The newest Celestial Heavens columnist is none other than The Slayer, also known as Milla, the girl who staked more than one heart at the Round Table. For those of you who need a break from strategies and campaigns, Might and Milla focuses instead on the people who play the games. Milla talks about the myth of the girl gamer, and explains why she was attracted to the Heroes series in the first place. Follow the link!Might and Milla
Hi! My name
is Milla and I’m a twenty-year-old hardcore female gamer and a long time Heroes
addict. I want to tell you a bit about my experiences with playing computer
games, especially Heroes of Might and Magic IV. What I have to bring to this
subject is a female point of view that is rarely seen on game sites and their
forums compared to the activity of males and that’s a shame.
I’ve always
loved playing computer games ever since I played Catacomb as a little girl and I’ve especially loved playing First
Person Shooter games because the feeling of slaying an enemy followed by a
taunting “Sucker!!” is no less than tremendous. It’s always a blast to kick
ass.
At some
point I was such a killing machine when playing FPS games that I beat all my
male friends in timed deathmatches and some of them seemed very surprised to
see a girl actually being good at slaying enemies in a fast paced game. Even
more surprising to them was the fact that I didn’t scream “Eeeeew” when blood
and intestines were flying around, had no problems working the controls and
generally grinned deviously when finishing off enemies.
Unfortunately
at some point the FPS games got a tad tedious and monotonous which caused me to
not play computer games for a long time until suddenly some day one of my
girlfriends started speaking laudatory about some computer game she had gotten.
She had played it for a while at that time but had been hesitant to tell me
about it because of the fear of sounding nerdy. For some reason it’s no problem
for guys to talk openly about playing computer games but it certainly is for a
lot of girls. I guess it’s because games originally appealed mostly to the guys
and were considered a waste of time by the girls. Fortunately not all girls are
that standoffish and my friend finally found the confidence to reveal her
newest fascination to me: Heroes of Might and Magic IV.
Before Dark Messiah, there was id Software's Catacomb (1992)
I was
absolutely baffled when I first saw and played the game. The environment in the
game was absolutely consistent, beautiful and mind blowing considering I had
never seen such a setting in a game before and combined with raw power and ass
kicking spells this appealed to me in a way that got me totally addicted to the
game.
After being
introduced to the game I played as much as humanly possible and at all times of
the day. At some point I played every morning before work, which caused me to
show up for work without combed hair and makeup on only one eye, which was really embarrassing!
My friend
and I played together a lot too and realised it was actually a very social
activity because we talked and had more fun than we used to have when we just
put on a movie and ate candy.
Though I’m
a tomboy I’ve always had a lot of love for some of the pretty creatures and
heroes in the game. Heck, I was happy there even was an opportunity to choose a female hero. Older games have
sometimes failed in attracting female gamers because of the lack of female
characters.
The setting
in the Heroes universe appeals to a lot of women because it is a medieval fairytale-like
fantasy world where kings and queens fight against the creatures of the
underworld or where a people is in perfect harmony with Nature whereas another
consists of ruthless barbarians. All in all: there’s something for everyone. Guys
grew up wanting to be brave knights and girls grew up wanting to be beautiful
princesses but now we can extend that dream and become hardcore ass kicking
princesses.
This game
has for me been an opportunity to get away from the monotone daily life for a
couple of hours and pretend I’m part of the beautiful fairytale where there are
more important things in life than shopping for dinner or going to work and
girls need this diversion as much as guys do. I’m glad to see a game appeal this much to both genders.
The Proof that Women Do Play Heroes
Another
thing that appeals to many girls when they choose a computer game is whether
it’s flexible or not. The girls I know who love Heroes have told me that they
like the game because it’s a game you can play for a couple of hours and not
necessarily finish. The fact that you can save a game you’re playing plays a
major role in whether women will connect with a game. It’s a definite advantage
that the game is not too time consuming in that you can just save it and come
back to it. Girls can play for hours on end just like guys can but may be more
inclined to want to do other things in between playing.
I’m not quite sure why it’s such a taboo for girls to play gamesIt’s a general misconception that girls don’t like to play computer games. I for one
think it’s some of the best entertainment available and I know other girls who
feel the same.
but it might have something to do with the fact that it seems unwomanly to like
fighting wars or shooting enemies. Just like it seems unwomanly to like action
movies. I loooove action movies but obviously I’m not supposed to because of
all the violence and blood shedding in them. Girls don’t have bad nerves. We
can take it.
My friend
and I have now played the game for a very long time and wanted some new
challenges but when Heroes V was released we realized that it was very
different from Heroes IV and soon learned that it was actually the exact
opposite. The other four games in this series are alike whereas Heroes IV is
the odd one in the bunch because of its different game play and all new
features. We were disappointed to see such great features as the caravan or the
creatures being able to move around the adventure map on their own, missing.
I’ve heard a lot of the forum members here on CelestialHeavens.com say the same
and it’s sad to see beloved features that had gotten great response from the
fans being left out of the game.
I haven’t
played Heroes V that much and it’s a shame but I’ve been very distracted by the
missing features and thus I’ve rejected the game so far. It just dawned on me
one day how much these features meant to me and I realized it would have been
much better had I not started out playing Heroes IV. Had I started playing one
of the other games in the series first I would have had much more fun and would
have just adapted to the conditions in Heroes IV. It’s really stupid but it’s
just like sequels to movies you loved. If too much or too little has been
changed it doesn’t appeal to you.
Fortunately
for me I still have a lot of fun left with Heroes IV since there are a large
number of maps available for download. Maps that fans of Heroes have made.
One day at
work I was really bored and decided to look for maps available for Heroes IV.
Suddenly I found this place and was delighted to see a website that had gone
that extra mile to help Heroes fans find good maps, excellent information and
help for game play. Soon I was a member on the forums and found a lot of help
there. I’ve been a member on other forums but I’ve never seen such a decent
forum where people are actually nice to each other and just like to discuss a
game. I often feel I ask very stupid questions but that has never been the
reaction on these forums because other people had asked the exact same
questions.
Also we
have a lot of other fun stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with Heroes so
it’s definitely worth checking out the forums.
For some
reason there are few female members on our forums and that’s really too bad
because the forums are really great. The male members would like to see more
girls take an interest in our forums too and so I hope if any girls read this
you’ll take a look inside the forums and maybe show the world that girls play
Heroes too and that girls like computer games as much as guys do.
- Milla
(Milla aka. the Slayer is my name on the
forums)
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