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This is my Myspace Add me, I write to my friends there and do game networking.
The best way to get in touch is to send a message on Myspace if you have it Add Me.
You can use this editor @ geek - woman . com without the space in between.
I’m Geek Woman I am a freelance game journalist and an author. I’ve written three books about women, video games and technology. This fall my next book will be released. I am working on an expanded edition of my Geek Woman’s Game Guide as well as another book about Women, video games and the future.
I write for magazines and several websites. When I started out I wrote for two other women’s gaming sites that are no longer around. I was the editor-in-chief at Game-Vixen and the news enchantress at LadyGamers.
My writing around the web can be found in the “Where” Tab.
I have witnessed the frontier of new technologies all my life. I grew up remembering the day JFK got shot. I watched the moon landing in 1969 on a black and white TV. I believed in liberal arts education and the advancement of art in our culture. I also had an interest in the advancement of women.
My older brother had an electronics lab in our basement. He was building HAM radio equipment and I was helping. “Hand me a purple with 2 wires.” “Get my small needle nose pliers.” You get the idea. He had a thing for rooftops. We were always up there either installing antenas for various projects, or with a telescope to look at the moon and the stars.
He taught me to read. My first word was L-I-F-E. It was on the cover of LIFE magazine. I haven’t seen that mag around that much anymore. He also gave me The Hobbit. Yep, this was the recepie for a geeky girl.
Along my path I did many things. One thing that has been consistent is gaming. In the early years, and to some extent today many people don’t “get it” with gaming.
The role playing aspect and adopting a new persona was very attrative. I was never one for acting. But the thought of being able to do things that I could not do in real life was exciting. Gaming is a way to vent frustrations. It was also a way to bond with my computers in the early 1990’s.
As time went on I relized that not many women I knew were very computer savvy. For some reason I was braver. I clicked on everything. I read all the manuals for everything, clocks, phones and software.
I always liked to take things apart as a kid. Any wind up toys were history. Watches, clocks radios and small kitchen appliances were all fair game to me. I don’t know how long this phase lasted. From toddler size until about … ok … 30?
I worked my way through college doing runway modeling and working at Radio Shack. That’s an odd combination isn’t it? Thing is, I don’t look like a nerd. I look pretty hot for my age. I work out, I didn’t have kids. My figure has been more important to me than some misguided ideal of becoming a selfless “Mom”. Bleh, no thank you.
When I got out of college I got a job at the home office of The Car Phone Stores in Connecticut. I could take phones apart - but better yet I could assemble them and program them. I would take the customers, do their paperwork and find them a phone that would do what they wanted with lighteningspeed. My boss called me a baracuda. No one left without a phoneI always had a 100% closing ratio.
The phones would be shipped in separate parts in those daays hand sets and transmitters. The phones would be tabula rasa and needed to be programmed to function. Nowadays most of that is done for you before the phone gets to you. Back in those days I sold the first Motorola flip phone in new england in Connecticut for $2500.
Most of the women in the company worked in the office. There were about ten stores and I was the only woman in sales and the only woman that could assemble and test the hardware. Whenever I had a free minute I helped the engineer.
Gaming for me began with the Dungeons and Dragons original table top set. Then I got a Commodore 64. I get very nostalgic about some of those games. I took a detour for a while and had a PC which was a terrible machine. Eventually I gave it to my mother in law. She deserved the thing too. I kept up with games even after the consoles came along and I became a Mac addict.
One day became important to me to help women become more involved in gaming and enjoy it. I was watching G4 and I saw Laura and Tina mention some womens gaming websites. That’s when I had the idea that I should combine the knowledge of gaming that I have which goes back to the beginning of video gaming. I tried to recall and count up all the games I have played, and track down all the different platforms too.
I wanted to find out what women like to play. And if women weren’t playing games I wanted to know why.
There are so many different views about games these days. I tend to be liberal and I think that video games are a natural upgrade from movies. In the same way that people objected to books and banned some of them people now have puritanical views about entertainment that I believe they will grow out of.. At times someone has prevented various movies from being shown, and eventually everything comes to light. Censorships and sexual puritainism seems to be an American peculiarity.We have this great sexual appetite and a perverse need to act like we don’t. So while I might not understand the need for a game like Rumble Roses XX. I do understand why a character with cleavage is more appealing. It’s art. It is the art style of our culture. I don’t see it being much more controversial than Raphael’s Venus.
I’m a fan of the Xfiles, Star Trek the Next Generaton, Babylon Five, Farscape, Firefly, and Dungeons and Dragons. It is all pretty morally forward thinking stuff. Scifi tends to be altruistic and expresses the highest hopes for the transcendence of our human cuture. Even though these shows are set up in a varietiy of timelines and cultures they all have an intellegent vision.
The other idea that became important to me was that women should not be intimidted by the tech of getting into online gaming. It isn’t very hard. If the weird lingo with all the apphabetical acronyms sounds confusing, then it shouldn’t. It needed to change. I wanted to help women get online and find good games where they would be safe.
I found several allies at women’s gaming websites where I published my ideas. Among the PR firms that market the games there are many cool women. I wrote game reviews and interviews to advance the voice of women in gaming.
Next I wanted to collect my gaming experiences all in one place. I had an opportunity to have an interview of me done for a change, so I went for it. It’s a good way to get to know me and my life as a gamer.
This is an article about me that ran on Girl Gamers Net Sunday 19th June 2005
I met Geek Woman not too long ago on LadyGamers.com and more recently ran into her on Game-Vixen.com. As someone who reports for three female game communities, I was more than happy when she agreed to be interviewed.
Calisto: Tell us a little about yourself?
Geek Woman: It’s three actually I contribute to WomenGamers.com too. I’m Geek Woman, and I am 44 years old. I live in the USA. I have been a gamer since the Commodore 64. I own a slim PS2 right now, I beat the heck out of my original PS2. But through the years I have owned a few Sega’s, Gameboy and the PS One. I love gaming and I am an avid anime’ fan. Since I don’t have kids and I work from home I have the time and the skills for gaming and writing about games. I have Netflix and Gamefly accounts, an IGN and 1Up account, and TechTV/G4 is always on.
I have loads of internet experience. From 1993 -2001 I worked for AOL in the Online Campus as an Instructor in the Metaphysical Psychic genre and taught there for many years, before the WWW even came to be. My duties included being a chat host and I helped newbies navigate the net. Professionally I am a published author and web designer.
I also work as a reporter and game reviewer for several terrific women’s gaming websites. I love my work for these websites. As a woman gamer and techno person it is important to me to raise consciousness about how it is women who basically control the Bucks involved in the huge gaming industry. Games are bought by Mom’s and girlfriends for guys. Women buy games and consoles for themselves. I’d like to see more equality and acknowledgment of our presence in the gaming world. I like to think that because of my unique years of experience and my writing skills that I am the “mythical geek woman”. That’s why my pen name is Geek Woman.
Calisto: How many years have you been a gamer?
Geek Woman: I guess since my Commodore 64 back in ‘83. I got out of college, I was working and I figured that I needed a computer. I played Archon, that was my first game. Then I discovered one of my all time favs Dragon Riders of Pern. I wrote a rather nostalgic article about that for Lady Gamers.
Calisto: What was your very First PC game?
Geek Woman: heh. technically Dark Age of Camelot. I’ve been a PC gamer since May 25… 2005. I’m a Mac fanatic. I think that the first Mac game I loved was Tomb Raider in 1993. Lots of game franchises like DOOM got their start on the old Apples. After my C-64 obsoleted, I switched to Macs and that was it, I was hooked. I have two and my partner has one as well. I just recently got a PC laptop gaming rig for my birthday so that I could review the games that are coming in.
Calisto: What genre of online video games do you prefer: MMORPG, FPS, Fantasy, Adventure?
Geek Woman: Oh my, it is hard to pick. But I’d have to say Survival Horror is my fav. I enjoy the console gaming much more than PC gaming. But as a reporter I have to think about what other women might enjoy rather than my own taste. I like the MMORPG’s that I’ve played very much. I think the last FPS that I played was Marathon or the original DOOM. I never got into the FPS shooters because A.) I like to do stuff other than just the shooting. And B.) I think walking around and only being able to see a hand or a gun isn’t enough interaction with my character. I like the RPG’s b/c of the persona aspect. I also like sports games such as skateboard, hover-board, snow boarding and inline skating. I am too uncoordinated to do those things in real life. I also really enjoy a good hack and slash game with a sword, I like to feel the dual shock controller and the impact. That is missing in PC gaming. I am looking forward to the next gen consoles b/c according to the hype they are going to blend the strengths of a PC with the simplicity of a consoles controls.
Calisto: What is your favorite game(s) or mod(s)?
Geek Woman: Fatal Frame 1 & 2 : love those! The Baldur’s Gate series loved those and of course the Silent Hill franchise. Currently I am addicted to Guild Wars. I can’t wait to write more about that one.
Calisto: What really got you into gaming? Console, PC, Which games?
Geek Woman: I guess that I was always tech minded. When I was growing up my older brother had an electronics lab in the basement and I was always in there. We built a HAM radio together and I was drawn into technology at an early age. One of the reasons that I bought the C-64 was because of the color monitor that was a new thing at the time. And you could play chess against the computer AI.
Calisto: What has your experience been like as a female gamer?
Geek Woman: : Good. Generally I have had only my partners to play with or against. I beat the heck out of them at everything usually. I have a killer instinct so when I play Tekken or Soul Calibur I kick all kinds of ass.
Calisto: What have been some of your positive experiences as a female gamer?
Geek Woman: I haven’t played games with other women that much until recently, and let me tell you it felt so good for a couple of us fem elementalists to blast a nest of bandits in Guild Wars. I just started an all women’s Guild in there.
Calisto: Where would you like to see the gaming industry go in the future?
Geek Woman: I can start by saying what I think is the wrong direction first. Trash talking is unnecessary. I think Xbox Live is doing something good by having an Underground - where anything goes, and a Family designation where clean language is enforced. I mean I don’t like the whole politically correct family values thing either, but when you have heard the stories of women who have been verbally battered online - it makes you so mad that you get crazy.
Ingame advertising and auctions really bug me. I don’t think it is right to pay real money for cars and weapons and level ups. It’s a virtual world that should be designed for entertainment, where you leave the pressure of real currency behind. You know like Club Med - once you get there no money is used, just the bar beads if you drink. The introduction of actual commerce to the gaming worlds reminds me of the Internet before the world wide web. Before the web the Internet was for geeky smart people. It was a kinder gentler place. But once money started to change hands online it ruined all that. But you can’t stop progress, and online shopping is great. However it also gave us things like spam, cracking, identity thefts and the need to have stuff like an ‘ignore list’ on your instant messenger.
What I would like to see is for female game characters to have substance and not be about T&A so much. Everything has it’s place. Lots of people have mentioned how games like Red Ninja are flawed b/c it just isn’t appropriate for a warrior woman to have no pants, and her top hanging off. It just isn’t practical. If it is a sexy game where it is about an adult theme such as the Playboy game - which looks like fun - or DOA Beach Volleyball - then that’s another story. The sex doesn’t have to be smeared all over every game. Actually I’d like to see more of the Japanese ‘date’ games and sex games get translated and sold over here. I wouldn’t mind playing an R rated or X rated game if I am in *that* mood. But if I am in a fighting mood you can be damn sure I want armor - and pants. That is one thing that the industry needs to address.
I’d like to see female game characters with stats that are as strong and as a male character too. Again where it is practical, a fem character of the same size and weight as a male character should have the same stats.
Money talks and I think that women are spending lots of the bucks involved in gaming either for themselves or for guys and their kids. The industry needs to acknowledge that and talk to women about what we like to do instead of making stupid assumptions. Like “women only like puzzle games and tetris games” that just makes me want to puke b/c a sweeping generalization like that is never true. What I am trying to do at game-vixen especially is help women that are newbs get online. I think that the tech of getting set up for online gaming intimidates some women. We’re trying to break down those barriers.
There has been so much talk lately about women playing video games with and against men. I was always interested in fantasy nnovels. I played video games alone for most of my life. First it was Commodore 64 games, I played the text based PC games,Mac Games, MUD’s, MMOG’s, several of the consoles and still do. I used to have a job where I needed to stay up all night. I used games to keep me awake. It worked.
Geek Woman
I am a free lance game journalist, news reporter and author. It is a cool job. I have written several books about video games. The latest is my First Person Feminist you can find it on the Book tab above. Check out this page for updated articles and news about women and gaming, grab my RSS feed.
