REgals [Women of Era] |OT| Episode I: The Female Menace

[Calico Spice]

I always thought that was the weirdest thing. I was introduced to gaming as a toddler by my mother and grandfather, and it was just seen as a family activity. It was no stranger than just watching tv or playing board games together. I even regularly brought gaming guide books and my gameboy to school, and I would go to other kids (boys and girls) houses in my neighborhood and play there too. I never got the "games are only for boys" comment until I hit middle school, and it was like culture shock.

 

[Linkura]

I always thought that was the weirdest thing. I was introduced to gaming as a toddler by my mother and grandfather, and it was just seen as a family activity. It was no stranger than just watching tv or playing board games together. I even regularly brought gaming guide books and my gameboy to school, and I would go to other kids (boys and girls) houses in my neighborhood and play there too. I never got the "games are only for boys" comment until I hit middle school, and it was like culture shock.

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Middle school was the fucking worst. I too had people over during elementary to play. Then I got bullied in middle school for it and other reasons. One boy in 7th grade asked me out because I was a gamer and we'd been talking about games together on the phone. Then a day later he reneged because his friends made fun of him and said I was a loser. He said he later regretted listening to them.

 

[GatsGatsby]

I always found the female hate in gaming so weird and obviously unnecessary. Fortunately I never got that kind of hate growing up. I got more shit for being a girl and liking wrestling than gaming.

 

[Snumpus]

I always thought that was the weirdest thing. I was introduced to gaming as a toddler by my mother and grandfather, and it was just seen as a family activity. It was no stranger than just watching tv or playing board games together. I even regularly brought gaming guide books and my gameboy to school, and I would go to other kids (boys and girls) houses in my neighborhood and play there too. I never got the "games are only for boys" comment until I hit middle school, and it was like culture shock.

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Cool, someone else whose mum got them into it! :) People always assume I started gaming because of a man, it's... irritating. It was a great family activity. One of the earliest memories I have is of playing the Smurfs game on the Atari with my folks.

 

[Calico Spice]

Middle school was the fucking worst. I too had people over during elementary to play. Then I got bullied in middle school for it and other reasons. One boy in 7th grade asked me out because I was a gamer and we'd been talking about games together on the phone. Then a day later he reneged because his friends made fun of him and said I was a loser. He said he later regretted listening to them.

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It's kinda nice that he apologized at least, and didn't double down on it. Kinda hope he told his friends off at some point too lol. That's also another thing that's weird. You'll get dudes that drool at the thought of a gamer girl, but then they'll also participate in gatekeeping, so we're like mythical unicorns when we do appear. I just do not get this. It would make more sense if they'd encourage women to play games, so that they could engage in a fun hobby together.

 

[Calico Spice]

Cool, someone else whose mum got them into it! :) People always assume I started gaming because of a man, it's... irritating. It was a great family activity. One of the earliest memories I have is of playing the Smurfs game on the Atari with my folks.

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I started out playing on the Atari with my mom and grandmother (think my first game might have been Centipede?), and I have a lot of fond memories about hanging out with my grandfather playing the NES. I was encouraged by my family to play games as they said it kept the mind busy, and was a good learning tool. I think all the reading required in some games really helped boost my reading comprehension and vocabulary. My mom still likes playing games, but she has problems with modern controllers (she has trouble with joysticks), so she mostly sticks to the Super Nintendo and Atari.

 

[Linkura]

It's kinda nice that he apologized at least, and didn't double down on it. Kinda hope he told his friends off at some point too lol. That's also another thing that's weird. You'll get dudes that drool at the thought of a gamer girl, but then they'll also participate in gatekeeping, so we're like mythical unicorns when we do appear. I just do not get this. It would make more sense if they'd encourage women to play games, so that they could engage in a fun hobby together.

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This was almost 20 years ago. I can't even imagine how shit it is now for gamer girls in middle/high school.

 

[Snumpus]

I started out playing on the Atari with my mom and grandmother (think my first game might have been Centipede?), and I have a lot of fond memories about hanging out with my grandfather playing the NES. I was encouraged by my family to play games as they said it kept the mind busy, and was a good learning tool. I think all the reading required in some games really helped boost my reading comprehension and vocabulary. My mom still likes playing games, but she has problems with modern controllers (she has trouble with joysticks), so she mostly sticks to the Super Nintendo and Atari.

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Yes, I think the gaming at a young age helped with my reading too. I've always been a huge reader and ended up reviewing books. My ESL speaking SO also found playing games in English from a young age really helped him learn the language.

My mum has remained a gamer all my life too and probably finishes more games a year than I do. She does have some physical problems with it now too due to advanced arthritis but not so much that she can't still play. Loves shooters, big open world RPGs, and stealth games. She'll never play online or talk about it to anyone outside of me, my dad, and the gamer boyfriends I've had, though. If those of us who have yet to reach middle age get treated like unicorns for gaming, I can only imagine how marginalised age 60+ women gamers must feel.

 

[Platy]

I always thought that was the weirdest thing. I was introduced to gaming as a toddler by my mother and grandfather, and it was just seen as a family activity. It was no stranger than just watching tv or playing board games together. I even regularly brought gaming guide books and my gameboy to school, and I would go to other kids (boys and girls) houses in my neighborhood and play there too. I never got the "games are only for boys" comment until I hit middle school, and it was like culture shock.

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http://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic1-032910.php

 

[Morrigan]

This was almost 20 years ago. I can't even imagine how shit it is now for gamer girls in middle/high school.

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I can't remember much hostility or sexism when talking about video games as a kid IRL. For the most part it was fine. Online, in the early days of the internet, I did see some sexism but for the most part it was just "omg a gurl gamer that's so kewl ^-^" kinda cringey shit haha. At least that was mostly harmless compared to the toxic misogyny you find nowadays. Still had some pretty bad sexual harassment moments, but for the most part it was rare. It really seems like it's gotten worse and that mystifies me.

 

[How About No]

Lol been a while since I've seen that comic Platy

 

[Xita]

That comic is so accurate it hurts

 

[Professor Beef]

I never noticed the one guy mad in the corner of that last panel lol

 

[Calico Spice]

This was almost 20 years ago. I can't even imagine how shit it is now for gamer girls in middle/high school.

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Seeing my siblings grow up in the age of social media made me very grateful that I was already out of school. You can no longer get a break any drama/harassment at home, and it's a lot easier to get targeted by bullies online.

Yes, I think the gaming at a young age helped with my reading too. I've always been a huge reader and ended up reviewing books. My ESL speaking SO also found playing games in English from a young age really helped him learn the language.

My mum has remained a gamer all my life too and probably finishes more games a year than I do. She does have some physical problems with it now too due to advanced arthritis but not so much that she can't still play. Loves shooters, big open world RPGs, and stealth games. She'll never play online or talk about it to anyone outside of me, my dad, and the gamer boyfriends I've had, though. If those of us who have yet to reach middle age get treated like unicorns for gaming, I can only imagine how marginalised age 60+ women gamers must feel.

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My mom was never able to make the jump from 2D to 3D. She attempted to play gamecube games with my brothers, but moving around in a 3D space is difficult for her. She still watches her husband and my brothers play games, and have discussions about them, but I don't think she has attempted to play anything modern. I'm not really sure if she has talked about games outside of the house, but I know she wouldn't allow anybody to give her any crap for it if she did. My grandmother and mom have both worked in men dominated fields, and learned pretty quickly not to put up with anybody's crap.

I don't exactly have statistics for this or anything, but it might be that it wouldn't be as strange for older women to play games. The Wii was super popular, and brought new people in, and brought old ones back, and I remember reading that hospitals and senior homes got them as it was helpful for keeping the mind and body active. I'm also pretty sure I've read that there was also work being done with VR for hospital patients.

 

[Leeness]

My mom was also the one who started me on games with an SNES and Mario. Though she later admitted it was because she was doing pot all the time and just wanted to chill with me lmao. She stopped playing games when I was about 10 or 11, though recently, I've introduced her to "story" games and she loved watching me play and make decisions with me (she was super into Detroit, we've played Heavy Rain, next on the agenda are probably Until Dawn, Beyond, Life is Strange).

I never really got shit over being a gamer, all my friends were ~nerds~ anyway. I was never "dateable", I guess, but that's always been true.

I think I've flown under the radar over everything most other women have to deal with, my entire life haha. Sorry, y'all.

 

[Xita]

These stories are nice. Makes me jealous since my Mom never plays games. I got into them through my Dad.

I think I've flown under the radar over everything most other women have to deal with, my entire life haha. Sorry, y'all.

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Heh, you're not alone, my experiences have been pretty much the same: minuscule and not even worth sharing compared to everyone else's.

 

[Leeness]

Heh, you're not alone, my experiences have been pretty much the same: minuscule and not even worth sharing compared to everyone else's.

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Pretty much. The only thing I ever dealt with were abusive "relationships" in my late teens (and even then, they were "tame"), and then I abandoned all that once I was in my 20s and everything has been peachy keen lol

High five to you.

 

[Linkura]

I can't remember much hostility or sexism when talking about video games as a kid IRL. For the most part it was fine. Online, in the early days of the internet, I did see some sexism but for the most part it was just "omg a gurl gamer that's so kewl ^-^" kinda cringey shit haha. At least that was mostly harmless compared to the toxic misogyny you find nowadays. Still had some pretty bad sexual harassment moments, but for the most part it was rare. It really seems like it's gotten worse and that mystifies me.

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Back then, online was my escape. Made lots of online friends via videogame chats, forums, etc. Even met some of them in real life. And yeah, for the most part that's how people online acted back then when they found out you're a girl. A lot different from now.

 

[Lady Catherine de Bourgh]

Love reading this. My first game was Pong. Always had friends who liked gaming to so it was al butterflies and rainbows. By the time the internet became a thing I was already married and happily gaming with my husband.
Never really felt the need to engage with the online gaming community so also never had to deal with atrocious crap.

I do talk about gaming irl because I like to show that there is more than one type of gamer. So I noticed that I have an ask me anything-thing going on at work where parents ask me about games and consoles.

The most common prejudice I encounter is that gaming is for teenage boys who like to shoot everything and who end up depressed in their dark bedrooms. They (non gaming parents) never even consider that gaming can be a family activity where you cheer each other on and solve problems together.
Or that gaming can be something that they could enjoy.

Playing candy crush two hours every night? Perfectly normal.
Playing life is strange or breath of the wild when your kids are off to bed? "Nah, I don't do gaming."

 

[Deleted member 3534]

When I was a kid (elementry school) a lot of people I knew played games, boys and girls. Lots of girls I hung out with had a Nintendo 64 or an old Super Nintendo. Going into middle school and definitely high school saw the divide. I was friends with a few of the girls who were majorly into gaming but there weren't many of us and I made a lot of friends with other girls and older women in online games. The misogyny and I dunno, isolation I guess, peaked in high school when it comes to gaming as a hobby. I had other interests that didn't isolate me too much to my "gaming" friends though. As far as being treated like shit in online games, the circle of girls and women I played with made pubbing a million times better. There was enough of us to where we'd laugh at and make fun of the kids who were trying to be misogynistic little dirt bags.

Forums did a number on me though. I posted on the other place and a place worse than the other place from the age of 13 at first because I wanted to talk to other gamers but I got into a whole bunch of other stuff. I was a cute/pretty kid but I didn't feel like it at the time and I came to places like the old place to get affirmation and bad attention.

As far as gaming itself is concerned, I feel like I hit a brick wall in 2010/2011 or so. Every so often a game would come along that'd capture my undivided attention but they were far and few between. Like my ADD was keeping me from being able to enjoy any one game and so I'd pick something else to do.

 

[Deleted member 41271]

I am quite happy that when I grew up, everyone in my family played games. It was just normal. I remember when 3D games came around, I'd often help my mother navigate maze-like parts, because she wasn't really good at 3D navigation and would always get lost.

Her favorites were the star trek adventures (25th anniversary and judgement rites), and she'd play all the adventure games. When adventure games died, she pretty much bounced off games, but hidden object games (aka the genre that must never be mentioned when ~real gamers~ are around) got her back into it.

She's still sad that "Secret of Vulcan's Fury" is cancelled. Cancelled almost 20 years ago.

I can't remember much hostility or sexism when talking about video games as a kid IRL. For the most part it was fine. Online, in the early days of the internet, I did see some sexism but for the most part it was just "omg a gurl gamer that's so kewl ^-^" kinda cringey shit haha. At least that was mostly harmless compared to the toxic misogyny you find nowadays. Still had some pretty bad sexual harassment moments, but for the most part it was rare. It really seems like it's gotten worse and that mystifies me.

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Yeah, early online time really wasn't that bad. My early forums were rather nerdy - RPGMaker forums ande roleplaying egroups -> yahoogroups mostly - and during meetups there'd often be other women/girls. Not a 50/50 split, but a good 30/70. Homophobia was actually frowned on there, and even casual sexism was barely there.

Back then, a battlefield V cover wouldn't have been controversial. It's wild how that changed.

 

[Lady Catherine de Bourgh]

It sounds like women and girls were on board to begin with and somehow or someone changed the narrative to gaming is a boy/man thing and people starting to actually believe it. Sounds like a rather stupid marketing strategy that tapped in to the dark side and stumbled upon the misogyny multiplier.

 

[Deleted member 41271]

That valkyria thread is giving me a migraine.

Someone actually argued that some dude groping a girl in the game is good for character diversity.

I got nothing. That argument, just...

Sounds like a rather stupid marketing strategy that tapped in to the dark side and stumbled upon the misogyny multiplier.

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Yeah, it's weird, but it's marketing wisdom that gendering toys to an almost comical level is the best way to success.

I always wanted legos as a kid, but companies sure didn't think that was possible!

 

[Xita]

Pretty much. The only thing I ever dealt with were abusive "relationships" in my late teens (and even then, they were "tame"), and then I abandoned all that once I was in my 20s and everything has been peachy keen lol

High five to you.

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*high fives*

Yeah, it's weird, but it's marketing wisdom that gendering toys to an almost comical level is the best way to success.

I always wanted legos as a kid, but companies sure didn't think that was possible!

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God you just reminded me of the "Lego Friends" line argh. I can't stand the toy aisle in stores. Feels like I got put into a timewarp to the 60s

 

[Azem]

I had Lego.
And I played games.
And I... had an Action Man...
And... some... Matchbox cars...

Wow, my parents just did not give a shit.

Spoiler

I wonder if my dad was just happy that he could do "father/son" things with me...

 

[ShyMel]

These stories are nice. Makes me jealous since my Mom never plays games. I got into them through my Dad.

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Same here with me. My father left his NES with my mom after the divorce and that is how I got into video games. My mom did buy my sister and I GBCs, but she was never much of a player. Though she would play Mario Kart if we asked her. Now my grandma actually had my grandpa get her a Wii after she played Wii Bowling on ours.

 

[PixelParty]

It sounds like women and girls were on board to begin with and somehow or someone changed the narrative to gaming is a boy/man thing and people starting to actually believe it. Sounds like a rather stupid marketing strategy that tapped in to the dark side and stumbled upon the misogyny multiplier.

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Yes, that's exactly what happened.

Polygon did a great long-form article on this very topic.

The erasure of women in gaming is a topic that is dear to my heart.

And yes, I agree that sexism and misogyny in terms of the nerd/gaming space is much worse now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

[Linkura]

My parents didn't play games. I got into them because of my cousins. Their parents also played, but generally when the kids were already asleep, lmao. After I got into them, my uncle (not the same uncle as in last sentence) would play N64 racing games with me. He even ended up getting really into some games and would play them by himself, roflmao. Snowboard Kids was his jam. He also got into Spyro on PS1. He doesn't play anymore, but I do appreciate that he made the effort when I was a kid. He was/is basically my dad.

 

[Nilou]

My mother never played games, not sure about my father as he left us when I was 2. I remember in 99' when I was 7 my mother got me my first game out of no where, Pokémon yellow and a purple gameboy color. I was terrible at it but it started my love for the series that continues this day. One of my aunts lives right next to my mother growing up and she didn't have any daughters but she had a son my age and I'd visit her/him occasionally and he had a N64 and I always liked watching him play it. He had Pokémon Snap and let me play it at times and had lots of fun.

Conveniently enough my mothers high school friend also lived nearby (was a big yard with 2 separate apartment buildings, 1 3 floor one and 1 2 floor one that had 4 apartments total) she had both a daughter and a son and I used to visit her and watch tv and stuff with her daughter and things. Eventually I got brave enough to spend time/become friends with her brother and he has a PS1 and I'd always watch him play Resident Evil 2 (even though it terrified me) and Metal Gear Solid. Was how I first experienced those 2 series and grew to like them.

It wasn't until Pokémon crystal released a couple years or so later that I actually started to play more then a few games or be able to beat any of them, was the first game I played that let me play as a girl so it kinda empowered me/made me feel special too.

I don't have any real noteworthy experiences in middle/high school regarding treatment for liking games, though I never really spoke about to many people that I played them so could be a factor. Just the typical gross sexist losers in online games/mmo's as a later teen/early 20's that pretty much is the reason I don't mic with strangers and am afraid to play online games with randoms.

 

[Deleted member 41271]

Polygon did a great long-form article on this very topic.

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From that article:
"I remember when Sierra released a King's Quest game where the lead character was Rosella, a female character," Cole says. "We received the silliest letter ever from this guy who was calling Roberta a feminist for wanting to have a female as a main character. We passed it around the company and everybody at Sierra was laughing at this guy for being upset because we had a female main character.

Today, that is a big part of the audience. Marketing... :/
(Oh, and the bonus of some guy that thought "feminist" is something bad inherently. People suck.

 

[Fable]

That's a great article, thank you for sharing it.
I thought this quote was interesting:
"In order for video games to overcome their existing stereotype, they have to be sold to us as general purpose products. Bogost uses bookstores as an example. No one is surprised when they go into a bookstore and find that there are books for children, books about gardening or books about cooking. It's accepted that books are a general purpose medium that can address lots of interests. The same applies to television —€” it doesn't surprise people that there are channels dedicated to cooking, sports, animals or news. Bogost says that games are already there in terms of there being a diverse variety that can do different things —€” it just hasn't effectively gotten the message out there yet."

 

[Lady Catherine de Bourgh]

Yes, that's exactly what happened.

Polygon did a great long-form article on this very topic.

The erasure of women in gaming is a topic that is dear to my heart.

And yes, I agree that sexism and misogyny in terms of the nerd/gaming space is much worse now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Yes I read this yesterday. I like how an in depth article like this gives gravity to the problem itself. Accepting that there is a problem and showing what it looks like is step one.

But I'm a bit on the fence about the next step. A big part seems that a lot of key players are looking at this as 'Not my circus, not my monkeys.' At this stage I would like to see some more problem solving action.

Then there was the thread and it went all over the place pointing at huge problems that needed to be solved for this to be fixed. Porn, poverty, bad parenting, social isolation to name a few. And that is a red flag for me. "Sorry women you will just have to endure this shit while we fix bad parenting and porn first. And could you please not whine in the meantime?"

 

[Snumpus]

Yeah, early online time really wasn't that bad. My early forums were rather nerdy - RPGMaker forums ande roleplaying egroups -> yahoogroups mostly - and during meetups there'd often be other women/girls. Not a 50/50 split, but a good 30/70. Homophobia was actually frowned on there, and even casual sexism was barely there.

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Absolutely, in the early days online play was great. I was really into Ultima Online... that was actually fairly late in the day as I started playing in 2000, but MMOs were still so niche compared to console games that I think they lagged behind on the growing misogyny as well, and women, many of them 25+ with careers and/or families, made up the lion's share of the community that I encountered. My guild was led by a married couple and was a family-friendly environment. I moved on to Guild Wars in 2005 and by then the toxicity towards women was shocking. I lucked into an amazing guild with a leader who shut down any sexist crap in a nanosecond, and they kinda helped me develop a tough skin (not that anyone should need to) for this stuff, because I was still pretty young at the time (well, like 19) and I think without that there's a good chance I would have quit all online play and not looked back.

 

[Linkura]

I never had any real problems with sexism in WOW, but I also didn't use a mic or anything, nor was I part of a guild. This was vanilla WOW when it first came out, no expansions.

 

[PixelParty]

What gets me about these guys is that their entire argument is based on a falsehood.

Women aren't taking away your games because we have always been here.

We have been here since the very beginning.

The original programmers were women, it was considered a feminine job!

If you link to articles that discuss that you are ignored because it doesn't fit in with their worldview. I guess it comes down to identity and how one sees oneself. Perhaps a touch of tribalism?

In a way, I do roll my eyes at the current "Look, the main character in the next Gears of War game is a woman!" only in that it's seen as somehow innovative/progressive when we had games in the 80s and 90s with female characters. It wasn't a big deal! Like was posted above, someone complaining about female characters would have be seen as a lunatic crank.

I am also extremely suspicious that a lot of these female characters will still, ultimately, be written by men for men.

To give credit where it is due, I liked Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. But I didn't like that they made her completely sexless. I thought that was so weird, that you are playing as an adult woman and these dudes are obviously into you and DTF and you are like a chaste maiden.

Which comes back around to the fact that the people in charge believe their core demographic doesn't want to see his game avatar kissing another dude.

 

[Morrigan]

To give credit where it is due, I liked Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. But I didn't like that they made her completely sexless. I thought that was so weird, that you are playing as an adult woman and these dudes are obviously into you and DTF and you are like a chaste maiden.

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"That's because she's too busy saving the world/people to find a lover, come on!"

Obviously not that busy because she does side-quests for villagers and stuff, and that never stopped male protags like Geralt anyway, but nevermind that~

Which comes back around to the fact that the people in charge believe their core demographic doesn't want to see his game avatar kissing another dude.

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You know it, haha.

 

[BundleOfSticks]

Wow, I had no idea there was a women of era community but I guess it does make sense.

Anyone here follow astrology?

 

[Deleted member 41271]

Which comes back around to the fact that the people in charge believe their core demographic doesn't want to see his game avatar kissing another dude.

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To be fair, that demographic also freaks out if the female avatar kisses a girl - in my experience much more so than if the kissee was male.

There's this creepy push that a female character must be into the player (and thus can't have romantic life), while a male one represents the player. That's why Geralt gets to screw anything female that is attractive, and all the girls are into Link for some reason, but Bayonetta just poses for the player.

Thankfully we have games like, say, Transistor. Red went against that stupid trend so hard.

 

[Morrigan]

Anyone here follow astrology?

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I hope not.

 

[Her Hero Is Gone]

I'm enjoying reading about how some of you got into games through your mothers. That's awesome!

In 1986 we got an nes in the house and me and my sister went nuts over it. In those days it was just an appliance. My parents went with gendered toys, so I know it was a neutral thing. They refused to get transformers for us, but games were fine. At school both boys and girls would be talking about console and pc games.

When whippersnappers are trying to pretend that it's always been penisville, it is annoying af.

 

[Lady Catherine de Bourgh]

When whippersnappers are trying to pretend that it's always been penisville, it is annoying af.

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Glorious wording!

 

[Azem]

Which comes back around to the fact that the people in charge believe their core demographic doesn't want to see his game avatar kissing another dude.

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There's this creepy push that a female character must be into the player (and thus can't have romantic life), while a male one represents the player. That's why Geralt gets to screw anything female that is attractive, and all the girls are into Link for some reason, but Bayonetta just poses for the player.

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The story of how DONTNOD had to ditch Nilin's love interest just to get Remember Me published should be remembered and repeated. Which, in cases where they do get someone... is this why every shoehorned love interest a gal gets in video games is so bland and one-dimensional, you reckon? They just gotta shove a player-surrogate in there?

As an aside, I've been playing Yakuza 0, a series that has always been packed to the brim with masculinity. Still, 0 is dectuple-distilled machismo. Like, I would love to be friends with you, Video Clerk, but do I have to watch 20 softcore videos for that (you can skip them, at the very least)? Still, my ultimate bad feminist moment with this game is that the hostess club management minigame is... addictive.

 

[AliceAmber]

All of these stories about how you all got brought up on video games are so sweet ;___;

My dad was the parent who was mostly interested in gaming, but she would join in on the fun too. I remember playing a lot of PC puzzle games and other simple, fun games with her. And as a family we would play a lot of video board games. And even though I had moved out by that point, we all loved to play the wii party games. Good times.

 

[weemadarthur]

Wow, I had no idea there was a women of era community but I guess it does make sense.

Anyone here follow astrology?

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On Discworld, astrology is cutting edge science.

[That's what my username is from, lol]

I recognize you other literary name sources!

 

[Rosen]

I'm enjoying reading about how some of you got into games through your mothers. That's awesome!

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I have my mother's gameboy and tetris which I got when I was little it needs a battery cover but otherwise it's great if a bit yellowed.

 

[Charlotte Lucas]

As an aside, I've been playing Yakuza 0, a series that has always been packed to the brim with masculinity. Still, 0 is dectuple-distilled machismo. Like, I would love to be friends with you, Video Clerk, but do I have to watch 20 softcore videos for that (you can skip them, at the very least)? Still, my ultimate bad feminist moment with this game is that the hostess club management minigame is... addictive.

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I also got way into the hostess minigame. The cabaret club is a completely sanitized view of hostess clubs and training hostesses is obviously geared towards a male audience, but I can play dress up.

 

[Professor Beef]

It was my mom and grandma who always got me my gaming stuff (my mom even had an NES which is one of my first memories as a baby). Dad supported me, but mom knew what was up.

 

[Her Hero Is Gone]

Glorious wording!

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Why thank you :D

I have my mother's gameboy and tetris which I got when I was little it needs a battery cover but otherwise it's great if a bit yellowed.

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I went "awww" reading this! My mom was never too into games. though she was a duck hunt fiend. She was more of a pen and paper puzzle lover, but she'd always want to sit with us and see what we were playing.

As an aside, I've been playing Yakuza 0, a series that has always been packed to the brim with masculinity. Still, 0 is dectuple-distilled machismo. Like, I would love to be friends with you, Video Clerk, but do I have to watch 20 softcore videos for that (you can skip them, at the very least)? Still, my ultimate bad feminist moment with this game is that the hostess club management minigame is... addictive.

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The ironic thing is, in a game where women are mostly outlines, the club management is one of the few parts of the game where they get a little more shading. Beyond "star" hostesses each having a bit more story to them, I loved that the chatty older lady was raking it in. In the story, though, female characters are such a missed opportunity. It's hard not to notice that gap when the men in the game have this lovable abundance of personality, yet the women... I've only played 0 and 3. I've been meaning to start Kiwami and I understand that his adopted daughter is a bigger player in some games than others so maybe it varies.

 

[Morrigan]

My mom never played video games, but my SO's mom loves Tetris, Puzzle Quest and the like, and she always supported his gaming hobby when he was a kid, she apparently even enjoyed watching him play Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest etc. on the NES haha.

 

[Charlotte Lucas]

The ironic thing is, in a game where women are mostly outlines, the club management is one of the few parts of the game where they get a little more shading. Beyond "star" hostesses each having a bit more story to them, I loved that the chatty older lady was raking it in. In the story, though, female characters are such a missed opportunity. It's hard not to notice that gap when the men in the game have this lovable abundance of personality, yet the women... I've only played 0 and 3. I've been meaning to start Kiwami and I understand that his adopted daughter is a bigger player in some games than others so maybe it varies.

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It varies, but not by much. Haruka, his adoptive daughter, is pretty great in 1/Kiwami and 2, but her personality 3 on becomes more passive and they do some things with her character that is contradictory to how she was earlier.

2 has a female character, Sayama, that gets to be more active in the story and fights alongside Kiryu, but ends up a disappointing character to me for reasons which veers towards spoiler territory.

Other female characters in the rest of the series are mostly just support for the male characters. Haruka and Sayama are the only ones I would say have a motivation of their own that isn't just part of a man's arc.