Press Start by Kim Joyner

Spring 2016

Benifits of Video Games

World of MMOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Girls Got Game

A Certain Point of View

And now a message from the editors... Hello there ladies and gentlemen, we are your lovable staff from Press Start. We thank you for your time and consideration into reading our magazine, this took an extreme amount of time and effort into actually working on this. And if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a gamer, you know how hard it is to work on something that takes forever to do. All of us here at Press Start play video games and all of the articles you are about to read are issues that completely interests us as gamers. Now please, sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and indulge yourself into the magazine that we, the editors, have created. Enjoy...

Amanda Cooper

Ryan Kraft

Paul Boyechko

Connor Byrne

The Staff Paul Boyechko

Connor Byrne

Paul Boyechko is a student here at WCHS. He is a hard worker and enjoys playing video games with his friends. When he is not at school, church, or doing homework, then he is playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive or Payday 2 with his friends. He also likes to play football and basketball with his friends.

Connor Byrne is a sophomore here at WCHS. He plays lacrosse for the school and is the starter for the team ondefense. He is also a skateboarder and enjoys riding around and essentially jumping off things. In school he particularly enjoys engineering and English. He is a playstation user and his favorite game is GTA five.

Ryan Kraft

Amanda Cooper

Ryan Kraft is a 15 year old gamer here at WCHS. He likes listening to music and hanging out with his friends whenever possible. He is also in a band which has produced one original track and will be playing live on May 22nd of 2016. His favorite games include: Halo 3, Borderlands, Dark Souls 2, Destiny, and Batman: Arkham City.

Amanda Cooper is a nerd and fandoms have taken over her life with no hope of escaping (her words, Not mine.) If sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not writing or playing video games or doing homework, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably here at WCHS. Her favorite video games are The legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Portal 2, which she is absolutely obsessed with.

A Certain Point Of View By Connor Byrne

Pg 1 Game Controllers Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

Pg 2

We’ve all seen them. They’re in al most

every household in the United States, and pretty much everyone has played them at least once in their life. I’m talking about video games. The attention- span-draining, ever-entertaining life force behind PC and console gaming. While there are many different types of video games, there is one that stands out in its genre; the Third Person Shooter. The third person shooter is one of the most popular shooter category in the genre. You might be asking, what is a third person shooter? Well, the third person shooter is a game type that the body of the character you are playing as is visible to you, your character often has some sort of weapon or tool, and it does not require as much skill as other types of games. The player can control the three dimensional movement of the character, their actions, and often times can change the perspective from which you view the character. Often times, the third person shooter has features that assist with the gameplay and control of the game’s mechanics. The features are added in order to aid the player through the campaign. Without them the game would be almost unplayable. These features include assisted aiming, dominant eye side preference, hints, and depending on the game, a sort of “hero” vision. The assisted aiming is used to compensate for the lack of actual aiming ability.

With a camera angle like this, some people

may struggle with the right eye dominated format in which the camera is normally placed. Thus the gaming industry incorporated the option to switch between right and left side camera With no ability to look down a sight or scope, the player would have to guess where their next target would be and hope that their retical (the dot in the center of the screen that shows where your gun is pointed) lands on their target. Without assisted aiming, gameplay would be pretty much impossible. The dominant eye side preference is also a key feature to the playability of the third person game.

Third Person Shooter example Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

This aspect of the game can change the player’s ability to do

anything. Without the While most games will have the camera seated directly behind and slightly above the player, third person shooters will often have the camera seated behind and off to the side as sort of an over the shoulder view. This “hero vision” or as it’s referred to in the Assassin’s Creed series, “Eagle Vision,” allows the player to view objectives, targets, or hidden items within their general area. When the player activates this ability the texture of the game is changed for as long as it is allowed to. The buildings, people, animals, and any other physically present object in the game will revert to semi-translucent structures, along with. This allows the player to see highlighted objectives, waypoints (icons that show you where to go), and targets, making it easier to navigate long distances and trials. These feature help with gameplay and the overall flow of the playable content. Third person shooters create a whole new world open up for the shooter genre. Being in a third person view allows for a puzzle-based game-play that would be to hard to navigate in a first person view. This introduces the preferred game type in the third person genre; the stealth and strategy game. Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain Games such as the award winning game series Thief, Hitman series, and the Batman Arkham series have exploded on to the market of the third person shooter using stealth game mechanics and strategy to create challenging puzzles and detailed levels where the player has to use their wit and skill to survive waves of enemies and challenges.

Rockstar logo and products Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

Pg 3

Pg 4

Third person shooters became popular very early with games such as Sly Cooper and Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) in particular has impacted a major impact on the video game world. This ever expanding series which is focused murder, mayhem, theft, and overall fun has stirred up controversy ever since Rockstar, the producing company, came out with the first installment of the series in 1999. It was released for Playstation 1, Windows, and the MS-DOS, and

even the GameBoy Color. This game was made to attract controversy. It entailed the freedom to do whatever the player felt like. If they wanted to steal a car the could, if the wanted to go shoot pedestrians in the street they could. They could do anything their little unethical heart desired. People are attracted to getting to do something they are not normally able to do, without any consequences. These types of video games gave the player a way to blow things up or cause whatever mayhem they desire, without having to pay the price of actually doing something like that. Some people use them as outlets, others use them for just entertainment, but no matter what purpose they use it Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain for they are still attracted towards the third person shooter. The shooter allows people to play games without a frustrating amount of difficulty, and just be able to have fun and relax. They are attracted to the fun, consequence free, and stress relieving aspects of the the third person shooter genre. The random acts of violence and mayhem caused a big storm with â&#x20AC;&#x153;concerned parents.â&#x20AC;? They feared that exposure to that level of mindless violence was going to create psychopathic tendencies. But according to most studies done on the effect of video game violence on children, the violence of video games does not correlate to their reaction to situations, either violently or nonviolently.

So with the scene those people made about all the problems with video games like GTA V, a celebrity decided to jump on that boat and attempt to sue GTA V developers. The celebrity was none other than Lindsay Lohan, who caused quite the storm of controversy over the internet these last few years. She claims that the cover, transition slides, and a mission that included the rescue of a celebrity named Lacey Jonas, for the first publication of GTA . The game also depicted a blonde woman wearing a bikini, which she claimed, uses her likeness as the model for it. She cited multiple examples of merchandise and attempted to use New York law to obtain compensation from the company. So far the case is not going in her favor The â&#x20AC;&#x153;stormâ&#x20AC;? of controversy allowed for many parents to bring attention to parts of the So with all the controversy behind this genre you would think that people would be deterred from purchasing these games right? Wrong. The controversy brought people to GTA and the genre as a whole. With it being new and different, people are naturally attracted to new and different. This controversy brought to light the third person as a defined genre of games. It is now one of the most popular selection of games on the market. As a gamer I would encourage videogame shoppers to purchase these games. I highly recopmmende them and they are a great intro to videogaming.

49.9%

36.7%

13.9%

Survey results Courtesy of Google Forms

Console with corresponding controller Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

Benefits of Videogames

BY: Paul Boyechko

Controller for a PS4 consle Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

There are many questions that people ask. One common one is if multiplayer games can be beneficial to children. There are many misleading articles online saying that games make children violent; these articles cause people to be easily persuaded to believe that this is true. There was an experiment conducted in Britain where the results did not accept the hypothesis that children are more aggressive than others after playing multiplayer games. According to this research, scientists have proved that video games do not make children more aggressive. Instead, video games have been proven to be beneficial in many ways. Scientists have conducted many experiments to see if video games actually make children more violent versus children who do not play video games. According to their studies, scientists did not see any significant change in how aggressive they were. In an article created by WebMD, the following was stated by Dr. Przybylski, “there’s

no way to know whether kids are drawn to video games because of their personalities, or whether video games alter their personalities.’” Therefore, the data does not support the theory that children become more violent after playing multiplayer games. Appropriate Videogames Many children play inappropriate games. These minors play these games because many parents ignore Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB), which is the organization that rates games on age groups which should be playing them and their maturity level. This organization is supposed to aid people to buy the correct game for the respective age so minors do not mimic misconduct fore they may not be mature enough. People may be asking how exactly are these children are being affected, and even if the source is from video games. In some cases the cause may actually be from video games, therefore, parents may want to look into their child’s video game collection. They may be greeted with a surprised, a game called Grand Theft Auto which is a game that

is rated to people who are seventeen years of them and how they absorb that information. age and older. It is not usual for children to be influenced by video games. The children will be influenced A game where the objective is to commit a if the parent permits their child to play games crime by shooting, stealing and killing. Chilwhich are not fit for their age: for example, dren who are much younger than seventeen Grand Theft Auto (17+). probably should not be playing video games like Grand Theft Auto as well as Call of Duty, This causes parent come to the conclumeaning any games where the objective is sion that video games have negative effects. to shoot and kill. Parents may want to revise When, actually, video games can be benefitheir children’s collection of video games and cial in many different ways with different skills buy more educational games; a very popucorrelating with their respected game. lar game is Minecraft, a game that has been observed to be beneficial. In the article that was referred to above, the following was stated, “The kinds of video Some parents may still say that their chilgames that the kids played appeared to have dren become more violent after playing a no effect after the researchers adjusted their multiplayer game. There may be a few chilstatistics so factors such as gender wouldn’t dren out of the millions that become more have an effect. And there was even an unexviolent. This does not support parents’ statepected benefit to playing for short amounts ments that all children are affected when of time each day, the study authors found.” playing video games. According to these doctors, video games can, in fact, be beneficial if the correct games are In this case these children are different, they played. may be different in the way that they think, act, and react to situations. In general, they Educational Veideogames are more prone to events happening around There are many games which have been observed to benefit children in many ways. There is a very large, popular game called Minecraft. Minecraft is a three-dimensional sandbox game where you can do anything your mind can imagine, the sky’s the limit (y= 256). Also, there are classes in some schools where their students play Minecraft. This game can express a person’s feelings, how they think, and how creative their mind is. This game has endless possibilities which let the players mind to run wild. Minecraft can also teach children teamwork, how to build things together, and how to cooperate. Also, Minecraft has a substance called Redstone, which is the equivalent to real world electrical wires. After learning how the Redstone works, you will, somewhat, underLarge house created in Minecraft

Courtesy of Wikipedia Public Domain

Poster for Counter Strike: Global Offensive

higher levels they have to make friends and join with others in mutual quests. Making friends within the game requires essentially the same skills as making friends in the real world. You have to understand the etiquette of the culture you are in and follow that etiquette, as well as not being rude and having manners.

You have to learn about the goals of a potential friend and help that indiCourtesy of Wikipedia Public vidual to achieve those goals. Depending on how opportunities for creativity you behave, players may stand the basics of how and problem solving. electricity flows and how it put you on their friends works. This can expand a list or their ignore list, and persons mind giving them they may communicate In these online games, more information to absorb positive or negative inforplayers have to create and use. mation about you to other their own character, which players. The games offer Other games such as is unique in every single Portal 2 and other puzzle players endless opportuway physically and psybased games, teach peonities to experiment with chologically. Then, with ple how to solve puzzles. different personalities and These games exercise their your character, you enter ways of behaving, in a brain makes them think on a complex and exciting fantasy world where there virtual world that is simultheir own. are no real-life consetaneously occupied by quences for failing since it countless other players, MMORPG’s is a virtual world where it who may be sitting anyVideo games have bedoes not matter what you where on the planet in real do. come very complex and life. Players go on quests multilayered. In my opinwithin this virtual world, ion, the games that best Players in these games and along the way they fit this category are the can also join groups called meet other players, who “Massively Multiplayguilds. To join a guild, a might become friends or er Online Role Playing player needs to fill out Games” (MMORPGs), such foes. an application form, simas World of Warcraft and ilarly to a job application, Players may start off League of Legends, which explaining why he or she is a very social video game playing solo, avoiding oth- would be a valuable memers, but to advance to the ber. Guilds generally have and they offer endless

structures that are similar to companies in the real world, with leaders, executive boards, and even recruitment personnel. Such games are, in many ways, like the imaginative sociodramatic games of preschool children, but played in a virtual world, with communication by online text, and is modified to fit the interests and abilities of the older children, teenagers, and adults who play them. All role playing games are similar in the way that they are very much anchored in an understanding of the real world, and they exercise concepts and social skills that are quite relevant in the real world.

action packed, skill based games. Some popular first-person shooters are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Battlefield 4, and sadly Call of Duty. These games require you to cooperate with your team to complete the objective, if someone does not follow the orders that they were given, the whole team will suffer.

For example: in Counter Strike if a person pushes an opponent with a sniper rifle, then that person will probably die to leave your team at a disadvantage with only four players left versus the opponents five. These games required sharp reflexes, precision, and knowledge of the First person Shooter map, except for Call of In fact, a study conDuty. When you combine ducted by Another popthese three elements with ular genre is first-person people on opposite teams shooters. These types it makes for an exciting of games can be benefigame. cial in improving reaction time and decision making. They are a type of The leadership three-dimensional shooter game, featuring a first-perskills exercised son point of view with within MMORPGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s which the player sees the action through the eyes of are the same as the player character. They are unlike third-person shooters, in which the player can see the character they are controlling. First-person shooters are

those needed to run a modern company.

These games heavily rely on sight, hearing, and handeye coordination, so you must be very skilled to play these games, except for Call of Duty. Not only do these games exercise these skills but after some time, they can improve these skills, where they can be very useful in the real world. As long as the games are played at the appropriate age; usually first-person shooters are rated seventeen and up. In conclusion, in some cases, video games can be beneficial to people, as long as they play games fit for their age. Parents need to watch what their children play because they may not be playing anything that is benefiting them. There are many games types that are beneficial for teenagers and adults. Massive multiplayer online role-playing games can teach people leadership skills and it can also teach people communication skills that can be used in the real world. First-person shooters can also teach people useful skills, it teaches them how vital cooperation is and it can improve a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reflexes and their ability to make decisions quickly.

The Vast and Extraordinary World of MMO’s

By: Ryan Kraft

Massive Multiplayer

Online Videogames, a genre that lets people explore extraordinary worlds, kill creatures, and have a blast with friends or people from across the world. But where exactly did it all begin? Let’s take a look in this vast and extraordinary world. Massive Multiplayer Online Videogames, or MMO’s for short, are known to be a way to escape your reality with other people from across the world into a deep fantasy world while also paying money for an emote (a mechanic that your character will do something funny like dance). In an MMO, you tend to spend hours upon hours leveling up, finding cool weapons to make your character even cooler, but there are those who just decide to take the easy way and pay money, rather than taking the grind of an awesome game that’ll leave you breathless. Some popular titles include World of Warcraft,

where you enter a medieval world bent on war between Orcs and humans. Starcraft is also a popular MMO where you enter space and defeat other players in an arena but you can also defeat aliens as well. The plot to both games is very complex and would take an excruciating amount of time to actually go into detail about what it is about. But before we go into detail about the ones of our generation. It would be best to talk about how MMOs became so popular and where it all began. In the Beginning... MMOs have been around for a very long time. Pretty much since the 1970’s they have been around. It first started with a game called Mazewar, which was created in 1974. The game’s main concept is players go in a first person perspective and go around shooting people in a maze for fun. This was also the first networked game, an online game that is played through social networks.

The game then influenced other games to come out like adventure, created by Will Crowther, which is essentially an early online version of Dungeons and Dragons, including its own dungeon master. In 1977 a group of MIT students created a game called zork, which became very popular over the ARPANET (an earlier version of the internet). Next to come was game created at Essex university by Rob Trubshaw called MUD (multi-user dungeon) which was created in 1978. The game became very popular in the university and the game was often quoted as “multi undergraduate destroyer.” the game didn’t get imported to the U.S. until the 1980’s. This is just a couple of games that started the craze of MMO’s. And there are ton of MMOs that came in around the 80’s like: Dungeon Slayer and Avalon: The Legend Lives. Eventually there became many imitators of these games with the same combat system and mechanics of characters. Second Generation Eventually MMOs made it over to the internet around 1997 and people would have to pay tons of money an hour to actually play the game they want to play, known as

“commercial gaming.” This started the second generation of MMOs and lasted roughly until the end of the early 2000s. The first game commercially to make it onto the internet was Legends of Future Past(1995). This game is also notable for being the first game to have professional game masters who conducted events. Game masters are people who helps organize the game and also answers questions about the rules of the game. These guys also help organize events within the game. There’s not really any specific way on how to become except work for the company who created it or just know the rules inside and out. way to become a game master is to work for said company and be able to have an excellent idea for an event. Later to come would be games like meridian59(1996) which was the first one to use a 3D engine in an MMO, or a piece of software to make the character look sort of real and not flat like in the original Ma-

rio games.This actually enhances the graphics and gaming experience a bunch which really boosts what MMOs can do in the future. Later ultima online joined the craze of commercial gaming on the internet, this game gave a third person aspect rather than a first person. Once again there are so many to list since around the early 2000’s they really started to take off and so many came out in that short amount of time. You might recognize a few titles since they had commercials for these on TV back in the early 2000’s and are just well known titles in general: Final Fantasy XI(2002), EverQuest Online(2003), and Toontown Online(2003). Our Generation We now enter our current stage of MMO’s, giving us popular titles like World of Warcraft, Blade And Soul, Starcraft, League of Legends and so much more. The MMO’s of our current generation tend to follow a certain style since the companies who created

Photo courtesy of flickr. This photo is a fanart of a dlc in World of Warcraft where a man is about to fight a dragon.

said game realized that this is what works, and what sells. The styles are: a third person aspect, choice of weapons, microtransactions, what you want your character look like and what race they can be, etc. You also have the ability to play with people now from across the world! Some people on MMO’s are known to

form clans or factions where people will help you out with a raid or take down an extremely hard boss while also finding some really cool loot. But there are some people that tend to think that MMOs are games that you just play to waste time and Yes, that is partly true to people who just like to play it just to waste time if they are bored and don’t think the game is fun at all. These kind of people don’t really take the time to get into the game’s story and don’t really try to go for the really cool loot. But there are people who like to play the game because that actually think the game is fun and awesome. They’re also a way for people to escape their reality and enjoy a world full of magic and killing mystical creatures, or going into space and killing aliens to save a planet from total destruction or conquest. These people also tend to try understand the story and actually know what the game is talking about And now, MMOs have turned Photo goes here

Photo courtesy of flickr. Photo of some gameplay in World of Warcraft.

out to become a sporting event with actual teams and there are a bunch of people who spend hours or so going for some really cool stuff in a raid or public match/event.

Photo courtesy of flickr. This is a photo of the League of Legends championship trophy. Video Games a Sport League of Legends has turned out to be a very popular game for a sporting event since it requires an extreme amount of skill and time to play while also having a team to defeat the other team. Literally some tv networks like ESPN have shown people playing this game and they have full on teams with jerseys and a team name. People tend to watch these events because they love the game a bunch and some try to learn some neat tricks that some of these teams have pulled off. I personally like to watch people play because you learn some really cool places for loot or a move/ attack that would be useful to do during a PvP match (player versus player.) Sports aren’t also the most popular thing that is held outside of the virtual world, conventions are also known to be very popular.

Conventions & cosplayers Conventions are also popular in the MMO community Blizzcon in particular is probably the most famous one since Blizzard is known for their MMO’s. Blizzcon tends to occur around November of every year and last for about two days, and they talk about what will be new for the games Blizzard make and what will happen to the old games they have made. You can also buy cool souvenirs, and see people dressing up in extraordinary costumes that some built by hand just for this convention. The people who dress in said costumes are known as “cosplayers” or people who dress up in costumes of a fictional character professionally. Cosplayers are known to be very exuberant in any of the costumes that they make and some are actual models who pose in the costumes that they have made for money and magazine covers or just make them for fun since they might really like a game. You can also meet people that also share your love for the game and would be a great partner to raid with or do future events. The people I just described are known to be the good kind of people that know that it’s just a game and don’t let their lives be overly consumed over said game. But there are people that tend to make their life based solely around a game is known to be a little too far off the deep end.

Photo goes here every now and it saves people money on future content that would regularly cost 25 dollars or so. But instead you would be getting it for free.

Photo courtesy of flickr. This is a photo of a professional cosplayer modeling at a convention of League of Legends. The Bad and The Dirty... There are negative effects that do come from playing these games too much. These kinds of people are people who take it a little too far and tend to not really hang out with anyone and their life is just solely based around that game. There are people that will not leave their computer for hours upon hours and eventually just become a potato, a person who will literally not move for anything except for food and water. These are pretty much people who do 50 hour game sessions non stop and end up losing a ton of their stuff like friends, wife, girlfriend, house, car, etc.. There is also our lovable person who will “rage quit” over the game. Rage quit is a term that is used by many gamers and even people who don’t play games where a person will automatically just get seriously mad and throw their controller or keyboard to the ground.

People have even posted videos of people rage quitting over a game and doing something really stupid when it happens. So it is very easy to point them out over a headset or a facecam MMO’s are also known for the ever so famous, microtransactions. Microtransactions are known to be sort of a cheat when it comes to certain games. They technically allow you to buy some really cool gear or emoticons, just by the click of a button where there are people who actually play the game, and grind hours upon hours just to get something really cool. There’s also the small fact that some MMOs you have to pay for per month to continue playing like world of Warcraft or Starcraft. But, microtransactions are also known to be good things because it would fun for future downloadable content that would be free to everyone. So microtransactions aren’t necessarily a good thing but they can be since

The End Of Our Journey All in all MMO’s have been around for a very long time, and they are pretty much one of the pioneers of online gaming. They have also set a very large milestone for games that were to follow. Yes they do have their cons, but every great game does as well. Fallout 4, Halo, Call of Duty, all of these are massive titles and have flaws as well and they are known to be some of the greatest games in history. It does suck that microtransactions are a thing and that you do have to pay to play the game, that’s a very fair statement. But they also have some of the coolest events and also the fact that they are becoming a sport, means that times are changing once again for the world of MMO’s. Honestly it amaz-

es how far MMO’s have come from just being text on a screen, to becoming one of the most successful game genres in the 3040 years they have been created. Hope you enjoyed this in-depth look into the

world known as MMOs, and maybe one day we’ll cross swords or guns on the online battlefield.

Girls Got Game

By: Amanda Cooper

magine a pink room full of teenaged girls. What are they doing? Painting their nails? Giggling? Gossiping? Nope. They’re screaming. Why? Because they’re playing video games. No. That wasn’t a typo. The room you pictured is real, and it’s filled with extremely angry, competitive teenaged girls locked in an intense battle of road rage. They’re yelling, and laughing, and cheating, and trash talking. They are actually interested in the game they’re playing. Must be a fluke, right? Wrong. Because, believe it or not, girls can actually play video games. Really well. The problem is that, for some reason, (most) guys think they can’t. Or they shouldn’t.

Do you know what they said after that? (If you don’t, I’m willing to bet you’re a guy.) They said, “But you’re a girl!” Like it was an insult. Like it was a disability. “So?” I responded. “It doesn’t matter.” I’ve known how to start and operate a computer since I was two years old. I started out with educational games when I was really little, and since then I’ve played games in every series from Legend of Zelda, to Mario, to Pokémon, to Portal, to Half Life.

Contrary to what most guy gamers think, I’m not some giggling teenage girl who’s picked up a controller once her life (no real girl gamer is). I know what I’m talking about. I’ve been a gamer my entire life, and for I’m experienced. You might wonder why as long as I can remember I’ve been treatI’d take the time to list all the games I’ve ed differently because I’m a girl. Once when played if that’s true, but that’s what most I was back in elementary school, there girl gamers have grown accustomed to. was a group of guys having a conversation If you’re a girl and you tell a guy you play about the Lego Indiana Jones video game. video games, they expect you to prove it. Don’t take my word for it though, ask some I remember that they were arguing over of my peers. the name of the first level in the second movie, and all of them were wrong. I told “I definitely think there’s a bias in the them that the name of the level, which I still gaming community,” says Ginny Hallman, remember, was “Shanghai Showdown.” a sophomore here. “I’ve been treated as They turned at looked at me as though though I’m different. Like I’m not as investI’d grown a second head. They wanted to ed because I’m a girl. Or like I can’t play know how I knew the name of the level, as well as them.” Another student I interso I told them it was because I played the viewed, Sarah Metcalfe, said something game. similar. When asked if she thought there was a bias in the gaming community, she

answered, “Yes. Girls say they like video games but then they’re [guys] like, oh yeah? Prove it.” I couldn’t have put it better myself. In my experience any time I’ve talked about anything that’s “guy dominated” around guys, whether it’s video games, or comic books, or even certain bands, I’ve been interrogated. “Oh yeah? You really like The Killers? What’s your favorite song? What’s the thirty seventh concert they performed?” Last year in Bluegrass Land and Life I tried to join a conversation about the various Robins Batman had accumulated over the years, and I nearly got laughed out of the group for bringing up a girl Robin that, according to them, doesn’t exist (She does. Her name is Carrie Kelly and she appears in the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Look it up). “I think that guys think that gaming is for them, but it’s really not. I feel like some guys are kinda sexist about it. I hate to generalize, but, you know.” Sarah Metcalfe added during our interview. “I’m not very good at video games but guys think it’s because I’m a girl. If I was a guy I’d still suck at video games.” Guys don’t seem to understand that knowledge of gaming isn’t based on gender. It’s based on experience. For instance, I don’t know the first thing about Halo, but I can almost guarantee you that I know more about the Portal series than any guy in the building. Not because I’m a girl and every girl on the planet is insanely addicted to the Portal game series (they aren’t, sadly. That would actually make me very happy.): because I’ve played Portal. Many, many times. It’s my favorite video game. I love the

Photo

characters and the storyline, and I know it inside and out. Useless trivia and all. On the other hand I know absolutely nothing about Halo, because I’ve never played it. I will admit that, in general, more guys play video games than girls. What I won’t admit is that it’s because girls can’t play video games. I don’t care about race, nationality, or gender. If you have thumbs, you can play video games. Maybe there would be more girl gamers if they weren’t treated so badly by guy gamers. Think back to what Sarah said. If every time you talked about something you loved in public you were surrounded by a crowd of disapproving peers, would you continue doing the thing you loved? It’s a sad thing to think about, but it’s also a question that many young gamer girls have to ask themselves when they’re told they don’t belong. That

All images courtesy of Pinterest.

they can’t play video games simply because they’re a girl. Because some random guy has decided what they can and can’t do. I think that the real question here is what do guys know about what girls can and can’t do? That’s the one thing I want readers to take away from this article, too. Don’t stop playing video games because guys don’t approve of it. What do they know? (They have cooties, remember?) If you go to school and talk about video games, and they give you the oh so stereotypical but you’re a girl, I dare you to follow them around all day. Listen in on their conversations like they did to you, and any time they bring up an interest of any kind, tell them “That’s for girls.” I bet they’ll get the message pretty fast.

Your response makes me want to laugh (hysterically, and then scream), because you (random citizen that I’m assuming is a guy) say that you don’t like the term “girl gamer”, and I’m going to (also) assume it’s because of the emphasis on the word girl.

If you’re following the argument I’ve heard time and time again, you disapprove of us calling ourselves girl gamers because if we really are actual gamers, and we want to be treated like actual gamers, then we will simply call ourselves gamers. I honestly think that’s really funny (and annoying). Because here you are, a guy (I assume), saying that girl gamers shouldn’t emphasize that we are in fact In order to do some research for this article I girls, when that’s the exact opposite of sent out a survey about Girl Gamers. what you’ve been telling us our entire lives. Ironically enough, one of my favorite responses to the survey was “Girls who call We call ourselves girl gamers because themselves girl game[r]s are seeking attenof you. Because you (and yes I am gention.” To which I respond: so are guys who fill eralizing you, guys, which you had no out a survey titled “Girl Gamers Survey”. problem with when you were generalizing

“I def ini tely t hink t here’s a bias in t he gaming communi ty,” - Ginny Hallman

us, girls) have always told us, you can’t play video games, you’re a girl. Emphasis on girl. You really can’t complain that’s there’s a division between girl gamers and guy gamers when you’re the ones who put it there. Funny how that works. I really enjoyed making that survey, and reading the results was interesting. I got some pretty strange answers, and more than one guy took it and put stupid answers (For example, Please describe how you have been treated by guy gamers in the past: “I’m a guy, and I treat myself well.” You may be laughing but you sabotaging my survey only serves to prove my point that you don’t respect us.), but what I found most interesting about the survey were (not surprisingly) the genuine answers I got from girl gamers. 25.6% of the people who took my survey said they felt that guy gamers treated girl gamers very poorly. And out of the 43 people who took my survey, 23 of them (who I assume are girls) described being treated badly by guy gamers. However, I will ac-

knowledge that the remaining twenty (or however many were left after I took out all the people who responded with “I’m a guy”) said that they’d been treated well by guy gamers, which I’m glad to hear. I want gamer girls to be treated equally, because, by definition, anyone who play video games is a gamer. It’s as simple as that.