The Token Chick - Games For Girls

A few months ago, just before Christmas, I did a foolish thing and went to my local EB to pick up a preorder (FF3, as it happens) without calling first. I usually do, to make sure they have the game in-store. I thought I was in good shape as I made my way to the cashier, because I could see a row of strategy guides for the game prominently displayed on the magazine rack below the counter. However, in a cruel stroke of fate, I was informed that the game itself would not actually arrive until the next day. I've long been a proponent of the idea that a strategy guide should not be sold until the game to which it refers is actually available, because it's just mean, but that's actually not what incurred my wrath on this particular day.

After eloquently expressing my displeasure (I believe I managed to confine myself to just one profanity), I left, and on my way out of the mall, decided to stop at the other video game store just to make sure that they didn't have it either. They didn't (although they did have an equally impressive stack of guides). As I turned to leave, I found myself confronted with the actual subject of today's tale: a display, about my height, loomed in vivid pink before me, emblazoned with the legend, "Games for Girls."

This literally stopped me in my tracks.

What, I wondered, did they consider "games for girls?" I examined the display, finding only things packaged in essentially the same shade of pink that dominated the display itself: The Little Mermaid games, numerous Barbie titles, something called Bratz which appeared to feature miniature hookers, Spyro the Dragon, and my very favorite, Cooking Mama. I was utterly shocked that someone made a game called... Cooking Mama.

I must have stood there for a good five minutes, just getting angrier and angrier, until finally, my boyfriend was prudent enough to herd me out of the store before I began interrogating some employees (after all, I didn't *really* want to get myself banned from the store). The more I thought about it, though, the more insulted I felt. My objections, now that I've had time to think about it, break down pretty much like this:

1. I've been playing video games for twenty-some years, and never once have I touched, or had any desire to touch, a Barbie-themed video game. If that's your thing, more power to you, but I personally can't picture such an endeavor being any more than boring. While it is true that I generally am inclined more toward, say, JRPGs than any sort of shooter, that's still a far cry from Ariel's Undersea Adventures. Regardless, there weren't any RPGs featured, at least not any that were readily identifiable as such.

2. By indicating that this display held "games for girls," they were also, by extension, implying that the games distributed through the rest of the store are NOT for girls. Does that mean that I'm breaking some sort of rule by purchasing something not on that display? Am I not welcome in other sections? Do I have something to prove before I am allowed to buy anything else?

3. Although not strictly a personal complaint, it sort of seems like a stupid business decision on EBStop's part to alienate their female customer base this way, and unnecessary to boot. I understand their basic plan here: with the holiday season fast approaching, they wanted to make sure that clueless parents were well-informed on what to get their daughters. News flash: if the girl in question didn't want some sort of video game to begin with, the parent probably wouldn't be in the store, and if the girl requested a game, odds are that she was pretty specific rather than just asking for "whatever is on the pink display." Putting the "pink games" in one place is only doing what I just finished condemning, which is limiting their choices (which seems to have the potential of limiting purchasing in general as well). If they truly wanted to find a non-specific "girly" video game, they probably wouldn't have any trouble doing so regardless, due to the coloration of the game boxes themselves. This brings me to my last complaint...

4. Why, in the name of all that is good and holy, does everything "female" have to be pink?

I have a somewhat complicated relationship with the color pink. Ever since I was but a wee lass, it's kind of revolted me. I don't know whether it was some form of proto-feminist in me yearning to be free, or simply the realization that pink does not do happy things to red hair, but when another option is available, I generally tend to shy away from rosier hues. Recently, though, my pink policy has begun to shift ever so slightly, allowing for just a tiny bit of this formerly verboten tint to make its way into my everyday life. The most prominent example of this my most recent major electronics purchase. For my birthday, I decided that my present to myself was going to be an upgrade (and downsize) of my trusty (yet chubby) silver DS into its more svelte cousin, the DS Lite. When I visited EB that day to make the trade - I don't know what made me do it - despite the fact that both white and black systems were on display, I did something that would earn me my friends' teasing for days to come. That's right, I bought the pink one. And I love it.

Back to that holiday display, though. I'm aware that I'm not going to spur some revolution in marketing tactics, no matter how dumb they may currently be, but I do feel that game stores need to realize that game consumers can't be so easily stereotyped; in fact, it's probably only going to hurt them to do so.

As a postscript to this story: for Christmas, I actually did receive a copy of Cooking Mama as a joke. I've already preordered the Wii version.

Mar 16, 2007 - 4:22 pm | 8 comments
Leah Haydu