The Playstation 3 & Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day, I'm giving my inner geek public acknowledgement. By extension, I now own a Playstation 3. Every Thursday, the Playstation online store updates its merchandise - and I don't care. Kylie does, though, and it's kind of entertaining. This week he downloaded the demo of Heavy Rain and wrote a review of it. I watched him play.

I also watched him peruse the PS3 store, which had all sorts of Valentine's Day specials running. Against the "manly" blue of the store, little pink squares highlighted new costumes for Little Big Planet, and for games like Trine and Critter Crunch - both of which I've played... almost to the end. (We're one trophy away from ALL the trophies in Critter Crunch!)

Okay, so this is a new world for me. If, two years ago at - say - a SuperBowl party, you'd have told me that in two years I'd be married to a video game connoisseur instead of an avid football fan, I really don't think I'd have believed you. After living within a mile of Notre Dame's football stadium and then within the city limits of Sixburgh, I was all set to learn about yellow flags and football trophies. But now - I'm learning about a different set of trophies.

As a female educator, my honest-to-God conception of video games was that they were for adolescent boys who were killing their attention span. Video games had both a sexist and a "stupifying" connotation for me, and I looked upon them with derision. Ah - pride.

What I didn't realize is that video games require the players to make choices, and, at least for a little while, to live with the consequences of those choices (well, except for Prince of Persia). Some people - like Kylie - find the choices of these choices fascinating, part of a narrative, which is part of the larger narrative of gaming, and draw their literary partners into critical discussion of these games. Argh! These games are complex... and - I admit it - addicting. Eventually, I might actually use the account I opened for myself on the PS3. Maybe. Maybe.

Today, I'm wrestling with the stereotype of being a near-expert on two of the games promoted as "Valentine's Games." Trine was a fun levels game with a poorly executed storyline between levels (the screen made you listen to someone tell the story and I didn't follow it, even though it could have been interesting - we pressed "X" as soon as possible). Trine appealed to me because the colors reminded me of Middle Earth, there were dragon spines in the background, and I got to play a cool thief chica with a grappling hook. Critter Crunch is an elaborate Tetris game with fun graphics (and a quirky, if not flat-out bizarre, storyline).

Neither of them necessarily have to appeal to girls. Kylie and I do play them together. Does that make us a stereotypically PS3 Valentine couple? Because that's weird. The individualist in me resists resisting video games, only to find myself the stereotypical market. Better watch out, PS3, or I might take over one of Kylie's Dragon Age avatars just to beat the game out of spite. (Except that I think I'd have to kill dragons eventually...) Why, in an age of equality, are there still sexist stereotypes with video games?

Perhaps more importantly: why do I care?