We are forever giving you our verdict about games, make lists of recommended games and have added interviews with indie developers in the mix. Always writing about someone else’s efforts! So maybe it’s time to look at ourselves. Who are these two ladies that keep LadiesGamers going?
So here you have it, our first of the Monthly Q&A’s with the team behind LadiesGamers. Meet Paula and Yvonne with this first set of questions. Feel free to ask us your own questions to be answered in our next monthly Q&A!
How Did You Find Your Gaming Passion?
Yvonne: Paula, we are just about the same age, but you have been gaming for far longer then I have, right? I’m just a newbie!
Paula: Yes, you could say that! My interest in gaming started a long, long time ago. I think it was around the end of the 1970s when a friend of mine had an Atari 2600. It’s a little hard to remember since it was so long ago, but Pong was probably one of the first-ever games I played.
Moving on from that, I’d grown up, got married and my husband had a Commodore 64. Unfortunately, my memory isn’t good enough to remember what we played on the system.
After that, the time I consider my gaming started in earnest was when the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in 1992. With Super Mario being the first game I played on the SNES.
Yvonne: Of course, growing up (I’m 56 years old) we didn’t have a gameboy or such. We had a P2000 computer from Philips when I was young (my father loved newfangled stuff!) and there was a game like Pong on there. But it never really interested me. Gaming alone wasn’t something I saw myself do, but I did enjoy gaming together with my husband.
I think it was 1993 when we bought ourselves a CDi, and played Link, the Faces of Evil and Zelda, the Wand of Gamelon. I know now, with all that I’ve read up on since then about Nintendo, that those games are considered some of the worst ever, a parody on real Zelda games.They are generally known as the compromise between Nintendo and Philips after the two companies failed to release a CD-based add-on for the SNES. But at the time, we spent night after night, till the wee hours of the morning, trying to solve all the levels. You know, the game music is still in my mind! It made us buy the GameCube, so good came of it.
We proceeded playing on the GameCube together, with games like the Harry Potter games and Zelda, The Windwaker and still, I never played alone. Until I found Animal Crossing Wild World and bought myself a DS!
What Was Your First Game and Have You Ever Returned to it?
Yvonne: Not as easy a question as you would think! Because as you see in our answers above, we both played video games with someone else. In my case that meant looking on, playing bits and handing over the controller once it got difficult!
Paula: Super Mario may have been the first game I played on a console I owned but it was The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past that hooked me into gaming. The release of SNES as far as I’m concerned is when my obsession with gaming started and that’s all thanks to Zelda. Since then I have replayed that particular game numerous times on other Nintendo systems, never gets boring!
Yvonne: I think I’ve mentioned it so many times that all the regulars of LadiesGamers know. But here goes: it was the Summer holiday of 2006, when my daughter was getting bored and I promised her a new DS game. She only had Nintendogs, had taken care of her dogs for months, and she was ready for something new. I think all mothers know that there comes a time when you want to keep your child busy (she was 7 at the time) during the long weeks of no school. So we went to the store and looked at games. The one that stood out to us was Animal Crossing: Wild World.
We didn’t know anything about it and bought it purely based on the cover. It looked cute, and I felt it would be right for her. I still remember it vividly, we sat together on our couch and did the first steps. Doing chores for Tom Nook, getting to know the first villagers. I had to help out, because what I hadn’t expected was that the game had so much text. And it was in English too, while our native tongue is Dutch!
So I decided to help her out. Taking care of the flowers, scoring nice new furniture and more. I checked out online what to expect as the game had gotten me curious. And found the Animalcrossingcommunity that had many more adult gamers playing Animal Crossing then I had expected! I knew I was in trouble when I found myself daily, even more then my daughter did. So when she went to a sleepover and wanted to take her DS, I knew it was time for my very own device. And as I was much more addicted to Wild World then my daughter was. So, off to the store and I bought my very own white DS Lite. A good buy!
Since then I’ve been a die-hard fan of the series! Continued playing Wild World for 1,5 year straight, every single day.
Ever Been Mistaken For a Mom Buying a Game for Your Kids?
Yvonne: As an adult woman gaming this is a very recognizable scenario. I wonder if it happens more often to women then to men, but I think that’s a topic for another time. Going to a gaming store to buy game or device we are often mistaken for mothers (or even grandmothers) buying these things for the kids! Paula, I’m pretty sure you’ve had some experience there.
Paula: I sure have. Recently I was buying a new controller for my Nintendo Switch in my local Game store. I was the only customer in the store at the time and the young sales assistant asked if I needed any help.
I replied no thanks, I know what I’m looking for. Later, at the cash register when I was paying for my new controller, the sales assistant and I had a gaming chat. The look of surprise on his face was priceless when I mentioned I reviewed games for LadiesGamers and was also admin for the site. Poor guy probably thought I was talking through the top of my head. He was quite shocked to know that someone old enough to be his Mother or probably more in the age range to be his Granny knew about video games!
Yvonne: Yep, I know exactly what you mean. I have several examples of that, for instance when I was at a Toys ‘R Us years ago trying to download a legendary Pokémon to my game on the DS. One of the employees casually strolled towards me, kindly offering to help me out. When I thanked him and said that I knew exactly what to do, he asked me with a smile if my son had left good instructions. Needless to say that earned him The Look…”no, I’m downloading this Legendary Pokémon to my own game!” That baffled him, and as if he couldn’t believe it, he started testing me about my preferred team and the boss battles. Cheeky lad!
But Paula, I remember how in your working career you worked at a GAME store. I’m wondering, have things changed since then?
Paula:
Things have changed a lot since I worked in GAME. It was the middle to late 1990’s when I started working for GAME for 10 years or so, though in those days it was called the Electronics Boutique Limited and later rebranded as GAME. It was a male-dominated industry then, I was the first female store assistant in the Northern Ireland stores and I was the oldest member of staff, as all the young guys when in the age range of 18 to 20. And a female store manager was unheard of in those days.
I started as a Christmas temporary sales assistant and was lucky enough to be kept on as a permanent full-time sales assistant. Then I moved to Senior sales assistant and I often wondered did I have that title as I was senior in age to all my colleagues, by about 15 years. I then progressed to store manager and by that time I was one of two female managers in GAME stores in NI.
Nowadays the age range of the staff is still pretty much the same, all young and in the age range of 18 to 30. Though it is a less male-oriented staff environment now, with a lot more female faces behind the store counter than there was 20 to 25 years ago.
In fact, my local GAME store has a female manager for the first time ever. And it’s great to see that women are more included in the world of video games and more people recognise that us women do play games and enjoy them just as much as our male counterparts.
Yvonne: Well, that’s it from us. I hope you liked our first ever Q&A. And if there are questions you’d like answered for the next Q&A, feel free to reach out!