Time to sit down for another YvoCaro Plays. As always, these blurbs are mostly about the video games I’m currently playing. Sometimes though, I look back at past gaming adventures. Unedited thoughts that spring up in my mind. And at times a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different!
If you like these bits of gaming thoughts you can find the previous ones here
The Road to LadiesGamers.com
This morning I was reminded that it’s been 11 years since I delved into the what’s and why’s of playing video games. Long before LadiesGamers came to life, I had previous websites. My first attempt was on a free platform called 40+ Women’s Gaming Site, which still lives in stasis (interested? It’s here). Nice to revisit, seeing the names of the friends that are still my gaming friends now and the friend who sadly passed away much too soon.
After that, the first Ladies and Gaming website was kindly hosted by Jonah, who took us under his wing at World of Nintendo. We had our own separate server space and I was able to make the first start at a real website. Finally in 2014 LadiesGamers came to be as you know it, a site that was intended from the start to enable me to talk about video games of the more laid back kind. That in a time when most gamers viewed simulation games as an inferior sort of games.
The World of Video Games is Changing
But, as Galadriel told us at the start of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings: ” the World is changed…I feel it in the Water…I feel it in the Earth….I smell it in the Air…
https://youtu.be/BhjDnrw34QA
The World of Video Games is changing too. Have you noticed the shift in attention? When I started out with the website the focus of most companies was very much on macho games. The marketing people over at the big gaming companies focused their efforts on the stereotype gamer. Male, teens or in their twenties, games with a focus on action, adventure and the more sinister looking backdrops. Games mostly had male protagonists and if a woman was in the video game, she had the role of the damsel in distress or was fighting in a skimpy bikini.
But lately, a new term is gaining momentum: Wholesome Games! I couldn’t have found a better name for it if I tried: laid back games, casual games…they don’t do the lovely pieces of pure art and entertainment that are entering the scene justice. The cute, the colourful and of the kind that made you feel good playing them. No earth shattering story, no deep plot, no dangers lurking around every corner. Just the joy of playing that’s making you feel good.
Over the years there have been more titles like that, even before the term Wholesome Games was used for the first time. I think the way many people have found relaxation in Animal Crossing New Horizons has paved the road. Over here at LadiesGamers we have been trying to spread the word for years and now:
The Time of the Wholesome Games is here!
And we love it!!