This past weekend Nintendo held a special event titled “Girls Love Gaming” to celebrate and honor girls that love gaming. The cool event introduced gamer girls of all ages to current and upcoming Nintendo titles like Pokemon Sun & Moon, Mario Maker 3DS, and update for the Wii U. The venue was turned into what looked like a huge gamer’s sleepover that any kid would have wished for with huge bean bags, snacks and tons of video games.
As a gamer girl myself, it was a treat to see little ones at the age of 3, the age I started, having a blast playing Mario Marker and even learning how to maneuver a Nintendo 3DS for the first time. Nintendo Brand Ambassador Woman Gamers were around to help assist the little gaming beasts in the making and the parents were able to get in on the fun as well.
Games that were featured were Mario Maker (unreleased update), Mario Maker 3DS, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Maker, PokeMon Sun & Moon, Yokai Watch, and more to accommodate any type of gaming style the girls may have. This intimate private event was different than the the traditional annual Nintendo Holiday Showcase featured in malls across the nation.
Woman make up 48 percent of gamers and that is not just the stereotypical mobile phone games, but hardcore platforms like the PC. A lot of gamers begin gaming in their childhood but a study, that was discussed during GDC 2015, showed that many girls are into gaming and science at young but once they hit middle get a shift in interest. One of the main reasons found were family members or childhood influencers telling girls that they shouldn’t play with or want to make video games. This then causes most these girls to shy away from pursuing science into their teens and womanhood. If a little girl loves video games, science, math, engineering, etc it should be embraced and nurtured.
With less woman making video games the representation has declined and so has the point of view to feature more female protagonist of all walks of life. Seeing an event like Nintendo’s Girls Love Gaming gets the parents involved and shows them what young girl gamers could potentially be. It also opens up more options for what she would like as a gamer.
I chatted with Anka Dolecki of Nintendo of America about how awesome it was to see gaming companies celebrating where it starts, which is youth. She gave her closing speech with Gamer Girls Rule, and expressed how diversity is important in the industry.
I look forward to Nintendo continuing their community efforts with the announcement of Nintendo Switch to embrace the Nintendo fans more instead of controlling how the community should bloom in this new gaming era of social expression.
Let us know your thoughts on embracing young gamer girls and what you all look forward to see from Nintendo in the community side in the comments below.
