These readings were very interesting and provoked me to explore my own childhood. As a kind of tomboy growing up I wondered why I was never drawn to what I now know are Mattel's attempt at integrating girls into the video game world. For me it was quite simple. I didn't like complicated games. I wanted the action to happen right away and to play, without having to do a lot of work. Characters already laid out and one simple mission, to win by killing the other player, if you died you could always continue. Although this may be oversimplifying my childhood to me it was simple. Video games were a realm where you could carry out the fantasy. Why play video games about making Barbie clothes? I could very well just get up and make my own as I use to do with leftover cloth my mom use to give me to destroy, I mean create dresses of my very own. I reserved the gaming world to provide me with a fantasy I could never really carry out on my own. While I understand that most girls may not necessarily appeal to the Fatality option on Mortal Combat for me it was art. How many creative ways could I pull of his head. As sick as it sounds the mere fascination with the violence was because i reserved it for the fantasy world. I know I could never do this in real life so why not take advantage alternate world where I can get away with all this without doing a life sentence.
Although the violence drew me in the lack of female empowerment in characters drew me out of the gaming world. The female characters were never as "strong" as the male characters. Although they were always faster, and the men portrayed as sluggish, they never made as big hits as the men did. As RPG games began to gain popularity I found myself frustrated by the lack of female rolls I could relate to. A Laura Croft just didn't seem to really fit me, or the fantasy version I envisioned of myself. It seemed to be biased towards men and I just didn't feel comfortable playing a game that I knew wasn't "for me". I think this kind of male dominated world that video gaming breed created a kind of boys only club mentality, where you had to be boyish enough to get in if you were a female. I feel gender neutrality would have helped growing up. It seems to me that all games should come with the option to choose your character but it should be a man or a woman who are both of equal power, shape, and speed. I feel that while although games like Resident Evil had a character option of both male and female, games like Grand Theft Auto Remain to keep women outside of the boys club. Who says a woman can't steal a car, shoot a hooker, and start a gang war in opposite sides of town? Even in the gender equality game of Resident Evil where both male and female can get killed by a zombie there are sad differences that perpetuate gender inequality. For one the male protagonist is stronger, and can carry six items and a knife, while the female character is weaker, slower and carries a lock pick. It seems that the gaming world is just unable to open up the playing field for equality between men and women, and until they do gaming will remain a kind of gentlemen's club.
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