Video games for women

In the video game store the other day, rothko was ranting about the “girl games”. With the success of the Nintendo DS, there are dozens of the things. “Catz”, “Dogz”, “Horsez”, “Pony Friends”, “Horse Life”, half a dozen Barbie games, and “Baby Pals”, all with pink and purple cover art. The games that induced the rant, however, were the ones in the “Imagine” series from Ubisoft. The boundaries of what a young girl is supposed to be imagining are starkly delineated by Ubisoft: “Animal Doctor”, “Fashion Designer”, “Figure Skater”, “Master Chef”… and of course, “Babyz”.