Over the years we played many games on many systems. I played Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat on a friend's Sega. Mortal Kombat was one of the first games I can remember making me a tad uncomfortable. It was extremely gory, especially if you knew how to do the special moves called 'Fatalities'. I don't recall my feelings on this gratuitous violence at the time, but I know as a parent now, I don't want my children exposed to it. I also remember thinking how illogical it was to have a female fighting ninja style with swords and similar paraphernalia wearing skintight, cleavage bearing, barely there clothing and super high heels.
When I started college, I bought my first desktop computer for myself. I loved Might and Magic for the PC and my boyfriend was pretty involved with EverQuest. EverQuest was the first MMORPG that I had heard of. Over time, I observed and heard of many things involving these MMORPGs: broken marriages, finance problems, game addiction, and more. Players would form intense relationships with people they had never seen. My cousin sold virtual items for real money on Ebay. One of my all time favorite RPG came into my life at this time: Final Fantasy VII and the start of my obsession with the Final Fantasy franchise. Aerith was my heroine. She was appropriately dressed and became the revered mother/martyr of the game. Tifa was inappropriately dressed but seemed to be able to handle herself..Yuffie was useless. I think this is where I really see the uses and gratifications theory exemplified in my video game consumption. I actively sought, mostly fantasy escape, in my virtual worlds. My game play provided me with this escape and so I continued to seek this type of media.
I spent hours playing FFVII and started to become more involved in 'gamer culture'. I had a discount card at Game Stop, subscribed to Game Informer, looked for 'FAQs' on the internet to make sure I got EVERY single item I needed to complete my RPGs 100%. I remember reading an article in Game Informer back in early 2000 that said 'girl gamers are as rare as unicorns'. I found this amusing, as I knew more about many video game titles than the staff at Game Stop, who would joke with me when I came in if I wanted a job there. I labeled myself as an anomaly.
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| A woman on the cover of Game Informer - properly clothed for battle! |
Becoming a Mom meant a lot of changes in my view of the world. Suddenly, everything was dangerous. I spent my last trimester of my first pregnancy at home while my husband worked. I played Final Fantasy X for hours, cried at the end and pre-ordered Final Fantasy X-2. I also started a small side business on Ebay and realized the profitability of certain coveted game titles I held. I stayed up to date on 'gamer literature' and would purchase games then turn around and sell them later for a profit. My most profitable games included Electroplankton for DS, the Lunar series for Playstation, and my original Final Fantasy VII game. I did not have the same time after baby was born to play my games, so I sold them. I shunned horror which had fascinated me most of my life. Parasite Eve, Resident Evil and Silent Hill suddenly became too scary for me to play or be associated with. So as my needs changed, the uses and gratifications theory was still observable in my behavior, as the gratification I sought changed the use of the video games.
Today, I have two energetic boys, 7 and 9, at home who both love video games. Probably three or four years ago, I was still the 'power player' in terms of getting past a difficult stage and my kids would turn to me for help in Super Mario Brothers Wii to 'beat a boss'. Nowadays, my oldest has surpassed me in some cases. We are both extremely competitive and I don't by any means 'take it easy' on him if we are playing a co-op game. I have even less time for games now than I did before. My Communications class has also opened my eyes to some feminist issues that were apparent in my games but perhaps not analyzed by me to such an extent. I don't want my boys to demoralize women by thinking the over sexualized views of them present in many video games are appropriate. I have to closely monitor what games are allowed in the house. I can't say I consider myself a feminist; I am very conservative in my views of certain things. I am a girl, and I love playing video games. I do think it is unfortunate the lack of decent role models for women in games but I will say that men can be sexualized in video games as well. Nobody likes the pale, pasty, thin superhero..give us bronzed, ripped and shirtless, right? That being said, it is my responsibility as a Mom to educate my boys about the harm any sexist stereotypes can do in our current video game culture. I found this blog online and I can't wait to watch all her videos - they have not been published yet so I am following her blog and Facebook:
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