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Girls Got Game
Via Joystiq, a story on the ABC News site discussing the (gasp) rising interest in games within the fairer sex. From the article: "I think it's easy to kind of stereotype that women don't want to shoot or that women don't want to do sports or that women don't want fast-paced action...I don't think that's true. I think that was part of the reason the industry wasn't speaking to women before." As Mr. Zackheim comments, I believe it more to be a lack of interest/effort on the gaming publisher's part that has resulted in the current player demographic profile.
that girls aren't gaming, it's just that they're not publicized as if they gamed, remember the gamer stereotype is a geek with glasses, though that is changing.
There's something to that, I think. The girl gamers who've always gotten highly publicized and fawned on have tended to be FPS players and such who can 'hang with the guys'. But most women I know who game without making a big deal out of it tend to like different sorts of RPGs, simulations, and games with simple interfaces (puzzlers, old-school shooters, Katamari Damacy, etc). Especially with console RPGs, the demographic for them has skewed a fair bit more female than the industry seems to know what to do with.
I'm not a girl, so I could be completely off the mark, but here goes.
One of the largest problems facing female gamers is not the misogyny of the games, but the misogyny of the male gamers.
I am involved with a small, close-knit gaming group that runs a public CS:Source server.
The group has three female members who play and the amount of bullshit they have to put up with is completely unreasonable. When players realize that they are female, they either a.) attempt to flirt with them (positive attention) or b.) harass them sexually or otherwise (negative attention). We (the admins) are CONSTANTLY punishing players for this behavior.
I am by no means an extreme feminist; however, that sort of muppetry is just inexcusable. I'm inclined to make a comment about how geeks simply can't handle being around women; however, this sort of vapid generalization is simply not true. We joke about how geeks are not socially adept and cannot get a date to save their lives; however, I think at the lowest common denominator, most geeks know that it's not appropriate to sexually harass women.
So why is it acceptable on a CS:Source server to "haze" women?
Yeah, I know. CS:Source is not exactly a collection of fine, upstanding gamers; however, to counter that argument, which game *IS*? Every game has its share of asshats, griefers, and complete fucktards of different ages. My point is that this behavior is not limited to CS:Source. I see it in ET, WoW, and Dawn of War as well.
Most mornings, I wake up early and play basketball at a local high school with an assorted collection of individuals. Among our numbers is one female player. Never ONCE has she been sexually harassed or hazed simply because she is a woman. As a matter of fact, she played hoop at a Division I school. To play her is a challenge and everyone respects her talent.
Why are these two scenarios so different, when essentially, it's the same thing?
Does the gaming industry need to grow up in order to suit the needs of female gamers? Honestly, I don't know. I'm not a female gamer.
I think male gamers need to grow up and respect that video games are not a male-oriented arena and that female gamers are not some sort of mythical creature that should be harassed, positively or negatively.
Respect It.
Is there some sort of Slashdot Law that states whenever the topic of girls and gaming comes up, there must immediately be a link to that article? Give it a rest.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
I wonder if all the hopeless geeks out there might actually start learning how to talk to a girl if suddenly the girl is going head to head with them on equal footing.
I've been in quite a few teams in City of Heroes where the majority of members were female, and not only was the conversation a nice change of pace, but the teamwork was fantastic.
And as a side note, one of my requirements for any future girlfriends is that they need to be able to kick my ass in at least ONE video game.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
One thing, which I think might go a long way in not pissing off female games is, change some of the character and NPC models. My fiancee and I are playing through Everquest: Champions of Norrath on the PS2 right now, and some of the female NPC's are absolutly ridiculous. For example, one of the NPC's you come across is a female vampire who is, of course, wearing a thong, a see through sarrong, and two metal nipple caps where a bra might be. And to top it off, the voice acting sounds like it was done by a porn star. She sends you off on a quest to find a "Bloodvine." From the way she talked about it, I think it was really just a code name for a vibrator. And when we brought it back and actually ate it, I was even more convinced that the "Bloodvine" was a code name for a really damn good vibrator. It sounded a lot like a porn actress faking an orgasm while she ate it. And this is about the level of the female voice acting throughout the game. Before this, we had Baldur's Gate: Dark Alligence 1 & 2. In one, if that barmaid had breathed wrong, she would have had to charge us for the peep show. And of course we had to beat down a dark elf in a string bikini. Who, once again, seemed to be voice acted by a porn star and even broke into an impromptu pole dance on her quaterstaff during the cutscean. Two was actually unmemorable enough that I don't recall any specific instances, but I do know that they were there.
Why is it that the fantasy genere insists on doing this to female characters. I realize that its not new, even D&D did this, but isn't it time we grew up? Yes, I like pictures of women in chain mail bikini's, but lets leave that sort of stuff to Boris Valejo and hentai.
Let's face it, if a woman had a choice between the metal thong and a more practical, and infinatly more comfortable set of armor which one do you think she would choose?
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
But most women I know who game without making a big deal out of it tend to like different sorts of RPGs, simulations, and games with simple interfaces (puzzlers, old-school shooters, Katamari Damacy, etc).
My wife's two biggest favorites right now are Katamari Damacy and The Sims 2. These are not "girl games" either - I enjoy them as much as she does - but they are definitely different from the standard Half-Life 2/Doom 3/Halo 2 type stuff that seems to be popular with the guys these days.
I have no data whatsoever to back this up, but in my personal experience, girls do play different types of games than hardcore guy gamers tend to. But they do not like to be pandered to either; you're not going to suddenly get a bunch of girls to buy a game just because it's got Britney Spears on the cover or because it features the latest Barbie playhouse. It's almost offensive that some game developers still seem to think that's what girls (of all ages) want.
Girls just want to play good games, same as guys do. That doesn't mean you can't design games with the female audience in mind, though - what you can't do is insult their intelligence. If you look at it from the perspective that on the one hand you've got games that guys primarily like, on the other you've got games that maybe girls will primarily like, and then in the middle you can have a subset of games that both sexes will like... I think right now the guy games are way over-represented, the "girl" games (whatever that means) and that middle ground are way under-represented. And that's probably just a reflection of the development community itself.
I think it's honestly very difficult for guys to develop games specifically for a female audience, in the same way it's very difficult for guys to design women's clothing or fashion accessories. That middle ground that appeals to both sexes is maybe easier, but it seems that the development community hits on that market almost more by chance right now than anything else. It would be nice to see a bit more effort put into it and more games like Katamari Damacy come to market. I'm frankly a little sick of first-person shooters and military style games myself, and of course my wife won't even talk to me if I'm playing one, let alone play one herself.
My sister was pretty happy to see the report, even though it was old news, because she gamed a lot growing up (still has any plays her Dreamcast), until the commentary afterwards. The two female hosts were playing The Sims II, and instead of getting into any of the game mechanics or showing the sim aspects they spent two minutes accessorising one sim. Because, y'know, the only reason the women are interested in the game is because they accessorise the clothing. Aghast, my sister flipped the station.
If ABC didn't have their heads so far up their asses to see their colons, they would have given this growing demographic some credit. Instead, I think they might be producing a lot of hate-mail (of which my sister's email will be one of them).
I agree fully as well. Every single time there is a story about girls and such, someone has to link to that stupid article about the Rez and the vibrator. Have you Slashdot nerds run out of ideas? I see that most of you who do link to that site have been doing it for at least 2 years now! Give it a rest!
It is either that or linking to a Penny Arcade article. Get lives you idiots
The essential dividing line between "girl games" and "boy games" has nothing to do with gender, it has to do with ancillary activity. Women *like* ancillary activities. While most men would start a game and just focus on how to make their onscreen persona accomplish the goal, most women prefer to experience the game in much greater detail. But until recent years, we haven't really had much to offer in the way of ancillary activity, because we had to squeeze and strain to get the game's core into the tiny amount of memory we had.
Essentially, older games simply weren't good enough for women to care about them. We're not tapping into some previously unknown market, we're just edging onto the radar of a more discerning consumer.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?