Routine Sunday

February 17, 2008

Video games and women are the new peanut butter and jelly.

That’s right. They are the new combination that has become commonplace in the oughts. They no longer are compelled to play with infants and laundry, or try to train their new kittens….

…they have – like the Vikings – chosen a more challenging path.

For years, the gaming industry would put out games like Perfect Dark and Goldeneye and Mission Impossible (these are console games, not the harder-core online or PC games) and their primary audience was men. Boys really. Boys trapped in man-sized bodies. But I digress.

The games that were produced for women and girls were My Little Pony Feeds on Oats, Knit a Sweater, Cooking Skillz, and Little Miss Muffet Tales. That has all changed.

While bouncing around the Internet this morning I ran into Erin who I met at Sitboaf’s birthday party this weekend. I thought she was someone else (because she was using HIS online account – not Jesus, Mr. Campbell, the PR genius) and started right in with a lengthy iChat missive.

She promptly put me straight, sent me some Viking Cats and then dashed off to play Halo 3.

This shouldn’t puzzle me too much, and it really doesn’t, but what does raise my eyebrows are the studies that say women are better at these games than many men. It’s some sort of wiring in their brains that allows them to be ruthless and cold-blooded WHILE seeming soft and approachable.

I’m not going to continue that line of thought lest CF cook up some hot, delicious soup and toss it in my face. Speaking of which, my tea has steeped perfectly and I’d best gulp that down before my trip to Foxwoods to satellite into the FPC.

Wish me luck.

More to come…