“Ms. January” = Ms. Pac-Man (Hello Giggles)

But let’s talk about the origins of Ms. Pac-Man and why I’m naming her Level Up’s “Ms. January”.

Pac-Man, (originally called Puck-Man, but obviously retitled due to the *ahem* clear concern for vandalism in video arcades), was conceived by a Japanese man named Toru Iwatani and named after an onomatopoeic slang phrase in his language called “paku-paku” which is the sound of a mouth wide-open and closing when eating.  In an interview with Wired.com, Iwatani said he made Pac-Man with the intention of appealing to women.  He pointed out that most of the arcades in 1980 were alien shooters that were dark and – in his view – aimed at men.  Iwatani cites Space Invaders specifically, but in America at least, these early ’80s Atari games were being advertised to women, too (check out last week’s article about gender-based advertising for more on this subject).

Says Iwatani about bringing women into his master Pac-Man plan:

“When you think about things women like, you think about fashion, or fortune-telling, or food or dating boyfriends. So I decided to theme the game around “eating” — after eating dinner, women like to have dessert.”

I love everything about this statement!!  He created Pac-Man because women liked to eat?!  Clearly we love fortune-telling, but eating?  However, let’s be honest, he does have a point about dessert.

Although it was 1980 and however sexist it may sound in 2012, Iwatani’s eating theory was possibly true and Pac-Man became the first actual “character” or “mascot” in a video game (massive accomplishment) and truly bursted open the flood gates of gaming to the female audience.

Now enter… Ms. Pac-Man.

Read the rest of the article here!

Images via: Black Moon Project, Giant Bomb