The year is 2022 and finally women are coming out of the gaming closet. We’re normal, happy, cool, tough women and, yes, we like going home, getting some snacks and settling in for a night of gaming.
It hasn’t always been this way and it has proven difficult to be a woman in a male dominated atmosphere. We grew up with labels like geek and nerd, and the feeling that we’re not “cool” enough in school because we liked games instead of going out.
Research has begun to show that gaming is no longer a hobby for 12-year-old boys. Women all over the world admit that they love gaming too. In 2020, 41% of gamers in the United States and 40-45% of gamers in Asia were women. dr. Jeffrey Brand and Dr. Jan Jervis, who co-authored the Digital New Zealand 2022 report, found that in a survey of more than 800 households, 73% of New Zealanders play video games and 48% of these gamers are women. This is almost half of the gamer population, and as more women become involved in writing, producing and designing games, the number will continue to rise. So, what is it about gaming that lures the female population to the domain?
The new “Code Breakers: Women in Games” exhibition at the Tuhura Otago Museum celebrates the contributions of New Zealand and Australian women to an industry rife with sexism and discrimination. I thought it would be interesting to hear the perspectives of some gamers on the museum staff about their love of gaming and the struggles they have faced as women gaming.
When asked about their favorite games, the team admitted they liked rough and tumble games, not the rough, cute dress-up games men associate with women gaming.
One of our staff, Toni, loves the game Overwatch!. Because it’s “so addictive and you can play different game styles and with a team! When I’m feeling hardcore I’m a tank and I play Roadhog or Doomfist”.
Lana likes a good RPG like The Witcher or Elder Scrolls. She says she’s found a lot of action-based games “really boring, because I think they’re mostly war-themed male heavy characters. I like to follow game series like the reboot of the Tomb Raider series, following a female lead with a loose archeology and adventure theme.”
These women believe that gaming is an excellent form of escapism in a world where social anxiety and Covid make socializing difficult. Marijn said: “When the first lockdown happened in 2020 and we had nowhere to go, it felt nice to finish work for today and then go fight robot dinosaurs in Horizon or take care of my crazy little farm in Stardew Valley and Covid a little bit”. Gaming allows people to be social and interact with others through another, socially safe platform.
However, it is not just a form of pleasure for these women. Gaming has proven to be a brain stimulant, encouraging people to think strategically and solve puzzles to advance the game and get involved in the action. Lana loves the “adrenaline rush you get when you complete missions”.
But while these wonderful women are happy to be gamers, they have admitted to feeling ashamed or dissatisfied with openly identifying themselves as “gamers.” An employee who remained anonymous for this reason said that “when I was a teenager, mentioning gaming often made me question gaming trivia by random male self-confessed ‘gamers’. So both of those negatively impact my view of the game. term, and also made it so that I’m a little careful with the audience I mention games to. I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m not a “real gamer” because I don’t know Peach’s name I know pet from childhood, or whatever, but I find that kind of attention exhausting and want to avoid it.”
While there are still negative connotations around women in gaming, Code breakers: women in games is evidence of the changes taking place in the industry, with women taking the lead. The staff here at the Tuhura Otago Museum hope that one day the stereotyping and sexism in the gaming industry will be a thing of the past and that we can all enjoy gaming without marginalizing or excluding others.
Exhibitions
– There are two free game exhibits in the Otago Museum, with a range of PC, tablet and big screen games to try, some of which are made by local Dunedin studios.