Let's Play!

I got a great post in the forum and I actually wanted to post my response here. GremlinzRUs, who I’ve seen in streams a few times, posted this nice missive about women oriented gaming websites, which she categorized into three types.

1. Obvious corporate shills that would probably prefer soap made out of controllers over actual gaming, or wearing skimpy outfits over actually knowing anything about gaming. These also include sites that have all the same news that Joystiq/Kotaku/etc. does.
2. Female-oriented communities that don’t seem to have much content/substance, haven’t updated in a while, or have completely gone under. My most recent example was one website that vomited glitter, press releases for girly games, and bad web design on my screen. It only left a third of the screen for actual content; a third of the screen was used for two sidebars (links and ads), and the rightmost third was completely empty. Another example included a clan related to the menstrual cycle that claimed to include all consoles, but really only had communities for FPSes, MMOs, and rhythm games.
3. Blogs that seem to be strictly about women as it relates to gaming. I’ve only seen one so far, but I’m sure there are more. This particular one, a recent startup, was about being a “gamer’s girl.” I. I guess what pissed me off here was that she actually had some superficial list about Gamer’s Girl Pet Peeves and Gamer’s Pet Peeves. “Guys should open doors, pull out chairs, and charge the 360 controllers.” Really? Really? Did that sound good coming out of your mouth at all? I know she’s trying to make a point about relationships, but she comes off as superficial.

Okay, let me first give my opinions on the three types of gaming sites before I do anything else.

1. I think sites with obviously unknowledgable women in skimpy clothes that are supposedly marketed towards women are actually made for men. I think that they are for men who, for whatever reason or another, want to have this image that all girls who game are hot. They are kind of a style that reminds me of car magazines with hot babes on the cover of every one, sprawled in bikinis over the hoods. Probably the equivalent of McDonald’s — all flash and style in the image, but then the content is a squished burger that tastes like salt and soy.
2. Those half-assed sites are possibly made by people who have the idea but don’t know how to execute it. Poorly made websites sometimes just are like that because the person wants to make something stunning or content driven but has no technical knowledge. They end up with something fancy and broken or incomplete. My site is pretty minimalistic because of that. I’d liken this to some small restaurant that doesn’t sell enough and has to close — they don’t market right, they don’t know how to make a plate pretty, and they definitely don’t know how to serve their customers correctly.
3. And the last, probably my most hated of all female stereotypes which links into a normal female stereotype: a woman can’t do shit, and if they do, it has to focus on the fact that she’s a woman. It’s how I feel about writing the poetry I write. A lot of women I know write feminist poetry, and if they don’t, it’s seen as such, no matter what her actual intent is.
   Now, if you’re writing for an audience that just panders to the fact that you have a vagina, fuck off. You’re a person, not a gender, and and exploiting something like to get a bigger audience can just turn off your target group. I have to admit: when I started LPing, my videos used the tag “female” in them. I actually really don’t think that got me more views (according to youtube’s Insight) and something subtle like that doesn’t offend me. It’s when I see female gamers saying shit like, “we can play too,” or “respect me cuz I’m a girl,” that it pisses me off. Girl gamers aren’t special. We’re more rare, but it’s like getting a curly fry in the bottom of your regular fries. There it is. It’s different flavored. Sometimes you were expecting a regular fry. And you kind of have to go, “it’s still a fucking potato.”

I know what it’s like to want to be part of a community, possibly a community of girl gamers. But segregating ourselves like that is pointless — it just drives the wedge deeper. When I hear women in Let’s Plays making comments about how they can’t play cuz they’re girls, it pisses me off. In my Super Ghetto World LP, Oz and I made a lot of jokes about me being a girl, and if you knew Oz’s style, that’s just how he jokes. But to deprecate yourself about your skill just adds more fuel to the fire.

I especially loved Gremlinz’s comment, “Because the best gaming communities that are friendly to women aren’t run especially for women.” It’s true. Making communities that cater to just women makes it seem like we can’t hang with the big boys. We need a special place in the corner for rhythm games and virtual pets. We don’t. All you have to do is find a group. Hell, even somethingawful.com is a great place for girl gamers to post. I honestly don’t feel looked down on in the Games section there for being a woman. All you have to do is realize that you’re just a gamer, like every other person, and you don’t need a special pink hidey hole to pretend you need special treatment.

Also I gotta say fuck those assholes who feel like they have to point out what you look like. I get a ton of retarded comments from people saying I’m fat, ugly, or both, and it’s like I already know! I don’t need some random (probably ugly himself) gamer geek to point out something I already know. It’s not like they go, “you have long hair!” or “you have freckles!” It’s usually just “you’re fat,” because weight is the most important thing in the world. Ridiculous.

Go check out her post and respond, men and women both! I’m really curious as to how men feel about games being sold with sex or how they feel about women thinking they’re special for gaming.