Love this, and so glad you found games to return to! I’ve always been very lucky to have gaming friends who were boys when I was growing up, and to find my niche of other gaming girls when I was older, so I admit, I’ve never stepped fully away. But I am really glad to see more women gamers, especially here on Substack, writing about their love of the hobby 🥰
Thank you so much, Amy; this really means a lot! I think having gaming friends around you makes such a difference. For me, the drift seemed to happen in isolation, so it just sort of faded. So glad you never had to find your way back, and equally glad to have found this little corner of Substack where we're all writing about it. Your support always means so much 🥰
I am so glad that you found your way home and loved this post. I've been always a gamer and always will be. My husband admires me for gaming and he even asks if I'm not playing. I'd love to see the term "Girl Gamer" gone forever and be replaced with just "Gamer".
I started gaming in 1990 with the first Nintendo console. I never really stopped playing video games but I absolutely enjoy them -- however my mom liked to tell me (actually she still tells me) that video games are a "boy's hobby" and I need to "do more appropriate things with my time" because "you don't want your daughters gaming do you?"
My dad got me into gaming. She took away my chance to say goodbye to him.
I met my husband on FFXIV, if she thinks my daughters won't be gaming, she's delusional.
Both my 3yo and 7yo game and I game WITH them. That's a core memory I never got from her.
I just went on a tangent again, dangit. Sorry lol.
Please don't apologise for the tangent!! that's exactly the kind of thing I write this newsletter for. What you've shared here is really moving. The idea that gaming was your connection to your dad, and that someone tried to take that away from you, is heartbreaking. And the fact that you're now building those same core memories with your own daughters? That's everything. Your mum is very wrong, and your 3 and 7 year old are very lucky. Thank you for sharing this 🥰
Ah your posts always bring out a tangent from me lol! When I use to post FFXIV screenshots on my Facebook page (because it was the only way at the time to transfer it from my PS4 to my PC) she would get mad and literally CALL ME to tell me to stop being a child and stop playing video games. Meanwhile she plays casino sim games? Uh?! So I just block her from all my gaming stuff -- I wish my dad was still here to see how much these girls love gaming.
Women actually never left gaming entirely i think. It changed some.
Like Myst was HUGE with women i think, but Big Fish Games and Pogo too; Big Fish created the hidden object game and the hypercasual genre. This led to facebook and mobile games, i think. Farmville.
For consoles, the Nintendo DS was a tremendous girl gaming platform. Ubisoft with the Petz franchise printed money lol, but there are a lot of girl game ports on it, with maybe only the Wii being better. The DS was a unique platform that catered to all gamers: Nintendogs being a killer app for example.
i think women migrated to what wed call hypercasual games over that time. Cozy games lead hypercasual gamers back to more traditional genres some. i do like them too.
actually fascinating to see and i think womens impact are hidden some even now. Aksys games survives now solely on localizing otome games for the switch and pc.
Thanks for this. There's a really interesting history here and you're right that women's impact on gaming has often been overlooked or underestimated.
That said, I'd gently push back on the framing: the piece wasn't really about whether women were present in gaming, but about why so many of us drifted away from it, even for those of us who grew up with it. I had a DS too, and I still stopped for years. The platforms and games were there, yet a lot of us still talked ourselves out of the hobby for a decade or more. That's the bit I was trying to unpick!
Love this, and so glad you found games to return to! I’ve always been very lucky to have gaming friends who were boys when I was growing up, and to find my niche of other gaming girls when I was older, so I admit, I’ve never stepped fully away. But I am really glad to see more women gamers, especially here on Substack, writing about their love of the hobby 🥰
Thank you so much, Amy; this really means a lot! I think having gaming friends around you makes such a difference. For me, the drift seemed to happen in isolation, so it just sort of faded. So glad you never had to find your way back, and equally glad to have found this little corner of Substack where we're all writing about it. Your support always means so much 🥰
I am so glad that you found your way home and loved this post. I've been always a gamer and always will be. My husband admires me for gaming and he even asks if I'm not playing. I'd love to see the term "Girl Gamer" gone forever and be replaced with just "Gamer".
I'd love to see that term go away too! There was a comment on my post talking about "girl games" and my blood boiled a wee bit...
I started gaming in 1990 with the first Nintendo console. I never really stopped playing video games but I absolutely enjoy them -- however my mom liked to tell me (actually she still tells me) that video games are a "boy's hobby" and I need to "do more appropriate things with my time" because "you don't want your daughters gaming do you?"
My dad got me into gaming. She took away my chance to say goodbye to him.
I met my husband on FFXIV, if she thinks my daughters won't be gaming, she's delusional.
Both my 3yo and 7yo game and I game WITH them. That's a core memory I never got from her.
I just went on a tangent again, dangit. Sorry lol.
Please don't apologise for the tangent!! that's exactly the kind of thing I write this newsletter for. What you've shared here is really moving. The idea that gaming was your connection to your dad, and that someone tried to take that away from you, is heartbreaking. And the fact that you're now building those same core memories with your own daughters? That's everything. Your mum is very wrong, and your 3 and 7 year old are very lucky. Thank you for sharing this 🥰
Ah your posts always bring out a tangent from me lol! When I use to post FFXIV screenshots on my Facebook page (because it was the only way at the time to transfer it from my PS4 to my PC) she would get mad and literally CALL ME to tell me to stop being a child and stop playing video games. Meanwhile she plays casino sim games? Uh?! So I just block her from all my gaming stuff -- I wish my dad was still here to see how much these girls love gaming.
Such a lovely read, from such a brilliant page!! More video game writing on this website please :)
Thank you so much, Cal! that really means a lot! More gaming writing is absolutely on the way, I promise 😊
Women actually never left gaming entirely i think. It changed some.
Like Myst was HUGE with women i think, but Big Fish Games and Pogo too; Big Fish created the hidden object game and the hypercasual genre. This led to facebook and mobile games, i think. Farmville.
For consoles, the Nintendo DS was a tremendous girl gaming platform. Ubisoft with the Petz franchise printed money lol, but there are a lot of girl game ports on it, with maybe only the Wii being better. The DS was a unique platform that catered to all gamers: Nintendogs being a killer app for example.
i think women migrated to what wed call hypercasual games over that time. Cozy games lead hypercasual gamers back to more traditional genres some. i do like them too.
actually fascinating to see and i think womens impact are hidden some even now. Aksys games survives now solely on localizing otome games for the switch and pc.
Thanks for this. There's a really interesting history here and you're right that women's impact on gaming has often been overlooked or underestimated.
That said, I'd gently push back on the framing: the piece wasn't really about whether women were present in gaming, but about why so many of us drifted away from it, even for those of us who grew up with it. I had a DS too, and I still stopped for years. The platforms and games were there, yet a lot of us still talked ourselves out of the hobby for a decade or more. That's the bit I was trying to unpick!