Get Your Game on Wednesday: Swords, Stereotypes and Bowling for Nazis

Hello, gaming lovelies! Happy Wednesday! Despite being snowed in for most of last week, I regret to report that I didn’t play many games. I did check out the Cubist Podcast, a weekly show covering board games. Which gaming podcasts/channels do you love?

Female gamers want to kill you, just not with guns

Super impressive Caius sword build by Deviant artist Red-Hag

Praise be to the gods of data! The folks over at Quantic Foundry have collected actual factual data on the motivation of gamers. The sample size was a little over 1200 players with two-thirds identifying as male and one-third as female. In the analysis of their research surveys, they determined that female gamers are not adverse to violence and killing; rather they are more selective about how they kill things. Close combat weapons, like swords and bows, met the cut, but conventional guns and explosives scored lower. The research team postulates that female gamers might be less enthusiastic about “realistic conventional warfare.” What do you think?

It’s 2017 and I’m tired of the nerdy D&D player stereotype

I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes at the scenes where geek stereotypes run rampant. I watched an episode of the new Santa Clarita Diet and shouted my displeasure at the TV when it was the awkward guy-who-lives-in-mom’s-basement comic shop guy entered the scene. My annoyance is equal for those who continue to ply the  I’ll-never-get-laid-guy-who-plays-D&D gamer. And this time my ire is aimed looking at Dear Abby.

A letter from Boring Life in Wisconsin speaks the woes of a 15 year old teenager who likes video games and D&D but fear they’ll be mocked for years if they tell anyone. The gaming community has seen huge growth in gaming conventions, one of the most popular shows of 2016, Stranger Things, showed characters playing D&D, and tabletop games are now being sold in big box stores like Target. I know there are probably still parts of this country where you’d still be mocked for being a gamer, but I hold the staff of Dear Abby accountable to being so completely tone deaf in running this particular letter. Although the letter doesn’t tell us the gender of the writer, the advice runs with a photo of a lonely young man. Sure, it’s just one letter, but reinforcing negative stereotypes doesn’t help anyone.

So you want to punch a Nazi?

Handväska! Ramsey Nasser. 2017.If the logistics to punching Nazis in real-life have got you down (you haven’t been conditioning your knuckles to land punches, you can’t find a Nazi who lives near you or it’s winter and your fluffy mittens wouldn’t do any damage anyway), then the gaming community has got you covered. There is not one, but two games where you can virtually bother Nazis to your heart’s content. One gives you deep thoughts to consider, the other lets you use a purse like a bowling ball.

Since I follow the code of Dalton, the cooler from Roadhouse, I try to limit my violence. In no way should you take my witty banter as my support for punching anyone. Remember, be nice…until it’s time to not be nice.  

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Brenda Noiseux

Brenda Noiseux

Community builder, artist, convention organizer, gamer, geek writer @womenoncomics, @Sidequest_BHP. Owner, Bittenby Studios

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