I'm not particularly into gaming, but I've spent countless hours playing the GTAs, and I've generally done so with a big group of my girlfriends. Occasionally someone's boyfriend will join in, but for the most part it's a big ol' gang of girls playing. In all honesty, the sexist aspects of the game have never been a point of disussion. I think it's probably due to the fact that it's so otherworldly anyway, so removed that that it has no actual bearing on our reality. Though maybe we all just like beating on ho's.

Note: This week's This American Life includes a brief mention of the "myzled" misled thing.

made me laugh! TAL this week is so good and reminds me of certain people's arguing styles, especially the physics guy.

So is the market answering this urge, or is it reinforcing and therefore confirming urges that otherwise wouldn't come out?

And is the market accurate? Why don't women play games?

I don't play the games but I have a few thoughts.

First is that women are probably far more tolerant of playing make characters than vice-versa. It's probably a fair parallel to kids and fiction -- but now we see boys identifying with the Power Puff Girls so the lock is probably breaking.

If games are half fiction they're half, well, games. After a few decades of Title IX the notion that girls aren't athletic or compeditive, etc. seems quaint.

If there are fewer women playing games its likely that they feel unwelcome. And if there were more they'd feel more welcome -- maybe it will hit a tipping point?

But I'm mostly speaking out of my tush.

Jobma to ND.

In a little bit, I go get my toenails done. They need it. I'm trying to decide if I want black (again) or a French mani(pedi?)cure. Decisions, decisions.

Gronk. I was going to be good and do some cleaning and run errands before settling down to finish HP6 this afternoon/evening, but I woke up in a sinus daze. Maybe I can do the errands tomorrow.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 103 here. Crap. I'd rather such a hot day be a work day, as then I'd be in AC most of the day.

I'm wondering if it's possible to spend the whole day at a movie theater....

Where do you live, tommyrot?

My internets are being too slow lately. Too many people on vacation. And next week most of my writing loops are going to grind to a dead halt, since so many people will be going to the RWA national conference.

It's as if the universe expects me to amuse myself.

One thing I've noticed about the whole kerfluffle (here and in the big wider world) is the assumption that games are for kids. This may be worth discussing.

I mentioned something similar yesterday. A lot of parents just make assumptions as to "what video games are" and then become horrified when they're proven wrong. I'm sure a lot of them don't even realize there's a rating system or what those ratings mean. I was actually surprised when I bought the expansion pack for Halo 2 a couple weeks back and the clerk informed me "Just so you know, this is a mature game." My first thought was "Okay, I know I look old enough to play this." but then I realized I also looked old enough to possibly be a parent and Best Buy has likely instituted a new CYA policy where video games are concerned.

I think I'm unusual in that it was my father who introduced me to video games growing up, rather than finding them on my own. I still have fond memories of going to the arcade with him and going to a now-defunct local pizza place and arcade for my birthday.

When we finally started having video games at home--first on the Commodore 64 and then on consoles, starting with the Sega Genesis--my father would play just about every game we got, if only to get a feel for it, and one or both of my parents would often watch us play from time to time. They stayed aware of what my siblings and I were playing.

Of course, a good part of that simply good be that my father is a gamer at heart. Even today, he probably plays video games as much as I do, and unlike me he actually plays Halo 2 on X-Box live. (I personally don't have the tolerance and patience for trash-talking 13 year-olds whereas my dad just finds them hilarious.) He's even a better FPS player than I am (at my cousin's engagement party a couple years back, one of my cousin's friends could not believe a guy twice his age was thoroughly whipping his butt) but I tend to do better at fighting games and the like that require combinations of button presses and controller motions.

As such, I can understand why my dad would have paid as much attention to the games we were playing as he did, but on the flipside it shouldn't take too much for a parent to read the ratings on the games they or their kids are buying or just spend 5 minutes with their kids from time to time when they're playing video games to see what they're doing.

A lot of parents just make assumptions as to "what video games are" and then become horrified when they're proven wrong.

If this is indeed the case, and given the number of stories I see from comic book store workers about assumptions WRT to comic books being kid-safe, it probably is, I'm boggled.

Y'know, I'm in my 30s. I'm in the first generation of parents raised in a world where video games have been around as long as we can remember. Granted, technology has improved a good deal, but were these people raised in isolation tanks? Even when I was a teen, there were video games that were not appropriate for children. I didn't have anything more sophisticated than a C64 and the original Nintendo at my fingers, and I was aware of this.

My desire to bitchslap some sense into the adult population does not bode well for my future in the PTA.