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As the Girl Gamer Festival gets underway in Sydney, I wanted to explore what a Girl Gamer actually is. Many people have their views on the topic, how it is a term that devalues the place of women in the Gaming Industry. I believe we need more women in public spaces, particularly in the media, to give girls strong, positive role models. The more diverse, the better in my opinion. While the stereotype of the female cooking in the kitchen is long gone in general, there are those who think females have no place playing video games. Obviously I disagree. Men can cook just as well as females (I can't cook at all, so definitely better than me!), so why can't women be competive in gaming as well? Most of this gender inequality comes from the early days of games in general, some were seen as 'boy' games, and others as 'girl' games. This is of course ridiculous - games are for everyone, it's just a personal opinion if you like a game or not. Also, this excludes non-binary people altogether, another thing I don't like. While gender has an impact on a lot of things, the kind of games you like isn't one of them. But I think the thing that annoys people the most about the term Girl Gamer is the use of Girl. Not Female or Woman. Me, I'm quite happy to be considered a girl. Being a girl doesn't make me weaker, or less than. Sure, I have more experience in years compared to a teenage girl, but it doesn't devalue my worth. I am female, whatever way you want to call it. While I am not a fan of shooters or other games like that, I don't feel the need to be to earn the title of Gamer. I play games and I am also a girl. So Girl Gamer is fine by me. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Nicole
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Today marks one year since the creation of WomANZ. If you are not aware, WomANZ is a community for women in Australia and New Zealand, who are a part of content creation and esports. It started with a single Tweet by Naysy.  Tweeted on 28th March 2018, by Naysy Since then, it has grown. The primary form of contact for the community is a private discord, which you can apply to become a member of [here]. There is a stream team on Twitch, and images for member to put in their panels under their stream, to show they are a member. The community is not limited to Twitch streamers, however. Anyone female, whatever their experience, is welcome. It's aim to for members to support each other in their careers online. My only in person encounter with the members of WomANZ was at PAX Australia last year, where they had a meet up, and gave some fanastic prizes away, I admit I felt uncomfortable at first, as I hadn't streamed in ages, and felt like I didn't belong. But I could see that others felt uncomfortable too. No one was mean, or bitchy, or competitive. It was very warm and supportive, and those ladies make me so proud to be a member of the community. In my opinion, we need more women online. All kinds of women, and particularly in games. The online world could always do with more diversity, showing that anyone can be a gamer, and have a gaming career. NicoleI was searching gaming news on Google when I came upon an article which suggests a cheaper Switch model could be launched by June this year. The article [link here] goes on to suggested the current Switch would be "upgraded" later in the year. If this is true, I personally think it would be fantastic. I know a lot of people who would love to buy a Switch, but they just can't afford it. Apparently the cheaper model would remove things like the vibration feature as "there wouldn't be many games released using the full benefit of it", according to one of the Wall Street Journal's sources. I'd like to point out that the sources are unnamed, and Nintendo declined to comment on the story. So we have no idea if the claims are valid or not. The sources pointed to an announcement in June, at E3, with the retail release to follow. For now, we just have to wait and see. NicoleI've decided that people like lists. So I'm going to blog about the conventions I would like to go to the most, and the reasons they interest me. The first convention I attended was PAX Australia in 2016, thanks to a three-day pass that I won on KryticZeuz's Twitch stream, I'm now one of his moderators, and have attended PAX AUS in 2017 and 2018. So here we go -
NicoleAs I write this, a group of very lucky content creators and gaming influencers are getting the world's first look at the gameplay of Borderlands 3, the latest game in the Borderlands series made by 2K. I hope that I will be able to have a similar experience myself one day. You can follow the adventures of these Australians and New Zealanders on their social media accounts. To help you out, I'll list them below:- @BonnieDollz (Twitch) @Wyld (Twitch) @Jenzlinger (Twitch) @Loriipops (Twitch) @ZiggyDStarcraft (Twitch) @ChinglishTV (Twitch) @Tyr0din (Twitch) @SubParLover (Twitch) @Naysy (Twitch) Note the above names are also their Twitter handles. They should also lead you to other social media accounts of these fine peeps. More people to follow on Twitter if you're looking for Borderlands 3 news:- @2K_ANZ - The Australian and New Zealand account for 2K, who make Borderlands, but also NBA 2K, Bioshock, Civilisations VI, XCOM and WWE. Use the #Borderlands3 hashtag for tweets and accounts associated with the event. Special shoutout to @Pez_Bro who works for 2K, but is just a top bloke. Nicole |
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