By Melanie Jackson
msjacksonpei@gmail.com
When Kate Publicover noticed her grades in school taking a dive, she knew it was official: she was a video game fanatic.
“I was one of those crazy World of Warcraft addicts,” said Publicover of the multi-player, online role-playing video game. “And I didn’t just play because it was fun – I was extremely good at it.”
Publicover was just four years old when her brother introduced her to video games. Some of them gave her nightmares.
That’s what happens when the concept of virtual reality is foreign to you, she said.
As she got older, Publicover became more serious about gaming, dabbling with games ranging from racing, to first-person shooter, to her role-playing favourites – like World of Warcraft.
“I like RPGs because I can mould and shape a character to my liking. I can be a big muscly blade, or a swift archer, or a cunning magician.”
While Publicover proudly calls herself a nerd, she said the stereotype of a video game-loving girl comes with its share of hang-ups.
There is a certain stigma associated with it, she said.
“There are jokes that, as a woman who dwells in the realm of ‘Nerdom’, that you are as scarce as a unicorn. And you have to deal with maybe being treated like less of a girl than a girl who may not be a nerd.”
Publicover doesn’t dwell in Nerdom alone, however.
Alyssa Gallant has been playing video games since she was six. She started with the familiar games, like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, but then, like Publicover, graduated to role-playing games.
The Final Fantasy franchise is her favourite.
“There is a certain triumph you get when you beat an RPG,” said Gallant. “They are usually really long games and some of them take a lot of strategic thinking.”
The games combine all the things that make a good story, said Gallant – magic, action, love, adventure.
Designing video games with women gamers in mind is something developers are taking more seriously as an increasing number of women turn to the gaming industry.
Chris Sharpley has been an instructor of the Video Game Art and Animation program at Holland College since 2008 and worked as a game artist for 15 years prior to teaching his craft.
As a former game designer, Sharpley has witnessed firsthand the evolution of games designed not only for women, but by women, too.
In both 2008 and 2009, there was only one female student enrolled in the Video Game Art and Animation program, Sharpley said. For every year since, however, he said the female to male enrolment ratio has been about 50/50.
Sharpley credits the evolution of video games themselves for the growing number of women in the business.
“The (first) games tended to involve combat and beating an opponent, so they perhaps appealed to the testosterone market,” he said.
But since 2005, and the introduction of games for smartphones and the release of the Nintendo Wii, video games are reaching a wider demographic, he said.
In his experience, however, Sharpley has never witnessed the divide between male and female games or male and female gamers.
“I think women are just as competitive as males,” he said, adding many men might be threatened by a woman’s skill level.
Publicover agrees some men don’t consider women gamers as formidable opponents.
“I especially enjoy the ‘yeah, right – she’s going to beat me’ – and then destroying them at their own game,” she said. “Some guys think you’re only in it for the attention. They don’t understand that your entire life has been dedicated to this.”
Winning against a man in a video game is definitely something Gallant takes pleasure in.
“I can tell you from experience, there is hardly a better feeling than beating a guy at his own game.”
Gallant said video gaming can be empowering for women.
“I think it’s been in our makeup for years to yield to men, and I think now we are coming out of that way of thinking and realizing it’s OK for us to be one of the guys sometimes."
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - November 29, 2013
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