Recently, the ESA came under fire for posting and praising an article that suggested women who play games are purely into titles that revolve around fashion, cooking, and cute animals. The stereotypical list of "games girls play" included a huge amount ဣof mobile games and lots of things that aren't at all brain taxing with no difficult rules𝔍 or complex controls.
Understandably, many women (myself included) objected to the stereotype of girl gamers as ditzy airh🍃eads who only play games that allow them to perpetuate gender stereotypes. However, what happens when you realize that actually you prefer to collect cute villagers for your desert island, rather than player heads for a trophy wall? Is it really that bad to be a "girl gamer?"
A Moment of Realization
Recently, we've been collecting information about the games our staff team plays most often, in order to get a better overview of all our specialties. As I was filling in the details I realized that although many of the games on the list I play from time to time, my specialty is in simulation games. In this big long list of franchises, m💫y ticks were in the boxes for those genres and titles commonly associate▨d with the girl gamer stereotype.
FPS games? I can't shoot straight to save my life, and they often make me queasy after a couple▨ of rounds. Sports games? I neither wa💎tch nor play sports, I don't even know the rules. The closest I've ever got was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and even then it was mostly the soundtrack and the fact you could do crazy stunts in a huge world that hooked me. MMORPGS? While I spent years lost in Azeroth, I just don't have enough time these days to justify the sub cost nor enough inclination to learn a new complex game.
As a result, my current go-to games are those that allow me to be creative, to explore, and to play in short bursts. The Sims 4 has long been a staple on my list of frequently played games, and it's joined by other simulation titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Planet Zoo. While I do enjoy genres🃏 outside of this, including nar♔rative adventure titles like The Wolf Among Us or action games like Tomb Raider, mostly I come right back to my comfort zone of anything ending in the word tycoon. So, does that matter? Am I just perpetuating a harmful stereotype? Am I a 'real' gamer?
The Girl Gamer
This week my most played games, outside of those I've played for work, are Planet Zoo, The Sims 4, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Dr. Mario World, and Ooblets. 💜It's a veritable feast of girl gamer heaven. Cute animals, dance battles, building, farming, and even a mobile match-3 puzzle game. Right now, I'm a walking stereotype.
But why should it matter?
We hear so often about the girl gamer stereotype being harmful to 'real' gamers. Women who love FPS game🙈s, horror titles, or anything else traditionally associated with males are up in arms at the thought that people may think they enjoy Candy Crush or Cooking Mama.
But💖 what about those of us who do? Are we not real gamers? Do those thousands of hours Origin tells me I've spent playing The Sims 4 not c🔯ount as gaming?
Gaming Isn't A War
We all know war-themed games exist, but gami𓃲ng🔯 itself shouldn't be a battleground.
Pitting gamers against each other has long been an issue, and the girl gamer stereotype is really just a different version of it all. PlayStation Vs Xbox. Console Vs PC. Mobile Vs Everything. Does it really matter? Gaming is gaming🐻. If you play games, you're a gamer. There shouldn't be a list of titles you have to enjoy in order to qualify for the title.
Separating gamers into camps just increases hostility and toxicity in an already fragile community. Also, did it ever occur to those of you who think playing single-player simulations makes gamers somehow lesser that maybe you're part of the reason we do? Whenever I do venture into other titles, especially those with public voice chat, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:abuse for being a woman is common. I have a gender-specific gamer tag, named after a favorite comic🎐 book character, and the amount of abuse I've got from being identified as female is unrealꦦ.
Single-player games are less stressful and I want to wind down when I'm gaming. While I can occasionally enjoy being traumatized by a game (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:looking at you Life is Strange 2,) mostly I just want to relax. Women can face a lot of hostility in multiplayer spac🅘es, a💦nd retreating into safe, simple, and yes more casual games, takes all that away.
Embracing Your Love Of Gaming
I've now realized that when I saw the list of stereotypical games🐎, I wasn't mad. I wanted to rally against the stereotype, but rather to rally against the idea that it even exists. If you want to play games, then play them. It doesn't matter what they are.
Want to farm some crops and sheer some sheep? Play Story of Seasons. Want to play a quick few rounds of a match-3 puzzle game? Bejeweled is actually fun. Feel the need to smash some faces? Mortal Kombat is a classic. Whatever you want in a game, there will be something you can enjoy. In a world where you can play a game that lets you 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:date a tank, anything is possible.
In shor🌸t, if I was to write a list of games women should play I'd probably get fired, because it would simply read, "whatever they damn wel꧂l want."