Yesterday I discovered The Hairpin’s Girl Talk feature, starting with the Nathan Drake edition. I’m not a Nathan Drake super fan, but even before I read any others, I was pretty smitten with Girl Talk. Not because its video games + boys + intended for a female audience, which I guess is cool in itself (although not that novel to me because I have conversations that are intended for a female audience, about video games, all the time).

The thing that strikes me as awesome and novel and revolutionary is that Girl Talk treats video games as if they are just ubiquitous. No secret handshakes, no pats on the back for being special enough to “get” the conversation, no implied membership in an exclusive society. It just assumes that you play, and assumes that you care about characters. It may be the first time I’ve seen a general interest media outlet deal with games without putting a 14 year old boy flavor on it. So, I salute you, The Hairpin, (and writer Jennifer Culp) for treating video games with the same nonchalance that movies, books, and music are dealt with.

After encountering Girl Talk, I played Chrono Cross, then fell asleep. I dreamed that I went to a gaming event and then saw it covered in a major women’s magazine… this morning I found a more realistic ambition when I read the Girl Talk post on Alistair… now I want to get my old saves off of the yellow light of death-ed ps3 and play Dragon Age.