Girls & Games: A Matter of Perception

I've had some thoughts about girls and games floating around in my head for a while, so when The Escapist released their "Girl Power 2" issue, which contained some rather interesting and enjoyable articles, I knew it was about time to let some of those thoughts out.

In particular, I enjoyed the article "Asexuality Actually" in which John Walker challenges the now well-accepted belief that nearly all electronic games are made for (young) males and repel females by their very nature. Disregarding the ones that magazines tend to focus on the most (FPS's in particular, I'd say), most games, and in deed most best-sellers, are hardly gender-specific, at least at the surface.

I'm not writing this now to argue for or against the idea, though. But I would like to offer what few specs of insight I may have on this matter.

Lately, I've been wondering why it was that until right around the time that I started college, I didn't think and had never thought of games as a males-only activity. In hindsight, that does seem quite odd and apparently it's a rare perspective to have as an 18-year-old male. For a while I couldn't imagine why this was. Perhaps it's just because I usually try to see through to the essential nature of media like films and games and as such the target markets of individual titles doesn't occur to me much. At the same time, I probably was just taking for granted the idea that games are just targeted to their existing players without much thought about how predominantly male that audience is.

But then I remembered something that still gives me pause. One of my first experiences with video games was watching a girl play through Super Mario Bros. while showing me all the hidden 1-up mushrooms she knew about. It totally blew my mind that someone could just remember that the hidden blocks were there. Looking back on the event, it was always that sense of wonder that I remember. Only recently did it occur to me how odd it was for a girl who had mastered a game to be showing a boy how to play it.

What's my point? My point is that so much of the anti-girls (and even anti-adults) stigma against games is a matter of perception. Games are perceived to be for boys only and so most girls hardly give them (the greater body of games, that is) a fair shake. This, of course, leads me back to why I think the Wii could be such a revolution for the games market. I truly believe that as soon as you get people to pick up the freehand controller and try out a few games (assuming the right kinds of games are made) their perception of games and the market will be forever changed. But more from me on that argument will have to wait for another time.