HI All -
Well, it’s always interesting to see yourself quoted in a news piece. I am pretty sure I said a lot more interesting things to this reporter but I can’t complain *too* much – I was worried she totally misunderstood me (and it seems from this she was more interested in pumping me for statistical information since she used a lot of what I told her about). Anyway, here is the article for your reading pleasure:
[August 22, 2010]
Video games not just for dudes, dude
Aug 22, 2010 (The Beaumont Enterprise – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — Every Wednesday is Ladies Night at the newly opened Xcon Gaming on Dowlen Road. But don’t expect any specials on martinis. Once a week the shop gives discounts to women who come in to play video games on one of the store’s 28 Xbox 360gaming systems.
Xcon owner Ben Streeper said an equal number of women and men come in to his shop to get their game on — and contrary to popular belief many of the women are talented and proud of their reputation as “hard core” gamers.
“You don’t want to go up against a girl. Nowadays, they’re just as good as the guys,” Streeper said. “Every two weeks, you see more and more of them.”More women play games these days, such as “Halo,” “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty,” on gaming systems like Xbox, which can connect online to other players with the system worldwide.
Data from the Entertainment Software Association, which keeps statistics on video and computer gamers, shows women now account for 40 percent of all American gamers, up from 38 percent in 2006.
And women 18 and older make up a third of the gameplaying population, while boys under 18 represent a fifth.
But why women game, and how their hobby affects them and their families remains a major source for debate.
Women gamers easily identify the stereotype of a female gamer as overweight, unattractive and antisocial, but even as they say they are proud of their hobby and that the stereotype is untrue, they struggle with what it means to be a female gamer.
“We’re just normal, everyday people,” said Kristen Nicotre-Crone, a 34-yearold gamer from Woodville. “We’re not bookworms and we still have social lives. It’s just a hobby.”A study of 7,000 gamers published in the Journal of Communication last year found that more women than men play video games for social reasons — they play with family or friends or to meet new people through gaming.
The study found women gamers reported exercising more and reported a slightly higher perceived relationship quality, if their significant others were also gamers.
But women were also more likely to underreport how often they played — men were off by about an hour, women were off by three — and the more experience a woman had on a particular game, the more she played it.
Streeper said female gamers start playing for a variety of reasons. Women in their late 20s and early 30s often pick up the hobby later in life — after exposure through friends or family — because games were geared toward men when they were children.
It’s a more “natural occurrence” for girls starting in their teens, he said, because they have been surrounded by games since birth.
Nicotre-Crone started to play video games because she was surrounded by men who played. Her husband, and her 13- and 10-year old sons all play Xbox.
“It was like, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ So I joined ‘em and beat ‘em,” she said.
Soon Nicotre-Crone was better than her sons at certain games and had racked up the family’s highest “achievement score” — a collective number of points earned across all Xbox games — by completing difficult tasks.
The stay-at-home mom said she plays about 4 to 5 hours a day, but makes sure her 2-year-old son is taken care of before she ever picks up the controller. Often, the whole family plays Xbox games online as a team.
She said it’s a good way to spend time with her husband and since the economy soured, gaming together makes for a good alternative date that’s cheaper than going out to eat and the movies. Kelley Lester, a 36-yearold gamer from Port Neches, agreed.
“I don’t see video games as a hindrance to the family. I see it as something that brings us together,” said Lester, who often plays with her husband and three children.
Lester has house rules that forbid her kids from playing too much, though she does not set a time limit.
As a student in management information systems at Lamar University, Lester has scaled back her own gaming because it became hard to manage school and family time in addition to gaming.
Now gaming mostly is a quick stress reliever, she said. Regina McMenomy is a doctoral candidate at Washington State University who’s researched the female identity in women who game.
As part of her doctorate program, she interviewed 30 women over the age of 18 about their gaming habits. What she found surprised her, she said.
“There’s a definite sense of pride associated with being a female gamer,” said Mc-Menomy, who also is a gamer. “The trend is showing that there is greater acceptance for women as gamers.”Her study found that more women use avatars of women to represent themselves in online games rather than male avatars.
As society comes to value talents like being computersavvy, playing games well has also become more socially acceptable, she said.
Many female gamers report growing acceptance among their male peers when they play games together in person.
But when they enter the realm of online anonymity and trash-talking competition, sexist comments fly. Female gamers in their late 20s and 30s tend to ignore them, but they rankle some younger gamers.
Haley Schmidt, 18, a Port Neches resident who is a freshman at Lamar Institute of Technology, has played games for as long as she can remember and now often beats her boyfriend and his friends.
She is not ashamed of her hobby, and everyone at her high school knew she was a gamer. She logs an average of 15 to 20 hours a week gaming.
She attended the Major League Gaming tournament in Dallas last year and her all-girl team placed in the top 120 out of 300.
But when she plays online with her microphone, her female voice can be a source for ridicule.
“I get a bunch of remarks like ‘Get back in the kitchen.’ Or ‘Go make me a sandwich,’ ” said Schmidt. “I get called the ‘b’ word and the ‘c’ word. Sometimes it hurts. Some guys have made me cry.”Schmidt tries to mute the players who go too far, but sometimes she “blows up” and yells at them.
Some male players online accuse her of being “fat, ugly or smelly” until they check out her Facebook profile photo — of a thin brunette with stunning blue eyes — and then shut up.
Female gamer Chandra Smith, a 24-year-old mother in Kirbyville, admits she once judged other female gamers.
“When I was younger I looked at other girls who played games as nerdy,” Smith said. “I never thought that Iwouldplayvideogames. I grew up as a cheerleader. But now that (seems) kind of hypocritical.”Smith, who plays games about two to four hours a day, said she thinks video games are a good way to bond with her husband, who also likes to play video games.
She’s seriously reduced her playing time since the birth of her daughter, now 4, but admits in the past she would underestimate how long she played.
“There have been times that I’ll sign on to it and I’ll play for what I think is an hour and I’ll look up and it’s been four or five hours,” she said. “But we can balance. We know what’s too much and what’s enough.”For Xcon’s Streeper, the growing number of women who talk about their love for gaming parallels the women’s rights movement.
Womenhavealwaysplayed games, he said. They were just looked down upon if they did and it was assumed they weren’t as good as male gamers. Now they’re proud they play, and play just as well.
But female gamers still have a ways to go before they completely claim the hobby as their own and gain society’s full acceptance.
Until that happens, the conflicting stereotype of the female gamer will linger in some minds.
“I probably will continue gaming until I have children,” Schmidt said.
Why would she stop?”I just wouldn’t want them to become completely addicted.”To see more of The Beaumont Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go tohttp://www.www.beaumontenterprise.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The BeaumontEnterprise, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Formore information about the content services offered by McClatchy-TribuneInformation Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mailservices@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States,call +1 312-222-4544).
The original URL of this page is:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/08/22/4968650.htm
