this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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This was my experience watching the video games episode of Adam Ruins Everything.
"They kept games in the toy aisle! Of course girls weren't playing them."
I played then... then again I wasn't a girl at the time but I'm a woman now..
If by that you mean in electronics locked away behind glass. Than yes.... the toy aisle
I still remember Toys R Us had a separate section for video games. I don't just mean a separate aisle. A separate corner of the store. Though I don't recall whether or not anything was locked behind glass. The more expensive stuff, like the consoles, was probably behind the counter, though.
Yeah - you had to take a paper ticket to check out and they would ring it up and give you a copy. Unless it was an older game. Then you could just grab it and take it to the counters
Maybe I'm remembering before they did paper tickets or after they stopped it, because I feel like I'd remember something like that. The one I went to didn't seem to have that, though I didn't go often because I was a broke kid. They just had the games on the shelves when I did go, though.
You had to take a slip of paper and bring it to the desk.
Wal-mart had a separate aisle. It was by itself, and the nearby aisles were kind of split 50/50 for "boy" or "girl" toys. Like I think lego and action figures were on one side, Barbie on the other?
I remember first they had a paper ticket and an aisle in the NES and SNES Era, but by the N64 Era they had the "Gamezone" corner.
You had to pick up a slip of paper for the cartridge you wanted, and then go to a security window after paying for it to actually get it.
The consoles I never actually saw on the store floor...
If you were socialized and raised as a boy by your parents, then I don't think you can say your personal experience disproves that games were demonstrably marketed and targeted towards boys and not girls. It's gotten better with time thankfully but yeah not sure you can just handwave that away.
Oh no I'm not handwaving it.
I mean they called it the GameBOY for a reason...
Problem with the episodes that it stated that the reason why video games were marketed towards a male audience, was because toy aisles were segregated by gender and video games were kept in the male toy aisle. And that it was this decision that led to Nintendo going all in on a male exclusive advertising campaign.
Which is not true, as video games were only ever stored behind safety glass in the electronic section.
They simply cost too much to be out in the open like that.
Video games were definitely marketed towards male audiences, and I think a part of that was because they were seen as an extension of computers and at the time stem Fields were seen as male only.
So it's not the issue of claiming a gender bias in gaming, it's that the logic behind it and the reason the episode gives for the bias, does not mesh with reality...
I'm against dishonesty on principle, especially if it's from a debunking show. I actually have gained myself a distrust of Skeptics and debunkers simply because I find that most of the time they're the biggest Liars in the room.
I still remember the first time I went into a Toys R Us to but a Nintendo game, and a few years later to a Babbages to buy a PC game (simcity)
Ah I didn't take your first comment in that way, but I see what you mean! Thanks for explaining haha I agree with you for sure
I'm old enough to remember when hand-held electronic games were just displayed in stores like any other items, making them easy to shoplift. I know this because I shoplifted a bunch of them. This was in the mid- to late-70s. I apologize for my role in ruining this shit for everybody else.