Slashdot Mirror
Gear Up For Female Gaming Invasion
rmanocha writes "BBC is running a story stating that women are set to explode onto the gaming scene in the near future. 'Existing online role-playing games are succeeding with women in spite of their subject matter, not because of it. When we get more games whose gameplay genuinely appeals to female players, we can expect to see huge growth there,'. What I found really amazing was the statistics for the number of women players - 'women gamers in the UK made up a quarter of the gaming population. This compares to 39% in the US and 69% in South Korea.'."
Cool.
It is about time girls relized how awsome games are. Maybe one day gamers will ratio 1:1
Is anyone else tired of hearing about "girls'" tendencies to playing/not playing video games? It seems every week there's a new story about "Why girls don't play games" or "Why girls do play games" or "Girls will play more games if _____." If girls don't play games, apparently they don't want to, so who cares? The only people I can see who'd care about this is the game companies, looking to profit from a relatively untapped demographic. Men and women are different and tend to like different things. There are many reasons and explanations for this, and any of them can be applied to this specific issue. But as the French say, vive la difference.
rooooar
I, for one, welcome our new female gamer overlords.
The so-called casual gaming market, made up of games such as poker, pool, bridge, bingo and puzzles, is a booming one, especially among women.
Yeah, pretty much every woman I know (including my Mom) that has a computer has played solitaire or bejeweled or something when they were bored.
The real gaming crowd that people think of as "gamers".. people who buy games at the store and play them (console or PC), I'm sure the percentage is probly more like 2-5%. Of course, that's just an estimate.
-- Jinsaku
Seriously, time to get some new material. Either that, or start writing for Mark and Brian, since that's only slightly less repeatative than listen to them crack the same jokes and making the same football bets every goddamn morning since 1988...
Help us build a better map!
only girls play ... crap :P
I was picturing a game console with a microphone. The girl could talk at the device all day, and it would be programmed to periodically say insightful things like: uh-huh, yes, no you look great, of course I love you, etc.
Working title: Virtual Boyfriend.
I read something new about women and games each day...
My girlfriend is one of the girls pictured in the article - I concur.
Rich
I don't want to explode. Or get my tits out. Eh. Does that make me a girl gaming minority?
"Frag the weak, hurdle the dead, and assassinate those cursed snipers."
Girls will love the PS3 controller.
PARENT IS KNOWN TROLL!
... like ... totally mings!
j just
Plz post more stories about female gamerz!
"women gear up for gaming invasion"
"women are set to explode onto the gaming scene"
"women are about to invade the male dominated gaming world"
Holy crap! They're coming! Call to Arms: Venus Attacks!
"The games that are likely to appeal to women are not [..] time-consuming strategy games that men prefer.
"Women don't have free time even to set up a game. They require a game that is quick to get into and doesn't require a great time commitment,"
Oh good. Women are apparently stupid and easily bored.
This article really sucks. I've never seen so many backhanded complements. And what's the most obvious point behind all this female gaming stuff? Equal representation in video games you say? Fool! No! The big push towards women in gaming is because the industry has already sucked as much money as possible from the men.
Women, stay away! Gaming isn't for you; you're all much better than us!
Direct away from face when opening.
One of the clan PMS UK? Which one exactly? Or is it the Sims girl?
I realize you were half joking, but if girls start playing games we're going to have to come up with a new rating system to prevent them from buying driving games.
Or maybe ship them with a cell phone peripheral.
No, it just makes you a waste of flesh.
Sorry, but it's true.
We're talking about adults playing games, and I don't think gender roles should be a factor in game consumption. In markets with children, we make games for little boys and little girls, because we want them to be molded into what we want. That's what we do to our children, but by the time we're all grown up we realize that gender roles aren't all black and white. Is a game effeminate because it's main goal is to care for and nuture some creature? Nonsense; many men play such games and enjoy them. Similarly, many women enjoy playing games where you get to blow stuff up or find the lost amulet.
Also, I don't think the sex of a character hardly matters. Is the main character male or female? Why would that lesson or increase the appeal of a game? We've had our fair share of games with main/major characters of both genders.
One might argue that women are oversexualized in games, but aren't men too? How often do we see games depicting men that women find sexually appealing (perfect bodies, smart, talented, sexy voice, kind/caring, rich...the whole gammut). In addition, it'd be incorrect to neglect the fact that some women (not all) actually do enjoy in one form or another a sexualized depiction of their own gender (the same can be said for men).
Who says gaming is not for women? Honestly? WHAT, pray tell, makes a game girly and feminine? A game is a game, much like a PC is a PC, and "girly" games are "girly" games, just like a Barbie PC is a "girly" PC. Barbie PC's didn't sell well at all, and it's a testament that "made for the female sex" does not necessarily mean that women [i]like[/i] as much as it means it's what society wants to impose on women.
ok, I, as a woman, am getting TOTALLY sick of this whole idea that women must want different games than men. Admittedly the "eye candy" in many games isn't for me...but that's b/c I like a different shape of woman than most of reality. Thats beside the point though, I mean if you are really worried about the sexual appeal, just throw a few hunky guys in for the straight girls, and the scantily clad women are fine for those of us who like the "fairer sex". Anyway, my point is, women like the same kinds of games as men, and really the only reason that they don't necissarily admit it is they are told its "unladylike" to admit it. I mean..seriously..assuming you are a "normal" person...wouldn't you think its a bit strange from what you have been taught if a woman said she loved to blow things up in [insert FPS here]. Of course, the point is, its perfectly normal for her to love huge explosions as much as you do, as well as gore and dismemberment. Really, seriously, the only thing holding women back is the thought that women need a different kind of game to begin with.
I, for one, welcome our new female gamer overlords. With open arms. Come on, I'm waiting...
Eh, it's me, unfortunately. Lucky rjw57!
"Frag the weak, hurdle the dead, and assassinate those cursed snipers."
Well, I think most of us here would agree that rjw57 is a very lucky guy!
The article lists the following games as popular with women:
Role-playing games - Final Fantasy
Narrative adventures - Legend of Zelda
Easy to pick up driving sims - Colin MacRae Rally
Puzzle adventures - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Quick-fire arcade puzzlers - Tetris
Life simulations - The Sims
Those games are popular with men. They are not 'girly' games, they are good games. Women like good games?! Wow I'm shocked. You mean there is no magical formula for making a game popular with women?! We need skill and talent to make a popular game?!
The girls that tend to play the same type of games as "the guys" as passionately as the "the guys" tend to just as scruffy and ill manicured. This is because in korea, the PC bangs (internet cafes) are everywhere, and everyone smokes inside, and there's no sunlight or anything usually. Most cute girls I've seen were just playing the usual games or chatting it up on webcams. They didn't stay too long though. Someone else have different experiences?
The figures include free games that are accessed via portals such as Yahoo.
Am I the only one that thinks statistics on "gaming" should not include these types of free casual games. At the very least, there should be a separate statistic for games where some form of payment is required. I know a number of women who play these games but would not consider themselves "gamers."
When the trolls figure out that a good number of the people playing MMORGP's are woman the spams will start...
For the love of Jebus, someone get women gamers the hell out of online combat/FPS games.
/end rant /commence apology flowers purchase
The level of annoying chatting almost always goes up in their presence, not to mention the pathetic attempts by guys to sound cool. Try charging the enemy when half your team is building a pyramid, all the while LOL'ng away as you get hopelessly outnumbered and killed out in the field.
Worst of all, if you try telling them to shut up (because CptPwnALot here doesn't want to hear about your day) then some wannabe-hero admin grows a pair of tights and starts getting all superman on you... ugh.
"I realize you were half joking, but if girls start playing games we're going to have to come up with a new rating system to prevent them from buying driving games"
You know, I find this sexist stereotype much more interesting than the gaming stereotype. And here's why. In games, we really don't know much yet what each population segment does. But when it comes to cars, there are corporations whose very source of money depends on knowing who does what. They're called insurance companies.
And here's what actual insurance data says: at an equal number of miles driven, women cause _half_ the number of accidents that guys cause. There are whole classes of cars which have higher insurance rates just because they appeal to a certain category of male cretin who drives like he must _prove_ his virility by driving fast and dangerous. That includes both teenagers and a large chunk of the mid-life crisis gang.
And here's some anecdotal evidence hint: when you see some idiot with added dual 4" exhausts (on a 1 liter inline car, how sad), sheet metal skirts/wings (bonus points: rear wing on a front drive car), fake disk brakes, and a ton of stickers (bonus points: VTEK sticker on a Toyota), chances are it's not a woman's car.
Frankly, I'm a guy, and I still find it sad. There's a whole group of idiots who seem to think that they must _prove_ they're a Real Man (TM) by driving like homicidal maniacs. That anything less than flooring it at a green light... just to have to brake at the next street light, might actually make them sprout breasts and a vagina.
Here's an idea: a man or a woman is what you _are_. You still have an Y chromosome no matter what. You don't have to "prove" anything. Taking unnecessary risks and endangering others too, doesn't make you a man, it just makes you an irresponsible idiot.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
TFA: Existing online role-playing games are succeeding with women in spite of their subject matter, not because of it.
'Kinda unqualified mishmash is that? Which of knights, dragons, magic and fairies is diametrically opposed to the female sex? There's no need for sexist archetypes--plenty of broads got as excited over LOTR as I did. The vast majority of men still prefer sports to hobbits. Geeks are geeks.
TFA quotes the founder of a certain Int. Game Dev. Assoc. as saying women don't have time to commit to games. And their social nature makes MMO'ing natural.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the suggested "solution" anything but a glorified chatroom? Is this "MMO experience" worth dumping money into; do we think women will pay subscription fees for their 15-minute chunks of trivial diversion?
What is this fusion of casual gaming and MMO we're going to tap?
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
Most of the driving games do encourage fast, dangerous driving, and allow you to kit out your car (pimp your rig, as I believe it's called) with ridiculous extras. I do know a few girls who play them, but driving genres really aren't a favourite of mine, and they certainly tie in with the machismo you describe!
"Frag the weak, hurdle the dead, and assassinate those cursed snipers."
And here's what actual insurance data says: at an equal number of miles driven, women cause _half_ the number of accidents that guys cause.
At the risk of exaggerating the faux-sexist irony of my post above, I'd like to point out, in all seriousness, that nobody files an insurance claim for hitting a stationary object. Of my acquaintances, the females are vastly more guilty of this. And crying to get out of tickets.
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
Can't say I've made a proper statistic of who hits stationary objects more, but I see some guy or another doing it almost every other day. Being by and large the programming building here (well, one of them), we're by far more guys than women in it and in the parking lot. So again, I can't say it's a comparison based on equal samples, or representative samples, or anything.
But anyway, our smoking place overlooking the parking lot, now and then I get to see a guy bumping with the car into the parking lot number plates. Or some guy's car parked right against one. Or some guy parking/having parked right between two park places, or for bonus points diagonally.
So at the very least I'd say it's not a woman-only passtime.
Admittedly, though, it could also reflect the quality of the people hired lately as part of "saving costs". Some of them have trouble even with the basics, such as copy and pasting text from a log file. Nah, they'll make a 1600x1200 screenshot including the terminal Window and paste it into a Word file. For bonus points: one sent such a screenshot of an email in Outlook, presumably because advanced functions like "Forward" were beyond his grasp. Again, we're talking "programmers", not a secretary hired purely for cup size.
So, well, it's probably less than surprising that some of them have problems parking, or probably even tying their shoelaces in less than 3 tries.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Games don't need to be 'girly' to appeal to girls/women, nor do they need stylized versions of men or women which are appealing to women. They need to be NOT OFFENSIVE TO WOMEN. There are subtle, pervasive aspects to games that men may not notice, but turn women off immediately.
For example, for a large number of women, an ad or box art for a game which features scantily clad models is a big red warning light that says, "This game is for the guys, because we're treating women as objects." An even larger warning sign is when a women is doing something suggestive, or standing in a particularly revealing pose. This warns women away because we use these signals for many other situations as well. Further, such objectification is quite offensive to many women, even if it not for men.
Another example, again in the advertising, is when an attempt is made to appeal to bravado or bloodlust. Many men are conditioned to respond positively, and many women are conditioned to respond negatively. Usually, however, such things are not pivotal aspects of the game unless it is derivative or just plain bad, so the game was played by less women than it would actually have appealled to. Again, this is a signalling device present in the advertisements.
Anyway, this is mostly an issue because the advertising and tone decisions for games are often made by men, specifically men who haven't learned about women's impressions. When that changes, these problems will dissappear and you'll never have to read another story about how there aren't any women gamers.
Playing pornographics games during the day is evil! Play at night!
it's nothing like that ... it's about fun and speed, not showing off ... the same people will speed on an empty street in the middle of nowhere, with no passengers ...
The nice thing about stereotypes is: everyone got them.
PS: Your data is probably due to the fact that women gernerally drive über defensivly, which usually doesn't aid traffic flow
___
No power in the 'verse can stop me
My wife has been playing Battlefield 1942 3-4 times a day for the last year and has recently upgraded to BF2. She even plays the thing more than me. Bob
rjw57 is apparently a chubby chaser
Back in my college days, My car was hit three times--all while parked:
- once by a drunken fraternity brother,
- once by a sober female,
- and once by an angry girlfriend.
Draw your own conclusions.-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.