The Electronics Entertainment Expo…a magical yearly event for all gamers. For years I’ve watched as much of the event I could. Being a fan of Nintendo, that company had my special attention. I was there when Reggie Fils-Aime announced the Wii with these magic words: “my body is ready”. Was super exited when the 3DS was announced. And again, when Animal Crossing New Leaf was shown, actually seeing that we’d be able to swim in the game! So many memories come flooding back!
To me, actually being there in Los Angeles and experiencing the buzz first hand has been a dream…as I guess it is for every gaming enthusiast that doesn’t live in traveling distance from the city of angels. In 2020 with the pandemic having taken over the world, there was no E3. And this year, there was one, but in different form: entirely virtual. Suddenly, it wasn’t so far fetched anymore to actually be a part of the event. LadiesGamers applied and was accepted as media venue. Paula and I could take a look behind the scenes, even if it wasn’t in a real expo hall in a bustling city. A special moment for us!
We saw titles that are very much to our liking at the big companies. Like Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Rune Factory 5. The new footage for Breath of the Wild 2 was impressive, Monster Hunter Stories 2 looked very interesting and we loved seeing Two Point Campus in the Nintendo presentation.
But what’s even more exiting for us and maybe many of you: more and more wholesome games have been shown in this year. In the past, violent and combat games very much dominated the showcased titles and sure, there is indeed a huge audience for those. But as I’ve been yammering about ever since LadiesGamers came to life, there’s a different kind of gaming out there too. Games that are peaceful, where the story takes precedence, where you play to just relax. No goals, no pressure, just having fun.
Gamesindustry.biz researched how many of E3’s titles are non-violent back in 2019 and did so again this year. Now I must add that this year, Sony and EA were a no-show, so that might influence the ratio of violent/non violent games too. But it’s heartening to see that the balance is shifting. In 2019 239 titles were presented in nine events. Only 41 (17%) of them could be considered non-violent and only 17 of them were from the big publishers.
This year, in 2021 Gamesindustry.biz concluded that 33% of all titles shown were wholesome: 115 titles of the 349 games shown! That’s a vast improvement. Not surprising that most titles were indie titles and 63 of the 115 got a podium in the Wholesome Direct. (check out the ones that stood out to us here). Sure, I would expect such coverage from the Wholesome Direct, but others are doing their best as well as you can see in the list below:
So, that’s good news, isn’t it? No need anymore to worry that someone might see you play a game that they wouldn’t feel is a game for real gamers. What is that even, a real gamer? Feel confident that no matter what kind of game you pick up to relax, it’s always a real game as you love it.
Things have changed in the 7 years of LadiesGamers existence, and we will work hard to do our bit to change it even more!