By Will Cade

My girlfriend has an Xbox, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Granted, her brother gave it to her after buying a 360, but let’s just say that now it’s pink. When I learned this, I wondered if any of the paint had seeped inside the console, possibly damaging the hardware or clogging the fan, which could cause it to overheat. I doubted that she had considered the safety of the machine before the paint job, and for a second I thought the responsible thing for me to do was to protect this poor thing from my girlfriend’s destructive, feminizing grasp. But then I realized that it is just a machine, her machine even, so it doesn’t care what color it is, and she can do with it whatever she wants; realistically, only my masculinity is squeamish about a pink Xbox (but let it be known that black is the most appropriate - or possibly army green, but only if it’s a special Halo edition).

I have to admit that mixing girls and video games is a sensitive subject for me. Yes, at times, I gain a certain pleasure when girls are annoyed by guys playing video games, much in the same way boys like throwing mud at girls or showing them frogs on a playground. In either situation, the girls are outsiders, and the guys are free to play foolish games.

Come to think of it, the few times I have played video games with girls have never ended well. I can still remember my older sister and I playing Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo in the 80’s, with that massive-block-joy-stick-controller which seemed to weigh as much as I did. Whenever my sister was trying to get Mario to jump across a hole, she would sling the controller over her left shoulder to inspire Mario to jump just a little bit higher. Being young and inexperienced with video games, I got rather excited by all of the commotion and watched the screen quite intently. I didn’t notice that with each jump my sister slung the controller a little bit faster and a little bit further, nor did I think that sitting to her left might not be the best idea… not until she clocked me on the side of my head with the controller’s hard plastic corner.

Even when I got a little older, mixing the two never worked quite right. Once I tried playing a multi-player action game with my cousin. She was pretty good, but when I said, “Dude, you gotta kill those guys on the left, or else we’ll never get through this level,” she said, “Don’t tell me what to do” and eventually quit. All the guys I had ever played with coached one another, but my cousin didn’t seem to like that too much. And then, of course, there was the one time I tried to play Grand Theft Auto 3 with my high-school sweetheart, which lasted all of 10 minutes, before she said, “This is boring. Can we play the one where you drive around with Mario.” I was mortified: not only did she not enjoy the special effects and graphic violence of GTA3, she didn’t even know that it was called Mario Kart, or that it was for a totally different system.

I suppose that times are changing, though, at least in the video game industry. When Playstation 3 came out a little over a year ago, gamers around the world stood in awe at the tall black tower, wielding the most powerful graphics in the history of personal gaming. It may have cost $500, but it was worth it. Why would someone even bother dropping half of that on a Wii - which had also just come out - with its lame white case and kid’s games?

A few months later, the Wii was outselling Playstation 3, as if the dark knight had been slain by a pale, sickly child. What amazed me, though, was how I kept hearing women in their 20s talk about the Wii. “Yea, they had it at a party last night. That tennis game was so fun!” Instead of focusing on hardcore graphics and first person shooters, Wii games have been designed for various audiences - male and female; young and old. They have a physically interactive interface which allows you to swing the controller like a tennis racket or a sword and watch your movement on the screen (just please be mindful of those around you). This approach has made the Wii a party favorite among women.

Now the Wii is stepping into new territory, one previously unheard of in the gaming world: exercise. “Wii Fit” was recently released - with 40 exercises from yoga, balance games, strength training, and aerobics - along with an interactive Balance Board sold separately. The game basically serves as a physical trainer, allowing you to chart your progress, find problem areas with your movements, do different types of activities, etc. The activities range from skiing and leg extensions to yoga positions and hula hoops. Although the official website shows a woman, a man, a teenage boy, and a young girl playing in the four respective categories,  the image on the game’s cover is centered around the silhouette of a woman practicing yoga, obviously targeting the female market.[1]

If video games are being marketed towards women, then a market must exist for them. If this market continues to grow with the increasing popularity of the Wii, I suppose I will have to learn to let women into this masculine, video-game world of mine. But who knows, maybe it could even be fun to play with them. I just hope to god they don’t beat me.