Alphabet Blog Meme - B is for Boudicca

[erastes]

An interesting one, this, as Boudicca is a penname that I went under when I was writing in the Video Games World. I chose the pen-name because I was due to move to Norfolk, and as you know, that was the warrior queen's stamping ground back in the day. I wrote articles for Women Gamers.com, Indie Magazine and a few other smaller places.

Women Gamers has gone from strength to strength in ten years, from a bedroom hobby run by two sisters to a mega bucks site with some real punch and good for them.

I pride myself on being a fierce proponent of the fact that yes - women played games even though (at the time, it's better now) they did not get the representation in the big games magazines which were, up to about 3 or 4 years ago, run almost exclusively by 20-30 males. I was lucky enough to be sent by WG's to several of the huge UK games conventions which was just fabulous. Hundreds and hundreds of stalls with all the games of the next few months all free to play. I adored every second. It was fun, too, to chat to the developers because they were genuinely interested in women gamers.

Where they were going wrong (and where they STILL go wrong in my opinion) is trying to make "games for girls". Pink packaging, cutesy games about looking after your pony and such like games with no real meat to them. Women have always been interested in games and they'll play the same games as the guys in the most part but from my research a lot of them prefer a game with a strong story line, a reason to get involved (Final Fantasy, Ico, Metal Gear) rather than just driving round and round in circles.

My mother was the gamer in our family, she had one of the first games systems - the one with Pong on it - and then she got an Atari with Frogger, Space Invaders, River Run and the like.  I was vaguely interested in the games, would play when I visited, but it wasn't until the day that she bought a Playstation in 1995 that I started to get really interested. 

My mother, the original warrior heroine.

(and yes yes, a real-life warrioress, but I wasn't going to bang on about HER was I?)

Comments

[orchard-mnt.livejournal.com]

Boudicca is one of my favorite historic figures. hurray for all mega bitch brits!

[jean-roberta.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Her culture (the Iceni) was interesting too. Apparently Boudicca and her husband & all their subjects regarded their oldest daughter (Brogda, I think her name was) as the heir to the throne, but the Romans saw a power gap. For them, no male heir = no chief/king = a kingdom up for grabs. You could post a link (hint).

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I chucked that one in to see how you would interpret it. I don't see the attraction of gaming myself, but whatever floats your boat ...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I could have talked about the person, but I hadn't talked about my Boudicca persona before, which is something I enjoyed and was obviously my writing trying to get out, doing reviews and articles and the like. I got paid for it too, which was nice!

I know gaming isnt' everyone's cuppa, but I find game scripts really interesting - something I wouldn't mind getting involved in

[spikeyboots.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I never knew that about you. :) Obviously I am really new to the gaming world - and it was a part of fanacademia that I always skipped when I was studying as I felt I had no real knowledge of it ... but now it fascinates me on so many levels - - and, to be honest, I had no idea of the stories that were available out there!

(But you should see me try and play FFVII, it is terribly funny. Even with the help of the guide, and my friend yelling attack attack attack I still get so distracted by Cloud's HOT legs and everything happening at once!) Heee. I'll get better. ... Erm. ... Hopefully.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You can't be playing the original FFVII, this must be a next gen version?

Oh believe me - I'm the same. Snake and Raiden wear skin tight leather sneaking suits and their arses? JUST YUMMY. And I have no excuses for that. Teenaged boys have been lusting after polygonny bosoms of Lara Croft for 10 years so I can lust after the crotch and arse of hot men.

Swiftly, I can't find an arse, but this will do.

http://www.freewebs.com/metalgear_fox/snake%20raiden.JPG

[erastes.livejournal.com]

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/items/assist/images/assist11/assist11_071107e-l.jpg

hee hee!

[spikeyboots.livejournal.com]

Woot! I like ;)

[spikeyboots.livejournal.com]

Dear Gods. That is a lot of crotch. *stares* Eheheh.

Oh, yes. Believe it. I felt that if I was going to try gaming, and be obsessive about FFVII, I was going to go back and play it in all its pixelated glory! ;) Feel free to laugh at me, I do.

Though, I have spent a good ammount of time perving on the Crisis Core boys. Dear Gods. Sephiroth's lashes: they slay me.