Josie Paolini

DECEIT - Why Girl Gamers Aren't Welcomed

I have been a member of the online gaming world since the first “Cow Box” (READ: Gateway Computer) found a home in our Upper West Side apartment when I was 16 years old. To put it in perspective, that was the year 1999. Ancient, right? It was a literal marvel to me that after listening to the cacophony of electronic sounds that signaled your AOL internet connection being established, I could cruise the world wide web. Of course, these were the glory days of sites that resembled a black sheet of construction paper littered with oddly spinning cartoon characters and neon words…but none of that mattered. We were connected to something larger than ourselves. We were connected to each other while absent in body. We rode a highway filled with information that could be accessed by mere keystrokes. Entertainment possibilities were expanded to epic proportions in a swiftly evolving creature that crawled through wires and over airwaves.