people are often invalidated, underrepresented and treated badly in the larger community.

The website I linked to had complaints about booth babes...I've not seen complaints about booth babes in video gaming sites that weren't created by and for women. The video game industry is still dominated by men, and if some women want a forum to talk about things that resonante with them that aren't being talked about otherwise...what's the big deal? (And certainly some women don't care about booth babes...but I would suspect that website is not for those women).

So, Anonymous, may I ask, are you male or female? Do you object to the girl gamer web sites as a women for whom the sites don't resonate, or are you a male who thinks that we are all the same?

[anonymous-451.livejournal.com]

"The Truth is still the Truth, no matter who says it." For that quote to have any real meaning, than my gender must be irrelevant to the discussion.

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

Well, truth is relative--so that quote has no meaning.
Here's another quote, "History is written by the victors." When hearing a telling of "truth" it is important to know if the person telling it is a victor or a victem in any particular cultural conflict.

And when talking about oppression based on gender...then yeah, gender is relevant to the discussion.

Let's take the phrase, "We're all the same."

Person A is a woman who gets 70-something cents to a male dollar and has to deal with living in a patriarchal system which constantly tells her she isn't good enough and systemically invalidates her. Her cry of "We're all the same!" is a call for equality against a reality of inequality--that in no way erases the realities different power structures.

Person B is a man who has male privilege who hears that a group of women have formed a support group that men aren't allowed into. His cry in response to this of "We're all the same!" functions to deny the specificity of those women's experiences and to invalidate their attempts to gain some equality by denying that there are any inequalities in the first place.

Because we live in a system with power differentials, with a history of power differentials, a world where some people's voices (and their realities) are invalidated while others are taken more seriously based on issues race, gender, class, region, sexuality, etc...then yes race, gender, class, region, sexuality will matter in a discussion.

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

Oh, here is an example of what I was talking about in terms of casual sexism and the persistent unlying assumption that girls are not the audience for gaming sites and magazines:

http://www.games.net/features/100402.shtml