"It's for my nephew," the origin story

Have you ever been in a video game store?



They are not made for chicks like me. Chicks who are on the "hen" side of the word chick, that is.

My kind of store has well-lit aisles, products arranged in groups that make sense, and possibly a faint pumped-in scent of lavender or apple pie, whatever research has shown makes chicky-hens want to buy. A lot of thought has gone into merchandising, and I'm not just being sold a throw pillow, I'm being sold a dream of a fully-coordinated living room.


(So much order! No piles of unread New Yorkers all over!)

Video game stores are not designed this way. Especially the ones in my town, which are independent and which, due to their being independent and local, do appeal to me in theory.

In reality, we are talking an instant assault on the nose. Video game stores smell like puberty, Funyun sweat and a soupcon of Mountain Dew burps. No Axe undertones -- these guys don't care enough about what girls think to try that hard, and I'm not sure whether to be grateful for that or not. We are talking lots of merch under glass and behind the counter (my town is small and has its share of tweakers). We are also talking underlit and full of young guys. If they're accompanied by adults, it is by their dads.

We are talking about an environment that is meant for those with Y chromosomes under 30, and which has an atmosphere that attracts enough tweakers to make it necessary to have some overly-obvious security. I didn't really realize this the first time I went in, in my work clothes and heels, to check out what it would be like to buy a game there.

Although the deals were red hot on games, the atmosphere was not for me. I bought "Guitar Hero: World Tour" for seven bucks (!!) and told the clerk it was for "my nephew" before checking out. Yes, I lied. I went to the other game store to see if it was any different (aka better), but it was basically exactly the same thing. To boot, both stores had a paucity of Kinect titles.

I realized that although women my age are basically a core gaming market, we are not its target, and we probably won't be getting clean, light and attractive stores anytime soon, especially since we're already buying. Teen boys are the ones who need to be hooked at this point, whether to a system or the style of sitting down with a controller in front of a TV instead of through the internet or however they're playing.


I get the feeling this is the kind of woman gamer considered acceptable in the game store environment.

My personal and professional ethos is to shop local, but on video games I'm taking a pass, considering the attempts I've made as my good faith effort. Some stuff you just have to have a certain amount of either rapport with the shopkeepers and their customers or, barring that, privacy to buy. I will let these particular fiefdoms have it their way.



I can't help thinking that eventually someone will see that there is money to be made in creating a game store for people that replicates a Target-like environment, or even something more boutique. I'd also be interested to know of other women's experiences going to game stores.