Games for Girls

This week Microsoft held a party for press and public during the Games Developers Conference. From what little I know that party involved drinks, games and scantily clad dancers dressed as school girls.... Yes really. A lot of people reading this are probably thinking 'typical,' men being men, gaming geeks being seedy.


Well you'd be wrong. They got lambasted. Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer issued an apology as this image was not how Xbox wanted to present itself to the community. During the same conference they held a luncheon called 'Women in gaming.' That was how they wanted to appear, open and diverse. Now they look about as inviting as a BBC 80's DJ reunion.


I could go on here and blog about the image of gamers, the stereotype of geek etc. But what fun would there be in reading a big old rant that probably backs up your belief I spend too much time indoors getting passive aggressive with an Italian plumber on my TV? That intro makes me think of another topic.. girls and games.

Games are for boys!! Girls like make up and moaning about their boyfriends/husbands spending too much time shooting aliens up into a bloody pulp. It's a stereotype, and that doesn't mean it's entirely fictional but of course it doesn't apply to all you ladyfolk. I've covered in previous blogs the gaming habits of my wife, her notions ranging from 10 minutes on Mario to that week she completed Until Dawn. By and large though, I play games and she paints her face. For hours.

My sisters are the same, they never shared my love of games. I have great girl mates who enjoy a bit of Nintendo too but at least one other who only yesterday couldn't find the B button on a Wii remote. I know!?

This evidence is all anecdotal though, there was some study or survey or thing that came out recently saying that over 50% of gamers were girls. Over 50%! Lies! Has to be lies... Unless not all games are played on consoles. Which they aren't weirdly. Phones and tablets have brought a whole bunch of games that break away from the traditional console set up, touch screen games and five minute time fillers, free to play games and well.. Candy Crush. My Ma (mother/mum/mom/mumsy) plays Candy Crush. She literally asked me one time when I was going to grow out of video games whilst swiping her finger over her Kindle screen and delighting in a high score. She didn't really count that game as a game... Games are a thing her weird son plays, Candy Crush is a thing everyone does in their spare time.

Game companies wondered for years how to get girls to buy games and their buffoonery was Barbie video games and random dress designing simulators.. Nintendo wanted to bring in new gamers, they saw all the competition fighting for the same audience (male, geeky, versions of me) and they saw a need to expand. The Wii was born, anyone could play it and anyone included women. Candy crush and Angry Birds came out on phones with the aim of being cheap, addictive and playable by everyone. Everyone included women.

Who bloody knew?! Half the gaming population these days includes women. All it took to get them on board was to stop firing pink floral incentives their way and just treat them like regular people. Apparently that's what they are.

Going back to that intro, I have to admit that I've chickened out of a much larger and less pleasant topic. Sexism is rife in the gaming industry. I've gone with the light hearted approach to girls playing games here, because well that's me and anything serious I write seems to bore people. If you don't want a good time then go and Google anything about women and videogames. Google the women who loved games and left the industry because they felt bullied out of it. If you really want a bad time then Google Gamergate...  I'm not always some rampaging feminist because I don't usually feel the need to be, I'm oblivious to a lot of it because in my work and social circle there's no difference made. We're all just people. Sexism in games angers me because I love games, I love people and I want everyone sharing this hobby of mine. Gaming for all basically. It's not a revolution either, it's just about not being a bunch of dicks.

Generation Impatience

If you’re a UK based reader then you’ve pretty much definitely heard of Only Fools and Horses. It was one of the biggest comedies ever, a BBC treasure and the TV highlight of many Christmas Days. The first series though had ratings that were considered mediocre but the BBC stuck with it, deciding to nurture it. They were right obviously. The X-men comic book initially wasn’t doing too well with the adventures of Cyclops and co failing to match the success of Spider-Man or The Avengers. Marvel stuck with it and handed the reigns to the legendary Chris Claremont. He introduced the world to Wolverine, Storm etc and now it’s bejassive and one of my true loves...

If they had started today would they have been given the same time to get good, find their feet?

Would they flip… We’re a bunch of impatient, fussy folk who decide within five minutes if somethings worth our time. And why wouldn’t we be?! There’s so blooming much to read/watch/play. Back in Only Fools days you had four channels. No catch-up, no Netflix, no scrolling through pages and pages of options whilst getting annoyed at your wife because you can’t agree on what to watch. Then you do pick and you don't even like it...We’ve turned films off after ten minutes because thats all the time it takes to decide its not worth you're time and there’s way too many other things to watch. Although to be fair if we were in the 90s and only had four channels we still couldn’t have sat through Dumb and Dumber To. Another flawed argument. 

My mates love Gotham. I watched two episodes and declared it was a steaming turd of a show. “But the second series is really, really good!” So I’m supposed to sit through 22 episodes of series one before I enjoy myself? Nope. Game of Thrones!! That show about nakedness and bloody stuff… I watched like three episodes of that, couldn’t get into it and said “nope.”

Woah there!! Calm down fellow geeks.. I went back to it, started from scratch and now I patiently wait for Arya Stark and Tyrion Lannister to high five each on the throne in my dream finale. I was wrong GoT, and I’m sorry but I’m glad you took me back. Have you ever gone back and given something a second chance? Ever wonder what the fudge you were thinking the first time?

This week I’ve been playing a game called Stealth Inc 2. It is fantastic, a really clever and witty puzzle platformer. About three months ago I deleted it off my PS4 after 10 minutes of play and said “nope.” There’s a pattern here… On the first Tuesday of every month I get two or three new games to try out as part of a subscription. On top of those I still buy games and I’ve got four boxed games on my shelves I haven’t even started yet. Then there’s all those games that I keep meaning to go back to and play again and… aaargh I’ve too many games! I get impatient, I think about what I could be playing and I don’t always give a fair chance to what’s in front of me there and then. 

I scroll through Netflix and the Sky box and I see so many choices that when something hasn’t clicked straight away I’m turning it off and on to the next one. I look at trailers for films and decide in that two minute ad that I’d be better off going out for a burger instead.  The other side of the coin though.. I won’t walk out of a terrible film in the cinema because well, I’ve paid to watch it. I’m going to suffer on through it. If I was watching a crap film on Netflix I’d turn it off, if I was watching a crap DVD someone bought me then I’m going to watch it. Hell buy me a boxset of Gotham for Christmas and I might end up liking it. The difference here is that anything on Netfix is disposable, it has no value to me. I know a DVD or book or game disc costs money and I’ll appreciate that, I’ll try to get the worth from it. 

Digital media is the future and I love it in a way. Everything you want to watch or listen to is just a button click away. No more shelves filled with discs or books! You can fill them with candle holders and pictures of your wife’s bffs instead. Hmm.. But when you don’t really own something you maybe kind of forget its’ value. Next time you put on a show or game try and pretend that if you don’t sit through it you’ll have to get off the sofa to change it over. There’s nothing worse than that thought. And after a little bit of patience then who knows, you might up with a new favourite thing.