Unfounded Vilification of Hobbyists
It’s interesting to me that while the gaming and romance book fandoms aren’t typically considered overlapping interests, they do face similar stereotyping from the general public.
I guess I can be considered both a gamer and a romance reader – although, I don’t have the honor of being considered “hardcore” in either. I’ve been a gamer much longer than I’ve been a romance reader, however. And a large percentage of PassionFruiters are gamers. So, we understand that segment of society pretty darn well.
Even being a novice romance reader, I’ve found the stereotypes for both hobbies distasteful as I’m sure you have if you consider yourself in either (or both) of these two categories.
Offensive Game Stereotypes:
- All gamers are young/teenage single males
- All gamers live in their games, not the real world
- All gamers cannot control their impulses
- All gamers and videogames are violent
- All gamers want a girl with unrealistic boob-jiggling animations
- All gamers are incapable of any kind of social interaction
A couple links to peruse to incite your gamer nerd rage:
http://kotaku.com/5103011/boys-hang-kitten-with-game-controller-sheriff-blames-gta
http://kotaku.com/5513019/educator-claims-damning-evidence-against-games-offers-little
Offensive Romance Novel Stereotypes:
- All romance readers are older single females
- All romance readers live in their books, not the real world
- All romance novels are all about the sex
- All romance readers want a man who doesn’t exist
- All romance readers are incapable of having a healthy relationship
A couple links to peruse to fan the flames of your reader anger:
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/what-romance-readers-want/
There are a lot of similarities in inaccurate stereotypes (although, there’s going to be overlap with any kind of hobby that people are passionate about, I suspect.) Even though I may be a gamer and a romance novel reader, I haven’t killed anyone and I know the difference between a fictional character and a real person (shocking, isn’t it?) And I’m no outlier – I would even hazard a bet that you, the reader, don’t fit the above stereotypes, either.
The ability to appreciate the trials of our potential fans seems to be another reason why Tiger Eye should be able to cross genres successfully. At PassionFruit we understand games and gamers and how they’re falsely perceived (and have been through the short history of the media.) So it’s not exactly a leap for us when romance readers expect (and deserve) to be shown a little respect and we get it when they want their entertainment of choice to be shown the same courtesy.
Two words for you – “mission accepted.”
4 Responses to “Unfounded Vilification of Hobbyists”
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by mcvane: “Unfounded Vilification of Hobbyists” (at @PassionGames blog) http://bit.ly/b56bL5 (re: gamers and romance readers)…
I just found your site through a link from Kotaku, and though I usually never post anything, anywhere, I need to tell you that I think what you are doing is absolutely awesome.
Thanks to my mom, who loves romance novels, I’ve been reading them since the 7th grade. (I’m now 28. Got great scores on my verbal SATs, though!) And thanks to my dad, who loves video games, some of my earliest memories are of that dang dog from Duck Hunt, laughing at my terrible hand eye coordination. (I’m now a software engineer. Got cut from all sorts of sports teams. Go figure.)
Anyway, as you point out in your blog, these two entertainment spaces seldom, if ever, overlap. And even when they do, like in Bioware’s Dragon Age, the stories are written by men (maybe for men). This is a problem, since I believe men and women look for different things in their romantic fiction. One of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold (who has her own well written thoughts on the difficulties of combining the romance and fantasy/sci fi genres) points out in her blog that romances written by men tend to end tragically, with the man free to love again, while romances written by women, for women, always end with the woman and man building a future world together.
I am deeply a partisan of the second, happy ending. :) I believe that romance novels are wonderful because the ending is certain, and as a result, the reader can relax into the intricacies of the plot and enjoy a deep trusting vicarious identification with the heroine. Video games are wonderful because they are all about exploration and deep identification–be that of situations, emotions, or moral dilemmas. I imagine that a video game that combined the two would be deeply immersive, and amazingly gratifying to play.
Unfortunately, there are no video games like this today. As Alistair lay dying at my feet at the end of Bioware’s Dragon Age–punishment, no doubt, for the fact that I simply *could* not allow him to sleep with that witch/skank Morrigan–I thought: “Dang. I’m pretty sure Jayne Ann Krentz could have come up with an ending for this story that would not have required a box and a half of tissues and a therapy to get over the guilt-trip. We need some romantic interactive fiction written by women, for women.”
And here you are! I will go home and download Tiger Eye immediately. :)
Hi Stephanie!
Thank you so much for your post! It’s so nice to hear from gamers who are ALSO romance novel readers!! :)
I agree that it is very difficult to find romance games in the US – it’s a successful industry in Japan (at least.) I felt that Shenmue did an exceptionally good job of making me feel invested in the people and the Legend of Zelda games usually do, too. Although, those relationships weren’t so much about romance… which is exactly your point. :)
I would like to know what you think of the Harvest Moon games! They’re resource management style games… and I know that can be a very polarizing gameplay mechanic (in the LOOOOOOOVE it or HAAAAATE it kind of way), but they do have some romance in them.
While I was playing Dragon Age, I was trying to build any kind of relationship with anybody… I admit it, I was shamelessly all over everyone in that game. ;) I was just glad to have options, though.
I think that the point you bring up about the differences between men and women writing romance is very, very interesting. I’ll definitely have to check out that blog! And would love to hear of any other info you have! Stuff like this fascinates me. What makes something entertaining to one person or group of people and not to another?
Thanks for the support!
-Mari
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