Elite Creator On Attracting Mainstream Gamers

Thanks to BBC News for their article featuring a counterpoint to the view that games are just for 'geeks and guys', a point of view recently given publicity by Microsoft's Laura Fryer. The respondent, David Braben, co-creator of seminal 3D space title Elite, argues for the importance of empathy, and suggests that "the 'shoot-it-if-it-moves' mechanic of games like Quake [is] a fundamentally empty experience, unless you're fighting people you know well", even commenting that "...in Elite, we made shooting another space craft illegal, so the player had to think before opening fire." He also discusses his company's forthcoming Sony-published PS2 title, Dog's Life, a mainstream-aimed title which "seeks to create [an] emotional bond with the player" through cute, endearing dog interaction, and, uhm, a 'Smell-o-vision' mode.

Comments

No death please, we're not normal women

[carndearg]

I was lucky enough to work for the publisher of one of David Braben's earlier games, and in my opinion he is a rare voice of sense in an industry populated largely by vain sefl-obsessed tossers.

However in this case I do not necessarily agree with him. I think his point of communicating emotion by body language is a very interesting one and I will certainly have a look at Dog's Life but I do not agree with him that "pointless killing and death" is keeping women away from gaming. He is right that games like the Quake series are not necessarily babe-magnets but he should watch women playing other games. Pocket tanks is the example that I always think of because my fiancee and her colleagues are hooked on it. No shortage of death and killing there but that doesnt seem to bother them.

In my view the hurdle is not in the games themselves but in the delivery, quite simply the industry markets to young males not young females.

Re:No death please, we're not normal women

[superultra]

Five days earlier, I may not have agreed with you. But I think there may some truth in your post. My wife is very much a typical non-video game player, like the type of person Braben is referring to. Oh sure, by mere association with me she's played a great deal of The Sims, dabbled in Super Monkey Ball and Animal Crossing, but has otherwise left all the video game playing to me.

I picked up the surprisingly highly rated Simpsons Hit & Run. It's essentially GTA3/VC, but with Simpsons. She tries to play. So what does she do when she learns Homer can indiscriminatly kick people? She chases Ned Flanders kids around for five minutes kicking them around Springfield, laughing out loud every time the Flanders kid falls to the pavement.

Although I'm no fan of GTA, she's seen me play it a few times and given no more or no less interest than any other game. But here she is, very much exhibiting the "spirit" of GTA, but within the confines of a Simpson game. And enjoying it as much as a 13 year old male shooting up Chinatown in GTA3.

Maybe you're right? Maybe GTA4 should star a female character? What makes a game fun to women (besides being able to kick Ned Flander's kids around)?