I'm a girl, and I play video games.
But I don't feel like this makes me a gamer.
Backstory:
I played my first video games at a friend's house in 3rd grade. I was really obsessed with it because it was Pokemon Colosseum and I liked Pokemon, only I'd never played those games before. My Dad, in 8th grade, got us a PS2 and it was love at first joystick. At first, he only let us play multiplayer games, which I was fine with. Nothing was better than me and my sisters playing through a level and kicking trash together. I'm all for teamwork in a video game atmosphere. Then, as I got older, he got more and more single player games. Most of these were shoot-em-up games for my baby brother, who wasn't old enough to know what a good plot was.
I wasn't obsessed, but I liked to play. My friend gave me her old GameBoys, I got a few games, and life was good.
Fast-forward to high school and the introduction of the Internet. Suddenly, girl gamers are all the rage. If you are a female and play video games, guys are supposedly all over you. But there's a fine line because suddenly, in order to be a 'girl gamer' and not 'just some prep with a controller' you need to game like a dude. You need to become a male, but with a female body.
So I went all out. I stopped working out, went days without washing myself, ate junk food, and blew off dates with my boyfriend to get another level.
And I wasn't happy. Because that's not who I was. It was who the social media said I should be according to how I viewed myself. I was a girl. I liked video games. But I was not a gamer.
So, I stopped the charade. I wasn't interested in the first player shooter games. I liked the plot. A video game, to me, was a fairy tale that I could play through. You got to see the graphics, interact with the characters, and build unity with other people. The point of the game was to tell the story and have you be a part of it. Those are the games I like. Games like Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon... I own a lot of video games. Mostly for the PS2.
Explanation:
My lifestyle now does not match that of what society says I should be. I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I like to play video games, but I also like to shower. I like the plot and pretty pictures, but I'm not afraid to spend 2-4 hours playing through a world and level-grinding hard core until I can take on that final boss. I'm super OCD when I game... 10 levels above what the minimum is so I can breeze through without trouble.
I like to work out. Staring at a screen for a lot of hours gives me a headache. I like human interaction. I like being clean. I can game for a really long time and, thanks for my stamina, can handle being 'with the boys' all night long. It's not what I do on a regular basis. I don't like watching people play video games unless I'm specifically looking at a Let's Play for clues on how to get past a hard level. I'm not a girly girl who played COD with her boyfriend for 10 minutes and considers herself a gamer. I'm not hard-core at it all night swilling Monsters and nomming Doritos just to get the next gun mod. I don't know a ton about a lot of video games, but I know the ones I own because I can spend years playing through the same game and never getting bored.
But the second it's brought up in a conversation that I like to play video games, the boys start hammering me with questions like, 'Who's the hottest dude character?' 'What's your favorite Zelda game?' 'What's your favorite first person shooter?'
It's like they're attacking me for liking video games, but never having played Zelda or liking to play fps. I'm not against Zelda or those kinds of things, they've just never come into my collection and I've never felt a burning desire to own them.
Society's views need to change. Yes, I like to game. But I also like to have a job and a social life. I'm not 'leading you on' when you find out I've never played Ocarina of Time, or when you find out I only game when I have the time for it. I'm not the best at every video game I play, and boys think I need to be better than them in order to prove my gamer-ness. I can be a bad player, but still love video games. You can be a bad singer, but still love music. Just because you're not out there producing your own, or breaking glass with your stellar vocals doesn't mean you can't appreciate it and dabble in lyric-writing every now and then. Heck, sing in the shower! Loud and proud!
I'm a girl, and that does not define me.
I like to play video games, but that does not define me.
But I don't feel like this makes me a gamer.
Backstory:
I played my first video games at a friend's house in 3rd grade. I was really obsessed with it because it was Pokemon Colosseum and I liked Pokemon, only I'd never played those games before. My Dad, in 8th grade, got us a PS2 and it was love at first joystick. At first, he only let us play multiplayer games, which I was fine with. Nothing was better than me and my sisters playing through a level and kicking trash together. I'm all for teamwork in a video game atmosphere. Then, as I got older, he got more and more single player games. Most of these were shoot-em-up games for my baby brother, who wasn't old enough to know what a good plot was.
I wasn't obsessed, but I liked to play. My friend gave me her old GameBoys, I got a few games, and life was good.
Fast-forward to high school and the introduction of the Internet. Suddenly, girl gamers are all the rage. If you are a female and play video games, guys are supposedly all over you. But there's a fine line because suddenly, in order to be a 'girl gamer' and not 'just some prep with a controller' you need to game like a dude. You need to become a male, but with a female body.
So I went all out. I stopped working out, went days without washing myself, ate junk food, and blew off dates with my boyfriend to get another level.
And I wasn't happy. Because that's not who I was. It was who the social media said I should be according to how I viewed myself. I was a girl. I liked video games. But I was not a gamer.
So, I stopped the charade. I wasn't interested in the first player shooter games. I liked the plot. A video game, to me, was a fairy tale that I could play through. You got to see the graphics, interact with the characters, and build unity with other people. The point of the game was to tell the story and have you be a part of it. Those are the games I like. Games like Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon... I own a lot of video games. Mostly for the PS2.
Explanation:
My lifestyle now does not match that of what society says I should be. I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I like to play video games, but I also like to shower. I like the plot and pretty pictures, but I'm not afraid to spend 2-4 hours playing through a world and level-grinding hard core until I can take on that final boss. I'm super OCD when I game... 10 levels above what the minimum is so I can breeze through without trouble.
I like to work out. Staring at a screen for a lot of hours gives me a headache. I like human interaction. I like being clean. I can game for a really long time and, thanks for my stamina, can handle being 'with the boys' all night long. It's not what I do on a regular basis. I don't like watching people play video games unless I'm specifically looking at a Let's Play for clues on how to get past a hard level. I'm not a girly girl who played COD with her boyfriend for 10 minutes and considers herself a gamer. I'm not hard-core at it all night swilling Monsters and nomming Doritos just to get the next gun mod. I don't know a ton about a lot of video games, but I know the ones I own because I can spend years playing through the same game and never getting bored.
But the second it's brought up in a conversation that I like to play video games, the boys start hammering me with questions like, 'Who's the hottest dude character?' 'What's your favorite Zelda game?' 'What's your favorite first person shooter?'
It's like they're attacking me for liking video games, but never having played Zelda or liking to play fps. I'm not against Zelda or those kinds of things, they've just never come into my collection and I've never felt a burning desire to own them.
Society's views need to change. Yes, I like to game. But I also like to have a job and a social life. I'm not 'leading you on' when you find out I've never played Ocarina of Time, or when you find out I only game when I have the time for it. I'm not the best at every video game I play, and boys think I need to be better than them in order to prove my gamer-ness. I can be a bad player, but still love video games. You can be a bad singer, but still love music. Just because you're not out there producing your own, or breaking glass with your stellar vocals doesn't mean you can't appreciate it and dabble in lyric-writing every now and then. Heck, sing in the shower! Loud and proud!
I'm a girl, and that does not define me.
I like to play video games, but that does not define me.
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