A few months ago during E3 I asked the question whether Nintendo was being more gender inclusive after the inclusion of lead female characters in most of their E3 line-up. Yesterday, the Nintendo’s Girl Club youtube channel popped up on youtube, giving further evidence that Nintendo is really stepping up their efforts to appeal to a wider audience.
The introductory video (posted above) promises trailers and news presented by the channel’s host Jorgie Porter and other female fans of Nintendo games and franchises. All in all, it seems like the channel will be just that: female gamers talking about games and news relating to Nintendo. It’s a welcomed and novel approach, and it does show that Nintendo is at least trying to appeal to female gamers. I doubt we’ll see any hard hitting insight on the channel, but it’s good nonetheless. This comes after many divisions of Nintendo have launched a marketing campaign to appeal to a wider demographic of gamers, including commercials and games that more widely appeal to a greater audience.
If you are or know a young girl that is a fan of Nintendo then they may enjoy this new channel. I realize this entire post reads like a advertisement for Nintendo, but I thought it was something worth noticing.
Check out more videos on the Nintendo Girl’s Club Youtube channel
The Sociology of Videogames 
Now, this might sound a little harsh now but, are you realizing what Nintendo is doing by introducing the “Girls Club”? Have you ever heard of “roles”. If you have a B.A. in sociology, you should and you should know that especially when talking about gender roles are a major point in sexual discrimination, or “sexism” if you want. What Nintendo is doing is, making the assumption that all, I repeat, all “gamer girls” out there are like that chick in the video. Dressed up, always up to the latest fashion and well, “interested” in video games. How much do you want to bet, that blondie there didn’t play any games before working for Nintendo?
Now, again, this is not against you but you seem to be missing the fact that Nintendo is doing a completely wrong approach on how they should be advertising games for girls and make them appeal to girls. See, the problem is that girls who never had anything to do with video games may have a good reason for that and thus won’t check the “Girls Club” out at all. And the second thing is that REAL gamer girls are going to the channel, shake their head and be like “whatever” and leave immediately because they do not want to be put in a position where the are distinct from the “average” gamer.
Girls are desperately trying to claim a place in the gaming world and be accepted as a gamer and not as a girl. And campaigns like the “Girls Club” are just another obstacle in their way to accomplish that put there by a company who has no ideas about their clients and their actual needs. What girl gamers (the real ones) need is not a “damsel in distress” like Princess Peach because that is unarguably not a good role-model to come up with for girls. You see, those role-models are obsolete and with enforcing them Nintendo is just stepping back from a modern view of society to an old and unfitting one for our current time.
That’s all I have to say about that. I was shocked when I heard about the “Girls Club” and so should be everyone who claims to be a gamer. As for me, none of my female friends who are into gaming appreciate the idea of the “Girls Club” and that’s saying much about how Nintendo’s efforts to reach a female clientele were in vain.
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate your opinion on this matter and love to see different takes on the blog. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying about under representation and misrepresentation of females in the gaming community both in video games themselves and in the media surrounding video games, and it’s an issue I’ve written quite a bit about on this blog. That said, I don’t believe this marketing campaign to be nearly as harmful as you do. Yes, I agree that Nintendo is still pigeonholing female gamers into certain categories, and that’s something they absolutely need to work on, but the fact that Nintendo is even acknowledging that they have a female base is miles ahead of what they were doing years ago. Even something as trivial as the Nintendo’s Girls Club is a step in the right direction for a company that has traditionally ignored female gamers all together. The war of equal representation in any field isn’t won over night, and I don’t think we should overlook small steps taken towards a greater goal. Acknowledgement in the face of years of being ignored is still a positive.