Girly Game History on Paper

Collaborating with Dr. Chloe Milligan, this article continues our work on print, paper, and gender in video games by looking at the various histories written about Casio’s Loopy console. Look, I typically try to maintain a neutral tone in these summaries, but this time? Nah, the Loopy rules OK. It’s got a built-in printer! Are you kidding me? It not only prints stickers from video games, but with the Magical Shop attachment it can also print stickers images from other video sources. Imagine if your PlayStation 5 printed a cool little sticker whenever you got a trophy that you could put on your notebook, car, best friend’s forehead. Amazing! There's also tremendous opportunity for games to take advantage of this function to print out things that could be used as diegetic devices that expand the potential for narrative and play. Imagine a version of Déjà vu that used the printer for clues, or a version of Metal Gear Solid 2 where the console itself started printing off bizarre messages in Arsenal Gear’s Colon rather than just receiving them over codec. A horror game where the Loopy prints out cryptic messages as if it's haunted? Yes please. I’m riffing here, but there’s so much design potential in a console with a built-in printer. Yet, the general reception of the Loopy in popular video game history, if it gets recognized at all, remains negative and often reduces the console's faults and failings to it targeting a player-base of preteen/teen girls. Our article picks apart this logic and uses it to reflect on how femininity is not only associated with specific kinds of game experiences, but is also often dismissed and disparaged in popular video game histories in ways that reinforce the inevitability of the tastes and interests of a very specific player and designer demographic.