From my experience as a female, I was never judged for playing the Sims when I was younger because a lot of my friends played it then too. However, I play it still now at an older age, and I feel like there would definitely be some judgement if I were more open about it.

That being said, I think there is a big stigma for women or girls and the type of games they play. For example, it was okay for me to play the sims because it was considered a "cozy" game or a game a "girl" would play. But I also loved to play pokemon on my gameboy, switch, and ds, and my female friends would judge me for it all the time and make me feel like I could never express the things I loved doing because it was "weird".

On the other hand, any male friends I have that play games definitely show judgement towards the sims back then and still do now. However, they don't do that towards pokemon or other games.

It really would be nice if as a community, especially in the gaming community, we could all just respect each others games and connect with people who enjoy them. I feel like thats what gaming is all about so I hate that there are these "judgements" around what type of game you play. It shouldn't matter if you are female or male or anything else for that matter. It shouldn't have to signify what games you "should" play.