Uneasy Relationship Between Gender and Gaming

1up.com has a well thought out look at the Uneasy Relationship between Gender and Gaming. No girl power, no PSP lickers. From the article: "Leisure and entertainment have evolved alongside humans. Even in more primitive times, life couldn't be all about clubbing saber-toothed tigers. And while men and women usually enjoy the same forms of entertainment, it doesn't mean they always enjoy the same kinds of entertainment."

Comments

Vicious circle

[PhotoBoy]

The games industry is trapped in a vicious circle, these days games cost a fortune to make and a single flop can wipe out a development company. So instead of experimenting and innovating with new ideas that could potentially flop developers/publishers stick to tried and tested franchises which means the female market goes completely untapped.

Nintendo seem to be having the most success at breaking away from this problem, particularly with games like Nintendogs which has apparently been a big hit with many female gamers in Japan.

Dumb statement

[Henry V .009]

And while men and women usually enjoy the same forms of entertainment

No they don't. Men and women on average enjoy different movies, different books, different music, and enjoy these things in different quantities. Men and women enjoy different physical activities and different hobbies. It's hard to think of forms of entertainment that don't differentiate by sex.

Most of the reason we see lots of stupid articles about "getting more girls into gaming" is that gamers don't have much experience with women and what they are like. So they listen to the most male-like of women, radical feminist lesbians, because that's the type of male-style thinking they can relate to. Hence the often fervent belief by nerds in absolute equality despite all reality to the contrary.

Gamer Grrl

[Macgrrl]

My personal hit list for what makes a game enjoyable:

Co-op mode - chances are, I won't get as much screen time to perfect my 12-step awesome combo moves, so playing competative just leads to me getting my ass kicked every time we play. That gets boring fast. Besides which, I'm probably in a relationship WITH you, and am playing the game to do something WITH you not AGAINST you.

Support for casual players - I have lots of responsibilities outside of a game, sometimes I need to drop everything at a moments notice. Making me work for an hour before I can find a save point means I will have to keep replaying bits I've already done because I didn't make it to the save point before having to stop last time. This gets boring pretty soon.

Alternate forms of advancement is good, e.g. crafting options. Sometimes I want to play a support class and be valued.

If I do decide the play a tank of somekind, how about an avatar that doesn't look like a covergirl from Dragon magazine from the middle of the chainmail bikini era. I may not know much about real combat, but even I know a thong isn't going to protect me - unless there is some kind of 'distract' bonus to dodge AC.

I like to see my character progress in some way that I perceive as meaningful. It probably doesn't mean a bigger gun. I liked the progresion in Civ II (size of territory, fitting out of the throne room), I like getting new skills in WoW or Diablo II. Not dying in Doom didn't really do it for me.

Let me play my own way. I like to explore worlds in WindWaker or WoW. I sneak around stealthed just to see what's around the next corner, I may not engage everything I see in combat. Give me alternate ways of resolving a situation which may not require slaying everything in my path. Have the game remember how I solved my problems and respond to that - the bad guy is still alive, he's dead and his allies hate me, whatever.

I'm rambling a bit now, but hopefully there are a few valid points there.

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Definitely Insightful

[Xentor]

I can kind of see the other side of this story. I'm writing a computer game at the moment, in my spare time. It's an adventure game in the style of the old Sierra games (Yes, AGS, for those of you in the know -- My other game-in-progress is actually a homemade isometric engine).

Being a fantasy game, the plot is a little bit "out there," but if you take out all the frills, it really does boil down to:

1) Boy meets girl
2) Girl gets kidnapped
3) Boy rescues girl

Why? Well, it's the type of plot I was brought up on. In this case, the "girl" character is actually an extremely powerful mage and deadly with a melee weapon, and is letting herself be imprisoned as part of a rather large scheme to test the boy's worth, but the basic plot remains.

The article really does hit the nail on the head here... So many adventure games and RPGs are based on the "man rescues woman" stereotype... It's a bit hard to break away from. But with any game based around a single protagonist, won't you necessarily alienate one gender? If the character is male, any kind of love story embedded in the plot (Which you have to admit will usually enrich any game that isn't based entirely on death) will always involve a female on the other end (Unless you want to take a big risk and offend a lot more people). If you switch it around and put a female in the main slot (And I'm not talking Lara Croft, which obviously still catered entirely to men), you'll just end up alienating the other half of your target audience...

Disclaimer: Yes, I'm generalizing this, and I know there are exceptions to what types of games guys and girls play, blah blah blah.