Meghan HurleyIt’s no doubt that women have been on a long road to dominating government positions, athletic fields and the workplace. Next up, an old boy’s club: video games.
Many are unaware of the new gaming revolution geared towards female gamers of all ages. Females are found to play on many different gaming systems. One in particular can be found in the hands of many females. The pink handheld “Gameboy Advance” by Nintendo is not only appealing because of its color but because of the games Nintendo has created for it. Such “oldies but goodies” games like, Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog attract female players. Other games that are built to attract much younger females to the gaming spectrum include Barbie 12 Dancing Princess and Dogz Fashion.
Nintendo is a maker of an upgraded version of the “Advance” system called, “Nintendo DS”. This portable gaming system comes in three colors. Pink being one of them and has the capability of playing “DS” games and “Advanced” games. Video game systems like these are going where they have never gone before, into a woman’s hands.
Aliza Greenberg, an area coordinator for Residence Life of Cabrini College likes the experience of the games. “In the game ‘Crazy Taxi,’ I like figuring out where to go while driving, which in real life I’m too terrified to do. In ‘The Sims,’ I get to decorate in the game, which I love,” said Greenberg.
Speaking of “The Sims,” in a story featured on Good Morning America, video game experts claim that the game started a video game revolution and opened up a new market for game creators. Electronic Arts is the name of the company that created this extraordinary game that has been climbing sales charts ever since its release of the first version. According to experts, $3 billion was made last year alone on Sims merchandise and half of those buyers were women. Full version of the Good Morning America story can be found at abcnews.go.com.
Senior English communication major, Melissa Stevens dates her sim-a-holic tendencies back to high school. “It was fun to sort of have control over the little town,” said Stevens.
Jenna Chalmers is a software designer for the company Electronic Arts, the same company that created “The Sims.” She was also featured in the article on Good Morning America and has good insight to why women gamers rise to the challenge of a video game. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about what women like,” she said. “Women gamers are often very intelligent people. They like a challenge, they like strategy, they like a game that has a lot of thinking. There are studies coming out now about women’s brains being more hard-wired. I don’t know why anyone would think we wouldn’t be good at that,” said Chalmers.
Play on girls, play on.
