Will we miss it?

With the end of newspapers in print looming over media as much as the All Blacks failure to win a World Cup in over twenty years looms over New Zealand, the question must be asked, will it actually be missed? The World Cup is obviously missed as many Kiwis threaten to riot in the streets if the mighty AB’s can bring home the Webb Ellis trophy, but does the world feel the same about print newspapers? It seems not.

Circulation is down, profit is down, and free internet access is up. People around the world the world don’t see the point in paying for something they can get for free, and would rather not inconvenience themselves with a, sometimes, hard to grasp bunch of paper that will need to be discarded after twenty minutes. This then raises the issue of those that don’t properly recycle their papers and just throw them into the rubbish, causing even more harm to the environment. A lot of environmentalists around the world will be glad to see the print newspapers go.

I must admit though, I am one who will dearly miss the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong, I love the free and easy access the internet provides just as much as the next person, but there was something about waking up before school every morning and reading the paper with my old man that was really special to me. That was a long time ago though and, as they say, times change. With more and more people becoming reliant on technology at even younger ages, the news is becoming increasingly easier to access via mobile phones and other similar platforms. Nonetheless, it will be a sad day when print newspapers are a thing of the past and I for one will definitely miss those annoying bunches of paper.

Women In Gaming

As a gamer who has an older sister who consistently is able to best him at games such as Tekken, Ridge Racer and World of Warcraft, I found the idea that women find it harder to get into games which have high access barriers ("hardcore" games) extremely interesting.

Our parents were employed when we were younger, and so my mother bought a NES for my sister and I when we were extremely young. I must have been about two or three, and my sister four or five, when we were casually smashing away at Street Fighter 2, trying to pull off Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick. My sister is now better at most video games than I am (and most of her male friends as well) and I have an inkling that our early exposure to video gaming could be the reason.

Most girls aren't given a Nintendo or a Playstation when they are younger, socialised instead to play with dolls or whatever else they are given. Video gaming is seen as violent and, by corollary, non-feminine.

Now fast-forward about twenty years. In a society where failure is seen as the worst thing that could possibly happen, we tend to forget that "sucking" is extremely important in the learning curve.



It is rare that you will find something which you are good at immediately. As a kid, you are allowed to suck. Adults don't have the luxury of sucking: it is something which we are to fear and avoid at all costs. Thus, women who haven't been primed to playing video games from an early age end up in a similar state to your mother when she tries to send an email: confused, inept and feeling that they will never be able to move past their ineptitude. They aren't given the space to become good, and they abandon the pursuit of video gaming.

This, I feel, is the reason why there are fewer women who play video games.