I have to agree with the people who say that old gaming = exclusively male player base is a skewed stereotype. Something that people don't really think about or realize, is that we're talking about a long gaming era filled with male-oriented societal control and perspectives. Game developers were almost exclusively male so they catered to predominantly male ideals of entertainment, right down to avatar designs where most lead characters were male, overly buff, gritty, and full of testosterone, and if female, they were designed to appease the "male gaze" so they were excessively curvaceous, skimpily clad, beautiful, and almost always in need of assistance by men. I can tell you that those tropes just didn't appeal to me personally, and I would avoid most of those games (if I could) with an eyeroll. And socially, boys could be quite harsh with girl gamers because, in my experience, if they didn't know you, you had to "prove" yourself to them, and they just couldn't wait to mock your mistakes. So I think that a lot of girls/women went kind of underground with their gaming hobby. I know that when I played MMOs like City of Heroes, Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, I would pretend to be male to avoid instant discrimination and/or harassment, and I knew other gals who did this too. Even in my tabletop games, I've had DMs who disallowed what they called "gender bending", which was playing a character of the opposite sex. Apparently, too many females wanted to avoid the sexist tropes by playing males. :| But I also think that, had earlier games catered a little more to creativity, balance, or diverse interests it would have seemed more "normal" to have girls and women who were gamers. we wanted to be gamers. We just weren't always interested in what was offered.
My gaming journey actually began with the classic tabletop, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons when I was at the end of high school. Yeah, it was with a group of boys, but they didn't even blink when I chose to play a fumbling, male thief (I'm female and a proclaimed "Tom Boy") and that was the beginning of a lifelong love for tabletop gaming. I've always had male buddies since I was a child and I never liked playing "house" or "mommy" with babydolls. I remember a time when I was about seven, out in front of my building looking for something to do, and a little girl was playing "House" and asked me to play...it lasted about ten minutes, lol. There was a ruckus and a roar coming from around the building and one boy was chasing another because they were playing "monster", and I abandoned the little girl to join that game instead. The first thing they wanted to do was make me the victim who got devoured, to which I protested that I wanted to destroy the monster, and we finally came to an agreement that while the other boy distracted "it" with an attack, I could at least make an escape. I was a little miffed because I didn't think they played very fairly, lol. It's funny to think of the things that stick in your mind from childhood.
As for tech gaming, I used to manage a retro arcade that had all kinds of vintage games and I got really good at Golden Axe, could beat the game on one token, using only one life, with any of the characters. Then I got my first console, a vintage Sega Genesis, that was given to me by a friend because he wasn't playing it anymore due to the Playstation craze, and I absolutely loved it. I actually still have it and all the awesome games I collected and played, like Shining Force 2, Master of Monsters, X-Men, The Tick, Shadowrun, Toe Jam and Earl (a favorite), Rastan, and others. I've been wanting to hook it back up for another go at nostalgia.
I was a little late to the PC gaming craze. My first PC game was Vampire the Masquerade, which was now my favorite tabletop game of the same name (and still is. They just released a new edition last year!) But this was the game that actually "forced" me to buy my first desktop PC. I had to play it. This opened a new world of PC gaming, though I had played a couple of really old, vintage games on an ex boyfriend's old computer that were hilarious; Tank Wars and Worms. Worms was especially awesome because we could have up to four people play it at a time and we could name our teams and throw bombs at each other and have people switch out. But once I entered the PC gaming world, I still stuck to mainly RPG style games, like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, etc and a few MMOs and, of course, Vampire's Bloodlines. (There's a new one coming out this year, Bloodlines 2! Squee!) And I learned how to connect and play with other people via LAN gaming.
As for The Sims, I remember my ex boyfriend playing a Sim City game (not sure which version) and just watching in fascination. But it looked way too complicated for me so I didn't play it myself, but I considered it. He told me about The Sims and said it was a pretty good game, but honestly, I thought the concept was kind of stupid, lol. I don't think he made it sound interesting because he didn't mention the Grim Reaper or the satire of it. I remember asking, "why in the world would anyone want to play out a person going to work and living a normal life? Just go live your life!" So I didn't have a very high opinion of the concept. To me, it sounded like "playing House" all over again. Boring. But...
I got deeply into Final Fantasy 7 and it's extensive storyline, had the Advent Children digital movie and used to research all of the easter eggs, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, and hidden background stories, etc. I really fell in love with all of the characters. Strangely, this led me to Sims 2 via a Youtube video of someone who had used custom content to make FF7 characters in their Sims game and I just freaked out. I watched the gameplay and was immediately obsessed with it. The Youtuber had put links to the CC and pack that they had, and I promptly bought Sims 2 Deluxe with the Holiday Stuff extra disc and Nightlife and downloaded the CC. It was the beginning of a long-term love affair and I eventually bought every pack for Sims 2 and, using all of the amazing CC out there, was able to create an amalgamation of my nerdy life in one Sims world that included Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, FF7, The Tick, X-Men, Dark Elves, LoTR, Steampunk, villains, heroes, punk, gothic, my Sim self and companions, and anything else I could dream up. It was my own personal, geeky paradise.
So you could say that I sometimes play "House" with my Sims, only the characters are a little stranger. But I still prefer to have drama and adventure in my games and playing "Monster" or with my beloved Vampires, rather than playing domestically. And I still love to create Sims, probably even more than I used to because the Sims 4 allows for more flexibility and diversity of appearance in CAS without CC, and even some fantastical designs, if you own the right packs, so I can create them all myself instead of finding someone else's design and downloading it. And now, after all these years, I'm even finding a brand new interest for building. I had tried it before in Sims 2, but it seemed very complicated and I couldn't maneuver it very well. And although I'm still quite an amateur in that, I'm still proud that I've successfully built my first complete house and am working on a tiny mushroom house now, lol. So my play style continues to expand, which I'm grateful for.
It's been quite a gaming journey and although I still dabble in other games like TESO online, The Secret World, Fe and some others, I always come back "home" to the same two ongoing games: The Sims 4 and Lord of the Rings Online (which is turning 13 this year!) Maybe one day I'll look into getting Sims 2 optimized on Windows 10 when I have the time.
