This week, we started playing Life is Strange, talking about the genre of “player two” video games. After sitting through our two online classes this week, I put some thought into the idea of player two video games, and if there were any that I have played in my lifetime. The idea of player two video games was just introduced to me this week due to various factors. One is that I am male. I realized this after going through our discord chat for the past two classes, seeing that most of the females were saying that they enjoy less competitive, relaxing games. Games such as animal crossing was heavily referenced due to the amount of cooperation needed, low violence, and slower paced gameplay. I believe that this is the case due to the way someone was raise, or the tendencies learned during childhood. I am a minor in communication, and this player 2 theory links very closely with a theory of communication. That theory being how boys and girls learn their roles in this society. Boys growing up are seen playing more competitive and violent game/sports growing up (football, airsoft, ministicks). Within these games, the boys are more focused on who is going to win, rather than playing together. For instance, a group of boys playing king of the hill would look drastically different than a group of girls playing king of the hill. Early on, males learn this competitiveness through reality, and transfer it over to video games. Same can be said with girls. Girls grow up playing house or dolls because that is/was the norm. It was an oddity to see a young girl play sports with the boys and vice versa. I believe that this norm of reality in some ways shaped the video game community. I do not come across many female gamers because I either play sports games, or violent first-person shooters. Female gamers focus on games such as animal crossing, or Life is Strange due to the relaxing nature of the playthrough, directly relating to a group of girls playing dolls.

Another thought that piqued my interest was the thought of E-sports and player two video games. Even though the e-sports scene is growing massively in size, there rarely are any female gamers within the mix. Video games are much different that sports, not needing top physical capabilities to perform to the highest level. So, I am curious as to why there aren’t more pro female gamers on the scene playing for teams. Is it because most games that are a part of the e-sports scene are too competitive, not attracting the attention of female gamers, relating to Chess’s Ready Player Two. I believe time will tell, with females within e-sports. When I say bigger community, I mean possibly more games to play professionally that relate more to women, and more female players on the big stage. I believe this will not only make videogames rise in popularity immensely but attract more female gamers to play a broader horizon of games.