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Girls In The Game Chair

The site The Game Chair, which does interesting experiential reviews of game titles, has up an editorial from new reviewer Maggie. She once again brings up the oft-discussed topic of women in gaming, and tries to throw some new light on the subject. From the article: "I always bristle a bit at the idea of creating a game that 'appeals to women.' After all, no one game appeals to all people - so why in the world would one game appeal to all women gamers? Each of us is looking for different things in a game, regardless of sex. I don't play first person shooters because the movement of the camera makes me feel nauseous - not because I'm a girl."

57 comments

  1. Hrmm by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Funny

    " Each of us is looking for different things in a game, regardless of sex."

    Duh. I have empirical data that says gaming and sex are mutually exclusive.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Hrmm by grumpygrodyguy · · Score: 1

      Actually I have a few lesbian friends who are heavily into gaming. So I think the empirical data excludes the 'nancy types' like gay men, and christian conservative women.

      *shrug* I could be wrong.

      --
      The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
  2. The problem by superpulpsicle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The big problem with discussing women in video game is the word "Sex". Why can't this topic be discussed using the word "Gender". That's where the big problem start or that's where the problem is.

    1. Re:The problem by __aabgfe356 · · Score: 1

      are you 5 years old? The word sex and the word gender are interchangable and are context specific. I would imagine most /.'ers are a bit past giggling at the gender context of the word sex.

    2. Re:The problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I would imagine most /.'ers are a bit past giggling at the gender context of the word sex.

      Not me. I can't even say the word 'titmouse' without giggling like a schoolgirl, hee hee hee.

    3. Re:The problem by Meh · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because nouns have gender, people have sex

    4. Re:The problem by Jacius · · Score: 4, Informative

      In some circles there is considered to be a significant distinction between gender and sex. While sex is always based on biology/anatomy (chromosomes, genitalia, etc.), gender is increasingly being considered more related to mentality/society (although historically, it has been just a synonym for sex). While a person may be anatomically a man (for example), they may have mental tendencies which are more commonly associated with women. (Some have hypothesized that this dichotomy between a person's sex and gender at least partially explains homosexuality, trans-sexualism, etc.)

      In the case of games, the most likely choice of 'sex' or 'gender' to describe what game developers are targetting is indeed gender. GTA is targetting a 'masculine' gender (aggression, destroying your foes, etc. are considered masculine), but there are men who don't enjoy that type of game, as well as women who do enjoy it. As long as someone enjoys the game, it doesn't matter what sex they are.

      On the other hand, a game which (somehow...) required the use or presence of only one sex of genitalia would be clearly targetted at a sex (not a gender), since members of the other sex would be unable to play, regardless of whether they think the game is interesting. (I'll leave the details of this amazing game to your imagination. But they probably already have it in Japan.)

      By the way, I 'learned' all this gender crap in "English 106: Advanced Composition". I probably would have avoided it, but I was tricked by the course title: I thought it was going to be about writing, but it was actually just a secret code-word for Social Advocacy (i.e. being sensitive to those different from you, and pondering women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, etc.).

    5. Re:The problem by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Try again.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    6. Re:The problem by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I'll stick to what I learned in Kindergarten: Boys have penises and girls have vaginas. It's always worked for me.

    7. Re:The problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Yet, ironically, from the first entry of Gender's disambiguation page, which you seem to have deliberately ignored:

      Gender is usually used to refer to the perceived masculinity or femininity of a person or characteristic. It is also used as a synonym for sex. This meaning is considered by many to be non-standard English.

      Your own source proves you wrong.

    8. Re:The problem by __aabgfe356 · · Score: 1

      valid point. Been working in the credit industry too long, they dont care about gender, only sex.

    9. Re:The problem by McQualude · · Score: 1
      Quick definitions (gender)
      • noun: a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness
      • noun: the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles

        http://www.onelook.com/?w=gender&ls=a

  3. Re:Hmm by mmaddox · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You beat me to it.

    I generally correct people (irritating ass that I am) by saying, "You probably mean NAUSEATED. If you feel NAUSEOUS, you're making ME sick."

    Sticks pretty well.

    --

    What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?

  4. Re:Hmm by __aabgfe356 · · Score: 1

    so.....are YOU hot then?

  5. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    One entry found for nauseous.
    Main Entry: nauseous
    Pronunciation: 'no-sh&s, 'no-zE-&s
    Function: adjective
    1 : causing nausea or disgust : NAUSEATING
    2 : affected with nausea or disgust
    - nauseously adverb
    - nauseousness noun
    usage Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.

  6. MOD PARENT UP (or entire thread down) by QuantumG · · Score: 1

    Please who tell other people how to talk are wankers. If we listened to them we'd all still be talking like Shakespeare. If you want some real pain, go read Neil Stephenson's Quicksilver. The majority of the book is set in the 17th century but every talks like they're on the cast of Friends.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  7. evidence to the contrary by NicKakaWoodstocK · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know A LOT of gamers. I mean, I probably know more hardcore gamers than 'normal folk'. But I also know a lot of 'normal folk' who play computer games. The hardcore gamers (of both genders), play a lot of different games and aren't seperated by gender. For example, some of the girls play FPS, but some of the guys play The Sims too. On the other hand, the 'normal folk' gamers are more clearly split and defined. The regular gaming guys play mostly FPS or RTS and most of the regular girls play mostly 'the sims' and other pacificistic games.

    --
    "Due to funding cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off"
    1. Re:evidence to the contrary by Neeze · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree. There should be no gaming lines as far as gender goes. We (female gamers) are not as rare as society seems to think we are and by creating a game or games aimed at a female audience would just be supporting an annoying stereotype.

      --
      I hate Pod 6!
    2. Re:evidence to the contrary by NicKakaWoodstocK · · Score: 1

      Amen! I'm in clan SPANDEX [ sDX| ] (here in Australia on the GameArena ladder for RTCW: Enemy Territory) and we have a great (older) female captain. She's great at being 'mother goose' and keeping us all in line as far as behaviour and being on time for matches. The best thing is that everybody treats her as an equal, which is a nice change in gaming circles.

      --
      "Due to funding cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off"
    3. Re:evidence to the contrary by DerWulf · · Score: 1

      A couple of nights ago I joined an MC raid in WoW (very difficult dungeon, takes 40 people to beat) that was using teamspeak. Only group leaders got to talk in TS (otherwise it would've been total caos) and suprisingly two of those were female. Nobody had issues with it, no statement even refering to the fact. That got me wondering, how many girls actually do play the game (and hardcore at that) and secondly, are gamers as a whole actually growing up in respect to accepting that. I still have dreadful memories of my CS days where someone that only claimed to be a girl would have to endure the imature attention of the crowd for the whole night :).

      --

      ___
      No power in the 'verse can stop me
    4. Re:evidence to the contrary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah well, my Mom is 56 years old and she kicks my ass at C&C Generals, AOE, and Dungeon Keeper 2 constantly - nuffin' pacificistic how/what she plays. Keep holding on to the sterotypes...

  8. Re:Hmm by pthor1231 · · Score: 1

    damn you!! Thats the first thing I check as well. For reference, its www.m-w.com

  9. The funny thing is.... by pthor1231 · · Score: 1

    if a guy said these same things, about women gamers, it would probably be discredited, despite the fact that most of what she said is common sense (eg one whole gender doesn't all like one specific thing). The only reason why it was posted here on /. is the simple fact that a woman posted it (again, not bashing, just saying)

  10. At least I have chicken by Toxygen · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Anybody who plays mmo's who hasn't seen this video, google for leeroy.wmv. It's one of the funniest things you will ever see.

  11. Modded Sexist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    1.) Targetting Women is nothing big, they target blacks whites, christians, homosexuals etc.

    It's a nod to your purchasing power and catering to you, if it feels like what they make is degrading perhaps you should be re-evaluating your presence in the group.

    2.) Nausea - Several girls I know had this, there is talk of spacial awaareness. Claiming a weak stomach doesn't get your gender off the hook. WE WANT TO FRAG YOU COME ONLINE!.

    3.) You aren't novel for being a girl who plays RPGs no one cares! Your boring! There are tonnes of you! You are a significant portion of the market, no one cares that girls play the sims no one cares they play RPGs (Except game production companies. A ratio of 1/5th RPG players isn't a problem a ratio of 1/50th of FPS and RTS players? Now that's a problem!

    4.) Makeup, girls in the gaming age demographic spend TRILLIONS each year on cosmetics! The cosmetic companies are trying to get men involved in this shitpile but we resist (Axe body spray?, Men's Lipstick?, Expensive shirts? Etc... Ptuey! If we all look like bums they will break against us!)

    Stop making games for girls make cosmetic purchasing, testing, organizing software! This could be a GENRE it even needs cutting edge hardware!

    5.) " diversity and thinking outside the limits of games that are currently available" You're a FREAKING GENIUS let me bow down!

    These girls who write these articles are all braindead, there are smart girls out there, let them make the games produce the critiques, draw the art, create the characters, define the gender roles and battle the sexist majority to bring gaming to women... It's not hard, make a mod or something. These evangelical feminist gamers are trying to get hits.

    I hope your ego was worth wasting our time and adding rhinestones to your movement.

    1. Re:Modded Sexist but... by DevReality · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the cutting wit and incisive observation of the anonymous coward. Perhaps you should come back when you have a substantive contribution to make? Or perhaps I forget myself and where I am, this is, after all, SlashDot, I should've known better than to expect anything else beyond a knee jerk response.

    2. Re:Modded Sexist but... by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      2.) Nausea - Several girls I know had this, there is talk of spacial awaareness. Claiming a weak stomach doesn't get your gender off the hook. WE WANT TO FRAG YOU COME ONLINE!.

      I know a guy who has this problem too and dislikes FPS for that reason. As far as I understand him, the problem comes from his eyes and his inner ear giving him conflictig data about his movement.

      Eyes: We're reunning and twisting through this maze
      Inner ear: I'm sitting in a chair and going nowhere

      For some people, this causes motion sickness, and it is not limited to girls.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    3. Re:Modded Sexist but... by kaellinn18 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When I first started playing Wolfenstein 3D when I was about 12, I experienced this problem as well. However, the game was so cool at that time that I just didn't care. I eventually grew out of it. Now, Wolfenstein 3D is a lot less detailed than some of the current 3D games. I imagine that just learning to play first person shooters with the latest and greatest would probably cause more serious nausea than Wolf 3D did. Maybe they should start from some older games and work their way up to the current stock?

      --

      --------
      This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
    4. Re:Modded Sexist but... by porcupine8 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      perhaps you should be re-evaluating your presence in the group.

      So I should get a sex change because I don't have the exact same opinions as all other women???

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    5. Re:Modded Sexist but... by JavaLord · · Score: 1

      1.) Targetting Women is nothing big, they target blacks whites, christians, homosexuals etc.

      Really? Where is the video game targeted at African Americans? Whites? Christians? Did I miss, super crusader 2k5?

      It's refreshing to read there is a women out there who ISN'T expecting the game industry to specifically cater to her.

      2.) Nausea - Several girls I know had this, there is talk of spacial awaareness. Claiming a weak stomach doesn't get your gender off the hook. WE WANT TO FRAG YOU COME ONLINE!.

      This isn't a 'women' problem. I had it pretty badly with the first few FPS games I tried. Eventually I played Q2 enough that my seasickness went away. That is exactly what it is too, if you get seasickness, or car sickness if you read in the car you will likely get nausea from FPS games. When your body sees yourself moving, or something moving but your inner ear that controls your balance doesn't "feel" movement that is when you get seasick.

      It's even worse with VR helmets, 40% of the population suffers from seasickness with a helmet on.

      3.) You aren't novel for being a girl who plays RPGs no one cares! Your boring! There are tonnes of you! You are a significant portion of the market, no one cares that girls play the sims no one cares they play RPGs (Except game production companies. A ratio of 1/5th RPG players isn't a problem a ratio of 1/50th of FPS and RTS players? Now that's a problem!

      Who cares? She's novel enough to me, since most of the girls I meet don't even play games.

      Stop making games for girls make cosmetic purchasing, testing, organizing software! This could be a GENRE it even needs cutting edge hardware!

      They have this kind of crap already.

      5.) " diversity and thinking outside the limits of games that are currently available" You're a FREAKING GENIUS let me bow down!

      Everyone talks about this, men and women of all ages. The fact is, gaming is a business now. Something radical is much more likely to fail. Look at cars, you don't see insane designes because they will likely fail.

      These girls who write these articles are all braindead, there are smart girls out there, let them make the games produce the critiques, draw the art, create the characters, define the gender roles and battle the sexist majority to bring gaming to women... It's not hard, make a mod or something. These evangelical feminist gamers are trying to get hits.

      Yeah, I kinda hate the feminist gaming movement. They moan and bitch about more women in the gaming industry blah blah blah. My whole take on it is just let the most talented people make games, I don't care what they are.

    6. Re:Modded Sexist but... by shrykk · · Score: 1

      ...For some people, this causes motion sickness, and it is not limited to girls.

      Yeah, I (male) have always had a touch of this, always in games with a first-person perspective. Years back I was addicted to the original Descent, but I had to take regular breaks as I started to feel funny. Some games are worse for this than others, and I've usually managed to play through it.

      --
      #define struct union /* Reduce memory usage */
    7. Re:Modded Sexist but... by Anubis350 · · Score: 1

      first game I played with lots of motion was descent 3. I played it on a 21 inch crt with quad sound in the room and for the first couple months after I started playing it I got nauseous and dizzy after a while. Eventually I got used to it (I played the game a lot - it was quite addictive) and the feeling went away and hasnt come back since. And yes, I am a guy, so I guess my point is it happens to anyone gender regardless, but I think its something that most ppl can get used to if they get exposed to it enough.

      --
      "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
  12. Re:Hmm by bafooz · · Score: 1

    Actually, per the OED (one of the gold standards of English language usage, no?) entry for nauseous: orig. U.S. Of a person: affected with nausea; having an unsettled stomach; (fig.) disgusted, affected with distaste or loathing. For interested parties, that comes after the obsolete usage of the word & before the "literal" meaning. Show up in the mid 20th century.

  13. I couldn't pass it up... by paploo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I don't play first person shooters because the movement of the camera makes me feel nauseous - not because I'm a girl."

    Okay, the inner sarcastic bastard (picture Dave Foley on News Radio) just has to say this: Maybe you just feel nauseous playing FPS games *because* you're a girl?

    Okay, I'm done--mod me down please. I'm gonna go back to being a responsible adult now. I just couldn't pass a set-up like that. :)

    1. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by lordperditor · · Score: 2, Funny

      I have to confess I thought the very same thing. And to all the blokes who say "ahhh but I feel nauseous when I play FPS games to!" well I hate to break it to you but your big girls too. Mwuahahahahaa

    2. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is actually true.

      I can't cite offhand (google for it) but the wiring in female brains makes them a LOT more predisposed to the motion sickness type feelings people can get from looking at FPS.

      Most of the women I know all say the same, FPS make them dizzy/ill etc after a time...

      It's also why women generally make crap fighter pilots etc, it's called "spatial acuity" and womens brains just aren't built like that (that's why they turn maps upside down to read them).

      cheers!

    3. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nauseous because of all the blood that I'm standing in when I pwn your team by MYSELF?

    4. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Informative

      You were joking, but that seems to be my experience. Both my current GF and the two of my past who would actually play video games had the same "seasickness" issue with any 3d-style game. Never had any of my gamer buddies hork on my couch tho.

      One of the exes now loves CRPGs, and the other puzzlers like Myst.

    5. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by Archades · · Score: 0

      the camera doesnt slowly go in for the big dramatic scene, instead it focused on teh bloodshed chicks want romance novel style games, or Days of our Lives Online MMORPG least ugly chicks can look hot with their characters lol ...sadly so can i

    6. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by porcupine8 · · Score: 1
      Women's visual systems are wired differently enough from men's that I wouldn't doubt it. We're able to detect much more subtle differences in color than men are, for example. ("What do you mean, they both look white to you? This is clearly eggshell and this one is clearly snowflake." - Has a biological explanation!)

      I have the same problem. Not just with FPS, but most 3D games make me dizzy. I tried to play some GameCube Sonic game (I forget the exact title), where you go really really fast around loops and stuff, and I couldn't take more than a couple minutes of it.

      Maybe that's why I have yet to upgrade from my SNES.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    7. Re:I couldn't pass it up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We really can distinguish almost the same number of colors as you women, it's just that guys come equipped with a limited color vocabulary.

      Basically, we've just got 'black', 'grey', 'white', 'brown', 'tan', 'red', 'blue', 'green', 'yellow', 'orange', 'pink', and 'purple'. To handle the other range of colors, we've got a few modifiers: 'light', 'dark', 'deep', 'really', '[color]-[color]' (as in blue-green), '[color]ish' (as in orangeish), 'ugly', 'kind of', 'puke/pukey', and 'nasty'. This gives guys an equally broad, though much less precise color vocabulary.

      For example, a guy might describe a color as: a 'kind of reddish light orange', while the woman describes it as 'morning sunrise'. Through repeated exposure, it is possible for guys to learn the proper names for colors, but we tend to regress easily.

      Add to that, a tendancy simplify things. That is, we're also given to a tendancy of keeping our color descriptions as short as possible. For example, if it doesn't quite fit into 'lightish grey', we'll just call it 'white'. If we're trying to be more precise, we might call it 'kind of darkish white', which tends to infuriate the women even more.

      Strangely enough, there are a subset of guys who go into 'savant' mode with colors which are attached to certain types of objects, like cars. The same guy who will honestly tell you that 'chartruse', and 'sea foam' are both 'green', will be able to tell you not only what brand of 'cherry mocha' paint was used on that sports car in the mall parking lot, but how many coats of what type of finish were used, how long its been exposed to the weather, and what the car's previous color was as well.

  14. Games for Girls by teratogenicbenzene · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Actively targeting Girls/Women as a demographic for computer games is sort of barking up the wrong tree.

    It reminds me of a move made by the Lionel toy train company back in the sixties. They made a train set where the locomotive and cars were molded in pastel colored plastics. They overlooked the possibility that the type of girl who would play with model trains probably didn't want them in exceptionally unrealistic pastel shades.

    As a husband to a wife addicted to both Halos and PoP, I can say that there are plenty of women attracted to video games for the same reason your average slashdotter is.
    (Or maybe I just got really really lucky...yeah, that's it).

    --
    The Secret of Life: Proteins fold up and bind things.
    1. Re:Games for Girls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does 'she' have an adam's apple? Then you didn't get lucky, *he* got lucky.
      Just kidding :D

  15. Re:Hmm by mmaddox · · Score: 1

    You got me there. I even own an OED, and I didn't look it up. I'll stop correcting the use of NAUSEOUS now. Like I said, though...I'm an irritating ass.

    --

    What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?

  16. IRONY by Somegeek · · Score: 1

    Wannabe grammar nazi (while blathering ad nauseum) utters the words: "asking with Maggie is hot"! :)

    --
    And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
  17. Whoa, girls too, huh? by epaga · · Score: 1
    Each of us is looking for different things in a game, regardless of sex.

    Yeah, all of us are looking for sex....
    right? Wow, that makes me feel...warm and...fuzzy.

  18. In Summary by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 3, Informative
    Summary of the article:

    To sell games, make good games, do not try to invent a game that appeals to an arbitrarily construed focus group.

    But I assume, to be a columnist, you have to write at least 500 words per article.

  19. Trap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are no girls on the internet.

  20. Guys and Girls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From your post:
    some of the girls play FPS, but some of the guys play The Sims too
    - and -
    The regular gaming guys play mostly FPS or RTS and most of the regular girls play mostly 'the sims'

    Please be consistant:
    Male: "guys" Female: "gals"
    - or -
    Female "girls" Male: "boys"

    Using "guys" with "girls" is sexist, although, to be honest, we don't know which way. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

    --
    Your friends,
    The Politically Correct Dickwad
    and
    The Politically Correct Twatjuice

  21. Woohoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I once read an article about how the gaming industry needed the game equivalent of a "romantic comedy" to appeal to women.

    The suggestion was made by a woman.

    If they don't want gamers to go on a murdering rampage, then that should be avoided at all costs.

  22. Re:Hmm by Gulthek · · Score: 1

    Sorry dude, but like "irregardless" (Arg) the use of the word nauseous to indicate nauseated is being dictated by common usage. Dictionaries reflect speech, not the other way around. If something is said "incorrectly" by enough people for enough time, then the rules change. :-/

    See the process in action.

  23. Yes but... by TuringTest · · Score: 1

    I'm not native English speaker, you insensitive clod!

    --
    Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.