What's the Deal With Girls & Games? (Dtube)

The other day I was playing Resident Evil 6 with my girlfriend and, to be honest, I had some frustrations. Let me start by saying that I've been playing video games for about 20 years. My girlfriend has been playing for some time too, but has never really played an shooter, let alone a horror shooter. Unsurprisingly, there was a bit of a learning curve. What I was surprised by is exactly how steep that curve becomes at a certain point.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Games are hard.

They take split-second decision-making/reaction time, a cool head under pressure, spatial awareness (granted, of a virtual world) and precise hand-eye coordination. Us folks that have been gaming forever take these skills for granted. But for the newcomer this suite of skills can be super intense to learn all at once.

When the girlfriend and I play games, I take point because though she's mastered most of the skills, one of the worst to learn in video games is spatial awareness. Part of this is technological limitations. Up until now games, no matter how good their graphics are, were constrained to a television screen. It's a different sort of spatial awareness, one far removed from the real thing. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Where am I going with this?

Games are super intimidating for new players. Having to learn all of these new skills isn't even the largest barrier to entry. That would be the fact that to get these skills you must fork up 500 bucks for a console, peripherals, and a few games just to start playing in a room alone long enough so that someone will actually want to play with you.

Even I, a patient person, can get a bit terse when girlfriend gets lost when I am literally right beside her.

Games are sort of made for people who are already experts in games. They're made for game vets who want to see variations on the same theme year end and year out. It's been a boys game since video games made a hardcore campaign to appeal to boys back in the 80's and 90's. We need a more diverse consumer audience for games so that we can get more diverse games.

...What? You were hoping that I had altruistic reasons?

Ultimately, we need more people in games, but especially girls because that group has been so overlooked and neglected. Nearly every other group along socio-economic lines is represented in gaming in America, Europe, and Asia - whether it's fathers, CEO's, broke people (moi!), black, white, any race, any religion or lack thereof.

We as gamers need to come together and be more welcoming to mothers, sisters, girlfriends, friends (who are girls), and older people (also arguably very under represented in gaming... But I'm not sure I want to explain games to my parents when they barely understand their cell phones).

I'm doing my part by slaying zombies with my girlfriend. And though even she admits that she initially only started playing for me, she's started to enjoy it. I think I still have a ways to go before I convince my sister.

P.S. Hey guys, this is my first attempt at doing a DTube video along with an article. Please be patient if it's not perfect.

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