PRESS PLAY LIKE A GIRL
“I GAME FOR THE FUN, THE STORIES AND THE SENSE OF COMPLETION.” “I got into video games through a friend, and they instantly held my interest.” “Games give me a euphoric joy and a sense of achievement.” When you lob the question “Why game?” to the 70,000-plus female gamers residing in the heart of the internet, aka Reddit (more specifically, r/GirlGamers), these types of tremendously positive responses are hit right back. On this forum, tips, tricks and hot takes are bookended with game techniques and innocent discussions about everything, from “Are you a better player with your bra on or off?” to “How many earrings have you lost from taking them out to put your headset on?” But this is just a relatively small pocket of women who love an industry that’s impossible to squeeze into a single box.
Sadly, these forums are also a place where many women seek refuge from trolling and abuse, with an almost overwhelming amount of anecdotes confirming reports that misogynistic abuse is too often a daily occurrence for women playing online multiplayer games. This is a heartbreaking reversal of what games were designed to be:
