A Geeky Gamer Girl’s Perspective

The topic has been a cause for some dissent. On the one hand, you have girl gamers like myself: I love learning and trying games of all types, but prefer ones with great visuals over repetitive, bloodthirsty killing. And, yes, I never beat Super Mario Bros. I tend to agree with a university research paper that asserts girls generally don’t game as much as guys, are less competitve and prefer games with a lot of social interaction.

Then, sadly, you have the girls who would rather embody the oversexualized girl gamer. They prefer grabbing lots of attention taking photos of themselves wrapped up in controllers than actually playing. Or they are so caught up in being recognized as a female who happens to play games, they border on ultra-feminist.

Thankfully, I found on Girl Gamer an eloquent blogger who knows her stuff but doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Joanna Moylan started playing games with her family at a young age.

“Games have always been in the background of my life,” Moylan said. “For a while it was a family activity.  I think I was around 9 years old when I developed a true passion for gaming.  Even when my family lost interest in games I just kept on playing.”

Here is not just her insight on gender and gaming, but a valuable review after about 15 hours of playtime with the latest incarnation of “XCOM: Enemy Unknown.”

Read on, boys and girls.

Favorite games: I prefer games with really engaging gameplay, story and environments.  Some of my all time faves include Grim Fandango, Half Life 2, Portal 1 & 2, Uncharted 2, Bioshock and Skyrim.

Games you are best at: I sort of have an affinity for the action-adventure or puzzle-platformer genres.  I tend to pick up on game mechanics rather quickly which are usually key elements in solving a puzzle or figuring out how to get from A to B.  I quite enjoy Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia for this reason.

Do you think boys and girls approach games differently? It’s really difficult to answer this question.  I think if we were to assume guys and girls approach games differently, it’s due to the main issue of society being stuck in a gender binary.  For example, we may not see a lot of guys rushing to play games like Farmville for some silly fear of emasculation, or we might not see a lot of girls rushing out to play war games because it’s “stupid boy stuff”.

I think a shallow perception of certain games may be the main reason for the market disparity between genders.  I don’t think the industry helps this either by crunching out a lot of either macho, gory shooters or pink and girly simulators.  The industry really needs to stop using gender as a marketing tool.

What if they liked the same games? Different games?:  If I had to generalize, and I mean really generalize, I’d say guys play more competitively whereas girls play more for fun. You could say that the fun is in the competition, but here’s the thing: guys really hate losing, but if a girl loses she doesn’t mind so much because she had fun playing anyway.  These are just my observations however having talked to some of the ladies over at www.girlgamer.com , or having read the torrent of hate from sore losers publicized on fatuglyorslutty.com or www.notinthekitchenanymore.com.

It is by no means a proven fact, and I generally prefer to keep an open mind when it comes down to it. Apart from that a gamer is a gamer no matter what their gender.  Sure, different gamers play the same games differently or prefer certain games or consoles over others, but that’s just human diversity.  The gaming industry has become so huge over the last ten or fifteen years that we now have so many different types of gamers irrespective of gender.

———–About X-Com:

Honestly, I was unfamiliar with the X-Com series, and I tend to avoid turn based strategy games as I’ve rarely played one that I really enjoyed.  I gave it a try not really knowing what to expect other than hearing that the game was good.

The main issues I’ve had with turn based strategy games before were messy interfaces and HUD’s, wasteful game elements and overly complicated strategy requirements.  I may have been playing all the wrong games, but it did turn me off the genre a bit.  None of these issues appeared in X-Com.

The menus were easy to navigate, many of the game elements carried significant purpose and my squad was easy to control.  Most notably, I commended the game on being very n00b friendly without too much hand-holding.  I picked up the basics pretty quickly without the game constantly butting in and telling me what to do.  It was rather refreshing in comparison to most games these days.

This game definitely has some replay value.  Already I’m thinking about starting a new game and playing it a different way, prioritizing my research and construction differently and things like that.  I also want to dig into the multiplayer when I get a chance to top up my gold membership.  I had only rented the game initially, but I’m certainly thinking about adding it to my collection.

It’s incredibly addictive.  I mean I never even felt the time pass while playing.

As I said before, there’s no hand holding.  As my copy was a rental I played my game on easy expecting to power through it, but bloody hell it’s quite challenging.  It’s not too challenging so that it’s annoyingly difficult, but rather it’s incredibly fun.  The game balance in X-Com is superb to say the least.

I found the camera angles and line of sight a little bothersome.  Sometimes it would look like my troop has a perfect visual on the enemy, but the game would say otherwise.  Alternatively, sometimes it would seem as though there were obstacles in the way, but my troop could still make a clean shot.  It was a little frustrating at times as it would interfere with my strategy.  I also found it difficult navigating between different height levels, particularly since the walls cut away when the cursor touched them.

At the end of each mission, you collect a certain amount of alien corpses or technology.  These can be all researched back at the base allowing you to learn about the enemy.  I found the details quite intriguing.

It’s a little cliché.  Defending the Earth against alien invaders has really been done to death.

Overall the visuals were very appealing.  The lighting and particle effects were quite stunning.  However, I thought some of the models looked a bit dated graphically.  Some of the textures looked a little flat and the human characters were particularly wooden looking.

Yes, absolutely. It’s fun and easy to play. There’s enough to do in it for people who like to play for hours and hours, but the saving system allows for people who prefer to put it down whenever they want. Some may also appreciate the level of inclusivity in this game as your squad can consist of soldiers of either gender from anywhere in the world.