Girl Gamers

Girl Gamers. What are they? Well apparently they’re so special they need to be distinguished from other gamers, i.e. the male ones. I am one and I cannot see what all the fuss is about.

I guess at one stage females that played games would have been quite a rarity. But seriously, times change, so do games, and girls that play them have increased significantly. There are all kinds of reasons for this. I think games have become a lot more accessible these days for all types of people. The Wii is probably the best example. It’s so simple to use that just about anyone can pick up and play it right away. There are many games that have been created to particularly attract girls (dancing games, singing games, not to mention the Nintendo DS which came in pink), and there are lots of party games for groups of friends such as quiz games (Buzz) and music games (Guitar Hero/Rockband). For a lot of females, this is probably where their experience of gaming starts and ends. But for others, such as myself, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Actually I have my mum to thank for introducing me to the world of gaming. When I was about 3, she bought herself a Sega Mega Drive console. We used to play games together a lot. Sonic was our favourite! As I got older, I started to play games by myself. I got my first computer at the age of 8 and I played a lot of games at arcades as well. I eventually got a Playstation. I also played various PC games (Age of Empires/Sim City/Theme Hospital) throughout my teens. Finally once I moved away from home to start university, I was introduced to MMORPGs. I guess that would be where I consider my “gaming” days to officially begin.

I tried out various MMOs (City of Heroes/Guild Wars/LotR online to name a few), but World of Warcraft is the one that hooked me. I went into the game without any preconceptions of what a gamer should be. Honestly it never even crossed my mind that I would be one of few females playing it. I played it because I liked the game play, the story, the pretty world that had been created, the fact that I could tame an animal and train it to be my own (yes I leveled a nightelf hunter to start with – oh the shame!). In fact, I gave little thought to the other players in the game for quite some time. It wasn’t until some months later when I really began to interact with other people. In fact two of the first people I met in the game were a male/female couple in real life. Shortly after I met another pair, a father and daughter. So from day one, there really wasn't this so-called “divide” between males and females within the game, at least from my perspective.

I would be lying if I said that I never experienced different treatment for being female. Some people felt that they needed to protect me from the onslaught of hormone-driven teenage boys playing the game, some would bombard me with virtual gifts, some even declared their undying love to me! But I never got the feeling that any of it was meant in a bad or malicious way. I made my position clear to those involved and they subsequently backed off. Over the past few years I haven’t had any problems whatsoever. Nowadays I think there are a lot more females playing and I haven’t experienced any surprised reactions when revealing my sex. That said, I don’t particularly feel the need to identify myself as female. If it happens to come up, then fine, but I don’t especially see the relevance. I mean, sex does not have any effect upon game play. I have met some amazingly skilled players who are female, and some utterly dreadful ones! Likewise with males. Sexuality is insignificant.

So why do females get distinguished from other gamers? Maybe it’s just because we are still the minority. I do think there are some female gamers out there that enjoy being viewed separately. They relish special treatment and receiving lots of attention. But they will more than likely be the first to cry when they get too much unwanted attention as well. I do feel that these individuals give the rest of us a bad name. Personally, I enjoy being one of the guys. I like joking around with everyone else, I’m not especially sensitive and am more than capable in dealing with boys and their sometimes crude sense of humour.

I read an article yesterday about girl gamers that join female-only online communities as a way of escaping from the males. I think this just draws even more attention to them than anything and I’d sooner quit playing games than do something like that. Not to mention that not all males playing these games are bad! I’ve made some excellent friends through online gaming, some male, some female. And I have also met some incredibly irritating people, both males and females. Rather than deciding to avoid that entire sex of players, I just ignore those particular individuals that agitate me. Simple!

Perhaps I’m being a little narrow minded here though. Maybe I just haven’t experienced what some females have which would make them want to jump to these extremities when playing games. It could just be that I’ve been incredibly lucky in my encounters thus far. But for me, I would like to see this gap closed between male and female gamers. We are all gamers, and at the end of the day, isn’t that all that matters?

Identity

I have to say I feel a certain amount of jealousy towards people that have a strong sense of identity. What do I mean by identity? Well. Knowing where you come from, what your nationality is, and where you consider your home to be.

For me, I have no easy answer to these questions. I know where I live now. I know where I have lived. But if someone were to ask me where I am from, I wouldn’t know what to say.

I guess I would respond that I live in England. But I do not consider myself to be English, despite having been born in this country. I moved to Ireland when I was almost 10 and lived there until I was nearly 20. Due to this move at a young age, my accent changed considerably. Now it is indistinct to say the least. It is neither English nor Irish. In fact normally people believe me to be North American. It puts me in a bit of an awkward position. No matter where in the world I go, people always ask me where I am from. Even after nearly 10 years of living in Ireland I would be asked this. Now that I once again live in England, I am frequently asked this as well. Perhaps with my “American” accent I would fit right into the States? Sadly these dreams were also shattered when I was informed by an American that I do not in fact sound American. I guess it must just be the untrained European ears that think so! So where do I slot in?

It does certainly make me feel a little lost. I feel like a foreigner wherever I go - even when I am at home. I also get a bit sick and tired of explaining myself every time I am asked where I am from. Sometimes I will just ask the person where they think I am from (and I have gotten some very strange suggestions might I add) and then wherever they say, I applaud them for their acute accent recognition skills! It’s just easier, particularly if you know you are not going to encounter this individual again.

I suppose the easiest way to define where a person is from would be via their nationality, ie the country that their passport represents. Unfortunately this only confuses matters further. I have a German passport as my mother is from there. So officially I am German, yet I have neither lived there, nor do I speak the language fluently. I enjoy visiting the country, but I certainly do not feel any deep connections to it and I don’t particularly envisage myself living there at any future stage.

I suspect the place where I feel most attached would be Ireland. That is where I spent my teens; I made friendships there that will last a lifetime; I feel that the majority of my happiest moments were there and I believe that I am more connected to Irish people and the Irish way of life than anywhere else in the world. I sometimes wish that I could have been born in Ireland, have proper Irish roots and sport a pretty Irish accent, as I truly would be proud to call myself such. I guess I do call myself Irish if asked, but it would be nice not to get such surprised reactions, where I am told that I “really don’t sound like it” and they “never would have guessed”.

I suppose I should just class myself as a citizen of the world. Does it really matter where I come from? I mean, does it actually say anything about my identity? Perhaps my identity is that I am reasonably unique and interesting. Many people have told me that the fact that I wasn’t born in one place and remained there for my entire life, contributed to my intriguing personality. Perhaps while I envy others’ security and certainty in knowing where they are from, they envy me for the opposite reasons? I simply don’t know.

Whatever way I look at it though, I really can't help but feel jealous.

The Wonders of Music

Perhaps not the most astounding revelation, but music is a truly amazing thing. It can transform a mood like nothing else. And there's always the perfect song to fit a particular mood.

Over the holidays, I regret I have been suffering from the "Christmas Blues", if there is such a thing. Luckily, one of my presents this year happened to be an ipod docking system, so I've had the opportunity to listen to a lot of music over the past few days. I've created various playlists on my ipod to fit any particular humour I might be in. So there's a 'Happy' playlist, a 'Chillout' playlist, an 'Angry' playlist...you get the idea. And it's terrific! Music evokes such powerful emotions.

Listening to an 'angry' song, for example, is a great way for me to release frustration. I guess a particular favourite for me would be 'I F**king Hate You' by Godsmack. I just completely let loose while listening to that song and by the end of the track, I will generally feel an awful lot calmer.

Often I need a song to fit the mood that I am in to be able to escape from that state. Listening to a happy song when I'm annoyed or irritated, will often only increase the bad mood. An angry song when I'm angry acts as a release and a happy song when happy makes me exuberant!

So I thought I'd list some of my favourite mood songs and I would love to hear about yours. What have your experiences been with music and its effect upon your moods?

Angry:
'I F**king Hate You' by Godsmack

Happy:
'Walking on Sunshine' by Katrina and the Waves
'Wake up it's a Beautiful Morning' by The Boo Radleys

Calm:
'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding
'Woman' by Neneh Cherry

Sad:
'I Started a Joke' by The Wallflowers
'Karma Police' by Radiohead

Melancholy:
'Kiss from a Rose' by Seal
'Mad World' by Gary Jules
'Overkill' by Colin Hay

Romantic:
'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None The Richer

There are far too many to list and I could go on for ages. But this is just a little tribute; a tribute to the wonders of music and the impact they have upon myself and no doubt many others out there. Thank you music!