ICA1 submission, BM0601

Gamer Girl
BYLINE: AfroToast


DUNGEONS, Dragons and Damsels in Distress: Common elements of a young boy's imagination, all of which expressed in video games of today. But is this a field forever to be dominated by males?

Mandy Chan (not her real name), from Nanyang Polytechnic's Diploma in Digital Media Design, needs no male chauvinist to come to her rescue.

While gaming may not be considered unique by most, female gamers, colloquially referred to as gamer girls, often draw extra attention due to their rarity.

We managed to catch her in an online chat room to ask her a few things about her unique hobby.

Gamer girl of only sixteen, she believes that the female population should have a say in the gaming scene. Flashing a cheeky emoticon, she revealed:

"Guys tend to be more lenient on the girls when gaming, which is a HUGE mistake. Amrite? =p"

But not all guys are lenient. There are the occasional few who go overboard, and are overtly snobbish. Mandy tells us, after getting herself a soda, of common people she encounters online.

She classifies them into three different categories. There are the ‘annoying ones’, who basically claim that ownership of the internet belongs to males. These are the ones who tell people like her to ‘stay off the internet’ or ‘go play with your dolls’.

Then there are the ‘immature ones’, who have difficulty believing in the existence of female gamers.

“They usually assault me with sick requests like ‘pics nao’ (pictures now), or ‘omg a/s/l?’ (oh my god, age/sex/location)”

This leaves the ‘cool ones’, who accept that female gamers are just like any other gamer, looking to have fun and chill out.

Mandy speaks for all gamer girls when she says that she just want to be respected as a human being, and that she just wants to play the game like any other male without being harassed, ridiculed, or discriminated against in any way.

“But yeah, I generally just pwn (gamer slang for dominating or humiliating an opponent) them all, haha.”

Sitting in front of a flat screen and smashing buttons all day long may not sound appealing to most of us, but that’s what people like Mandy do on a daily basis.

She usually spends at least 4 hours a day in her living room, in a world of her own. However, with the reopening of school, she has been greatly limited to a measly 5 hours a week.

These 5 hours are not wasted, however, as she spends them playing mostly role-playing games, mostly from the Fantasy sub-genre. A role-playing game, or RPG, for short, is a game that has no winner or scorecard. It is a game where the player assumes the role of a character in a story, and has to play through the game to reveal elements of the story, beating the game only when the story is completed.

Role-Playing Games are usually characterized by their highly customizable environments, where a player is free to build his/her character in almost any way they wish.

Most players generally favor a more agile and stealthy build, and the same can be said for Mandy.

“It’s the thrill of the hunt. We live for the adrenaline that goes through us when we stalk our victims. Then we press a button and we unleash all of hell upon him - pure satisfaction!”

Games from the Final Fantasy series, and even their online counterparts, like Ragnarok, all fit in this category. They are all a part of Mandy’s extensive video game library. Even beat-em-ups like Super Smash Brothers' Brawl and River City Ransom are not spared, all beaten countless times by our avid gamer girl.

Every tree has its roots, and the same can be said here. After a bit of persuasion, we found out when she first started, and what made her into who she is today.

Since she lived in a relatively backward neighborhood as a child, computers were rare. As such, when she saw her first computer, it fascinated her. A curiosity was sparked and she found herself drawn helplessly to the virtual world.

"It all started with everyone's favorite, Pac Man, in 1997. Then I moved on to bigger fish, like computer gaming, and then I got my first console, the Sony Playstation."

Final Fantasy 7, perhaps the most popular title for the series, was one of the first console games Mandy has graced. In this role-playing game, the player assumes the role of the reluctant leader of a group of adventurers as they battle a powerful mega-corporation called "Shinra", which is draining the life of the planet (Mako) to use as an energy source.

While cliché, the story of the game was well set enough to pull her further into the world of gaming. The story was told so well that it was almost believable and left players wanting more. Mandy attributes her love for role-playing games to this particular game, and it made her search for more similar games and more video games in general.

Even with the past in mind, Mandy's only true ambition is to be able to stay young at heart, and play games all day long. While most gamers aim to compete in WCG (World Cyber Gaming) championships, Mandy believes that gaming should be about having fun and should not be a laborious exercise where one has to train and pit their skills against each other.

She hopes that in 5 years time, she would still be equipped with the latest and the best in video gaming technology, and she still plays hard. Her only true fear is that she loses touch with her gaming side due to work.

In the words of the gamer girl herself, "If I ever stop gaming, shoot me. D:"