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Here's my experience/thoughts.

I've been gaming since I was little. Thanks to having older brothers around. I remember growing up with the snes and genesis particularly. And PC games. My dad would buy me PC games in particular, and unlike the ones he would buy for my brothers, I would get "learning" time games or ... more "girly" games. (I.e. Mario teaches typing - Oh how I loathe that game..., Magic school bus, barbie, Spelling Blizzard, Math Blaster, ...other ones I can't remember at the moment) My brothers got Monkey Island, Doom (well....maybe they bought that themselves?), Myst, Shivers, what have you...

I don't think parents discriminate against gender and playing (video) games, but maybe the type of games. I grew up playing Doom, Duke Nukem, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Mario, NBA Jam, ..all thru my brothers.

It wasn't until later (after snes/gen released) that my dad bought me and my sister a NES. Why? I don't know. Was it for all the kids? I'm not sure. Maybe. But I played it the most out of everyone. I played games like Spy Hunter, Pitfall, Bart vs the world, off road, Contra, ... none of which were girly in particular. Maybe Wheel of Fortune. But everything else involved cars, guns, etc.

I will say that if it wasn't for the male influence/interest in video games, I would've never been introduced into them as a kid.

Basically I naturally grew up with video games and still love them. However, I personally don't believe that girls hide their interest in video games. I've met a lot of girls that I thought it was very surprising that they liked and/or played video games. People I would've never guessed. I don't hide that I play video games. In fact, I found that half the guys I've talked to don't and I do. But at the same time, I think if you're in a certain "crowd" of people, you'll find equal amount of female/male gamers. If you're more in the "anime/otaku" crowd, you'll def find girl games no problem.

I've always proudly and openly shared that I like video games, even comics. I remember in 2nd grade for show and tell I brought my Marvel/X-men ultra flair cards. *lol* (Which I look back now and think was kinda weird for a girl to do)

I've changed my interest in genres over time though. I use to play FPS, adventure, platform, fighting, racing games... these days I don't enjoy FPS and fighting games and sports games. I like puzzle games and adventure games. I was big into rpgs like 10 years ago. I still enjoy playing games of all genres every now and then.

And I do find girls like the Sims. Which I don't. I don't really like sim (not the franchise) games in general really.

I also don't like or play a game just because of a (male) character. But maybe I'm a bit biased because I like girls? I found girl characters more appealing than guys. (For the record, I don't care about Cloud. Or Link.) I loved Tomb Raider. As a game. But I loved Lara Croft. In fighting games, I'd always prefer to pick a girl (Sonja, Mileena, Chun Li, etc). I still find myself doing that these days too.

visual_death wrote:I don't think parents discriminate against gender and playing (video) games, but maybe the type of games. I grew up playing Doom, Duke Nukem, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Mario, NBA Jam, ..all thru my brothers.

Great post all around, but I wanted to respond to this part in particular, because our stories are somewhat similar. My parents bought our NES as a "family present" in 1990, but it was really intended for my older brother, who was apparently the only eight-year-old boy in our town who did not know how to play Super Mario Bros. I was four years old at the time.

Had my brother not been in the picture I mostly likely wouldn't have been introduced to video gaming until kindergarten at the very earliest, a time when I would have mixed with other kids and found out about their hobbies. I imagine I would have been just as fascinated with games even if my introduction to them had been delayed, but I do think it would have been a lot more difficult to convince my parents to purchase a console at that age without having previously demonstrated a lasting interest in one around our house. They'd already seen, by the time I was lobbying for a Genesis in late '92, that I'd remained steadily enthralled with the medium for about three years. This helped them conclude it was a worthwhile investment, much to my everlasting delight.

My brother played the NES to win at the games and gain cred with his friends, but he never went beyond that console. I'm not sure the he really enjoyed the hobby much at all, in the end.

You bring up an interesting story with the game choices, though. I guess I was luckier than you, in that my parents let me rent games whichever games I wanted to try from our local video store (Mutant League Hockey!) and, if they bought one as a present for a birthday, usually went with one of the selections I'd rented to death (Hyperstone Heist!). I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't had the option to rent titles, or if my best friend hadn't been a boy with a Sega Genesis himself, whose game library was another source of discovery. But on the other hand, with several brothers interested in video games at home, you probably had access to way more titles and way more variety than I ever did, despite also being burdened with Mario Teaches Typing.

I remember in elementary school that I barely knew anyone else that played video games. And if they did, it was platformers like mario & donkey kong.

That's awesome that your parents did buy you further consoles that were released. Pretty much after buy the NES, I got nothing. Though my brothers invested their money into get a PS and game gear, etc. My dad bought us all a Gameboy to share (you can imagine how that went with more than 2 people, or even more than 1 person!).

haha How lucky of you to be able to get games that are "worthwhile". XD Although I must say, by mid elementary school, I was a very good typer. I just have horrible memories of being MADE to play Mairo Teaches Typing. It was like being forced to play/take piano lessons. The dreadfulness of it.

We never rented games either. Or at least I never recall doing so. I think my brothers did though. By the time I was in late elementary school, I got choice in the games I wanted to play/buy.

I also was upset when my dad decided to sell the NES without telling anyone.