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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."
"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.
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.
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.).