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Interview with the Frag Dolls
Staci writes "KillerBetties.com, a site with a focus on the female gamer, is running a interview with three of the ladies that comprise the UbiSoft sponsored FragDolls FPS Team. Rhoulette, Jinx and Katscratch sat down with Nicole of KillerBetties to talk about the controversy surrounding their existence and connection with UbiSoft, how they feel about representing female gamers and a few other personal tidbits." From the article: "We wouldn't be the Frag Dolls if it weren't for Ubisoft, so promoting games is certainly a distinct part of what we do. However, all of us have our dreams for where we would like to see girl gamers a year from now. And as girl gamers ourselves, we can't really help but represent some of their interests and desires."
I don't know if anyone else got this ad, but when I pulled up the interview about woman gamers, I got a nice long banner ad for Anarchy Online next to it that read "I Got Implants Baby!", complete with an ingame female character in underwear. Another ad in the corner features the same ingame model, with the text "Play Me!"
Really goes well with a site "focused on girl gamers." Apparently their advertisers are focused on a certain subset of girl gamers...
(I'm assuming "I Got Implants Baby!" is a reference to something ingame that I don't get because I don't play the game, but still - it's kind of crude. It's the Internet, I've got other things available to satisfy the "oggling at women" need, that an MMORPG just isn't going to be able to offer. I always wonder about games that try to sell themselves using a hot ingame character - it's like they're trying to distract you with that, to get you to overlook something else, like the fact that the game sucks or something. Makes me wary.)
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
You are wise to be wary. BTW, "I've got implants" refers to the in-game ability to increase your stats and abilities with mods that can be crafted, bought or that drop off various baddies in the universe. And AO has been using the same crass advertising ever since they lost a million subscribers after launch because they overhyped and WAY under-delivered. I was one they lost, and I never went back. I've heard it's better, but I don't really care.
I really don't see how you can so easily disregard the possibility that genes, or at least in someway, gender, has something to do with liking video games.
My mom used to believe that all behavior was nurture, and not nature, until she became a preschool teacher. 10 years of 3 and 4 year old boys turning absolutely everything into a gun and girls turning everything into a doll house kinda wears down those lofty notions. Even if it is still is nurture based on some really complex societal stuff, the practical upshot remains, an obvious behavior difference tied to gender.
I admit this is a totally subjective observation, but boys seem more drawn to clear cut competition with well defined winners and losers whereas while girls can be very competitive, it tends to be much more subtle and indirect. To me that's the most obvious reason video games seem so much more likely to appeal to men. "YOU LOSE" "YOU WIN" It just seems to be attached to an emotional hair trigger in the male pysche. Games that purposely defy that rigid convention are more likely to appeal to women in my opinion, The Sims being a fairly obvious example.