For those of you who don’t know, I spent 13 months working at GameStop from 2018-2019. Nine of those 13 months I spent as a Senior Game Advisor, a glorified key holder and if you want more info about what it was like being a female working at Game Stop you can get the info here. During my 13 months, I was introduced to the most diverse set of customers I have ever experienced and to be completely honest, every experience I had working there was unique. However, the one that hits me in the heart is the girl gamer community. There were countless girls that came to my store with their families or boyfriends. They all were either quiet or threatened that I was talking to their man. Most conversations were difficult to navigate. But there was a couple of times that a single girl that would walk in by herself. Most of the time they were one of two types of girls, there was the “pick up” girl who was sent there to pick something up, or “I already know what I want” girls who knew exactly what she wanted before she got to the store, usually a collectible or apparel. Except,  every couple weeks or so a girl would come in, very timidly, and say they were just looking. But after a while, I noticed these girls would pick up one of the major recent releases and instead of just looking at the cover they would read the back of the game and usually watch videos of gameplay. They were genuinely interested in one of the “boy type” games. That was one of my favorite sayings stapled by our “dudebro” customers. Ya know, those guys that say gaming is for the boys and girls should worry about other things. The best kind of guy right? Ha, wrong.

Most of the time, when one of my male associates would approach them offering help they wouldn't ask any questions. But on the rare occasion when I would walk over they would unload really intelligent and good questions on me. I was so shocked, most girls refused to speak to me or immediately hated me. But every so often I encountered the rare form of a potential girl gamer.

Now let me clarify, I am fully aware of the badass female gamers that dominate twitch and mixer streams, and no not the “thot audit” type streamers. The real down to earth girls that can beat most the boys playing with them. When I say “potential gamer girl”, I’m talking about the girls who either have dabbled in the gaming world with “girly type games”, Nintendogs, Sims, Lego games, and so on. Or those maybe late teens, or early twenties girls who see the “boy type” games, like Call of Duty, Battlefield, any kind of Tom Clancy game so on and so forth, and actually wanna try gaming. Each time I encountered a potential gamer girl I was so excited, it was like I found my people! You see, I was one of those “girly type game” girls, until recently. But you bet your ass all my puppies were fed, healthy and happy. Plus, I had an entire city in Samantha Land, my world in Sims.

What broke my heart was the way so many of these girls were treated. I can’t count how many times I had to watch so many of these girls get shut down by other customers. It was awful, and the one time I did say something I was complained against by the bully of the situation claiming I need to “mind my own business”, “I had no idea about gaming, and only got this job because of my ti***”. There is an mass group of women out in the world who want to “get into” the gaming world but are shut down by those around them. Well, ladies, I AM HERE! I am one of you. I am still barely tapping the surface of what it’s like to really game. My Xbox parties are mostly those I am playing with taking about games I haven't played, politics of gaming developers or throw backstories to some of the older but “amazing games all need to play”. I usually have no idea what’s going on, but what's amazing about finding a like-minded group of people who are willing to teach is why I come back to game almost every day for hours at a time. I know this is not realistic for all but just personally I have the time to do it for extended periods of time. My time I set aside to game is my time to shut the outside world off, plug into my friends and rage for a while.

Don’t let the “dudebros” of the world shut you down if you want to try something new and if you want someone to play with my Xbox gamertag is Grim717. I don’t play everything but my people are awesome and very welcoming. Come stop by and see what the good side of gaming looks like!