What to make of Lady Popular? Green vs. Walker

After hearing of Lady Popular in class, I have to admit I was left feeling rather intrigued. With my mind unsure of what to make of Lady Popular I decided to read a couple of different reviews on the game.

The first review I read was titled Finally a game for girls! Lady Popular, published by John Walker. Walker’s stance on the game was fairly obvious from the tone of the article. Clearly, Walker believes the game is not only pathetic, but extremely sexist toward women, and demeaning toward men.
Here is the link for Walkers article: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/10/finally-a-game-for-girls-lady-popular/

Yolanda Green on the other hand, wrote a much more positive article, titled Lady Popular: casual gaming or sexist? I found Green’s upbeat attitude toward the game interesting, since she is a female and the majority of the games bad press is due to its portrayal of women. You would think that if the game really were sexist in its representation of women, that the female writer would be the one giving the game a bad review, rather than a male author. Here is the link for Green’s article:
http://gaming.do.co.za/articles/opinion/lady_popular_casual_gaming_or_sexist.htm

Throughout Walker’s article he insinuates that the goals a player has to fulfil in order to become a ‘lady’ are ridiculous. These goals include; changing your hairstyle, buying clothes from the mall, and renting your own apartment. Although, I do agree that these ‘lady goals’ are rather general, for some young girls they may well be true. Taking a few independent steps and altering your image to create your own identity is all part of growing up and becoming your own ideal ‘lady’. I believe that being a male; it would be difficult for Walker to understand the importance of conventional female rituals, such as; getting your hair done and buying new clothes. Such rituals are important, because they create feelings of satisfaction which are ultimately reflected in the Lady Popular game.

Walker is also disapproving of the idea that to become a lady, one must enrol in a cookie girl course. It seems like Walker is suggesting a cookie girl course is not a good enough career for a woman. Although, it is flattering to know that Walker thinks so highly of women, it also leads me to consider; who is he to judge what is and isn’t a good enough job for a lady, that is dependent on the female individual. I don’t believe that Lady Popular is suggesting that a cookie girl course is the most a girl will ever be able to achieve; it’s merely the starting point for a career. I think Walker needs to remember who the game is being targeted towards. The game is not trying to particularly attract professional women, or middle aged men for that matter, but rather teenage girls, for whom being a cookie girl would be a perfectly respectable first job.

Walker also seems to be irritated by some of the games claims. For example, players must win boyfriends and maintain a specific weight to become a real lady. This is where I start to understand, and almost agree with Walkers argument. I think that the topic of weight is dangerous territory and should be dealt with very carefully around teenage girls. Although, the game states a player should maintain a certain weight, its saving grace, is that it also states ‘excessive weight loss or gain is unhealthy’. Thus, the game does not support or condone a characters ability to lose weight. In terms of players needing to acquire a boyfriend, I find the requirement rather entertaining and harmless, especially since so many other interactive games allow for players to find virtual boyfriends. I actually feel sorrier for the male characters that are being judged on their capacity to earn; leading me to believe the game is actually shallow rather than sexist

Greens article on the other hand, is in full support of Lady Popular. Green states that if Lady Popular really is that sexist, then why does it have thousands of fans all over the world; I think this is a good point. Also, like other role playing games, Lady Popular allows players to create their ideal lady. This lady does not have to be scantily clad; there are options for players to dress their lady in conservative business attire if that is what they would prefer. Green believes there is nothing sexist or “demeaning about a girl enjoying the ability to create a good looking character”. I have to agree with this point, whenever I create a character for games like Second Life or Lady Popular, half of the fun is creating a lady that is in your eyes very beautiful and/or attractive to other characters.

During the article Green states that gamers who put down Lady Popular are just being sensitive, and blowing things out of proportion. Green is very quick to remind readers of who Lady Popular was actually created for, casual girly girl gamers that like all things pink and glittery. I believe that Green has a fair point; Lady Popular was not designed to appeal to everyone’s tastes or “fall into everyone’s interests”. However, just because Lady Popular is not everyone’s cup of tea this does not automatically make it insulting or sexist, nor does it make it a bad game. Personally, I think that if you don’t like Lady Popular why bother playing it, let alone write an article about it.

After reading both articles, it is fair to say that they both exhibited valid points. However, I personally felt that Green’s argument for Lady Popular was stronger. Lady Popular is a very feminine game, and yes it may be incredibly superficial, but I would not call it sexist. To be honest, I don’t really know what people are complaining about, there are other games out there that are far more questionable and worthy of criticism than poor Lady Popular.