Video games is one of those forms of media that is catering a lot of attention as of late but despite the fanbase and the love people have for video games, it is still a form of media that is misunderstood, looked down upon, and even stereotyped with a lot of negatives like “people who love video games have no life” and “people who love video games have no social skills”.

Nevertheless, these stereotypes – though derogatory and even demeaning of the media as well as those who love the media – is justified through its very young history. Probably the biggest reason why people follow those stereotypes about gamers is because a lot of gamers do fit in that stereotype as in a general throughout video gaming’s history. Since video games is young, there is only so much history we can fall back on to show how  much of an art, how much of everyday life video games truly is. It is slowly starting to show but still, video games has the stereotypes tacked onto them.

The biggest stereotypes comes to the girls who love video gaming. Back in the past, the stereotypical view of a girl gamer would be the same stereotypical views shown with nerds and geeks. It was unnecessary to think a gamer girl would be extremely gorgeous per se because it didn’t fit the profile of a video gaming girl. That is where the girl I am talking about today comes in. Jo Garcia is a very avid video gamer. She has stated the Xenosaga Trilogy, Radiata Stories, and the Final Fantasy Series as some of her favorite games. She has even noted she has clocked in more than 100 hours in Final Fantasy XII which is quite amazing since that game is kinda like SquareEnix’s attempt to compete with Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

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Now to some in the video gaming industry, they are not all that excited or even negative towards Jo Garcia’s presence when it comes to the video gaming industry. True she really doesn’t develop or publish and true she is actually more rogue for she isn’t a reviewer for an established video gaming community website. Instead, many people see her as the “girl who got nude” and that is probably it. In all respects, as long as nobody is getting hurt directly, I am all for whatever Jo Garcia does and if posing nude and playing video games is in her criteria then I am okay with it because she’s not hurting anyone directly. What seems to puzzle me is that people love to attack her reviews on video games stating, “they are just opinions of someone who plays video games”. I found that very lacking since any review, either it be professionals from established websites or from someone who is an avid gamer and blogs, is all a matter of opinion. I also find that many people who review games seem to review it on a basis that “they are right” instead of “relating the game to the general gaming community”. Still bashing reviews made by one gamer is no different than bashing a review from another.

Still the primary purpose of this article is to show that the divide is now blurring between what is viewed and what is in video gaming and its community. Though Jo Garcia may not be the first but she is probably the first generally recognized right next to Morgan Webb. Still, she’s probably receiving the full blunt of criticism and assault as well as praise and understanding. It will take time for the rest of society, including the video gaming community to assimilate, and because of Jo Garcia, it is a lot sooner than later.

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