For the Journalism Principles and Practice we had to write a feature piece based on hobbies. I decided that seeing as I love spending time playing video games it made sense to do a feature on it. Here's my piece:
In
2012 The Huffington Post produced an
article on different hobbies that women may enjoy from knitting to origami and
despite it being the 21st century nearly all of the hobbies related
to beauty or crafts suggesting that there are only certain hobbies that are
suitable for women.
For some women their hobbies are feminine, but for others shooting zombies on
their favourite video game is much more preferable.
Today, Georgina Anders and Lori Jones speak out about why they love playing
video-games despite it being described as a “male-centric” hobby on the
psxextreme website.
Georgina Anders aged 18 from Doncaster has been an avid video gamer for years,
here she tells us about why she why she enjoys gaming, her favourite games to
play and why certain game companies such as Capcom can be described as sexist.
“For me gaming is one of my favourite things to do, it keeps my mind occupied
and helps me escape from reality for a few hours. I’m a huge Xbox fan I love the online video
gaming experience where I can play with gamers across the world and a lot of my
friends play Xbox so it’s fun to combine socialising and gaming.”
“I play all sorts of games from a variety of genres. I like strategy games such
as Portal and X-Com and role playing games such as Skyrim and Fallout but my
favourite genre to play is action games such as “Assassins Creed”, although I
do love classics such as “Super Mario Brothers” and Legend of Zelda.
Georgina frowns as she talks about the difference in games designed for a
female demographic in comparison the games designed for a male demographic.
“There’s a big difference in games designed for males and games designed for
females. Games designed for women such as Fashion Designer Style Icon, are made
for a stereotypical woman who is interested in fashion and make-up and there
isn’t much story to them at all. Society hasn’t caught up with the modern woman
and people seem to think that our physical attributes are so different from men
that we can’t play certain games.
“I’ve faced abuse due to being a female gamer particularly when I play games
such as Battlefield. I was called names by one male when he realised that I was
female. Some game companies are a little sexist too, Capcom is well known for
the way it displays women in their games with big busts and little clothing,
but the consumers can be just as sexist.”
Lori Jones, 19, from Bradford who has always been surrounded by male gamers has
a slightly different opinion on gaming.
“I really enjoy platform games such as Rayman but I also love Assassins Creed.
I’m a huge fan of the Xbox as it has a lot of games I like and the controller
is more comfortable to use. For me
gaming allows you to forget about worries and escape into a different world. I
like being able to choose games that match my mood for example a first person
shooter game if I’m feeling angry.”
“I think it’s unfair that video-gaming isn’t seen as a unisex hobby, I love
games aimed at both men and women not just fashion games, but I don’t think
that gaming will be perceived as a unisex hobby any time soon.”
She pauses as she considers the difference in games designed for male consumers
and games designed for female consumers.
“There is a difference in games designed for men and women. I think that some
game designers are still stuck in the rut of stereotypes and want to appeal to
certain customers, although games are not as stereotyped as they used to be now
many combat games feature female characters too.”
“I wouldn’t describe game companies as being sexist because that’s a strong
remark but I do believe that stereotyping has been around for many years and it
can be difficult to get out of the rut.”
Hobbies can be taken up by anyone, if there are female athletes shouldn’t
females be able to play video games as well?
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